From exchange to beer factory?

Now that the Irish Stock Exchange has exited the Stone Age and gone all electronic, one wonders what the future holds for the exchange's hallowed trading floor and pokey offices on Anglesea Street, deep in terribly trendy Temple Bar.

Gossip has it that the members of the exchange have become more and more conscious of the property gold mine on which they are sitting and that the exchange will relocate within the year to more functional, but certainly less atmospheric, offices elsewhere in Dublin 2.

Anybody who has ever been inside Anglesea Street will know that it's a nightmare of a building, with all sorts of passages leading from basement to trading floor and everywhere else in between. A modern office building it certainly is not.

Now with the trading floor converted temporarily into offices, the exchange board has to think about what it can do with Anglesea Street. There's no doubt that it's a hugely valuable site but anybody thinking of making a bid with the idea of gutting the building will have to think again. The building is listed for preservation by Dublin Corporation - even down to the cast iron radiators that heat it.

But no doubt, such complications would not put off pub kings like Louis Fitzgerald, Hugh O'Regan or Liam O'Dwyer, who might have the idea of converting Anglesea Street into yet another trendy Temple Bar watering hole. Wouldn't the trading floor, complete with stock exchange official blackboard and chalk, make a fine dance club? And wouldn't those cavernous cellars make for an excellent cellar bar?

The firms who actually own the exchange - especially the smaller non-bank-owned firms - might fancy dividing up a windfall from the sale of Anglesea Street. The only problem is that the powers-that-be might baulk at allowing yet another beer factory in Temple Bar.