Objections to hotel plans for Loreto hostel on St Stephen’s Green

There have been objections to a plan to convert Loreto Hall, a former “young ladies” hostel on St Stephen’s Green, into a luxury hotel .

Brown Table Solutions Ltd has sought permission from Dublin City Council for a 95-bedroom hotel with restaurant and spa at 77 St Stephen's Green, which will involve the reuse of one of the remaining Georgian houses on the square, and building a nine-storey block to the rear.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, Office of Public Works and the Irish Georgian Society have objected to the proposal.

Dublin City Council has written to the developers saying it has “serious concerns about the height and scale” of the nine-storey block.

Number 77, a four-storey house on the south side of the square, was built for the Earl of Glandore in 1765. It was bought by the Loreto Sisters in 1911 to use as a hostel for young women from outside Dublin attending the National University at nearby Earlsfort Terrace, which had begun accepting women students just three years previously. Loreto Hall remained in use for “country girls” going to colleges in the city until the 1990s.

Office blocks

The developer wants to add a two-storey penthouse to the original building, next to Iveagh House, the offices of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and to demolish non-original structures to the rear to build the nine-storey block.

The department said the new block would constitute a “gross over-development” of the site and could have implications for the security of visiting “foreign dignitaries, political leaders, and high-ranking diplomats”.

The department said it was concerned by the “excessive intensity of development” surrounding Loreto Hall and its own building Iveagh House, both of which are protected structures.

It noted the Green had been “ill-served” by the replacement of Georgian houses with office blocks and said it would be “most inappropriate if the form and bulk of these 1960s’ developments” were taken as a model.

The planned development was an “unhappy proposal” which would be detrimental to the “remaining integrity” of St Stephen’s Green and would reduce the privacy and security of Iveagh House, often used for “sensitive meetings and negotiations”.

It asked that the council ensure the development is “scaled back substantially”.

The OPW said the proposed development was “not capable of absorbing such a large-scale development in a manner which respects the historic surroundings and the privacy of the adjoining terraced properties”.

The Georgian Society said the block would “dwarf the protected structure” of Loreto Hall and would appear “jarring, visually obtrusive and grossly out of character with the uniform, ordered and fine grain facade” of number 77. The development should be refused permission, the society said.