Mercantile Hotel accused of using pocket park as outdoor bar area
Councillors have accused the Mercantile Hotel in Dublin of treating the renovated pocket park at the junction of Dame Lane and South Great George’s Street as “an extension of their bar area”.
The space was redesigned and reopened this summer after a years-long redevelopment of the well-known hotel.
But at Monday’s Dublin City Council (DCC) South East Area Committee meeting, councillors said the hotel’s bar was acting well beyond its remit by putting seating, tables and speakers into the plaza.
Green Party councillor Claire Byrne said that because of the bar’s takeover of the space, it was now “not perceived to be a public pocket park when you walk past it on a sunny evening”.
Ms Byrne added that every issue councillors had previously raised with the design of the park when it was brought before them last October, had come to fruition.
“I said [last year] it looks to me like this is just going to end up being a smoking area and an extension of the hotel bar of the Mercantile, given that there was an emergency exit out onto it, and now, as it turns out, folding doors,” she said.
“Now we’re in a situation where, since it’s reopened and since we’ve had good weather, that’s exactly what has happened.
“There’s been chairs and tables out there most evenings and at one point, it was roped off for private events.”
Another local councillor, Mannix Flynn, said during the meeting that a warning needed to be given to the hotel management that they can “under no circumstances” put furniture on public space without a licence.
He also criticised the installation of speakers along the side of the building, pointing directly towards the pocket park.
“Again, this gives the situation where they’re looking to actually control the territory. There was five speakers blasting out music there one night,” he said.
Right to Change councillor Pat Dunne said he got “very upset over the summer” when he saw the space being used as an extended bar area.
He suggested that the council erect a fence dividing the bar space from the public park area if the hotel “misused” the space again.
The plaza behind the Mercantile Hotel as of today
Pat Burke, chief executive of the Mercantile Group, which owns the hotel, said in July that the hotel was in the final stages of preparing an application for a seating licence.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said the application had still not been submitted, but that the public plaza had “categorically” not been used for seating since the start of July.
He said the hotel would “hopefully” be submitting the seating licence application in the next four to six weeks.
Mr Burke added that he requested the external speakers the councillors took issue with to be removed last week.
However, when the Irish Independent visited the site today, they were still in place.
DCC did not respond to a request for comment.