FORMER ARDHU RYAN HOTEL – ARDHU HOUSE AND GATE LODGE ENNIS ROAD IN LIMERICK
I walked a long distance to photograph Ardhu House Gate Lodge but discovered something very different on my arrival and it is a pity that I did not see the following description in advance: The magnificent house was built by Thomas Revington c. 1850. In the 1920s Major Ross Rose lived in the house (and had Rose’s Avenue called after him). Revington Park, of course, is called after the builder of the house. It became a hotel in the early 1960s and was taken over by the Ryan Hotel Group to become known as the Ardhu Ryan Hotel. It ceased operations in 2004. The Gate Lodge opposite was built on Rose’s Avenue and it wasn’t until much later that the Ennis Road entrance was built. The gate lodge has long gone from the landscape.
The, good news was, house remains and it can be seen in two of my photographs [the white building]. It is described as a detached three-bay two-storey Italianate villa style former house, built in 1865, facing east with a return and a three-bay two-storey side wing to north. A further two-bay two-storey building to north and west form a courtyard enclosed to the north by a range of stone buildings.
To the best of my knowledge Limerick Ryan hotel actually closed with a loss of 92 jobs just before Christmas 2003. I do not know, in detail, what happened between 2003 and September 2018 the site was advertised for sale and it was described as follows: The block currently comprises 43 two-bedroom suites and 18 one-bedroom aparthotel suites adjoining the former Ardhu Ryan Hotel (Ardhu House) which is in need of a complete refurbishment, and the adjoining site. Planning has been granted for 55 apartment units in the main building with a further 4 apartments in the former Ardhu House building and 7 detached two storey dwelling houses. I suspect that the hotel may have operated as The Clarion Suites.
I came across the following, published a few weeks before my April 2022 trip to Limerick:
The contents of the Ardhu Bar, Ennis Road Limerick will be auctioned off on line at 12 noon this Sunday March 13. Viewing will take place on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th on the premises between 11am to 4pm. Collection of items on Monday and Tuesday. Items in this auction include 45’ bespoke mahogany bar counter complete, outdoor benches, whiskey Barrells(sic), Parasols, Outdoor heaters, bottle crushers, kitchen equipment, Tv’s, Speakers, Cold Room, Bar furniture, Old Photographs, mirrors, glasses and lots more.
Here is how the venue was once described:
The Ardhú & The Munster Bar is a brand new development situated on the grounds of The Clarion Suites on the Ennis road in Limerick. Only yards from the Gaelic Grounds, a 5 minute walk from the Legendary Thomond Park and 10 minutes from the city centre it is ideally located for all major sporting and entertainment events.
The Ardhú consists of two bars (The Ardhú & The Munster Bar) and an adjoining courtyard which is entirely enclosed and fully heated so you can enjoy that alfresco feeling all year round.
The Venue attracts a diverse range of clientele and is family friendly, so weather you’re after a quiet pint in The Munster Bar, would like to soak up the sun in our courtyard or enjoy the upbeat friendly atmosphere in The Ardhú Bar we’ve got you covered!
-Two Great Bars One Great Location
Limerick’s Best Fully Heated Alfresco Area
All Sporting Events Shown On Our Big Screen’s
Ideal Location For Your Corporate Or Private Event
Serving Breakfast, Lunch & Evening Meals 7 Days A Week
Entertainment Provided By Our In House Party DJ’s & Live Bands
This year I spent a week in Limerick and I had an excellent room at Pery’s Hotel which reopened in February 2022. For me the main advantage is that it is close to the Train Station and this is important because my equipment is heavy and bulky. The other thing is that their rooms include baths as well as shower facilities, this is important if you walk up to twenty miles a day.
I could not book a room in 2021 as the hotel was closed because of Covid-19 restrictions and I could not visit Limerick in 2020. In 2021 I stayed at the George which is slightly more central.
This year when I visited the Pery Hotel I noticed many changes but when I spoke to the staff they claimed that ownership had not changed. However, the hotel was recently on the market with an asking price of €3,500,000 and it was described as follows:
“Pery’s Hotel is located on Glentworth Street in the heart of Limerick city centre. Glentworth Street is just off O’Connell Street, the main thoroughfare in the city. The hotel is in close proximity to Colbert Station Limerick’s main train/bus Station, Shannon Airport and all the amenities the vibrant city of Limerick has to offer.
Limerick is a tourist attraction for both domestic and international visitors and provides a gateway to the south and west. Areas of interest nearby include, The Ring of Kerry, Kenmare and Cobh. Pery’s Hotel is approximately 26km from Shannon International Airport, 100km from Cork, 99km from Galway and 203km from Dublin.
Located on the prominent corner position at the junction of Glentworth Street and Catherine Street is Pery’s Hotel which has been in operation as a hotel since 1878. This four storey over basement hotel has well-appointed accommodation to include 61 en-suite bedrooms which provide a mixture of family, double and single bedrooms. With three different size conference rooms the hotel is ideal for hosting corporate events, functions or weddings. The reception area, Tait’s Gastro Bar and restaurant provide a tranquil environment for guests to dine and relax, along with the gym and sauna facilities.
Currently there is a service agreement in place for the academic year 2019/2020 with an American University on a Discover the World Study abroad programme, which runs from Late August to Mid-December and again from early January to Mid-May, full details can be found in the Data Room. The hotel has the benefit of an additional income stream from two retail tenants located on Catherine Street.”
It is interesting to note that the hotel was on the market as a going concern back in 2007 with an asking price of €8,000,000.
During my visit [April 2022] I notice many young American guests. Years ago the hotel was full with visitors from the UK who visited the same time every year. It would appear that the UK trade has greatly reduced because of Brexit which is a bit surprising as it is no more difficult for British citizens to holiday [live or work] in Ireland.
Shortly before I was due to arrive at the hotel they contacted offering me the opportunity to cancel as they were not in a position to offer dining or bar facilities but as I have a policy of not availing of such facilities this was not a problem for me.
Pery Square is a Georgian Terrace located in the Newtown Pery area of Limerick city, Ireland. The terrace was constructed as a speculative development by the Pery Square Tontine Company between 1835 and 1838. The square was named in honour of the politician Edmund Sexton Perry. The terrace is notable as one of the finest examples of late Georgian architecture in Limerick and Ireland.
The architect James Pain supervised the construction of the terrace and may well have been responsible for the design. The contractor was Pierse Creagh from Ennis. By 1838, the houses forming this terrace were let to tenants. The tontine development was the only area of square that was finished. The remaining plots (around the planned square) which were earmarked for development in Davis Ducart’s plan for Newtown Pery were never realised and were left undeveloped.
Opposite Pery Square is the People’s Park which adds to the surrounds of the area. The development was the last of the great Georgian Era developments in Limerick as the years that followed heralded an end to the Georgian prosperity and a beginning to a crippling economic decline in Ireland caused by the Great Famine. Limerick was not to see development of that scale again as was seen in Newtown Pery until the Celtic Tiger years.
Today, a Boutique Hotel is trading at No 1 Pery Square. No 2 Pery Square has been extensively redeveloped by Limerick Civic Trust and is now in use as a Georgian Museum. The rest of the houses are being used to various degrees. Limerick City Gallery of Art is also located at Pery Square opposite the tontine as is Limerick’s War Memorial. St. Michael’s Church of Ireland, a gothic structure stands at the southern end of Pery Square terminating the vista of the street to the south. Saint Michael’s Church adds immeasurably to the importance of Pery Square as the unrivalled Georgian streetscape outside of Georgian Dublin.
THE ETAP HOTEL WHY ARE THERE NO STREET FACING WINDOWS
The 146-bedroom Etap opened its doors in 2013. In January 2015 Etap it was sold in a deal worth £6.6m and the sale also included a ground floor retail unit which is currently occupied by the, unusually named, Filthy McNasty’s pub.
A local once told me that this building was designed to be a carpark but at the last minute it was decided to convert it to a hotel and that is why there are no windows on the street facing side of the building … of course I cannot find any evidence to support the claim and doubt that it is true.
Back in June 2014 I decided to visit Belfast on a strict budget and the ETAP [owned by the same group as IBIS] was by far the cheapest available. Many reviews at the time mentioned location as being a major positive but I cannot agree as the location was at best very downmarket and seedy.
As already mentioned Filthy McNasty, pub night club, is located next door to the ETAP hotel and to some degree the name describes the location which does not present the city at its best. I suspect what they, the reviewers, actually mean is that the hotel is well located relative to all places of interest in Belfast and I cannot argue with that. However, because of noise throughout the night coupled with anti-social behaviour within the immediate area I decided to move, after two nights, to the Europa at great cost.
Since 2014 I have avoided budget hotels in Belfast but, unfortunately, good hotels in Belfast are very expensive.
According to various booking sites this hotel opened for bookings on the 27th September 2021 but my research indicates that it will not open to the public until 25th March 2022.
This new hotel has replaced River House at Chancery Street has been vacant since the motor taxation service moved out in 2007. It was owned for about 15 years by developers Joe and Patrick Linders who are best known for their involvement in the revival of the Smithfield area of Dublin.
River House was a 5-storey office block on Chancery Street, Dublin. It was described as a “brutalist eyesore” by the Sunday Times. It was ugly be any definition.
Permission to build River House was granted in 1972, and the building was completed in 1973. It had curtain walling at ground and 1st floor levels, with 4 additional storeys above with pre-cast cladding. The architect of the building has been disputed. Frank McDonald attributed it to John Thompson and Partners, but this led to a libel suit during which it was stated that “neither John or David Thompson of the firm John Thompson and Partners had anything to do with the design or erection of River House”. It appears to have been the work of Patrick J. Sheahan and Partners.
After a dispute between the Department of Justice and the Dublin Corporation as to who would occupy the building, the Corporation established its motor tax office in the office block, and for many years it was Dublin’s only motor tax office. The building stood vacant from the late 2000s, and attracted anti-social behaviour.
River House was described as “scourge” to the area, and “is considered to be of little or no architectural merit”. It was recorded by the Dublin City Council as a dangerous building in February 2016.
River House was initially purchased by Joe and Patrick Linders, who were involved in the redevelopment of parts of the Smithfield area. The building was purchased by Melonmount Ltd in 2017 for €8 million, and permission was sought to demolish it and replace it with a hotel. The financier, Derek Quinlan, was an advisor on the deal. An Taisce have been critical of the proposed replacement building, describing it as “monolithic” and “lumpen”. River House was demolished in 2018.
BELOW ARE TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF RIVER HOUSE – APRIL 2014
LITTLE STRAND STREET RUNS BEHIND THE ORMOND HOTEL SITE
There are two sections to Strand Street the section from Lower Liffey Street to Capel Street is Great Strand Street and upon crossing Capel Street is becomes Little Strand Street. There are two building sites on Little Strand Street and to the best of my knowledge a hotel is to be built on the one at the junction with Capel street. During the planning phase the city council claimed plans for the hotel at the corner of Capel Street and Strand Street Little would “exacerbate” the over concentration of hotels and fundamentally undermine the vision for the provision of a dynamic mix of uses within the city centre area, however planning permission has been granted.
Little Strand Street is even less known to most Dubliners that Great Strand Street. Little Strand street runs behind the construction site that once was the Ormond Hotel and it connects Capel Street to East Arran Street which in turn connects Mary’s Abbey to Ormond Quay.
A €25 million redevelopment of the Ormond Hotel on Ormond Quay was expected to have been complete by March or April of 2020 but work works appears to have been suspended.
By the end of 2019, there was planning permission in place for as many as a hundreds hotels apart-hotels, and student accommodation complexes in Dublin city and the majority were within walking distance of my apartment. Today in 2022 there are many half-built and unoccupied hotels. At this stage I cannot determine if the Ormond Hotel redevelopment project is to continued but judging by the state of the construction of the site there is every reason to be concerned.
The Ormond Hotel was located on Dublin’s historic Georgian quays, which were laid out by the Duke of Ormond in the late 17th century. The Ormond Hotel, which began operating from the site in 1889, was building of special cultural significance on account of it being the fictional location for the Sirens episode of James Joyce’s magnum opus, Ulysses, which chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904.
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