This photograph dates from my 2016 visit to the city and at the time this pub did not really catch my attention however I photographed it again in 2021 and it was still unoccupied and today I checked on Google Maps and it still appears to be unoccupied but of course Google might be out off date.
Penrose Lane was known locally as Dennys Lane and it was the scene of the 1896-67 Pig strike. Pig traders/buyers based in the Ballybricken area had a local monopoly on buying from farmers in order to supply local bacon producers but the factories began to buy direct from the producers.
By the middle of the 19th Century, around 75% of the Irish pork products imported into London were coming from Waterford. The City and its surrounds were at that point huge manufacturers of sausages and bacon, largely due to the Denny’s factory, a family business passed from generation to generation. Denny’s still exists today but the factory in Waterford shut in March 1972 .
As already mentioned there is a lot of unoccupied property or derelict sites in Waterford and the more I visit the more that I have become aware of. In October 2016 it was reported that the Showboat had been sold and that it would reopen in 2017.
In September 2019 local publications reported that Waterford City & County Council was set to act ‘aggressively’ on Waterford’s well-known vacant pub sites. The specifically mentioned The Showboat and the Halfway House and Grand Hotel Tramore sites.
I decided to visit Thomas Street in order to photograph the Clock Pub which is scheduled to cease as a business tomorrow Sunday 20 February 2023.
During the Covid pandemic 349 pubs in Ireland ceased trading but there are many reasons for this and one is that many pub owners had, for various reasons, decided to retire or they received an offer that they could not refuse.
The Clock on Thomas Street is closing because the building has been sold.
I photographed this pub back in December 2018 as I was in the process of photographing Guinness clocks around the city.
A few days ago I was in the Thomas Street area and a local who was interested in my camera and the history of the area mentioned that I will have my last chance the get the best pint in Dublin on the weekend as the Clock Pub [including the whole block] was to be demolished.
Today it was mentioned in some publications that the building in which the Clock is located has been sold and that the pub would close this weekend [18-13 February 2023] and that the future of the site as uncertain.
This is the oldest photograph that I can locate of this once very popular pub on Thomas Street. I only have one other old photograph.
A few days ago I was in the Thomas Street area and a local who was interested in my camera and the history of the area mentioned that would have my last chance the get the best pint in Dublin, at the right price, on the weekend as the Clock Pub [including the whole block] was to be demolished.
Today, 18 February 2023, it was mentioned in some publications that the building in which the Clock is located has been sold and that the pub would close this weekend [18-13 February 2023] and that the future of the site as uncertain.
Back in March 2022 this famous pub was put on the market as the O’Rorke [maybe O’Rourke] family were retiring from the trade after 40 years. To the best of my knowledge it was known as the Punch Bowl until 1996 when it was sold by Ken Featherstone who had acquired the Victor Hotel.
The Pub’s location was immortalised in the iconic 19th century ballad, ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin’. whose name is reputed to derive from the very Rock Road on which the Punch Bowl stands.
This famous tavern, once the haunt of notorious highwaymen, was first licenced in 1779 when William Scully, the then landlord, served such patrons as the Fitzwilliams, Barons of Thorncastle and Viscounts of Merrion. The landmark location has seen more than its share of history and tragedy in the 200 years since it first opened its doors.
A tranquil November day in 1807 turned to catastrophe as The Prince of Wales’ transport ship was caught in a sudden northeasterly gale as it tried to leave Dublin Bay. In violent seas, it foundered on the rocks just south of Booterstown. The Captain escaped with his family and crew, but all 120 soldiers aboard perished. Their bodies washed ashore on Booterstown Strand and their bodies were buried in a quiet graveyard a five minute walk from the pub.
This tragedy was the impetus to the building of Dún Laoghaire Harbour, which was initially called “Dunleary”, then “Kingstown”, and now “Dún Laoghaire”. Dublin port was hampered by a sandbar, which meant that ships could enter or leave only at high tide. A solution, the building of the North Bull Wall, had been identified by Vice-Admiral William Bligh in 1800. If there was a storm, a ship would have to ride out the storm in the open sea, waiting for the tide.
“The bay of Dublin has perhaps been more fatal to seamen and ships than any in the world, for a ship once caught in it in a gale of wind from ENE to SSE must ride it out at anchors or go on shore, and from the nature of that shore the whole of the crews almost invariably have perished.” – Captain Charles Malcolm of George IV’s royal yacht.
A pier had been built at Dún Laoghaire, now known as the “coal harbour”, in 1767, but it had rapidly silted up. The early nineteenth century was unusually stormy. Dublin Bay was notoriously treacherous for boats. The remains of at least 600 vessels rest at the bottom of the bay.
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