Last month, Gerry Keane wallpapers on Talbot Street announced it will be closing in January, after 53 years in business. This is because the owners and staff are reaching retirement age, rather than for commercial reasons.
Mr Tynan says he has bought the building for €2m, and intends to make a planning application next year to turn it into a hospitality venue. The Offaly businessman already owns The Celt bar and the Electric Circus cocktail bar directly across the street, as well as the old Guineys store, which he will re-open next year as a bar/restaurant.
“The Keane wallpaper shop is roughly 6,500 square feet on the ground floor, with another 2,500 square feet upstairs, and there is room for development at the back, and a back entrance too,” Mr Tynan told the Irish Independent.
“Given that I own 80-81 Talbot Street, this will be a natural progression. I am thinking of doing a themed bar, based on something from America. It would be completely different to what’s coming across the road – the country music bar in Guineys.”
The publican said his aim is to develop “a mini Temple Bar” on Talbot Street. He argues that revellers do not want to go to parts of the city where there is only one bar, but instead want a choice of venues.
He said The Celt, a traditional Irish bar, is doing a “serious trade”, but there is little else in that part of Talbot Street. “So I think it’s the sort of place that could do well.”
Dublin City Council planners now seem resigned to allow Talbot Street evolve from a shopping destination into a hospitality hub. Over a decade ago, Mr Tynan was refused planning permission to turn Guineys into a hotel, with officials saying it was contrary to a city plan to keep Talbot Street part of the “premier shopping area in the state”.
Talbot Street is ‘improving no end’, said Tynan
Guineys operated on Talbot Street for 90 years before it fell into financial difficulty and closed in 2012. The building has been unused since.
In January, Mr Tynan and his wife secured planning permission to turn the ground floor into a restaurant and bar. This was despite a planner’s report that worried that, given the “unclear” relationship with The Celt next door, it could turn into a “superpub”.
Noel Tynan also owns The Celt and Electric Circus on Talbot Street
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Thursday, November 27
The Tynans pointed out that The Celt at 81 and the Electric Circus at 82 were separate to 79-80, with their own independent access, kitchen, bar area and toilets.
The planning application included a new shopfront for Guineys with canopies and glazed screens around a seated terrace area. Mr Tynan said he expects it will re-open next March or April.
Talbot Street is gone as a retail street
“Talbot Street is gone as a retail street,” he added. “In Dublin’s inner city, shops like Keane’s are going because there isn’t much parking.
“The city council were co-operative [on Guineys], unlike five years ago when they thought they had Grafton Street on Talbot Street. But they are now starting to realise how difficult [retail] is. I think there are 14 coffee shops and restaurants opened on Talbot Street in the last few years, and it’s a very ethnically diverse area now. It’s improving no end.”
The publican also praised the Garda for putting more officers on the beat in the area, and said there is no trouble at night. “I also have a cocktail bar on Parnell Street that is flying,” he said.
Mr Tynan, who also owns The Cock Tavern in Swords, was one of more than a dozen people who was duped by the former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey into giving him money for supposed cancer treatment. He had given Carey €10,000.