Council officials present plans to retrofit flat complexes in south inner-city

It’s been a long time since any proper works were carried out on the Pearse House apartment complex, said Neil Maloney on Monday evening. “Like, the last time we got windows put in was the early 90s.”

The water heating system went in around the same time too, he says. “You’re seeing boilers failing all over the place.”

Eileen McNally laughs. “I still have the boiler that they put in from then,” she says.

There’s now a more concrete plan and timeline for changing that.

Dublin City Council has been working on plans to redevelop or renovate old city flat complexes since at least 2018.

At the South East Area Committee meeting on 9 September, officials showed councillors their latest plans to retrofit two of those – Pearse House, an 88-year-old complex between Pearse Street and Hanover Street East and Glovers Court on York Street.

At the meeting, the question arose again of whether the protected status of old flat complexes like Pearse House should be kept, or whether it put unnecessary curbs on redevelopment.

It is good to finally see proposals for renovating old blocks of social homes moving forward, especially in the direction of retrofitting, said Green Party Councillor Claire Byrne on Tuesday.

“All of our public buildings are having to address their energy challenges, so we need to be doing the same and not just knocking them down,” she said.

A long wait

Maloney, who chairs the Pearse House Residents Association, says residents have been asking for regeneration for more than a decade. “What we’ve been looking at was, basically, to get the housing standards up to European standards.”

The flats themselves need to be bigger, more spacious, he says. “I obviously have a big family and we’ve seen the overcrowding.”

Maloney is a fourth-generation resident of Pearse House, he says.

McNally lived one street over in the St Andrew’s Court flats on Fenian Street, before moving over to the complex just off Pearse Street, she says. “And I’m there 35 years.”

The pair of them are sat over mugs of tea at the St Andrews’ Resource Centre on Pearse Street, just 100 metres away from the complex.

Today, Pearse House has 345 flats, and more than 1,100 people live there, Maloney says. “Ourselves and the Oliver Bond flat complex are probably the biggest in the state.”

Pearse House has 16 blocks. At the South East Area Committee meeting on 9 September, councillors saw plans for four of those, in phase one of the regeneration project, which would create 44 homes, down from the 72 that those blocks currently hold.

The intention is to refurbish four of the blocks on Sandwith Place creating 39 retrofitted flats, said council senior architect Sean Moylan.

And, five new-build homes would be dropped in front of the refurbished blocks, he said. “And the space that’s created between the two blocks will become a courtyard for residents.”

Plans also show new walkways with lift access, play spaces, a shared garden and parking spaces, he said.

Of those 44 homes, 10 would be one-beds, 29 would be two-beds and five would be three-beds – all with private open space, he said. “All of these have much larger living spaces than what they have now.”

A protected structure

For St Andrew’s Court on Sandwith Street – which isn’t a protected structure – officials have put forward a plan to knock the 12 homes that are there and build 33 new apartments.

At Glovers Court, which also isn’t listed, the council plans to retrofit and extend the complex, Moylan told the meeting, with 53 new flats going in where there are now 38 homes.

But over in Pearse House, Moylan said, with the amalgamations, the number of flats will go from 72 in the current blocks to 44.

Councillors had been told before that the council planned to add extra floors to Pearse House to add more two- and three-bed flats, said Byrne, the Green Party councillor, at the meeting. “Have those plans been abandoned?”

One-bedroom flats are needed, she said. “But, the reality on the ground, as we all know as local representatives, is that the demand is for families.”

They can’t add floors because it is a protected structure and so it could damage its character, Moylan said.

Pearse House was designed by the city architect George Herbert Simms, and built in 1936, according to the National Built Heritage Services website.

Said Moylan: “In terms of the unit mix, we are very limited by the existing structure itself.”

Existing flats with a single bedroom couldn’t be expanded to add more bedrooms, he said. “We’re not making any provision for that at the moment.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Kourtney Kenny at the meeting said work should be done to remove a protected structure status if it means more homes could be provided here.

The council has about 2,000 flats in 18 complexes that are protected structures or of historical interest, most of them are four storeys with deck access, designed by Herbert Simms, said a council presentation in 2022.

Almost 10 percent of council-owned apartments are protected structures, and almost 4 percent of all social housing, it says.

Said Kenny at the meeting: “We need more three-beds, and hiding behind protected structure in this – I know we’re all very proud of our history – but if it’s not working, it’s not working.”

On Tuesday, Byrne said not adding floors was a surprise. “The heritage aspect has always been an issue. I don’t know why it was okay to go up a storey last year and not to do that now.”

But the key thing is to move the project forward, she said. “If they can find ways to increase capacity, provide additional housing and retrofit quickly, then if going up a storey is going to delay that, I’d rather they just find alternative ways that don’t compromise the capacity.”

Demolish or not

At the meeting, independent Councillor Mannix Flynn took greater issue with the council favouring a retrofit over demolition, for both Pearse House and Glovers Court.

“If Mr Simms was alive today, he’d be the first one to demolish the blocks, and rebuild an entire opportunity for a new generation,” he said.

On Monday evening, McNally said that she doesn’t think retrofitting of Pearse House is ideal. “If they were able to knock down the whole lot, you’d be able to make much better.”

Only one side is protected, she says. “And in fairness, it’s the ugliest side.”

Byrne said that retrofitting over demolition is more carbon efficient and more cost effective.

“That is why we have a commitment to our development plan and climate action plan to prioritise retrofitting and regeneration over demolition,” she said.

It cost the council €270,000 to retrofit and renovate two old flats in Ballybough House into one new home, during a retrofitting pilot in 2021.

A council presentation after that said constructing a new building takes roughly 600kg/sqm of carbon while upgrades like Ballybough House would possibly take less than 50kg/sqm.

The National Climate Action Plan sets a target of retrofitting 120,000 homes to bring them to at least a B2 energy rating by 2025, said Moylan. “This is all about capturing the embedded energy within the concrete structure and reducing our carbon emissions.”

Over in Glovers Court, all of the 53 new flats – 30 two-beds, 8 three-beds, and 15  one-beds – would be energy efficient so it would cost less to heat, Moylan said. An A-rating at least, he said.

The existing concrete structure of the 1976 building is to be kept and given a deep retrofit, Moylan said.

They would add one floor on the Aungier Street side, and two floors on the Mercer Street side, he said.  “And then at the gable ends of those blocks, we’re going to have new bookends to provide more apartments in the overall scheme.”

Plans also include a courtyard, play area, communal seating, a garden and bin storage, he said.

De-tenanting

The council will be applying for Part 8 planning permission for the first phase of Pearse House’s regeneration in October, Moylan said, with a view to starting on site in January 2026.

Meanwhile, it also plans to lodge its Part 8 planning for Glovers Court in November, with a decision expected in March 2025, and construction expected to start 12 months later, he said.

Both Glover’s Court and the first stage of Pearse House are slated for completion in September 2027, he said.

Meanwhile, the current timeline for demolition and rebuild of the St Andrew’s Court flats nearby on Fenian Street is to have it done by July 2027, a council report said.

Council official Julie Mason said that there were not yet any proposals for the future phases of Pearse House’s regeneration.

“What we’d obviously be hoping to do is take the lessons learned from this first phase, and improve on our timelines, and hopefully improve on our delivery there,” she said.

Kenny asked how de-tenanting would work.

That process will start once there is a planning decision, said Mason. “We’ll be linking with all the residents to ensure they are on the transfer list and we’ll be looking at all their requirements and all the options.”

“In terms of where people are actually going to go is too early to say. That’s something we’ll have to look at when we have the decision,” she said.

For returning tenants, they will be following the council’s allocations policy, she said, but they won’t be put back into an overcrowded situation. “People will be housed in terms of their requirements. If somebody has a requirement for a two bed, they’ll be housed in a two bed.”

But everybody who has moved out of Glovers Court will be given a letter of comfort saying that they can return to the new development, she said.