Government has floated idea of using building in the Digital Hub as new home for The Complex arts centre

Most of the signs along Crane Street in the Liberties conjured up images of a pint of Guinness.

Some simply pointed to the Guinness Storehouse around the corner. But others, like the black and gold street signs, brought to mind the feeling of staring at the harp printed on the side of a pint glass.

In the midst of these markers, there were however, a few other subtler signs mounted to the brown brick walls that people were strolling past on Saturday morning.

One was a long piece of wood with white letters mounted on it, and which informed passers-by that this two-storey building that ran almost the entire length of the street was “Va House No”.

It’s an auxiliary building of the brewery, connected to a network of corridors that hang over the streets, which link all 11 vat houses in the area. 

Some of its windows were broken, and a glimpse into the interior revealed paint peeling off walls, and floors covered in sawdust.

Diageo, the company which owns Guinness, doesn’t own Vat House No. 7. Currently, its owner is the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA), a spokesperson for the agency said.

But the situation is in flux, and one possible future for this building might see it offered as a new home for The Complex arts centre, which closed its space in Smithfield earlier this month. 

Although, according to a statement from The Complex, issued via its Instagram page on Monday, they have not yet been involved in these discussions – and the council hadn’t mentioned it as a possibility.

Moving pieces

The 12-bay two-storey vathouse was built circa 1865, according to the National Built Heritage Service website.

Although it’s now among the properties controlled by the Digital Hub Development Agency, the government, which funds the agency, in 2021 announced plans to wind it up. 

In buildings on its campus, which is split in two by Thomas Street, the Digital Hub rents space to tech companies, creative organisations, and social enterprises. In its 2024 annual report it listed 58 of them.

The government’s plan is that much of the Digital Hub campus land will be transferred to the Land Development Agency, which has a plan to redevelop much of the Digital Hub campus into an affordable-housing project, called Pear Tree Crossing.

The Digital Hub’s recently released strategic plan says it hopes to “pivot from being a state agency to a new standalone legal entity under the auspices of Dublin City Council”.

And that “Under the LDA’s Pear Tree Crossing masterplan, The Digital Hub’s in-use buildings will remain in place while new, high-quality housing is developed on other parts of the campus.”

The LDA has confirmed that it will not require all of the properties within the hub, a spokesperson for the Department of Culture said on Tuesday evening, and it has been engaging with Dublin City Council on options for some of these buildings.

One possible option, says a letter from the Department of Culture, sent on 30 January to the artist Muirin Goulding, could be for the LDA to transfer part of the site to the council who in turn might make it available to The Complex.

As part of this large redevelopment, the LDA has identified Vat House 7 as having the potential to be repurposed for community or cultural purposes, an LDA spokesperson said last Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council did not comment when asked if they had any plans to take charge of any properties within the Digital Hub campus to assist The Complex, or if Vat House No. 7 was raised in their discussions with the Department of Culture.

Vat house history

Vat house No. 7 was one of 11 vat houses on the site of the Brewery, according to the LDA’s website for the Pear Tree Crossing development.

In April 2008, the developer Manor Park Homebuilders Limited applied to Dublin City Council to change its use from a warehouse to offices and shops, as well as a bar.

But work never progressed and, in November 2013, the council declined the Digital Hub Development Agency’s request to extend the duration of the permission.

Eight years later, in June 2021, the government announced its plans to wind down the Digital Hub and transfer the site to the Land Development Agency.

As part of that transfer, Vat House No. 7 will also be taken in charge by the LDA, a spokesperson for DHDA said last Tuesday. “As such, its future use is a matter for the LDA.”

Right now, the LDA is advancing designs for the development of the affordable housing that will be delivered on the Pear Tree Crossing lands, an LDA spokesperson said last Tuesday.

And, as part of that, Vat House No. 7 has been identified as having the potential to provide cultural, community or commercial floorspace, they said.

They are continuing to progress these plans in partnership with stakeholders including the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, Dublin City Council and the Digital Hub Development Agency, they said.

Complex communications

Originally opened in September 2019, The Complex occupied the warehouse in Smithfield on a short-term lease of three years, which was then extended until 2025, according to a submission the company made to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sports and Media in July 2024.

On 15 January, the arts centre’s CEO, Vanessa Fielding, confirmed via the venue’s website that they had been evicted from their warehouse on East Arran Street.

This followed weeks of campaigning by Fielding, artists and elected representatives to save the venue, including the launch of a petition on 3 December, calling on the Arts Council and Dublin City Council to prevent the eviction.

The petition amassed more than 16,700 signatures, and a lot of the signatories also wrote to Minister for Minister for Public Expenditure and Infrastructure, Jack Chambers, Fielding said on Monday.

Fielding learned this week that the Department of Culture had responded to letters sent as part of the campaign, she said.

One letter, sent on 30 January, by Darren Clarke, a private secretary within the department, said they were engaging with Dublin City Council to transfer part of the Digital Hub site to the local authority.

“The Minister has requested that the city council consider whether any of the activities which were conducted at the Complex arts centre could in time be facilitated in the Digital Hub complex,” Clarke wrote.

The Department would be happy to work with the council on any proposal including consideration of whether any of the department’s funding scheme could be of assistance in this regard, Clarke wrote.

None of this information had been communicated to Fielding by the council, she said on Monday. “I suppose when I saw the letter I thought wouldn’t it be nice if the council had offered us a solution, and give us a suggestion of how we might be rehoused.”

While councillors have recently floated the idea of using an old auctioneers on Capel Street as The Complex’s replacement, the building is probably not suitable, Fielding says. “It wouldn’t have a performance space in it.”

The department letter does not specify if there is a specific building within the Digital Hub that either it or the council had in mind.

Nor did either a council or Department of Culture spokesperson comment when asked on Tuesday morning if they were considering offering Vat House 7 to The Complex.

The department is in discussion with bodies including Dublin City Council on options for the properties within the Digital Hub that the LDA does not require, a department spokesperson said on Tuesday.

But, even if the council took charge of a building on the campus, there is still a lot that could prevent this from becoming a new space for The Complex, Fielding says. 

“There’d be a tendering process. Many times with old buildings, there’s planning requirements, like refurbishment to compliance.”

Just because this would be in the council’s possession doesn’t mean it would actually be available, she says.