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Iveagh Markets
The Francis Street entrance to the Iveagh Markets building
General information
Status	Protected structure
Type	Market
Architectural style	Victorian
Address	The Liberties, Dublin
Country	Ireland
Coordinates	53°20′32.2″N 6°16′27.9″W / 53.342278°N 6.274417°W / 53.342278; -6.274417
Construction started	1902
Opened	June 1906
Cost	£60,000
Owner	As of 2023, disputed between Dublin City Council, Lord Iveagh and Martin Keane
Technical details
Material	Limestone, granite, red brick, cast iron, terracotta, portland stone
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Carroll & Batchelor (Frederick Hicks)
Developer	Iveagh Trust
Main contractor	McLaughlin & Harvey
References

The Iveagh Markets /ˈaɪviː/ is a former indoor market built in the Victorian style on Francis Street and John Dillon Street in The Liberties neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland, that was open from 1906 until the 1990s.

As of 2024, the site remains derelict despite attempts to restore the site to market use.

History

Until the creation by The 1st Baron Iveagh, as he then was, of the park north of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1901, hundreds of street traders had stalls in the neighbourhood. Lord Iveagh (who was later advanced in the peerage as The 1st Viscount Iveagh, in 1905, and as The 1st Earl of Iveagh, in 1919) obtained an Act of Parliament to build and gift the markets, subject to the condition that they be run by Dublin Corporation as public markets or the title would revert to his heirs. A site was chosen on the old Sweetman's brewery which had earlier been acquired by Lord Iveagh. The site was cleared by 1900, with the objective of the new indoor market offering local traders a dry place to sell vegetables, fish, and clothes. It was built by the Iveagh Trust, which was initially a component of the Guinness Trust, founded in 1890 by Lord Iveagh.

The building was designed and built by Frederick G. Hicks. Construction started in 1902 and the market was opened in June 1906 by George William Addison as a representative of the then Viscount Iveagh. Maintenance of the market was entrusted to Dublin Corporation (now Dublin City Council). The market building was built in the Edwardian style.

The market was split into a dry market facing Francis Street and a wet market in the rear facing John Dillon Street. The dry market sold clothes while the wet market sold fish, fruit and vegetables.

An adjoining building housed laundry, disinfecting and delousing facilities. This was an innovation in the Dublin market world, and was influenced by Iveagh's sponsorship of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London a decade earlier.

The building was constructed in red brick mainly from the Portmarnock brickworks and granite from Newry. Many of the door and window frames and architraves are of imported Portland stone.

Closure and restoration attempts

By the 1980s, the market had become rundown. In 1993, the council announced plans for a IR£1.25 million refurbishment. Over the following years, the sum was determined to be inadequate and the council announced in 1996 that it was seeking a private developer to redevelop the market. In 1997, hotelier Martin Keane secured a 500-year lease with a €2 million tender. In 2007, Keane was granted planning permission to develop the market and an adjacent site into a food market complex with restaurants, a 97-bed hotel, music venue and apartment hotel. The planning permission was renewed in 2012, and a €90 million redevelopment was expected to begin in spring 2015 and finish in 2017.

In January 2018, the city council announced that it would repossess the market site and refund Keane's €2 million tender due to his failure to redevelop the site. In September 2019, an architectural condition report commissioned by the city council found that the market was "unsafe" and in an "advanced state of dereliction". The report estimated that essential repairs would cost approximately €13 million, which the city council's head of planning said cannot be covered by the city council's budget.

On 8 December 2020, it was revealed that The 4th Earl of Iveagh had commissioned a security team to gain occupancy and forcibly repossess the site in the early hours of that morning, citing the provisions in the 1901 Act that ownership would revert to the Guinness family if the site was not actively developed as a market. Lord Iveagh and the Iveagh Trustees Ltd. reported through a spokesman that they intended for the site to be developed "in a manner conforming with the wishes of the First Earl".

In September 2023, it was announced that the government would provide €9 million in funding for conservation works to the market.

In October 2023, Dublin City Council, Keane and Lord Iveagh all appeared before the High Court claiming ownership of the property.

Gallery

• A Dublinbikes docking station in front of the Iveagh Markets building on Francis Street in 2018
• Lamb Alley entrance
• Lamb Alley entrance

See also

• Dublin Corporation Wholesale Markets
• Corn Exchange, Dublin

References

1. "CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, FRANCIS STREET, NO. 021-27 (IVEAGH MARKETS) Dictionary of Irish Architects -". www.dia.ie. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
2. "Irish Statute Book". www.irishstatutebook.ie. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
3. Dublin Corporation (Markets etc.) Act, 1901
4. F.H.A. Aalen, The Iveagh Trust: the first hundred years 1890-1990, Iveagh Trust, 1990. ISBN 978-0-9515942-0-9
5. Surve, Aakanksha (9 August 2021). "Footage shows historic Iveagh Markets in ruins after lying derelict for over 20 years". DublinLive. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
6. Casey, Christine (2005). Dublin: The City Within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the Phoenix Park. Yale: Yale University Press. p. 655. ISBN 0-300-10923-7.
7. "Excavation report of the site". Archived from the original on 20 November 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
8. ^ Kelly, Olivia (7 January 2015). "Work to begin on €90m redevelopment of Iveagh Markets". Irish Times. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
9. ^ Kelly, Olivia (19 August 2017). "Call for Iveagh Markets to be returned to Dublin City Council". Irish Times. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
10. ^ "Dublin City Council to take possession of Iveagh Market". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
11. ^ Kelly, Olivia (4 September 2019). "Iveagh Markets 'unsafe' and in 'advanced state of dereliction'". Irish Times. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
12. Kilraine, John (8 December 2020). "Repossession a new twist in Iveagh Market planning row". RTÉ News. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
13. https://www.thejournal.ie/iveagh-markets-funding-conservation-6174746-Sep2023/
14. "An Irishman, a Lord or the city council? Court to decide who owns Iveagh Markets". 11 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.

External links

• Iveagh Market Buildings on "Wide and Convenient Streets" website
• Archived restoration project
• RTE video on the possible closure of the market (1962)
• RTE video of the market (1986)

• Market halls
• Markets in Dublin (city)