New café at the Red Stables, St. Anne’s Park, Raheny

City Architect’s Division was asked by the Parks Department of Dublin City Council to design a new café in the Red Stables, St. Anne’s Park, Raheny.

The Red Stables is an elaborate, two-storey Victorian courtyard building and formed part of the Ardilaun Estate at St. Anne’s, owned by the Guinness Family from 1835. The stable building, a protected structure, was built by renowned architect George Ashlin in the 1880s as the stable block for St. Anne’s Mansion (now demolished). The ground floor location, occupying 3 bays of the former coach houses, benefits from a southerly orientation across the courtyard & was an ideal place to situate the new café. Our design approach was to keep all interventions to a minimum, allowing the existing space to guide the use.

Exterior shot of the Victorian courtyard building

We felt that retaining the character of the coach houses should be our primary concern, with the new café working with this. As such the interior is very minimal & open plan, allowing the original space to remain visible.

The modern intervention within the historic fabric

It was difficult to balance the modern interventions of a café, the kitchen area in particular, with our design approach. The main interventions were built-in seating to the rear rubble stone wall, ceiling hung radiant panels, a new opening to provide direct access to the toilet area, a carrera marble counter and free-standing kitchen block. We also selected the outdoor furniture by Fermob, very light & transparent so as have the least visual impact on the original herringbone paving of the courtyard.

The completed café just before it’s opening in July

The new café, operated by Moloughneys, was officially opened in July this year & by all accounts is a huge success!

Design team: Eleanor Mc Garry, Oiseen Kelly, Dunwoody & Dobson, Mulcahy Technical

Photo credits: Des Moriarty (first image) and Ros Kavanagh (final two images)