Who owns Temple Bar Pub?
The Cleary family are the owners of the Temple Bar pub, a public house located at 46–48 Temple Bar in the Temple Bar area, they purchased the pub in 1992.
There have been rumours that the band U2 owns the Temple Bar Pub but this is not true. The confusion probably stems from the purchase of the Clarence Hotel located at 6–8 Wellington Quay, Dublin, Ireland in 1992.. It is in the Temple Bar neighbourhood, on the River Liffey thus the confusion.
History of the Temple Bar
In medieval (Anglo-Norman) times, the name of the current Temple Bar district was St. Andrews Parish. At that time it was outside the city walls and as such was a suburb of Dublin. The area was unprotected and fell into disuse in the 14th century because of constant attacks by native Irish.
During the 17th century the area was redeveloped and gardens were created for the houses of wealthy English families in the area. Along the River Liffey marshy land was progressively walled in and reclaimed which allowed for the building of houses up to the shoreline. In 1812 the backyards of these houses were replaced by Wellington Quay and the fronts of these houses then became a new street.
Bernard de Gomme‘s Map of Dublin from 1673, which shows the reclaimed land and new buildings was the first to mention the Temple Bar as the name of a street.
The general consensus is that the Temple Bar was named after the Temple family after Sir William Temple built a house and gardens there in the early 1600s.
Despite its grand origin story the truth, however, is that the name of Temple Bar street seems to have been more directly borrowed from the storied Temple Bar district in London.
During the 18th century the Temple Bar was the centre of prostitution in Dublin During the 19th century right up to the 20th century the area slowly declined in popularity and eventually it suffered from urban decay, with many derelict buildings in the area.
During the 1970s and 1980s there was a proposal for the state-owned transport company Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) to buy up and demolish property in the area with the idea to build a bus terminus in its place. While this planning was taking place, the buildings were let at low rents and many small shops and galleries popped up as artists were attracted to the area.
Unhappiness with the planned bus terminus led to protests by An Taisce, residents and traders that ended in the cancellation of the bus station project and it was decided that the area would be regenerated and redeveloped.
In 1991, the government set up a not-for-profit company called Temple Bar Properties which was managed by Laura Magahy with the purpose to oversee the regeneration of the area as Dublin’s cultural quarter.
Temple Bar became a popular nightlife destination and in 1999, “stag parties” and “hen nights” were supposedly banned (or discouraged) from Temple Bar. This was mainly due to drunken loutish behaviour. Noise and anti-social behaviour remain a problem at night and many local people see the area more as a tourist area to avoid.
Viator