Chapter 7: The city centre, urban villages and retail

7.1      Introduction

Dublin city’s urban centres comprise the city centre, which is the prime retail destination for the country, surrounded by a network of inner and outer suburban centres of different scales. These centres offer a range of opportunities for retail, community and social interaction, services, jobs / business development, amenities and cultural and artistic engagement.

Dublin City Centre is where people come to experience the city’s vibrant street scenes, public spaces and a varied cultural and leisure offer and where they come to shop, work, study, live, socialise and spend time. These activities are facilitated by an increasingly integrated public transport system serving the city centre and progressively improving active travel options.

The city’s Key Urban Villages, urban villages and neighbourhood centres are the heart of their local communities; they provide a focus for local activities, allow sustainable urban living and allow people access to local shops, services, community services, information, healthcare, amenities and to work locally. These centres have high levels of access to quality public transport and bus services.

Changes in economic conditions, technological advances, retail trends, changing consumer behaviours and the impacts and changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have and continue to result in new patterns of work and lifestyles. As people can now shop and work and be entertained from home they are using the urban centres differently. In the city centre, for example, a broader leisure experience of shopping, eating, relaxing, working, browsing and culture draws visitors into the city centre; they come for a day or evening out, looking to eat, drink and visit the cinema etc., as well as shop.

In order to evolve and adapt to these trends, the city centre and the city’s other urban centres will need to offer wide ranging appeal to draw and attract visitors. This includes leisure uses, residential uses, office and community uses as well as retail uses. To sustain and grow urban centres in the longer term, there will also need to be greater opportunities for people to live and spend time in these centres. In order to achieve thriving, inclusive and healthy sustainable urban centres, these centres need to be transformed into attractive and vibrant urban areas offering more space and comfort for pedestrians, a high quality public realm, amenities, active travel opportunities and opportunities for social / community interaction, cultural events and urban greening.

7.2      Achievements

At a strategic level, the Luas Cross City link, constructed in 2017, now connects the Grafton Street shopping area on the southern side of the River Liffey to the O’Connell Street / Henry Street shopping area to the north of the river. This public transport infrastructure supports and improves access to the city’s main shopping streets by providing the city’s residents as well as visitors with new options for travelling to the city centre, by allowing people far greater ease of movement around the city and by providing new access routes to the main shopping streets. The arrival of Luas Cross City has and will continue to stimulate private sector investment in the city centre.

Over the last development plan period, a number of large scale mixed use and retail developments have been developed or are currently being progressed in the city centre. These include the flagship refurbishment and extension of the former Clery’s Department Store on O’Connell Street to provide a new retail, office, hotel and food quarter destination.

Other large scale developments include: the redevelopment of Hibernian House / Hibernian Corner / Nassau House on the corner of Nassau Street and Dawson Street to provide large scale retail and office space; the repurposing of the former Central Bank site on Dame Street to provide a mix of offices, retail, cafés and restaurants; and, the completed Chatham & King retail development off Grafton Street. The introduction of a mix of retail, office, hotel and cafes and restaurants will have a significant impact on the visual and commercial heart of the city centre contributing to the daytime, evening and night time economy.

The leisure sector and personal care services have seen substantial growth in the city in the last 10 years. Cafés, restaurants, cinemas, gyms and personal grooming establishments etc. are making a significant contribution to the overall commercial functioning of the city during day, evening and night time.

Convenience retailing (supermarkets) has expanded significantly in all parts of Dublin City over the previous decade, helped by population growth and policy support in the two last development plans. In recent years, the inner city has seen the development of a significant number of new convenience stores particularly in the discount food store sector including at Brunswick Street, Cork Street and East Wall. This new convenience retail provision has provided greater consumer choice and competition and in many areas, and has had regeneration benefits and provided much needed neighbourhood scale retail provision.

The improvement of the public realm in the city centre is being addressed through the implementation of the City Council’s Public Realm Strategy (‘Your City - Your Space’, 2012), and area based public realm plans including:

• the Grafton Street Quarter Public Realm Improvement Plan, 2013;
• the ‘Heart of the City’ Public Realm Masterplan for the City Core 2016; and
• the Temple Bar Public Realm Plan, 2016.

Focusing on densely used public spaces and the needs of pedestrians and cyclists, these plans set out guidance and priorities for the city centre for the next 10/15 years. Public realm improvements completed under the ‘Grafton Street Quarter Public Realm Improvement Plan’ include works to Grafton Street, Harry Street, Balfe Street, Chatham Street and Clarendon Street.

The City Centre Pedestrian Wayfinding Scheme provides essential local information (map panels and fingerposts) to help and encourage people to walk around and explore the city. This scheme continues to be expanded around the inner city and it extends to the Docklands, Phibsborough and Raheny. Infrastructure consists of map panel units and fingerposts, carrying c. 1,730 finger panel signs. Since 2016, as new destinations emerged in the city, additional finger panel signs and combined map panel units have been added to the wayfinding system.

The O’Connell Street and Grafton Street Areas of Special Planning Control (ASPCs) remain pivotal in ensuring that only suitable uses are permitted in the heart of the city. Updated Schemes of Special Planning Control were made for O’Connell Street in 2016 and for Grafton Street in 2019. These schemes allow Dublin City Council to specify development objectives for the preservation or enhancement of these areas. This will ensure the protection of the special and unique character of O’Connell Street and Grafton Street, which is intrinsically linked to specific retailers and uses.

A Shopfront Improvement Scheme was launched in 2015 for retail premises in the south western area of the city. Through financial assistance it has assisted a wide range of retailers, small business owners and community organisations to enhance their premises and improve the quality of some of the capital’s most historic streets and urban villages. This scheme has been rolled out to the Finglas / Ballymun area.

7.3      Challenges

The main challenges in protecting, developing and enhancing the city centre and the city’s urban villages are outlined below:

Revitalising and Developing the Resilience of the City Centre and the City’s Urban Centres Post-Covid-19

The Covid-19 Pandemic has had an unprecedented and seismic impact on Dublin’s economy with activity in retail, retail services, food and beverage, leisure, tourism and cultural sectors plummeting and businesses closing. A report by the three Regional Assemblies of Ireland – ‘Covid-19 Regional Economic analysis’, 2020, identified that Dublin City and suburbs exposure to the pandemic should be the lowest of all urban centres as its economic activities such as finance and ICT are capable of operating remotely. The city and suburbs, however, have the highest number (nationally) of commercial units operating in the sectors worst affected. Revitalising and developing the resilience of the city centre and the city’s urban centres post-Covid-19 is a huge challenge for the city.

The Changing Nature of Retail

The retail sector is undergoing change due to online retailing, technological change and changing consumer behaviour. There are now many more ways to shop (multi-channel) that do not require the shopper to visit an urban centre as shopping can be delivered to the home or work etc. Year-on-year growth in online retailing in Ireland has increased and this trend has accelerated during the pandemic. While large urban centres with attractions complementary to retail are likely to withstand the challenges of online shopping, the city’s smaller suburban centres are more likely to be impacted by these trends.

Competition from M50 Shopping Centres

The regional M50 shopping centres have solidified their position as regional shopping destinations within Dublin’s suburbs, displacing comparison retail focussed shopping trips that were once the exclusive remit of the city centre. Combined, these centres offer retail space on a par with the city centre and they continue to have active plans to expand. For the city centre to remain resilient and competitive it must attract these shoppers back to the city centre and recognise and respond to the appeal of shopping in a high quality car-free environment with a concentration of a range of appealing retail uses, as evidenced in Henry Street and Grafton Street.

Investment in Key Urban Villages

In the suburbs, there are challenges relating to the traditional street, the parade of local shops or older shopping centres that are no longer strongly competitive and have now to compete with the growing presence of convenience supermarkets and on-line retailing. Large scale retail led developments in many suburban centres approved pre the 2008 recession were not realised and retail development has contracted in many of the Key Urban Villages resulting in vacancy. Many of these centres remain underdeveloped and have capacity for consolidation and regeneration. Attracting appropriate uses / retail to these centres remains a challenge.  An opportunity presents itself to facilitate the incubation of indigenous craft, food production, local farmers markets and the sale of local produce and other local services that can contribute to the vibrancy and occupancy of the key urban villages’ retail core. 

Retrofitting the Public Realm to Realise Opportunities for Healthy Placemaking

De-cluttering and repurposing the public realm and rebalancing space in favour of pedestrians and cyclists will be required to ensure the city centre and the city’s urban centres support healthy placemaking. Investment in the public realm makes the city centre and Key Urban Villages more attractive and more accessible to all, with improved and widened paths, seating / rest spaces, tree planting and opportunities to linger.

Growing the Night Time Economy

There has been growing recognition of the role the night time sector plays / can play in the economy of cities. The development of a 24 hour city in Dublin City has the potential to draw more people into the city, thereby supporting other city centre uses and supporting job growth and the city’s economy. Tackling the perceived image of an unsafe night environment, however, in certain areas of the city, and issues such as the lack of night time public transport and the potential for conflict with other uses such as residential uses needs to be managed and addressed.

7.4      The Strategic Approach

The following strategic approach will be taken to support and promote the city centre and the city’s urban villages and retail:

• Align the retail hierarchy for the city to the settlement hierarchy of the core strategy in order to enhance and consolidate the city centre and to create mixed use, lively and vibrant urban villages and neighbourhoods throughout the city.
• Place sustainability and climate resilience as the over-arching consideration in the development of the city centre and urban villages with a particular emphasis on healthy streets, active travel and public transport accessibility, building on the 15 minute city concept, the primacy of the city centre and the vitality and viability of existing and emerging centres.
• Provide a vibrant mix of shopping, leisure, office and residential uses, third spaces and family friendly attractions in the city centre thereby, offering shoppers an experience and a depth of offer that attracts suburban shoppers / workers / tourist / students / residents to shop, socialise and spend time in the city centre.
• Promote and consolidate the role of Key Urban Villages so that they provide for sustainable urban living, they serve the community / social / cultural / civic needs of the local communities in which they exist and a level of retail development commensurate to their catchment.
• Promote and consolidate the role of urban villages and neighbourhood centres so that they can provide convenient and attractive access by walking and cycling to local goods and services needed on a day-to-day basis.
• Recognise the importance of placemaking and an attractive public realm and its contribution to supporting city centre retail, enhanced pedestrian amenities and developing the city centre and urban villages as key destinations.
• Place an emphasis on healthy place making in the city centre and in all urban centres with initiatives tailored towards making these centres better places to live and to visit.

7.5      Policies and Objectives

7.5.1  General Retail Policy

The Retail Planning Guidelines, 2012 set out the retail planning framework for retail development. In accordance with these guidelines, retail policy for the city must be informed by a multi-authority retail strategy which would set out the retail hierarchy for the region and which would set out retail floorspace requirements for different settlements under the hierarchy. The existing 2008 – 2016 Retail Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area is considered out of date and a new multi-authority strategy for the region is required.

In the interim, the Regional Spatial Economic Strategy (RSES), for the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, 2019 sets out a retail hierarchy for the Eastern and Midland Region and it states that it will support and drive the preparation of a new retail strategy for the region.

For the purposes of this development plan and pending the preparation of a new retail strategy for the Region, a ‘Retail Strategy’ has been prepared for this development plan and this is set out in Appendix 2 of this Plan.

This strategy outlines a retail hierarchy for the city comprising, in descending order, the city centre, Key Urban Villages, urban villages and neighbourhood centres and local shops. See Figure 7-1: Retail Strategy for the indicative locations of the city centre retail core, key urban villages and examples of urban villages.