Olympia gets a reprieve

Olympia gets a reprieve

4 Mar 1971

Olympia gets reprieve

The proposed development plan for the Olympia Theatre site in Dublin, and adjoining buildings, will probably have to be scrapped following the decision of Dublin Corporation to turn down the planning application on no less than a dozen different counts.

It appears from the reasons given for rejecting the plan that no cognisance was given by the planners to the fact that two branches of the River Poddle run through culverts under the theatre, and, according to the Corporation, “the levels of the river culverts are higher than the lower basement floor levels of the proposed development.”

The principal reasons given for turning down the application were: The plan is not consistent with the provisions which will be included in the overall development plan, providing for the preservation of the Olympia as a place of social and cultural amenity.

The plan does not comply with the requirements of the chief medical officer in relation to ventilation and other matters.

The plan would be inconsistent with the scale of surrounding development and would therefore injure existing amenities, and did not comply with the requirements of the chief fire officer.

The development, says the document turning down the plan, would interfere with Crampton Court, which is a public road in the charge of the Corporation. The boundaries of Crampton Court are not retained in the plan as they are at present and therefore the area of public street would be reduced. It states that Sycamore Street and Crane Lane would be of, inadequate width to cope with the increased traffic, and therefore the proposed development would cause serious traffic congestion. Five other reasons are also given for rejecting the proposed plan. The owners, Olympia Theatre Ltd., were last night not available for comment on the decision but their Cork architect, Mr. Brian Wain, said the company would immediately appeal the decision to the Department of Local Government. Technical conditions were among the reasons for the rejection of the company’s plan, he said.

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