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Iveagh Market

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The Iveagh Market /ˈv/ is an indoor market located in Francis Street in the Dublin Liberties. It was built by the Iveagh Trust, which was initially a component of the Guinness Trust, founded in 1890 by Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh.

Until the creation by Lord Iveagh of the park north of St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1901, hundreds of street traders had stalls in the neighbourhood. The objective of the new indoor market was to offer local traders a dry place to sell vegetables, fish and clothes. The building was designed and built by Frederick G. Hicks. The site for the markets was cleared by 1900. Most of the site was acquired from Guinness, who had bought out Sweetman’s brewery in 1891. Construction started in 1902 and the market opened in 1906.

Maintenance of the market was entrusted to Dublin Corporation (now Dublin City Council), and Iveagh assigned it a 99-year lease on generous terms. When the lease came up for renewal in the early 1990s the corporation considered that it had by then an effective freehold. The market operated until the 1990s, when it was closed, upon which the Corporation developed a restoration plan. Initially this plan meant it would remain in public ownership but this was later changed to operating a public-private venture. Businessman Martin Keane, owner of a hotel and other premises in Dublin acquired the site.

A restoration project for the Iveagh Market was proposed by Dublin City Council in 2008 - the plan was first approved by An Bord Pleanála in August 2007. As of 2014, the building has lain empty for many years.

In January 2015 it was announced by Martin Keane that new funding had been secured for the redevelopment of the site and that construction would begin in the spring of 2015 with a completion date in 2017. As of January 2017 construction work has yet to begin.

References

Iveagh Market Wikipedia