Modern apartment block to replace derelict Laois town hotel

A big change to the streetscape of Portlaoise is on the way, if new plans by a national housing body are approved.

An ultra modern four storey social housing apartment block for Laois County Council tenants is going to replace a derelict Portlaoise hotel, set for the demolition ball.

Designs have gone on public display for the apartment block on Main Street that will replace the old County Hotel, after years of delays.

Clúid Housing is seeking planning permission from Laois County Council to knock the hotel, which was bought by the council in 2018.

They seek to replace it with a long three storey building above a ground floor, stretching back on the footprint of the hotel and what was once a popular dancehall behind it.

The new building viewed from the east.

There will be 10 apartments in all, eight with one bedroom and two with two bedrooms. All of them will have terraces or balconies.

Its new residents will be single people or small families who will be selected from Laois County Council's housing list, renting from Clúid. Designed with accessiblity in mind, it will even have a mobility scooter charging room on the ground floor, and a wheelchair accessible lift as well as a four storey stairwell.

A drawing by VHA architects showing the proposed front view of the new block on Main Street. 

The building will have a communal/enterprise office business space at ground level facing Main Street, as well as a gateway into the property. 

At roof level will be services and a plant technology area. 

The designers have included a public open space to the south of the site, and a pedestrian gate in the south-west corner of the site, opening to a walkway under a commercial building to James Fintan Lalor Avenue.

The building has been stripped of its architecturally listed status so that it can be demolished.

A condition report by the architects of the existing building, gives fascinating background to the doomed building and its colourful past.

It states that it is a stone building dating from 1810, converted to a hotel in 1870 and later extended.

Later works in the 1950s and 1980s they say destroyed "any items of significance such as internal moldings, fire places, ceilings, wall decoration, original doors and windows. Despite the changes that have occurred the building retains a presence and scale that book ends the commercial heart of Portlaoise," they note.

A bar inside the former hotel.

It gives fascinating detail of the building's ownership and changes.

"Its first owner was Church of Ireland Rev. John T. Moore, a Governor and Director of the Maryborough District Lunatic Asylum and owned several properties in Maryborough at the time."

"It is ironic that the property then passed to Patrick Doran in 1870 who later went on to be involved in the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Land League, and possibly the Easter Rising. The building was converted for use as a Hotel and became known as the Leinster Hotel. 

"Given Patrick Dorans associations The Leinster Hotel may well have been used for meetings by the Irish Republican
Brotherhood in the years leading to the Easter rising of 1916," the report surmises.

"Patrick Doran was succeeded by his son and namesake and, after the latter's untimely death in 1919, the hotel was
acquired by the Butler family. In August 1939, Mrs A. J. E. Butler put the hotel up for public auction and the buyers were Mr and Mrs Charles Delaney. Born in Mounteagle House, Ballyroan in 1903, he was originally a farmer. Mr Delaney was active in political life -member of the Town Commission, County Council, and numerous committees and was a FineGael candidate in the General Election of 1943. He died in 1957.

An old dance poster from 1985 found inside the building.

"In 1961, Fionan and Kathleen Bracken bought the hotel from Mrs Delaney and throughout the 1960's-70's, The County Hotel was the venue of the weekly Rugby Club Dance. In 1976 it also boasted an off-licence and gift shop. The Brackens left in August 1982. It was taken over by Danny Dempsey and advertised as the No. 1 Spot for Entertainment in the Midlands, hosting such attractions as Eddie's Disco Roadshow and the World Disco Dancing Championship 1985 Irish Finals. There was a Hairdressers on the second floor."

The plans are on view on Laois.ie