The former St James’ (COI) Church is a Protected Structure, the surrounding graveyard is a Recorded Monument (with burials dating to medieval Dublin). The former Church was a vacant commercial building in poor condition, which the applicant wished to restore to accommodate a tourism distillery.

The spire which had been removed in the late 1940’s was replaced with a glass structure. As adjoining modern and historic buildings became available, the development expanded into these structures by way of subsequent planning permissions in order to provide a purpose-built visitor centre, café, gin school and associated uses.

Tom Phillips + Associates (TPA) acted as planning consultants to the Applicant, providing strategic planning advice to the Applicant and Design Teams. Key planning considerations included built heritage and conservation, archaeology, ecological issues and the amenities of adjoining residents. TPA led all planning aspects of the proposal including: coordination of a series of planning applications, including inputs to pre-application consultation and compliance phases.

A series of Planning Permissions were successfully obtained for the redevelopment and change of use of St James’ Church (Nos. 121-122) to a micro distillery, with an adjoining new-build Visitor Centre (Nos. 123-125) and café, whiskey and gin schools and ancillary spaces within a renovated terrace of former town houses (Nos. 117-120). The micro distillery is now a well-established tourist destination in Dublin 8.