The Winter Garden Palace was situated on the corner of 106 St. Stephen’s Green West and 24 Cuffe Street for over 200 years.
From the newspaper archives, it seems that the business was in operation from at least 1866. Described as the ‘Winter Garden’s Gin Palace’, its first proprietor was James Brady.
The Winter Garden Palace, The Irish Times (31 March 1866).
It received a glorious review in The Irish Times in April 1866. The unnamed writer wanted to put on record that a Gin Palace was just for the “idle, the drunkard or the spendthrift”. The Winter Garden Gin Palace on St. Stephen’s Green could boast of a “public bar, a large saloon and smoking room”. Its walls were decorated with beautiful scenic canvas drawings and in one corner there was a model of “one of the Gothic windows of Muckross Abbey”.
The Winter Garden Palace, The Irish Times (6 April 1866).
Philip Little, who first began his publican career in Dublin in 1863, appears to have re-opened the Winter Garden Palace under his own patronage in August 1877.
The Winter Garden Palace, The Irish Times (20 Aug 1877).
In the 1880s, the pub was referred to as a favourite meeting spot for the Invincibles (Fenian-splinter group)
The 1901 census shows that Phillip Little (65), a “Grocer and Spirt Merchant” from County Cavan, lived in the property with his wife Bridget Little (62) from County Kildare and their four children. On the night of the census, a visitor Mary Molloy and her son were in the house. Little employed a domestic servant (housekeeper) and six young male grocers assistants. Five of whom were from his home county of Cavan.
Proprietor Philip Little was a Dublin Corporation councillor from 1884 and seeked re-election in the 1905 election. He described himself as a Home Rule Irish Nationalist, a friend of the Labouring Classes, a supporter of social housing and in favour of more public libraries and expanding Technical Education.
Philip Little, election address. Evening Herald, 3 Dec 1904
The 1911 census shows that Phillip Little (75) lived in the house with his wife Bridget Little (70), a son, a daughter and two grandsons. The employed a coach-man, cook and maid. While five male groces assistants worked in the Little’s Winter Garden Palace.
During the 1916, Easter Rising, a number of building’s overlooking St. Stephen’s Green were commandeered by rebel forces. These included Little’s public house (Winter Garden Palace) at the corner of Cuffe Street and the Royal College of Surgeons at the corner of York Street. The pub was occupied by an eight-man team, a mix of Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army, under the command of James Kelly. Most of them had retreated from Davy’s pub at Portobello and from Leeson Street bridge.
Philip Little put in a claim into the Property Losses (Ireland) Committee, 1916 for £189 5s 8d. This was a result of damage to his business from rifle fire, the looting of goods and the use of his property for barricades. A payment of £158 was recommended by Committee. Among the list of goods that Little claimed for included one feather mattress, 42 pieces of “best china”, six silver spoons and one gents suit.
The Winter Garden Palace was put up for sale in 1919 and sold in 1920 to a Daniel O’Neill.
The Winter Garden Palace, The Irish Times (04 Dec 1919).
Here is a wonderful photograph from RTE’s Archive of the exterior of pub from around 1920:
A British soldier stands outside the Winter Garden Palace pub, owned by Philip Little circa 1920. Credit – RTE
In the 1920s and 1930s, the pub was under the ownership of Matthew Redmond. In 1935, a Belfast-man was found in the business during holy-hours. The individual after arrest claimed in the District Court that he had been punched in the right eye by a policeman and was “left in a cold cell naked for half-an-hour”.
The Winter Palace Garden, The Irish Times (07 Nov 1935)
The following year, publican Matthew Redmond was fined for allowing alcohol to be consumed in his pub from 11pm to 12 midnight.
The Winter Garden Palace, Evening Herald (4 Feb 1936)
By the early 1940s, the pub had been taken over by Peter Cullen. He ran it until his death in 1957.
A view of The Winter Palace Garden, owned by Peter Cullen, in 1952. Credit -bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie
Another view of The Winter Palace Garden, this time from St. Stephen’s Green looking up to Harcourt Street. The pub’s sign is visible at the end of the street on the right-hand side.
The Winter Garden Palace, 1952. Credit –
bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie
Peter Cullen’s widow Monica ‘Mona’ Cullen (d. 1998) managed the business until it was acquired together with other properties in the area by a Compulsory Purchase Order in 1966
The pubs demise was lamented by many newspapers of the time.
The Winter Garden Palace, Evening Herald 27 April 1967.
The building lay derelict for nearly 10 years.
A view of The Winter Palace Garden from Cuffe Street, 1969. Credit – Wiltshire Photographic Collection / NLI
It was proved to be a long-lasting eyesore, slowly wasting away.
The Winter Garden Palace, Sunday Independent (31 March 1974)
The building was finally demolished in 1975 and residential Cuffe Street was re-developed into a a six -lane dual carriageway. The historic Bricklayers’ Hall was also pulled down for the same reason. A gaping hole on Cuffe Street still remains to this day.
The derelict Winter Palace Garden, c. late 1960s/early 1970s.
