Tight deadline for renovations after 20-year wait vexes tenants of city flats

FOR 20 years the residents of Crampton Buildings in Dublin’s Temple Bar have been waiting for their Victorian homes to be brought up to modern living standards. In a month they will be rehoused to allow a €2.9 million refurbishment to start.

Most are happy at the prospect of new plumbing and electric fittings and the installation of central heating, but for many the wait has been too long and the move too rushed. Built in 1891 by the Dublin Artisans’ Dwelling Company, the 54 flats, listed on the Record of Protected Structures, are among the oldest purpose-built flats in the city.

Caroline Caffrey has lived here all her life and accepts the complex is a product of its time, with tiny rooms and bathrooms shoehorned in. However, she accused the city council, as the landlord, of failing to maintain the property. “There’s one socket in the living room, everything has to run off it. There’s no hot water in the bathroom tap. There’s a very old electric shower and the element is burned out.”

Ms Caffrey said she had sought to have these problems fixed since the council took over as landlord in 1998. Regeneration schemes were proposed over the years, but never materialised, so it was with some astonishment Ms Caffrey met the news from the council this week that the building was to be vacated by the end of February.

“I’m happy to a certain extent that they’re doing something, but I’m also angry. Why now? Why couldn’t they have done something years ago? And why do we have to go now in a rush? We’re just expected to jump to it.”

The council said there would be some flexibility on the leaving date, but requires residents to move quickly as it has apartment blocks ready for occupation at nearby Bridgefoot Court and Townsend Street, which it says it cannot keep vacant.

The haste with which the tenants are being cleared is an issue for Ms Caffrey, whose 82-year-old mother lives next door. “She’s lived here all her life, she has her own routine, she goes up to the Dunnes on George’s Street and does her shopping – it would have been a lot easier if she had been given some time to prepare for this move.”

The council bought the flats, which had been held privately for more than 100 years, after residents became concerned about the possibility of eviction when Treasury Holdings showed interest in the complex and eventually purchased the ground floor shops and restaurants.

A master plan for the flats was devised in 2006, which involved the refurbishment of the existing units and the construction of an additional storey. The development would have cost in the region of €8.5 million, and in 2010 the council decided it could no longer fund the project.

It now plans to go ahead with a scaled back version. Only 36 flats are now occupied, and instead of building new units the complex is to be reconfigured to make larger flats from the existing 54.

The maintenance and upgrade of the flats within their existing footprint is all the tenants ever asked of the council, long-term resident Kevin McGrath said.

“The previous landlords kept up the standard of the place for 100 years. Okay, it didn’t have central heating, but the guttering was kept clear, the windows were maintained – now there’s raw sewage in the courtyard.”

The success of the bars and restaurants surrounding Crampton Buildings has been matched by a degradation of the flats, he said.

“We’ve not ever asked for the sun, moon and stars – just the basics. All the money that’s been generated in Temple Bar in the last 15 years and we haven’t got even a socket.”

The development of restaurants in the area has worsened living conditions, Lindsay King said. “The noise and the smell from the extractors is unbearable. The house stinks, the washing on the line stinks, you only really notice how bad the noise is on Christmas Day – the only day they’re not running.” Most flats have plumbing issues as there was no upgrade of pipes after the restaurants opened, she said.

The council said it inherited the problems at Crampton Buildings and thought it better to take a holistic approach to solving them, rather than piecemeal work.

It is committed to working with the residents to ensure the redevelopment’s success, it said.

For some residents such as Eric Mooney it’s a matter of ironing out issues such as the retention of parking space, currently provided in the courtyard.

For others such as Ms King’s mother Mary, who cannot light a fire because her chimney is unsafe, whose floorboards are rotting and whose clothes are always damp, the council’s promises fall on stoney ground.

“They’ve never done anything, why would I believe they’ll do something now?”