THE FORMER IRISH Yeast Company building opposite Trinity College could be restored as a shop with a home above it under plans submitted to Dublin City Council.

Developers have also dropped plans for a takeaway at the building after the council raised concerns about the impact on the protected structure.

Before it closed in the mid-2010s, the Irish Yeast Company was one of the oldest surviving businesses in the city.

Capital Estate Management Limited originally submitted a planning application concerning the former shop at 6 College Street and a number of neighbouring buildings on College Street and Fleet Street in January.

The application said that there would be no change of use at the property, with its historic retail use at ground and basement levels and its residential use on the upper floors to be retained.

It also proposed a series of internal alterations, including lowering the basement floor and installing new staircases.

However, Dublin City Council sought further information from the developers in February after planners identified a proposed takeaway use at ground-floor level in the plans.

The council said the development would amount to a change of use from a café/bar and reception, which was previously permitted at the property.

Officials questioned whether a takeaway would be appropriate given its potential impact on the fabric of the historic building.

New documents submitted to the council and received by planning officials on 24 August show that the developers have now removed the proposed takeaway from their plans.

“All proposed internal works” have also been dropped from the application, including excavation of the basement, structural works and new staircases, while no works are now proposed to the rear or upper floors.

Instead, the revised proposals are confined to restoration works to the exterior of 6 College Street and the facades of neighbouring buildings at 7-9 College Street, which includes the well-known Doyles Pub, and 28-31 Fleet Street, which includes Bowe’s pub.

These would include cleaning and repairing brickwork on the former Irish Yeast Company building and reinstating its historic stencilled paintwork.

The neighbouring facades would also be cleaned and repaired, with works including repointing brickwork, removing paint and render and repairing cappings above shopfront level.

The four-storey building at 6 College Street dates from around 1820 and was home to the Irish Yeast Company from 1894 until the business closed in 2016.

Its distinctive historic shopfront remains intact, with the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describing the property as an “interesting reminder of the commercial history of the street”.

The property was sold for €850,000 in 2018 following the death of its owner John Moreland, who was born above his family’s shop and who lived in the listed building for 60 years before his death in 2018.

The building was then bought by businessman Declan Doyle who also owns Doyle’s pub, the former Ladbrokes betting store next door and Bowe’s on Fleet Street.

A number of previous attempts have been made to redevelop the building, including plans to incorporate it into Bowe’s pub and the Times Hostel, which were refused planning permission in 2019.

Dublin City Council also refused a later proposal to turn its ground floor into a café/bar and provide three apartments above it, amid concerns about the loss of historic fabric, although that decision was subsequently overturned on appeal.

The latest application remains under assessment by Dublin City Council following the submission of the revised plans in August.

The building has been on the council’s derelict sites register for a number of years,

It is in a state of severe disrepair and the council told The Journal in 2024 that it held an open “Buildings at Risk” file on the late Georgian building.