#DunLaoghaire - Dun Laoghaire's Victorian baths will finally get a new lease of life – but not for swimming, as The Irish Times reports.
Revised plans for the revival of the Royal Victoria baths just east of the main harbour – last used 20 years ago as the Rainbow Rapids before falling into dereliction – do not include a public pool, which would have pushed costs up to €20 million.
Instead, the more modest €2.5 million proposal drawn up in 2012 will be pursued, following this week's green light from the Department of the Environment.
This will see the baths developed into artists' studios, a gallery and café space along the lines of the Red Stables in St Anne's Park on the other side of Dublin Bay.
Landscaping works will also see the old saltwater pool space filled in to create a new park between the popular People's Park and the East Pier, which could soon host its own new attraction in the form of an 'urban beach'.
The announcement comes nearly 18 months after Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council applied for foreshore consent to undertake refurbishment works on the derelict baths.
The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.
