The Hotel Metropole stood just beside the GPO on O'Connell Street from the early nineteenth century onwards. Four Georgian buildings were combined to make the hotel, and it was remodelled over the decades to look as it does in the picture above (taken around 1900).
As you can see on the right, heavy shelling during Easter Week of 1916 left the hotel in a very sorry state, and it was pulled down. It was replaced with a neoclassical building which fitted in well with the surviving buildings on the south end of O'Connell Street.
Sadly though, Dublin council saw fit to grant permission for this building to be replaced with the hideous 1970s block you can see above right. The building (now a branch of Penneys) clashes horribly with its surroundings. Not to mention that, as far as I can see, the top floor is used for storage - a criminal waste of frontage onto Dublin's main street.
It's enough to almost make you wish for the return of heavy shelling.
References:
LROY 4818, above
South County Dublin Libraries, right
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