The Ardilaun Estate, now St Anne’s Park, was designed and built from the mid-nineteenth century by two generations of the Guinness family. In 1943, a catastrophic fire engulfed the house leaving it roofless and its ruins were eventually pulled down in the 1950s. However, along with its extensive gardens, the follies, garden buildings and stables remain largely intact in various states of repair. The Red Stables is one of the finest stables complexes constructed in Ireland. It was designed in the 1880s by the celebrated architect, George Ashlin, for Benjamin Lee Guinness. Much of the original historic fabric has survived and in recent years the stables complex has served as a central hub within the park.
HHC has been working with Dublin City Council on various projects in St Anne’s Park since 2015 as part of Parks Departments strategy including conservation works to the garden follies, which are protected structures, and at the Red Stables complex, also a protected structure, as part of a development masterplan for the site. These projects include the wintergarden, new cafe and event space and reroofing works.
In 2018 HHC was appointed to convert the former café space within the Winter-garden into a multi-purpose event space and following completion of this project HHC devised a development masterplan for the Red Stables complex. In 2023 HHC completed refurbishment works to provide an enhanced café space within the ground floor of the north-east range. The cafe footprint has been increased and now incorporates part of the former caretakers apartment which has been repurposed for a full commercial kitchen and servery area, wash-up, and staff room spaces, as well as a new take-away kiosk window, allowing the removal of the mobile kiosk from the courtyard. At first floor, a series of disjointed rooms have now been opened up to create a single large multi-purpose space. In 2024 HHC completed extensive reroofing works to the range, above the cafe, and is currently overseeing the enhancement of the first floor event space for visitor accessibility.
The Red Stables is one of the finest stables complexes constructed in Ireland
