The Clarence Hotel is a four-star 51-room hotel located at 6–8 Wellington Quay, Dublin, Ireland. It is in the Temple Bar neighbourhood, on the River Liffey. It was built in 1852, and bought by U2 lead singer Bono and lead guitarist The Edge and their business partners in 1992, and opened after refurbishment in 1996.
The hotel was constructed on land that was originally reclaimed for the building of the Old Custom House around 1704.
The Clarence Hotel first opened in 1852 in the original premises consisting of a number of adjoining quayside houses which were replaced by the present building in the 1930s.[1]
In 1992, Bono and U2 lead guitarist The Edge bought and later refurbished the two-star 70-room hotel, and converted it into a "contemporary boutique" 49-room hotel.[2] After an 18-month renovation costing US$8 million,[3] enabled in part, due to a tax-exemption scheme which aimed to revive the Temple Bar district the hotel re-opened in 1996.[4] In 2019, Bono, the Edge and developer Paddy McKillen Sr. sold the leasehold to a company called Press Up Entertainment (owned by developers Paddy McKillen Jr. and Matt Ryan), which manages the hotel's operations.[5] McKillen Jr. and Ryan acquired the property outright in 2023.[6]
The hotel's main restaurant, Cleaver East, replaced The Tea Rooms in July 2013.[citation needed]
In 2004, plans were announced for an expansion of the hotel, which would include adjoining properties 9 Essex Street and 9, 10 and 11 Wellington Quay.[7] All of the historic buildings would be gutted, leaving just the façades. Everything else would be new. The budget was projected at US$237.2 million. There was opposition from historic preservation groups including An Taisce,[8] but support from some city agencies. The proposed project was approved in 2008 by An Bord Pleanála, the Irish planning appeals agency.[9] However, the planning approval for these plans expired in 2013.[10]
^"At the Clarence". theclarence.ie. The Clarence Hotel. Retrieved 8 June 2020. In 1992, U2's Bono and The Edge bought The Clarence, turning what had become a tired and worn stopover into a gorgeous and contemporary boutique hotel
