Low-cost inner-city hub offers new blueprint for fostering culture in Dublin

While Dublin struggles with activating cultural spaces, a modest inner-city project showcases a way of turning vacant units into thriving community arts hubs

Add to preferred sources Comments What's On Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 18:06, 22 Sep 2026 Updated 18:06, 22 Sep 2026 View 2 Images ANU Productions at Railway Court (Image: SoSimpatico)

Dublin city is badly in need of more cultural amenities - and one fascinating project could lead the way for how to turn a space’s untapped potential into active cultural infrastructure.

Just two weeks ago, acclaimed theatre company ANU Productions offically opened the doors to their new home at 1 Railway Court. What was once a vacant 2,000-square-foot shell-and-core owned by Circle Voluntary Housing Association is now an exciting creative hub.

ANU isn't just using the venue to prepare for upcoming shows, as they’ve embedded themselves directly into the community and helped inform a sustainable long-term creative vision for the north inner city. But this wasn’t the result of a massive multi-million euro investment, instead the project brought together multiple stakeholders with support from the Creative Arts Foundation Ireland (CAFI) and match-funding from the council.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Community, Gaeilge, Sport, Arts & Culture SPC, Director of Cultural Development with SoSimpatico Karen Walshe outlined how the project represents a success story in their vision toward activating cultural spaces around the city. Having secured a ten-year lease at Railway Court, she spoke about how relatively low-cost interventions can boast exceptional cultural benefits that will be felt years into the future.

DCC policy stipulates that all new regenerated areas and scale developments above above 10,000 sq. m must provide at a minimum for 5% community, arts and culture spaces, but in practice this often isn’t the case. Ms Walshe explained how thinking outside the box may help get this ambition closer to reality, and that embedding the complex requirements of activating cultural spaces into projects from the very beginning may help ease the strain of developers and operators' often conflicting goals .

Securing physical buildings is no longer the main obstacle to getting cultural projects going, as Ms Walshe revealed that fit-out costs and commercial rents are often what’s holding things back. In line with council policy, developers routinely deliver shell-and-core spaces to meet the 5% rule, but then they sit empty for years because arts groups cannot afford to actually use them.

Railway Court acts as an interesting case study, as Circle Housing were willing to provide a unit that was sitting empty and in need for €50,000 in fitout costs. With CAFI willing to contribute €25,000, the council came in with the other half in a partnership that highlights the potential for public-private philanthropic collaboration.

ANU are already hard at work producing their Dublin Theatre Festival Show ‘Cyclone’ at Railway Court, and Ms Walshe said it will now be “their home” for at least the next ten years. With plans to work with the local community and put on workshops, a unit that had been lying vacant is now serving the community with culture in a real, tangible way.

Dublin City Council City Arts Officer Ray Yeates said that Railway Court represents a “success story,” but that the €50,000 investment is on the low-end of what is often required to fit-out arts spaces. He spoke about the complex balancing act between ensuring culture is funded and the desire of those footing the bill to get a return on that investment.

“Nobody is fighting about the fitout of apartments - they are economically viable,” he said, adding “this is the hard lesson of working in community or culture” as the State must step in and provide resources for the proliferation of culture. This becomes a much larger challenge when fitout costs can balloon into the millions.

But Ms Walshe outlined ways to think differently about the 5% requirement, as it could also go toward strengthening existing adjacent infrastructure. One example is Jamestown, where they are investigating allocating 2.5% of an upcoming project in the area going toward the Ballymun Axis Centre in a move that would strengthen older cultural buildings while paving the way for new ones.

This suggestion saw some pushback from representatives, with Labour Councillor and chair of the SPC Darragh Moriarty questioning the ramification of offsetting cultural provision requirements by way of capital grants. He cited loopholes developers find in Part V requirements related to housing and social integration as an example of the community in some cases losing out through such processes.

Ultimately, Ms Walshe explained that there is no firm rulebook on how to activate cultural spaces and that the key learnings are early engagement and embedding the need for culture into projects from the very beginning. SoSimpatico are endeavouring to address the main areas where projects get stuck and tackle problems around planning, operations and design, affordability, fit-outs, and long-term stewardship.

They are calling for more coordination between developers, the council, and the cultural sector. There’s a missing role in the middle to bring all these stakeholders together, as a dedicated coordinating role can translate between cultural needs, planning requirements and development realities - from pre-planning through to occupation.

“The role in the middle is not there to advocate only for one side. It needs to understand cultural need and protect cultural value, while also understanding development viability and giving the council greater clarity about what is actually being proposed and delivered,” Ms Walshe’s presentation outlined.

“The objective isn’t simply to secure cultural space. It’s to make sure culture happens there - and to understand the difference it makes.”

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

Want to see more of the stories you love from Dublin Live? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives top stories and must-read content straight away. To add us as a preferred source, simply click here .