Cotton Ball micro-brewery to expand into MacCurtain Street

One of the longest-running pubs in Cork is due to expand, bringing new life to a former bakery in the city centre.

Five years after it first started brewing up a storm by producing its own ales, stouts and lagers, Mayfield's Cotton Ball Brewery is set to have a presence in Cork city centre.

The Lynch family, which operated a bar in Mayfield since 1874, has received planning permission from Cork City Council to redevelop parts of the former Thompson House, previously a bakery, on MacCurtain Street.

The building is to be converted into a nano-brewery and restaurant, according to planning documents.

Thompson House has hosted a brewery festival in recent years and was historically a bakery and a major employer in the city. The red brick, 12-bay, five-storey former bakery was built around 1890 and is a protected structure.

Eoin Lynch, whose great-grandfather returned to open the Cotton Ball bar in Mayfield in 1874, said the family is thrilled with the decision to grant planning. He hopes it will mark the start of a new chapter for the business.

"We are very happy," he said. "We are thrilled with our operation in Mayfield and this will give us an opportunity to continue the growth of the brewery."

In 2014, the Mayfield bar moved into brewing, establishing a hi-tech micro-brewery in the basement. It produced a range of beers now available throughout Cork city

Mr Lynch said: "We are very proud of what we have achieved and we are proud of our independent nature, too. We are members of Independent Craft Brewers of Ireland (ICBI), the association of independently-operated microbreweries in Ireland."

The existing Cotton Ball bar and microbrewery in Mayfield will continue to operate, unaffected by the planned new development.

The nano-brewery development is the latest in a series of ventures which has transformed Cork's MacCurtain Street in recent years.

A number of new bars and restaurants have opened alongside long-standing establishments, with more plans underway too.

In March 2018, city planners gave the go-ahead for an eight storey, 73-room hotel on the corner of MacCurtain Street and York Street, the site of the former Windsor Inn, while the Metropole Hotel is also due to undergo a major revamp, including the development of a new boutique hotel on Harley Street and Patrick's Quay.

The Harley Street bridge, connecting Merchant's Quay to the MacCurtain Street area, is due to be completed in the coming months.

It is designed to increase pedestrian and cycle traffic in the area while city roads officials are also currently moving ahead with plans to reintroduce a two-way traffic flow on MacCurtain Street as part of a revamp of the city's traffic flow.