Undertakers lodge plans to convert vacant former bank in Cork into funeral home

Funeral directors Forde's has applied to Cork City Council for planning to repurpose the former Permanent TSB premises on Curraheen Road in Bishopstown as a funeral home

The former Permanent TSB building on Curraheen Road, Bishopstown.

Undertakers have lodged plans to convert a vacant former bank into a funeral home in Cork’s western suburbs.

Long-established funeral directors Forde's runs three funeral homes in the city and county and has applied to Cork City Council for planning to repurpose the former Permanent TSB premises on Curraheen Road in Bishopstown as a funeral home.

Company director Donal Forde, whose grandfather founded the business almost a century ago, said he always believed the building would make an ideal funeral home but never thought he would get the chance to buy a bank.

“I always felt the building lent itself towards that use,” he said.

“It is a significant investment but it lines up with our business model. We operate mostly on the southside, but we have nothing in that area of the city at the moment. This facility would give us more options.” 

There has been bank on the site since the early 1980s. The building is close to the busy Looney’s Cross junction, and it is on the route of a proposed BusConnects Cork sustainable transport corridor.

Documents on the planning file show during pre-planning queries, officials in the council’s traffic section flagged the potential impact of the proposed development on traffic using the junction, and the applicants were told they would need to address that issue.

Funeral director Donal Forde outside Forde's Funeral Home on South Gate Bridge, Cork. File picture: Larry Cummins

The planning application includes a traffic mobility plan and Mr Forde said improved bus services in the area would be of benefit to people attending removals in the area.

Forde's has now applied for a change of use of the existing 382sq m building from financial services to a funeral home and associated funeral services.

The application outlines details of the construction works proposed, including the partial demolition of an existing mezzanine first floor and associated internal walls and partitions, the demolition on the ground floor of the bank’s former safe room, lobby and entrance area, its ATM and other rooms.

Various internal construction works are proposed to accommodate two reposing areas, toilets, entrance and exit lobby areas, offices and a family room, as well as storage and other service areas.

It is also proposed to create new building entrance and exit arrangements onto the Curraheen Road, to rearrange the current parking arrangements to include a one-way internal loop road, to provide 27 parking spaces and 14 bike parking spaces, to install a solar panel array on the roof, to remove the building’s clock from a small rooftop tower, which will be retained, and to remove the former bank’s night deposit safe.

If approved, the development would lead to a 52sq m increase in the gross floorspace of the property, but there will be no change to the building facade.

The application shows the building would be open to the public from 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and from 10am to 8pm on public holidays and weekends.  

Permanent TSB vacated the Curraheen Road building in early 2023, relocating its Bishopstown branch to High Street in Wilton, and the property was offered for sale on the open market in October of that year with an asking price at the time of €975,000.

The two-storey premises is close to Cork University Hospital and Marymount University Hospital and Hospice in Curraheen.

Forde's has been in Cork for 80 years, and opened its first funeral home near the South Gate Bridge in the heart of Cork City in 1971.

The company opened its second funeral home in a purpose-built building in Carrigaline in 1995, and it bought Sullivan's funeral home in Turners Cross in 2007.

A planning decision is expected by the middle of July.