In 1901 William Roche founded Roches Stores in Cork City. Originally a small furniture shop in a former sawmill. Over the next 12 years the business developed and branched out to include women's wear and in 1919 eventually moved to a large premises on St Patrick's street in the city centre. A year later during the war of independence British forces destroyed much of the city centre in what has become known as the "Burning of Cork".
The aftermath of The burning of Cork in St Patrick's Street
Image credit - National museum of ireland .ie
Roches shop was left ruined and he returned to his previous premises and continued trading. Government compensation helped him rebuild his St Patrick's Street store in 1927, once again bringing Roches Stores to Cork City centre. Over the next 70 years the Roche family developed the business and for a time was the only true department store in Ireland, eventually expanding to 11 stores nationwide. The Dublin branch notably welcomed Irelands first ever escalator in 1963.
This is the first escalator being installed at the Cork store
Image credit - echolive .ie
In 2006 Debenhams bought the leaseholds of 9 of the 11 stores for 29 million euro although the Roche family retained ownership. In October 2007 Roches Stores ceased trading.
Debenhams Ireland controversy
On April 8, 2020, it was confirmed that Debenhams was pulling out of Ireland. All 1000 Irish workers were sent a generic email at 11:55am on April 9, 2020 stating that "Debenhams Ireland is to be liquidated and they are to contact social welfare or their local citizen’s advice centre.” It was also stated that employees would NOT receive the redundancy package previously agreed in 2016 negotiations.
The workers took action. Pickets, protests, preventing the liquidators getting the trucks in to take away stock.
September 2020 arrived and they moved to occupy the buildings across the country.
A €1m offer to workers by liquidator KPMG was rejected as insufficient. The St Patrick's Street store occupation in Cork city ended after four days. They left to cheers and felt that something had been achieved. Many of these workers were then dragged through the court system for their part in the protests.
The Roches Stores building was initially put up for sale for 20 million euro but stood vacant for the best part of 3 years. In early 2023 a consortium of private investors bought the site for 12 million euro.
I'd not really bothered with this place because of the horrific memories. Busy sunny saturday afternoons with the better half spent being dragged through the perfume sections and searching for that particular item of clothing that can only be found after a three hour long search through endless racks of garments. (Hands up which of the grown up members of 28DL can relate).
Then all the fuss with the former workforce occupying the building in 2020 came along and adding to that the fact it most certainly wasn't going to be decayed just how i like them.
However in summer 2022 on another one of those shopping trips from hell something caught my eye that I'd not noticed before. It was never going to be an easy one to access unless you were up for smashing and grabbing so I hatched a plan i thought might actually work. A few months later with the timing just right the idea paid off and I was in. The same trick worked a further 3 times over the coming months and I was able to get around most of the building easily enough and evade capture.
It was totally worth it for the glass atrium and feeling like an extra in Dawn Of The Dead. Also there were some really cool rooms full of department store junk behind the arched window.
Exterior shot stolen from reddit
My first look at the inside once I emerged from the pitch black backrooms was the main shop floor. Still stinking of the perfume in places.
Heading up a floor and the cutest baby elevator you will ever see
Up to the restaurant - The power was on, but I didn't need to be attracting any attention to myself at this point so its ridiculously high ISO handheld shots here
On a later visit I managed to find the office area. The deposit room was like a small bank with a cashier desk and window with the safes in another room behind. Again excuse the mad dash high ISO handhelds...
continued....
The aftermath of The burning of Cork in St Patrick's Street
Image credit - National museum of ireland .ie
Roches shop was left ruined and he returned to his previous premises and continued trading. Government compensation helped him rebuild his St Patrick's Street store in 1927, once again bringing Roches Stores to Cork City centre. Over the next 70 years the Roche family developed the business and for a time was the only true department store in Ireland, eventually expanding to 11 stores nationwide. The Dublin branch notably welcomed Irelands first ever escalator in 1963.
This is the first escalator being installed at the Cork store
Image credit - echolive .ie
In 2006 Debenhams bought the leaseholds of 9 of the 11 stores for 29 million euro although the Roche family retained ownership. In October 2007 Roches Stores ceased trading.
Debenhams Ireland controversy
On April 8, 2020, it was confirmed that Debenhams was pulling out of Ireland. All 1000 Irish workers were sent a generic email at 11:55am on April 9, 2020 stating that "Debenhams Ireland is to be liquidated and they are to contact social welfare or their local citizen’s advice centre.” It was also stated that employees would NOT receive the redundancy package previously agreed in 2016 negotiations.
The workers took action. Pickets, protests, preventing the liquidators getting the trucks in to take away stock.
September 2020 arrived and they moved to occupy the buildings across the country.
A €1m offer to workers by liquidator KPMG was rejected as insufficient. The St Patrick's Street store occupation in Cork city ended after four days. They left to cheers and felt that something had been achieved. Many of these workers were then dragged through the court system for their part in the protests.
The Roches Stores building was initially put up for sale for 20 million euro but stood vacant for the best part of 3 years. In early 2023 a consortium of private investors bought the site for 12 million euro.
I'd not really bothered with this place because of the horrific memories. Busy sunny saturday afternoons with the better half spent being dragged through the perfume sections and searching for that particular item of clothing that can only be found after a three hour long search through endless racks of garments. (Hands up which of the grown up members of 28DL can relate).
Then all the fuss with the former workforce occupying the building in 2020 came along and adding to that the fact it most certainly wasn't going to be decayed just how i like them.
However in summer 2022 on another one of those shopping trips from hell something caught my eye that I'd not noticed before. It was never going to be an easy one to access unless you were up for smashing and grabbing so I hatched a plan i thought might actually work. A few months later with the timing just right the idea paid off and I was in. The same trick worked a further 3 times over the coming months and I was able to get around most of the building easily enough and evade capture.
It was totally worth it for the glass atrium and feeling like an extra in Dawn Of The Dead. Also there were some really cool rooms full of department store junk behind the arched window.
Exterior shot stolen from reddit
My first look at the inside once I emerged from the pitch black backrooms was the main shop floor. Still stinking of the perfume in places.
Heading up a floor and the cutest baby elevator you will ever see
Up to the restaurant - The power was on, but I didn't need to be attracting any attention to myself at this point so its ridiculously high ISO handheld shots here
On a later visit I managed to find the office area. The deposit room was like a small bank with a cashier desk and window with the safes in another room behind. Again excuse the mad dash high ISO handhelds...
continued....
