Imperial Hotel, South Mall

The South Mall is a significant street in Cork city known for its historical architecture, banking and financial services, and its role as a traditional business district. It stretches from Grand Parade to Parnell Place and is located over former river channels.

In 1816 the Commercial Buildings on the South Mall decided that the facilities were inadequate and that a hotel and tavern should be constructed as part of it with its entrance on Pembroke Street.

Sir Thomas Deane was awarded the contract and it was completed three years later. The hotel was leased to a Mr. Joyce at a rent of £700 over a seven-year period and was named the Imperial Clarence Hotel.

The 19th century saw many prominent figures stay at the hotel including the Irish painter Daniel Maclise as well as novelists, Maria Edgeworth, Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens.

It is also recorded that  Daniel O’Connell addressed a meeting here and Franz Liszt gave a piano recital while a banquet was held here in August 1843 in the Clarence Room attended by prominent people; mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton, the Earl of Rosse a noted astronomer, Charles Bianconi, who was considered a pioneer in Irish road transport, and the young nationalist writer, Thomas Davis who wrote A Nation Once Again.

Michael Collins stayed there on the night of August 21st, 1922, in Room 115 and set out shortly after 6am the following morning to visit West Cork where he was killed in the ambush at Béal na Bláth.

The Cork Commercial Buildings continued to function until they were finally closed in March 1948. The premises were sold to the Imperial Hotel who made real

plans to incorporate it into the existing hotel’s structure. The old thirty-foot-high reading room had a massive cut glass chandelier big enough to fill an ordinary room. It was now to be reduced in height allowing a whole new floor to be constructed. A new row of smaller windows was inserted above the high windows of the vast old reading room. The wide hall was modernised and brightly lit and became the main entrance to the hotel.

The band that set Rory Gallagher to the attention of the rest of Ireland and to international audiences was Taste. Combined with some of the talents coming from one of the best Cork groups of the time The Axills- Norman Damery on drums & Eric Kitteringham on bass joined Rory for what is significant in this city trail context is the Imperial Hotel was the location of the first ever Taste concert. The new 3-piece band performed here together for the first time on Saturday September 10 1966.

For more information about the Imperial Hotel & its history, visit:

The Imperial Hotel Cork