Just before the official announcement was made about Disney Springs. A photograph of a brands board was circulated on the internet. I picked it up when it had hit the Save Pleasure Island website. The board showed what would apear to be brands and companies that were interested in joining in on the new Disney Springs redevelopment.
One of the names, that was nearly missed off the corner was Raglan Road. Underneath the Logo in hard to read text is the word “Expansion”. So this got me thinking; Is there enough room to expand Raglan road? Also is there any signs of it in the Official Disney artist impressions / models of Disney Springs?
Here is the current location of Raglan Road / Cookes of Dublin. (marked with A). As Pleasure Island has been in partial demolition for a couple of years now, there is a good chance for it to be expanded. But it’s when you look on google maps that you can see what the potential is. If you head from Raglan Road towards Portobello, there is a service yard. Obviously this won’t be taken away as deliveries still need to be taken.
To the West side there is a hard standing section that appears to be getting built up form the lake anyway. So this is a good potential expansion area.
The main clue though was when I started to compare the artist impression of the Landing / Disney Springs area. Raglan Road is on the top right hand corner of this sketch And although very vague, their appears to be an additional green dome on the far side of the building. This is the section that is cleared to the west of the restaurant. Fingers crossed, this rumour follows through as Raglan Road is already a popular destination.
It is also interesting to see how existing buildings are getting re-purposed. Notice the new tall windows in the back of the yellow building. Or the white building painted purple in the sketch.
The Disney Springs Model doesn’t show a great deal more, but from this angle the expansion could potentially be onto the service yard and the west side of the unit. Is that tower also part of the plan? Only time will tell as we all know this concept has already been changed from Hyperion Wharf.
