Origins of The Metropole Hotel: Part One – in celebration of Heritage Week 2025
Here is the first in a two part blog series by Louise McNamara, General Manager, in celebration of Heritage Week 2025 (16–24 August). We trace the origins of the Metropole Hotel, a staple in the fabric of Cork history. And there is plenty more to come in Part 2.
A Grand Entrance into History
From the vantage of MacCurtain Street, the Metropole Hotel first welcomed guests in 1897. Designed by architect Arthur Hill, built by John Delaney & Co, and commissioned by the prominent Musgraves family of cash-and-carry merchants. In its earliest days, the ground floor and basement hosted retail units. Most famous among them was Hadji Bey Et Cie, the Turkish delight sweet shop established after the Cork Great Exhibition of 1903 by Harutan Batmazian. His sweets became a Cork institution, loved across Ireland.
Imagine the excitement in 1903, when King Edward VII is said to have had tea on the rooftop during the national exhibition. Soon afterward, luminaries including Ella Fitzgerald, Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin, Gregory Peck, John Steinbeck, and many more would grace these halls.
A Dry Hotel with a Careful Ethos
Fast forward to the 1930s and early 1940s, Jimmy Musgrave, at the helm of the family-run hotel and also president of the Irish Rugby Football Union, emphasised standards and discipline. Under his tenure, the Metropole operated as a famously “dry” hotel, the policy reflecting the family’s own convictions, and earning the hotel the reputation of “Ireland’s finest unlicensed hotel”.
Young manager Douglas Vance, who led the hotel from his twenties until 1982, elevated the guest experience with meticulous attention to detail. Porters were required to maintain silence; cleanliness, including clean socks daily; and bar staff were instructed never to handle glassware with bare hands for hygiene’s sake. These were service standards rarely rivalled in the era.
The Hotel That Built a Festival
A proud chapter in Cork’s cultural story emerges in 1978, when Jim Mountjoy, then marketing manager at the Metropole, founded the first Cork Jazz Festival to boost autumn occupancy. It began as a modest event over the October bank holiday and it escalated into the internationally renowned festival drawing tens of thousands every year.
A Living Legacy
In 1977, the Musgrave family sold the hotel to local investors, and after many years, it eventually became part of Trigon Hotels. Yet while ownership changed, the ethos of warm service and high standards stayed rooted in its walls. Today, with over 127 years of hospitality, the Metropole remains a key pillar of Cork’s Victorian Quarter, housed in a building of redbrick elegance and architectural distinction.
From Gilded Beginnings to Timeless Elegance
As I walk through here today, surrounded by Victorian features beneath a modern facade, I feel the presence of generations: from salesmen on business trips, to world-acclaimed actors, to the loyal team who have built the reputation of The Metropole Hotel. Through times of change, one constant remains: our passion for hospitality rooted in Cork’s history.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll take you inside the groundfloor and ballroom refurbishment, the unveiling of our new brand identity and website, and how we will continue to honour our timeless elegance while looking to the future.
With gratitude,
Louise McNamara
General Manager, Metropole Hotel Cork
To be continued…
