Detailed Review
The Morgan, located in Fleet Street, Temple Bar Dublin opened in November 1997 providing a unique experience for people who are tired of the usual and want something different. Ideally located, The Morgan is just a stroll away from Grafton Street, the main shopping thoroughfare, theaters and Dublin's main business district.
At The Morgan, the bedrooms have been designed to create an ultra stylish ambience with minimalist undertones.
Independent Reviews
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The Morgan
By Angela MooreThe Morgan is a striking contemporary hotel, perfectly positioned just over the Liffey from Temple Bar – near enough to walk back from the clubs, far enough away to not hear the noise. Interiors are fantastically flamboyant, and so they should be: fashion guru John Rocha had the last word on every detail.
The lobby is a large, airy, open-plan space, extending up a short flight of stairs into a lounge bar and two restaurants. It’s vaguely Indonesian in style, with lots of handsome dark wood and marble against the cream walls. Exotic mahogany sculptures are dotted here and there, as are other artefacts (a canoe, a wooden trunk); enormous gilt mirrors lean up against the walls. Upstairs, blue-lit corridors are built with strange perspectives to complete the illusion.
It’s certainly dramatic but it’s starting to show wear and carelessness in the detail: marble floors are chipped, walls show scuff marks and dispensers in the downstairs loos are broken. The hotel has expanded and now offers an additional 49 rooms and suites, which are generally newer-looking. The restaurant, Halo, has been reworked and the café/bar has been extended to create extremely trendy spaces for cool young Dubliners who don’t mind the occasional crack in the veneer.
The rooms
Definitely less OTT than the public areas and attractive, with lighter wood and clean lines. Spacious standard rooms have soothing palettes of grey and chocolate brown and there are luxurious touches in the Frette linens and velvet throws. The Georgian rooms overlooking the Liffey are rather more like mini-suites, with teak floors and hand-painted throws and cushions. Bathrooms, behind cool curved walls, are large, with big baths and separate showers, plenty of Molton Brown and hair-straighteners for party girls. In-room entertainment systems are about to be upgraded to la crème de la cool Apple systems (by August 2005).© Travel Intelligence. All rights reserved
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“Dublin’s top design hotel by John Rocha has cool white interiors and a lavish penthouse suite, just steps away from Temple Bar.â€
The Morgan Hotel
By Danny Sriskandarajah
The Morgan has two things going for it: its location in the heart of Dublin's liveliest district (Temple Bar) and a cool understated feel to it. The hotel provides a convenient midweek base for business travellers and an ideal launch pad for a fun weekend in Dublin.
If you are after traditional ambience and old-style luxury, look elsewhere. If, however, hip is what you are after (and the letters ISDN mean something to you), then the Morgan is the place for you. Each room has distinct and stylish decor - lots of creams and whites contrasted with solid reds and blues, all topped off with original works by the Irish artist Siobhan McDonald. The rooms are bright but the public spaces are understated - actually the corridors are so dark that you could easily get lost, and the lobby so dimly lit that you could easily walk past thinking the place was closed.
The recent addition of the Morgan Bar to the lobby area provides a stylish and convenient alternative to the plethora of 'traditional' Irish pubs up and down Temple Bar. The clientele on a weekend night was late 20s and up, and a doorman keeps the stags and hens out. The music does go on till late so early-to-bed types might want to request a room on the other side of the establishment.
The Temple Bar is Dublin's rejuvenated self-proclaimed 'cultural quarter' - attracting arty types and party-goers in equal measure. Once a run-down clutter of warehouses - complete with artists squatting in residence - the area has been transformed into a pedestrian strip with pubs, cafes, hotels, and shops. Dublin's main tourist attractions (the castle, Trinity College, the river, museums) are within walking distance and so is the shopping district around Grafton Street.
Breakfast is extra (around 17 Euro per person) but worth it just to see how a thumping bar can be transformed in a few hours into a mellow breakfast area (and maybe for the fresh juices and smoothies to put the pep back in your step after a late night).
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