Making a 100-year-old Dublin café quieter, invisibly
How Gilligan Architects cut the noise at Bewley's without touching a single coving.
Bewley's on Grafton Street after its restoration, where a sprayed Rockfon Mono Acoustic ceiling brings down the noise without changing a single visible detail.
A restoration of a Dublin landmark
Bewley's on Grafton Street is one of Dublin's best-loved landmarks. After a €12 million restoration, it reopened in 2017 with its stained glass windows, open fireplaces and mahogany details all brought back to life, plus a new open-view bakery where customers can watch the pastry chefs work.
Everything visitors love about the café had to stay exactly as it was. That included the ornate ceiling covings, which ruled out any normal acoustic ceiling.
Beautiful, historic, and far too loud
The surfaces that give Bewley's its character are the same ones that make it noisy. Mosaic floors, stained glass and wood panelling all reflect sound, and in a busy café that builds into a wall of background noise that makes conversation hard.
Before the work, reverberation measured 1.1 seconds. The fix had to bring that down without changing a single visible detail, especially the ceiling covings the whole restoration was built around.
Project info
Project name
Bewley’s Grafton Street
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Architecture
Gilligan Architects
Installation
Photography
Download images
Products used
Rockfon® Mono Acoustic
ViewThe main room, where mosaic floors, wood panelling and stained glass all reflect sound, now brought under control from above.
Looking across the café, with the sprayed ceiling following the original covings so nothing of the 1917 interior is lost.
The seamless finish runs right up to the historic covings and rooflight, impossible to tell apart from the original plaster.
A ceiling sprayed straight onto the old one
Gilligan Architects chose Rockfon Mono Acoustic, sprayed directly onto the existing plasterboard ceilings. The finish is seamless and matches the original plasterwork, so the covings stay fully on show and the acoustic treatment is impossible to spot. Light fixtures and ventilation were built in without breaking the look.
It also brought Class A sound absorption, A2 fire safety and humidity resistance, everything a working café needs.
"Rockfon Mono Acoustic allowed us to maintain the beauty of the ceiling covings while significantly improving the soundscape. The spray-applied finish gave us a seamless result that feels authentic," said Brendan Duffy, project architect at Gilligan.
An independent acoustician measured the result: reverberation dropped from 1.1 to 0.7 seconds, a 35% reduction.
“Rockfon acoustic ceilings, direct fixed to the plasterboard ceilings, minimised the visual impact on the building fabric – particularly the ceiling covings, allowing these to be expressed.”
Brendan Duffy
— Project Architect, Gillian Architects
A baker crosses the café beneath the restored ceiling, the acoustic treatment hidden in the original plasterwork overhead.
Conversations you can actually hear
The café now sounds as good as it looks. Background noise is down, conversations are clear even at peak times, and none of it comes at the cost of the building's character.
"The cafe feels calmer and more relaxed, we no longer struggle to hear customers during busy periods," said Andrew Griffin, General Manager at Bewley's.
Also restoring a heritage space that needs modern acoustic comfort without visible changes? Get in touch, and we'll help you find the right solution.
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