Lock 6 is a very of the moment idea – a repurposed space (‘Construction Industry Federation’ reads the foreboding plaque outside), a cafe and bruncherie, a pop-up that’s gone and stayed-up. What Lock 6 transforms into on Friday and Saturday nights, the Canal Club, is an extension of lots of these ideas in utilising a space otherwise put to sleep for the day. Similar to how, for example, Salt Lick repurposed Hobart’s, a perennially popular greasy spoon on the main street in Ranelagh, into a fancily themed restaurant on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings last year, the Canal Club redresses this unusual but cosy space on the southern side of the Grand Canal, looking directly over at that institution of Dublin canalside lolling, The Barge into something far more lively that it is during the week.
The Canal Club is also an extension of the hugely popular Irish pastime, particularly in belt-tightening times, of prinking. The set-up here is that, without a full-bar licence on the premises, you can bring your own beer and spirits to the party – within certain limits – and pay a reasonable corkage fee (a euro per beer, a tenner for a bottle of wine but discounted if you buy one of the footlong hot dogs they’re also hawking) to drink them in the comfort of this home away from home. They also sell wine inside here, though we’ve arrived armed with a six-pack.
And maintaining the ambience of the gaff party is very much what happens here. It’s small and handily located, but at the same time, given the divisions of the Canal Road, the canal itself and the lack of any other businesses fronting onto this side of the road, maintains a feeling of suburban remoteness. The decor of the low-ceiling boxy room from which Lock 6 operates feels like a mutual friend’s living room that you’ve stumbled upon, while the gardens on either side, penned in by stone walls or picket fences, full of rudimentary wooden pallet furniture and sheltered by a large awning feel you’re in the gazebo in the back garden of said pseudo-suburban Southside sesh.
That the affair is run by the boys behind BD festival – which rebranded away from its previous incarnation as Barn Dance into something of a mini-Life festival this year – means that the party atmosphere is maintained by lads dropping house bangers on decks in the garden. It’s an usual if inviting atmosphere that does manage to maintain a welcoming feel, while sitting blurrily between the definitive act of ‘going out’ and the creature comforts of six Pražský with a Boiler Room set streaming off your mate’s phone.
The Canal Club at Lock 6
8 Dunville Avenue, Canal Road, Ranelagh, D6
w: www.facebook.com/canalclublock6
t: (01) 497 9337
Words: Ian Lamont
Photos: Killian Broderick
