The Basic Instincts Adult and Fetish Store officially opened at No 8 Eustace Street in Temple Bar last week, despite fierce opposition from the Ark cultural centre and the local traders' association.

"If you look at the type of activities that take place in Temple Bar, this is the one area where children regularly converge, " said Lisa Fitzsimmons, communications manager for Traders in the Area Supporting the Cultural Quarter (TASQ). "The Ark has 40,000 schoolchildren visiting it every year, the Irish Film Institute has 25,000 secondary-school students, and Meeting House Square is a popular area for families. We are not morally opposed to the shop, but the location is just ridiculous."

Fitzsimmons said that the businesses surrounding the store have written to the Dublin city manager to request a meeting to express their concerns. "We want to prevent this from happening again, " she said. "There is some fear that this could set a precedent and lead to other adult shops opening in the area. So we have asked the city manager to change the development plan to prevent sex shops from opening near any children's amenities . . .

from private schools to cultural centres. We've also asked that Temple Bar be declared an area of architectural conservation, like Grafton Street. And we are hoping to get a change in the signage, so the word 'fetish' is not so prominent."

However, Fitzsimmons said the businesses had resigned themselves to the fact that, now that the shop has opened, they have few avenues of recourse. "The horse has already bolted, " she said. "Children are going to be walking past it all summer long, and there's not really anything we can do."

The manager of Basic Instincts, John Burke, said that he believed the shop would not cause any problems in the area. "This is not going to be a seedy shop, " he said. "It is not even a sex shop.

It doesn't have the word 'sex' anywhere in the signage. It is an adult fetish shop, and it is a very tasteful store."

Burke said that huge sums of money had been spent renovating the entire building at No 8 Eustace Street, and that now the Georgian architecture had been fully restored.

"It actually has the most expensive shop front in Temple Bar, " he said. "We are not interested in a 1960s Soho exterior. We are gone way beyond that now. The window display is full of our swimwear collection and it is extremely tasteful. It will be fetish in the window display sometimes, but it will always be tasteful."

The owners of the store were aware of the controversial location of the building when they made the decision to move there, said Burke.

"We knew exactly where we were going, and who wasn't happy about it, " he said. "But children have to learn. Children have to grow up. We're getting nothing but compliments from anyone who has come into the shop. And we're definitely here to stay."