The Lost Streets of Monto

How do you bring a vanished world back to life? The Monto area of Dublin, once a notorious red-light district and tenement hub, has long since disappeared with its buildings demolished and its history fading from view. Unlike traditional heritage sites, there are no plaques or landmarks to mark its existence in this area, now undergoing urban regeneration. We set out to bring the Monto back to life, ensuring that visitors could step into the streets of old Dublin in an experience that was both historically accurate and culturally sensitive.

We developed a six-stop AR experience, mapping out the lost streets and buildings of Monto’s historic past. The experience allows visitors to see tenement streets and shopfronts as they once stood, seamlessly integrated into the modern cityscape. To make the past feel tangible, we used a mix of 3D models and archival photographs, carefully placed to preserve historical accuracy while creating an authentic sense of place. Precision geolocation ensured that every digital reconstruction aligned exactly with its original footprint, reinforcing the realism of the experience.

But buildings alone don’t tell stories. To truly bring Monto’s past to life, we layered interactive storytelling throughout the experience. Subtle interactive elements, such as walking up to windows to trigger hidden stories or tapping on doors to reveal forgotten histories, encourages visitors to explore at their own pace. This spatial storytelling approach encourages active participation, making the experience feel personal and engaging, rather than a static historical recreation.

This location-based experience (LBE) transforms a forgotten space into a living history walk, allowing residents, visitors, and historians to engage with Dublin’s cultural heritage through their own phones, using AR as a lens into the past.

• Influencing future projects: The success of the Monto AR experience has sparked interest from local authorities, social housing groups, and urban planning initiatives, positioning it as a model for how immersive storytelling can be used in regeneration and cultural heritage projects worldwide
• Broad appeal: Positive feedback from locals, tourists, history enthusiasts, and XR professionals, demonstrating the experience’s cultural and technological significance.
• High engagement rates: Users consistently completed all stops, showcasing strong dwell time and sustained interaction.
• Successful heritage launches: Previewed on Bloomsday and officially launched later in the year, aligning with cultural and tourism initiatives
• Supported by Animation Ireland & created with an independent filmmaker, showcasing the intersection of technology, heritage, and storytelling

This project highlights the role of augmented reality in placemaking, cultural tourism, and urban heritage. As cities undergo redevelopment and regeneration, entire neighbourhoods can vanish, leaving only fragments of memory. AR presents a new way to restore and reinterpret lost histories, offering visitors, locals, and planners a chance to engage with the past in dynamic, interactive ways.

Beyond historical visualisation, this project speaks to larger themes of housing, community identity, and the evolution of city spaces. Monto’s story is one of working-class life, social history, and urban transformation, themes that resonate with heritage organisations, city planners, local authorities and those leading redevelopment projects worldwide.

By blending heritage, technology, and immersive storytelling, AR is proving to be an essential tool for bringing the past into the present; allowing cities to celebrate their histories while shaping their futures.