My favourite Dublin building

I always say to foreigners who are visiting Dublin that if they only see one building it should be the Casino at Marino. Unfortunately, very few of them take my advice. In fact, as far as I can see, most Dubliners haven't visited it either. Part of the problem is that it's out of the centre of town - and, even worse, it's on the north side. Another problem is that there's hardly anything else in the immediate vicinity to justify an excursion (a little further afield there are some attractions, such as Bull Island, and further again, the castles and manor houses of North County Dublin).

The Casino was commissioned by James Caulfield, the first Earl of Charlemont, to be built in the grounds of his country house. It was designed by the talented Scottish Archiect, William Chambers, who also designed Somerset House and several building in Trinity College Dublin (he never visited ireland so he never saw the fruit's of his labours). The really charming thing about the building, though, is that from the outside it looks like a one-roomed building, whereas inside it is quite a respectable little house, with 16 rooms on 3 floors. Lots of tricks are used to disguise this on the outside: the basement and top floor windows are hidden by balustrades; the large front door is mostly wall on the inside with a normal-sized door set into it; where dividing walls run up against the huge ground floor windows their edges are painted black; and, as a final touch, the Greek urns on the top balustrades are actually chimneys. Overall, I can never stop thinking of Dr Who's Tardis - which, as we all know, is much bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside.

When it was finished, around 1775, it looked out over a Capability Brown landscape that rolled down to the sea. It was decorated and furnished in lavish style and, not surprisingly, this left Caulfield rather strapped for cash afterwards. The next humiliation that he had to bear was that a local builder, Charles Ffoliot, built a crescent of houses further down the slope to block Caulfield's view of the sea (this crescent has acquired fame in its own right as Bram Stoker, the auther of Dracula, was born in one of the houses). Sadly, that was only the first of many building projects that have ruined the setting of this archtectural jewel - today it's surrounded by council estates and a rather vulgar Victorian building which is used to train the Fire Brigade. Moreover, Caulfield's country house is long since gone. Happily, though, his town house survives as the Dublin City Hugh Lane Gallery.

Despite the disappointing setting, I strongly recommend that both my Dublin friends and visitors make the effort to see this masterpiece. It's only open in the summer months as a decision was taken not to instal central heating in it. But please, go there! And if you want to see pictures and plans, click here:
http://www.google.ie/search?um=1&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=553&site=search&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=The+Casino+Marino&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=