KINGS INNS AND KINGS INNS PUBLIC PARK
KINGS INNS [AND KINGS INNS PUBLIC PARK]
According to public notices the park is open until 7:30pm but when I arrived at the gates to the park at 6pm on my way home from the Broadstone tram stop they were locked.
King’s Inns is one of the more important examples of Ireland’s Georgian architectural heritage. The eminent architect James Gandon, who had earlier designed the Custom House and the Four Courts in Dublin, was commissioned in 1800 to design a new building for the Society on Henrietta Street. This followed the decline of the original premises that belonged to the Inns on the site of the present Four Courts.
On 1 August 1800, the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Clare laid the first stone of the hall and library. By 1804 the structure of the hall was almost complete.
In 1813 it was agreed that the unfurnished library wing should be sold to the Office of Public Works for use as a record office. Francis Johnston, architect, supervised this work and also completed the cupola (to Gandon’s design). It was he who designed and erected the entrance archway from Henrietta Street.
The Library Building, also in Henrietta Street, was erected between 1826 and 1832 to a design by Frederick Darley. This building is a good example of Greek revival architecture. It contains a magnificent reading room with a splendid balcony.
The Society also owns one of the fine Georgian houses on Henrietta Street and within the parkland there are seven cottages, six of which have been refurbished for rental purposes [I did not know that until today].
According to public notices the park is open until 7:30pm but when I arrived at the gates to the park at 6pm on my way home from the Broadstone tram stop they were locked.
King’s Inns is one of the more important examples of Ireland’s Georgian architectural heritage. The eminent architect James Gandon, who had earlier designed the Custom House and the Four Courts in Dublin, was commissioned in 1800 to design a new building for the Society on Henrietta Street. This followed the decline of the original premises that belonged to the Inns on the site of the present Four Courts.
On 1 August 1800, the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Clare laid the first stone of the hall and library. By 1804 the structure of the hall was almost complete.
In 1813 it was agreed that the unfurnished library wing should be sold to the Office of Public Works for use as a record office. Francis Johnston, architect, supervised this work and also completed the cupola (to Gandon’s design). It was he who designed and erected the entrance archway from Henrietta Street.
The Library Building, also in Henrietta Street, was erected between 1826 and 1832 to a design by Frederick Darley. This building is a good example of Greek revival architecture. It contains a magnificent reading room with a splendid balcony.
The Society also owns one of the fine Georgian houses on Henrietta Street and within the parkland there are seven cottages, six of which have been refurbished for rental purposes [I did not know that until today].
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
You will find links to buy products from Amazon, Google and other partners. If you click on these links, you’ll find that the URL includes a small extra piece of text which identifies that the click came from my websites. This text is an affiliate code, and it means that I get a small percentage of the money you spend if you choose to buy that product, or, in some cases, other products from the site soon after. These affiliate links help pay the costs of producing my websites and ensure that the content is free to you.
- This is the default HTML.
- You can replace it with your own.
- Include your own code without the HTML, Head, or Body tags.