Beauty of Marlay

One of the finest 18th century homes in Dublin is currently being restored and is expected to open to the public by the year 2000.

Afternoon strollers in south Dublin's Marlay Park are probably unaware of the activity going on behind the front door of Marlay House, home originally to David La Touche, the first governor of the Bank of Ireland. Restoration work - undertaken by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council as its millennium project, with FAS providing the craftsmanship - has been going on since 1992. But such was the deterioration of the house's interior, it is only in the last few months that one can really begin to appreciate the style in which these 1700s property-owners lived.

The ballroom gives an idea of the splendour of the house. Light floods the 40 ft by 25 ft room, even on a winter afternoon, through four windows which stretch over 12 feet up from the floor. The walls are stuccoed and are expected to be painted a pale green with an enriched frieze bordering the top which, it is thought, will be painted a springrose pink. High on either side of the marble fireplace are two Greek portraits.

Because of its historical links with the house, the Bank of Ireland is sponsoring work on bringing the ballroom back to its original splendor. Gareth Murphy, the County Council manager on the project, sees the ballroom being rented out for private and public functions.

Auction details from 1853 describe Marlay as an "excellent, well-arranged residence, sufficiently large for the accommodation of a family, without being an encumbrance."

One of the La Touche daughters, Ann, painted watercolours of almost every room in the house during the eighteenth century. These are said to be excellent representations of how the house was decorated, and an invaluable source upon which the restoration workers may now draw.

The La Touche family were French Huguenot merchants who came to Ireland from France fleeing religious persecution in 1685. As well as building Marlay House, the family built two fine houses on St Stephen's Green (now numbers 52 and 53).

The Marlay estate, then known as Harold's Grange, was bought from Thomas Taylor by David La Touche in 1764. He extended the then small house and renamed it in honour of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of the Right Reverend George Marlay, Bishop of Dromore.

Money trouble forced the La Touches to sell Marlay in 1864 to Robert Tedcastle, the famous Dublin coal-merchant. The Tedcastles sold the house in 1919 to Robert Ketton Love, whose family remained there until the death of his son Philip in 1970. It was then sold to the County Council, which runs the grounds as a public park.

As one strolls around the work in progress, any notion that a three-bed semi would have been sufficiently large for the last century's Celtic Tigers are quickly dispelled. Upstairs there are six large bedrooms, two dressingrooms, a lady's boudoir, four bachelor bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Bedroom two is a semi-circular shaped room with two floor-to-ceiling windows looking out towards the mountains. The room leads into a small dressing area, joining it to the next bedroom.

The bedrooms will be wallpapered according to the original designs, explains Murphy. The paper that was on the walls will be reproduced by David Skinner, a craftsman based in Co Kildare and the only person in Ireland doing such work. Ground floor accommodation comprises a large entrance hall, an inner-hall, library, drawing room, breakfastroom, nursery and the famous ballroom . Adjoining the ballroom is the oval room, or music room. Its highly decorated ceiling was plastered by the nineteenth century English plasterer, James Wyatt - one of only three Wyatt ceilings in the country. Saving it has exercised the mind of John O'Connell of the Georgian Society for the past two years. A severe crack runs across one side of it, although according to Murphy, a means of saving it is about to be put into action.

The basement gives further indication of the Marlay lifestyle: it has two large winecellars (quite lovely old rooms in their own right), a large laundry room with light flowing through the many small windows near the ceiling, and a large sunny kitchen, sympathetically adapted for 20th century catering with three sinks, work-tops, white tiled walls and quarry tiles on the floor.

There are question marks over how the home will be furnished, with period furnishings costed at £3 million. Some of the original carpets are now in storage. The bulk of the furnishing costs look likely to be offset by fundraising.

Furnished or not, the house is magnificent, a place that will have to be seen when it opens its doors.