Echoes from Speranza's salon

In 1854, when Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was a year old, his family moved house from nearby Westland Row to One, Merrion Square. They were to remain there for 23 years, so all of Wilde's formative years were spent coming and going from this house. The playwright-to-be was not the only famous member of the household.

His father, Sir William, an eminent surgeon, had his rooms upstairs at the side of the house. The precision and privacy required by his father's work were counter-balanced by the open-door spirit of the literary soirees held in the drawing room by his mother, the poet and society hostess, Speranza (Lady Jane) - both sets of qualities which were to be absorbed into Wilde's own character.

The distinctive corner house on Merrion Square had fallen into serious disrepair by the time it was leased by the privately-run American College Dublin some years ago. Following a restoration programme, since June 1999, certain rooms occupied by the Wildes are now open to the public. The house is curated by Ellen Ross Sarafian.

The most interesting room on show is undoubtedly Speranza's first-floor salon. Sadly none of the Wildes' furniture survives here, or anywhere else in the house, but the wooden floors throughout are original, so you do feel you are literally walking in Wilde's footsteps. As a child, he carried refreshments around the room to his mother's guests - writers, musicians, actors, and whatever the 19th century equivalent of liggers was - of whom there were so many they often spilled out onto the adjoining staircase.

Speranza's salon was candlelit, even on sunny days, but the window bays are deep, and it is easy to imagine a bored child slipping into the light behind the heavy closed curtains to hide and look out at Merrion Square opposite. At that time, the gardens were accessible only to key-holders, such as the Wildes, who lived on the square, so they would have had an atmosphere both of privilege and seclusion.

Was Merrion Square the inspiration for the enchanted garden in Wilde's beautiful story, "The Selfish Giant"? As in the story, today those lovely gardens are open to all. When visitors to the room that was once Dublin's most famous salon look out the window, they have a clear view of the flamboyant sculpture of Wilde in Merrion Square, reclining there as if his spirit has come back to settle close to his childhood home.

On the same floor Sir William Wilde's surgery, with its original cabinets, has been restored and some quite terrifying-looking surgical implements are on display, including an amputation kit, complete with a mean little serrated saw. Perhaps the sound of music and tinkling glasses across the corridor drowned out cries of pain in the surgery.

Also on view are the bedrooms occupied by the Wildes senior, which are used now for private exhibitions. Sir William died at home in his bedroom in 1876, in Oscar's third year at Oxford. The children's bedrooms and nursery, on the top floor, where they would have spent much of their time, are now used as classrooms and not strictly part of the tour, but you may be lucky and persuade the guide to show them to you between classes.