Victorian splendour reborn in RDS

One of the most perfectly preserved industrial structures of the 19th century has recently undergone refurbishment, bringing it back almost to the building's original appearance.

The Agricultural Hall was first erected by the Royal Dublin Society in 1858, at a time when the organisation was still occupying Leinster House in the city centre. The architect responsible for the hall's design was Dublin-born Frederick Villiers Clarendon, whose other work included the Natural History Museum in Merrion Square and the Royal Irish Academy's library and museum.

Although now almost unknown, he obviously enjoyed an extremely successful career and was vice-president of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland. He may not have been paid for his work on the Agricultural Hall, as no records of this survive in the records of the RDS which in 1859 made Clarendon an honorary member.

Standing on a site subsequently occupied by the National Museum and therefore fronting on to Kildare Street, the building was one of a number erected by the society in the grounds of Leinster House and used for exhibition purposes; a second structure called the Shelbourne Hall stood to its rear.

In 1861, a gallery supported by wrought-iron lattice girders was added to the Agricultural Hall's internal design. That year, it hosted a display of fine and ornamental arts. But on other occasions, the hall served to accommodate almost 200 horses in separate stalls when the RDS held its annual summer show.

Understandably, by the middle of the following decade, the organisation had begun to find its premises too cramped for such events and so arranged a move to Ballsbridge. Here a large number of new buildings, including the Main Hall, were designed by the English architect George Wilkinson. He was also responsible for dismantling and reconstructing the old Agricultural Hall directly behind and at 90 degrees to the Main Hall, which is 50 per cent bigger than the older structure.

Here Clarendon's building, renamed the Industries Hall, has remained ever since, although two of its exterior walls were concealed behind neo-Tudor buildings in the early part of the 20th century.

Other fundamental changes were the removal of its balcony (installed in the adjacent Main Hall) and the introduction of a false ceiling, no more than 12 feet high. This intervention came in the 1960s and had the effect of making the space oppressively low for its width and depth, as well as rendering the many iron pillars seemingly redundant.

Around the same time, four substantial heating units were also constructed inside the hall behind brick divides. The hall remained in this condition until earlier this year when the RDS, as a millennial project, decided to renovate its oldest building at a cost of £350,000. The greatest amount of money has been spent on removing the false ceiling and restoring the roof above.

THE society has been fortunate that the structure of iron, pine and glass has survived the past 140 years so well. Five bays wide, at its central point the hall rises to 35 feet, being 109 feet wide and 232 feet long.

In design, the building is an industrial interpretation of the classical Roman basilica. The three middle bays are spanned by semi-circular timber arches and supported by double rows of slender cast-iron columns on which the upper gallery used to be carried. The ridges of the middle and outermost bays are filled with glass, while the top section of the central bay's walls have Diocletian clerestory windows. The external walls on all four sides are constructed of stone. Cleared of later architectural additions, the scale of the original building, which was probably never expected to have such a long lifespan, is what will most impress observers. Little has had to be changed, although the RDS has decided to replace surviving original clear glass with a denser opaque variety.

The corrugated iron roof is also to be taken off in favour of insulated, double-skin roofing and some later alterations are not being removed. The brick-encased heating units at either end of the hall remain, for example, as do enlarged entrances made to bring substantial items into the building.

And two of the arches leading into the Main Hall stay - at least for the present - closed off. But the sense of light and height is inescapable, enhanced by the relatively pale tone of the freshly-cleaned stonework which contrasts with the oxblood red in which the floor and the pillars have been painted.

The RDS's chief executive Shane Cleary says he foresees many uses for the restored building. Although only two-thirds the size of the Main Hall, it is approximately three times larger than the organisation's Concert Hall and could, therefore, be used for dinners at which 1,000 guests were seated, or receptions for more than twice that number.

Mr Cleary expects keen interest in the hall now that refurbishment work is almost complete. Not only does it offer the city another substantial and versatile space, but it also restores to the country a valuable example of mid-Victorian architecture.