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B
UILT THROUGHOUT the 1790s by Edward Stratford,
second Earl of Aldborough (although not fully com-
pleted until 1803, two years after his death),
Aldborough House was the second-biggest Geor-
gian private residence in Dublin, after Leinster
House. Located on Portland Row in the northeast inner city,
the house was used for periods as a school, barracks and
post office depot, before becoming vacant in the early 21st
century. While vacant, the building was subject to vandalism
and a fire, and as of mid-2017 was listed by An Taisce as in
ver y poor condition, and endangered. Major damage occurred
to the roof valleys and gutters in 2010 with water saturation
now seriously affecting the integrity of the building, which is
highly visible on front and west elevations. Roof repairs were
carried out by Dublin City Council.
Last month planning permission was granted to Reliance
Investments Ltd. for the conversion of Aldborough House into
an of fice complex Reliance Investments Ltd plans to refurbish
the house for use as offices with two new five-storey “office
wings" flanking and overwhelming it.
It also entails the complete demolition of the theatre wing
to facilitate building two new five-storey “office wings” in its
grounds, despite criticism of the project by the Department
of Heritage and various conservation organisations.
The Lord Amiens Theatre at Aldborough House was built in
1795, designed by Edward Stratford (Lord Aldborough) and
5 0
July-August 2018
Dublin City Council permits
demolition of oldest
theatre. By Michael Smith
Theatricalamity
Dublin's second biggest house
CULTURE
July-August 2018
5 1
permitted office wings will engulf it
2018, endangered
the architect Richard Johnston, who also designed Dublin’s GPO.
Named, as is the street, after the character of Lord Amiens from
Shakespeare’s
As You Like It
, the Earls of Aldborough were also
granted the title of Viscount Amiens by George III. The family
whose name was Stratford were original co-founders of the town-
ship of Stratford-upon-Avon where Shakespeare was born,
buried, and lived, as long ago as the 12th century. It was this
Shakespearean connection that prompted the construction of
the private theatre building as part of Aldborough House.
The structure of the Lord Amiens Theatre, though interiors have
been altered for various uses throughout its history, remains
exactly as it was in its heyday as a Georgian private theatre. No
other purpose-built 18th century theatres sur vive intact in Ireland,
and only two operational 19th-century theatres remain. These are
the Gaiety Theatre which opened in 1871, 76 years after the Lord
Amiens Theatre and the Olympia Theatre which opened as such in
1923 but originated as The Star of Erin Music Hall in 1879 on the
site of a former saloon and music hall originally called Connell’s
Monster Saloon in 1855.
Though a theatre existed on the site of Dublin’s current Smock
Alley Theatre f rom 1662, this original building was demolished and
replaced in the 1730s, and that building in turn was left derelict
and partially demolished in 1811. Despite inept protestations at
the time that the ornate ceiling of the former St Michael’s and
John’s Catholic Church (1815 – before Catholic Emancipation in
1829), the oldest in Dublin City, was not original the bulk of it was
in the end retained. Smock Alley Theatre merely incorporates
remains of the derelic t 18th century theatre structure that preceded
it.
Moreover, all other surviving Irish theatre buildings are even
more recent, dating to the 20th and 21st centuries, and even the
oldest theatre in Britain (England’s Georgian Theatre Royal, dating
to 1788) is less than ten years older than the Lord Amiens
Theatre.
A new campaign by the Friends of Aldborough House, spear-
headed by Brice Stratford – a historian and theatre director
descended from the family of the Earls of Aldborough – seeks to
protect the building in situ, or to secure a site for removal and
restoration of the theatre elsewhere. Brice Stratford has
stated:
“Ireland’s contribution to theatre in the 18th century was
huge and lasting; to permanently and irreparably destroy the
best physical link we have to this extraordinar y past, let alone
the loss of the oldest theatre building in the country, is beyond
comprehension. The Lord Amiens Theatre must be saved; for
Dublin, for Ireland, and for the Theatre community
worldwide”.
An Taisce said the proposed development would “engulf and
emasculate Aldborough House”. The conservation plan sub-
mitted by the developer “repeatedly seeks to reduce the
importance” of the house to suit the proposed development,
it said. Any new development should be “clearly subservient”
to the historic house. The Irish Georgian Society said it had
“grave concerns about the scale and intensity of new devel-
opment and the extent of internal alteration proposed”.
Historical perspective and sensibility to heritage remain
elusive for Ireland’s business and municipal classes. The
attitude of its theatre community remains unclear.
