1820 – The Dublin Library Society, D’Olier Street, Dublin

The Dublin Library Society was established in 1791 to meet the needs of the city’s readers. Membership was initally two guinea with one guinea per annum thereafter. A large number of books was acquired and by 1818 the library had 1,200 members.

“The Dublin Library Society originated in the meeting of a few individuals at a bookseller’s in Dame-street to read newspapers and periodicals. Having formed a regular society, a library was opened, in 1791, in Eustace-street, which was removed in 1809 to Burgh-quay, and finally, in 1820, to a building in D’Olier-street, erected for the special purpose, by shares. The building is plain but elegant, and contains a spacious apartment for the library, another for newspapers and periodicals, and a few smaller rooms for committees and house officers. The public rooms are ornamented with busts of John Philpot Curran, Daniel O’Connell, Henry Grattan, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, and Dean Kirwan, and with portraits of the first Earl of Charlemont and of Curran.”
A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837

The library had big plans and commissioned George Papworth to design their new premises on lots 5, 6 and 7 D’Olier Street. The design was approved by the Wide Streets Commissioners but clearly proved a bit too expensive for their share fundraising and they applied for a shorter frontage to the street and another design was produced by Papworth and approved. They then had to produce a third design which was submitted to the Commission in December 1818 and was subsequently built as the library. The original construction cost was £5,600. This building was the society’s home until the library closed in 1881.

The 1820s and 1830s were to be its most successful period as the society’s decline began in the 1840s. Very few books were purchased in the 1840s and 1850s, and by 1854 membership had declined to several hundred. During the 1860s The Alliance and Dublin Consumers Gas company took a share interest in the building. The decline of the library continued, the library’s former name was abandoned, and it became the D’Olier Street Club. In 1881 the by then inevitable closure occurred and over ten thousand volumes were sold off. With the closure of the library, the Gas Company moved into the building and began various extensions of their premises. Some decades later, the company completely renovated the building in an Art Deco design by Robinson & Keefe.

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