Casino At Marino Interior

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See Inside with Google

An interactive tour of the interior of the Casino is also available; click on the image to access. Captured for FDR Media by Declan Clancy in spring 2016.

Video Tour

This ten-minute video tour of the Casino, given by guide Kevin in the costume of an Irish Volunteer, was recorded by Near TV for Culture Night 2012.

Sep 16, 2019 - Explore donald gosser's board 'Casino at Marino' on Pinterest. See more ideas about Casino, Marino, Neo-classical building.

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1. Posts about The Casino at Marino written by Robert. It’s a perfect little building: a gem of Irish architecture. It lies in an oasis of parkland on the outskirts of Dublin city – all that’s left of an expansive eighteenth century country house demesne, now all but engulfed by housing estates.
2. The Casino is located at Marino, just off the Malahide Road and only three miles north of the centre of Dublin. Location: 5km north of City Centre, off the Malahide Road, after junction with Griffith Avenue (turn left at pedestrian lights after Dublin Fire Brigade Training H.Q.).

The practicality and the beauty of the building are intertwined. The first place we see this is in the Pantry. There are twelve Doric columns around the building, which are identical to look at. However, four of them are hollow, and drain water down from the flat roof. Bronze chains originally carried the water down, but modern pipes are in place now. An example of one of these hollow columns can be seen here, with its curved, fitted door in the back.

The Pantry is also the only room at basement level to contain a door to the outside (the main door is opened from the passageway). Its location close to the long tunnel means that it was probably used as a route from the Casino to the tunnels opposite.

Front Porch

From the front steps of the Casino, an idea of its original landscaped context can be glimpsed. Sheep grazed peacefully across the parkland that surrounded it. Stepping down and viewing the Casino from the ground below the front door, you can really see how it appears as a one-room temple from the outside, with a floor plan in the shape of a Greek cross. The windows are cleverly placed, and the stairways and floors that cross them disguised. From this angle, and by walking around the exterior, the statues can also be seen. At the front of the building stand Ceres and Bacchus, and at the back are Apollo and Venus. These represented the enjoyment and abundance that was intended for the Casino. The urns on the roof (disguised chimneys) can also be seen from this angle. The lions that guard each corner are Egyptian in style.

The exterior of the large front door was made from Irish oak. Chambers’ written instructions were to leave it to age naturally, so that it would eventually turn silver and blend in with the Portland stone which surrounded it. Walking back through this door shows very clearly the contrast between the exterior and the interior scale of the building. Only part of the door opens, and it looks very different from inside the Vestibule.

Vestibule

The inside of the great front door is significantly smaller than its outward appearance, and is made of rosewood mahogany. A rope which hangs down from just above this door shows the concealed window above it, which was pulled down to cover the entryway and let extra light into the room. A number of other tricks are used to make this tiny entrance hall seem much larger than it is. The curved walls, the Pantheon-style domed ceiling, the use of a false door, and the all-white colour scheme all added to the sense of space.

The plasterwork in this room shows classical motifs of agriculture and culture. Musical instruments are especially prominent, such as the lyre of Apollo. In this room is displayed a portrait of James Caulfeild, the 1st Earl of Charlemont, with the Casino just visible in the background. Also on display is the Greek stele which once formed part of the collection the Earl displayed here.

Saloon

This is the main apartment of the Casino. In 1769, Charlemont wrote to Chambers and recommended that “…the Entablature, doorcase etc of the room should be dead white touched with blue and that the cove parts of the ceiling… be of a more brilliant white.” The colour scheme of the room was related to the ornaments it once displayed – primarily the 12″ by 5″ carved slab of lapis lazuli on the marble chimney-piece. Across the room was once a table with a matching lapis lazuli top.

The centrepiece of the ceiling is the face of the sun-god, Apollo, echoing the sacrificial fire and smoke-hole that would have formed the centrepiece of a real Greek temple. There appears to be only one door in this room – the one leading in from the Vestibule – but two gib doors (doors disguised as part of the wall they are set into) hide in the two north corners. Each leads to two more rooms – the west to the China Closet and the east to the Zodiac Room.

Zodiac Room

Casino At Marino Interior Restaurant

This room also functions as the library, and shares the eastern arm of the Greek cross plan with the building’s main staircase, so the size of the room is very small. The window shows how this staircase is hidden from the outside; from the inside there are twelve panes of glass, whereas from the outside, there are thirty. The ceiling features a large dome, around which appear the symbols of the zodiac. A century ago, these symbols were painted black, and the interior of the dome was painted with the constellation of the night sky, as it had appeared on the night of Lord Charlemont’s birth (the 18th of August 1728).

A letter from George Montagu to Horace Walpole in 1761 said that “I have been to see Lord Charlemont’s collection. He has some charming things that would merit a show even at Strawberry. His medals are very fine, a charming Titian of Borgia, two Carlo Marats, a Claude, two fine vases, a Queen Elizabeth, a lion’s skin of yellow that serves for a veil, a brave collection of books, etc.”

China Closet

Casino At Marino Interior Photos

This room occupies the western arm of the Greek cross. It was originally intended as a room that displayed miniatures and busts of Charlemont’s friends – people such as Swift, Grattan, Flood, and Fitzgerald. It has been known as the China Closet since the nineteenth century, when the second Lady Charlemont used it. She added to the decoration of the room, particularly with the Victorian stucco of interlaced vines. The ceiling and cornice survive from the original scheme. The cove of the ceiling displays agricultural symbols.

The second Lady Charlemont was born as Anne Bermingham, and she married Lord Charlemont’s son, Francis, in 1802. She was a wealthy heiress, which allowed Francis to maintain the Marino estate after the great debts he had inherited on the death of his father.

Landing

All of the upstairs rooms suffered during the Casino’s period of dereliction, as the flat roof had fallen in. Therefore these rooms may have once been more highly decorated than they appear today. However, at the end of the landing, above the main staircase, is an exuberant shell design in eighteenth-century plasterwork, which may give an idea of how the rest of the cornices and covings looked during the building’s original period.

There is a small stairs behind a cleverly-hinged door on the landing, which leads up to the roof of the Casino. The roof was a very popular place to visit during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, due to the extravagant views it afforded down across the peaceful meadows to the seashore. Lord Charlemont likened this view to the Bay of Naples, and the peak of the Sugarloaf in the distance to Mount Vesuvius.

State Room

This magnificent, although diminutive, bedroom was recreated from a state of ruin during the restoration period. Bits of columns, gold decoration, and the blue paint colour, were found in rubble on the floor, and the modern restoration matched painstakingly with these samples. The feet of the original bed were also found, and are on display in the anteroom attached. It was a type of chaise longue.

The extravagance of this room is in contrast with the restraint and understatement of the below rooms, and it has been suggested that Chambers did not have a hand in its design. There are no documented connections between Chambers and the top floor at all, and it is possible that when he ceased his work on the project (due to late payment of bills), it was intended to have just one floor above the basement level. On display in this room are Chambers’ original drawings for the Casino project, as well as some views of the estate in the nineteenth century.

James Caulfeild, then 4th Viscount Charlemont, was just shy of thirty years old when he began the architectural project which would become the Casino.

Architecture was a great interest of his, and he had studied plenty of examples of classical buildings while travelling through the continent. As a result of his travels, he was also able to count many influential designers as friends. While in Rome, he had become acquainted with those he would eventually hire to create his estate at Marino. This included William Chambers, Simon Vierpyl, Johann Heinrich Müntz, and Giovanni Battista Cipriani. Charlemont’s heavy involvement in the composition of the buildings at Marino, as well as his house in Rutland Square, is clear from the correspondence that has survived. In many ways, what he created at Marino was a living testament to the different cultures and styles he had experienced while travelling, and his buildings there were fitting exhibition spaces to the huge number of souvenirs and collectable items he brought home. In this portrait, he is a young man in Rome, with the Colosseum in view behind him.

Casino At Marino Interior &

Other buildings dotted the Marino estate.

Casino At Marino Interior Map

Closest to the Casino was the Gothic Room (also known as Rosamund’s Bower) – a small, cathedral-style structure that was possibly used as a banqueting house. There was also the Hermitage; a rustic, romantic, primitive garden dwelling that was partially formed from twisted tree roots and branches. Plans remain for an Egyptian Room, which was never built. Whereas these complementary buildings showcased other architectural styles, the Casino itself was an homage to the classical. Today, it is widely referred to as the most important example of neoclassical architecture in Ireland.

The plan of the Casino is in the shape of a Greek cross, and it is only fifty feet square.

There are three floors containing sixteen rooms. Although small, they are entirely habitable, with service rooms in the basement, reception rooms on the main floor, and sleeping quarters on the upper floor. There is, however, no evidence of any long term occupation of the building. The exterior of the building is that of a one-room Greek temple, so the complexity of the interior was achieved by remarkable architectural design. This includes faux windows, gib doors, hollow columns, and disguised chimneys. Only half of the great front door actually swings open to admit entrance.

Very little is known about how the inside of the building originally looked. There are brief descriptions surviving in Charlemont’s own correspondence or in that of visitors, or rare mentions in sales catalogues. The exterior of the building is heavily decorated. Four statues adorn the attic storey; Bacchus, Ceres, Venus, and Apollo declare the abundance and love of good living that inspired the creation of the Casino. Around the chimney-urns curve mermaids and mermen. The ‘ceilings’ of the outside porches are densely carved to create a stucco effect. Four large Egyptian-style lions guard the corners.

The curiosity of the place consists of a very fine Temple, Lord Charlemont is building at very great expense… The architecture is very correct and the stonework well executed. In the inside is a room for dining in and overlooking the fine prospect, which may contain the company of 12 or 14 people. On one side is a closet which is to hold books, the ceiling is a dome on which is to be painted the northern hemisphere and round ye frieze, ye signs of the Zodiac. On ye other side is a little drawing room… over these are two tolerable bedchambers and two smaller ones for servants. The floors are parquetted in the most sumptuous wood, painted satin furniture, gilding and every other expense is lavish’d on ye decoration of it.

William Chambers was the architect who designed the Casino.

Born in Sweden to a Scottish father in 1723, he spent the first few years of his working life travelling to and from China as an agent of the Swedish East India Company. At the age of twenty-six, he began training as an architect in Paris, later living in Rome, where he was a member of Charlemont’s circle. He moved to London to establish his practice in the same year that Charlemont returned to Dublin (1755). He achieved great success in England, with much employment from King George III and his mother, the Dowager Princess Augusta. His Treatise on Civil Architecture, published in 1759, was a huge influence on Palladian neoclassicism in Britain. The Casino appeared in this Treatise as a plate illustration (image below). Chambers would go on to count James Gandon as one of his students.

As well as the Casino at Marino, Chambers completed designs for Charlemont House and Trinity College, and for modifications to Rathfarnham Castle, Castletown House, and Leinster House, among others. He never, however, visited Ireland in person. His projects with Charlemont were discussed at great length, over two decades, in numerous letters; many of these can be read today in the Royal Irish Academy. One of his original drawings for the Casino is on display in the building.

London-born Simon Vierpyl oversaw the implementation of Chambers’ designs for the Casino at Marino.

He was an accomplished sculptor and builder, who was living in Rome at the same time as Charlemont and Chambers. Impressed with his work on a commission of terracotta copies of statues and busts (now in the Royal Irish Academy), Charlemont invited him to come to Ireland. Vierpyl arrived in 1756, and supervised work on the Casino, something he was complimented for in Chambers’ Treatise. He stayed in Ireland for the rest of his life, working as a builder or developer on many central Dublin sites. He married twice, and died in Athy, Co. Kildare in 1810 at the age of around eighty-five.

Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785) was an Italian painter.

He was another member of Charlemont’s circle in the early 1750s in Rome; in 1755, he also left the city, and travelled in England in the company of Joseph Wilton. Wilton was a sculptor whose work is represented at the Casino in the four lions which guard it. Cipriani’s contribution was the design of the four attic statues, and the dragon gates that formed the entrance to the estate. Copies of his original sketches for the four statues, as well as a revised sketch of Venus, can be seen on display in the State Bedroom today (click here to see the online exhibition). The gods represented (Ceres, Bacchus, Venus, and Apollo) were chosen by Charlemont and Chambers, designed by Cipriani, and then sculpted by either Wilton or Vierpyl on site.