Kildare Street Club, Victorian gentlemen's club near Trinity College, Ireland
The Kildare Street Club is an L-shaped building on Kildare Street and Leinster Street, designed by Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward and built in 1859–1860. Its Italian Gothic design was altered by the committee to feature large arched windows divided by thin columns, and the result was described as Byzantine. The facade is adorned with whimsical beasts.
The club was founded in 1782 for the Anglo-Irish gentry as a social gathering place for their circle. In 1860 it moved into a newly designed building created by architects Benjamin Woodward and Thomas Deane, marking its transformation into a more prominent institution.
Stone carvings of monkeys engaged in sports decorate the building's exterior, created by the O'Shea brothers as a playful architectural choice. This whimsical detail gives the structure a more lively character than typical formal buildings.
The clubhouse stands on the east side of Kildare Street, a short walk south of Trinity College and beside Leinster Street. The building is leased to the Alliance Française, so access depends on that tenant rather than on the club; the club itself has occupied 17 St Stephen's Green since the 1976 merger.
In 1900 a member called it "the only place in Ireland where one can enjoy decent caviar". The club's own rooms held a library of fifteen thousand books, all lost with its pictures and furniture in the fire of 11 November 1860, when three maids died at the old clubhouse.
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