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HISTORY OF NUMBER 10, DUBLIN
Large beyond modern domestic needs, the house was built in the times when servants were taken for granted and entertaining on a lavish scale would have been expected. So what better purpose for such a house than to redecorate it as an exclusive venue for both corporate entertainment and for private parties and promotions.
Lynch’s decoration and furnishing is more lavish than the slightly Spartan touch of the Huguenots would have been, and ranges from eighteenth century pieces to contemporary painting. The principle legacy of the Georgian design is the shape and scale of the rooms; despite the traffic trundling along the quays below, the house carries a feeling of peace and quiet, magically enhanced by at night by the light from hundreds of candles.
Clearly, the task of bringing Number 10 into the twenty-first century has been a labour of love.
Margaret Corcoran’s Bodyless Lady presides over the entrance hall representing, Lynch feels, the spirit of the house. A mid nineteenth-century serving table and wine cooler from County Fermanagh dominate the room, while convex mirrors scatter the light with a trompe l’oeil effect. The fireplace is of Russian marble and dates from 1820; the Georgians tended to take their valuable hand carved chimneypieces with them when they left, leaving the house as bare as they had found it. The mirror in the stairwell came from a house in Parnell Square, over ten feet high it had been painted purple, but the original gilding survived underneath.
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