Similar Sandymount Strand, Sandymount Hotel, InterContinental Dublin, Merrion Hotel, Gresham Hotel | ||
Merrion hall hotel ballsbridge
The Merrion Hall is a former Plymouth Brethren church located near Merrion Square in Dublin, Ireland.
Contents
The church was built by Alfred Gresham Jones (1824–1888) for the Brethren. It was completed in 1863 at a cost of £16,000, and had a main hall capacity of 2500 to 3000 persons, plus many more standing.
Merrion Hall was the largest Brethren Gospel Hall ever constructed. There were three completely oval galleries and a double deck preacher's platform almost identical to that of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. The lower hall in the basement contained a below-floor baptism pool. The Brethren Assembly occupied the protected building until the late 1980s when it was sold to a developer and largely destroyed by a mysterious but convenient fire a few years later.
The building was used as a film location in 1991 which portrayed the building as a London night club, such use being rather at odds with its original use. The Italianate façade remains and is protected. A hotel known as the Davenport has been created behind the original now restored 1863 facade.
The Brethren owe their origins to meetings in Dublin; the first public meeting of the group that came to worship at Merrion Hall was held at an auction room in Aungier Street in the 1820s. Until Merrion Hall was built, meetings were held in Aungier St. and at private houses in the city.