The Shelbourne Dublin, Renaissance

The Shelbourne Dublin, Renaissance Review

Paris has the Ritz, New York has the Pierre, and Dublin has the Shelbourne—today, newly resplendent in its broad, ornamented, pink-and-white, mid-Victorian facade, this grande dame of Stephen's Green has reopened after a no-expense-spared, head-to-toe, two-year renovation by the big Marriott chain. Long famed as the Dublin home of the nation's literati, the hotel has been immortalized by authors running from Thackeray to Elizabeth Bowen. The Constitution of the Irish Free State was framed within its venerable walls, and almost as venerable a tradition was to take tea in the Lord Mayor's Lounge, just off the towering, marble-floor, cream-and-crystal lobby with its gilded pillars and brass candelabra. Having grown a little long in the tooth, however, the Shelbourne transformed its public spaces with original, daring furniture, textiles, and colors. Today, the most sumptuous place in town has just gotten more so—too bad most of the patina is gone. The shock of the new begins in the lobby, where the Irish Chippendale chairs have given way to contempo Irish art. Happily, the guest rooms are almost as luxurious as the lobby, with the marble bathrooms a real tactile pleasure. Rooms in front overlook the Green (one of Dublin's squares more blighted than most by modern development); those in the back, without a view, are quieter.