The Irish Times

The City Hall on Cork Hill used to be a gloomy old place. Its Portland stone façade was stained grey and even blackened by decades of urban smog. Inside, it reeked of dull and unimaginative municipal administration, its architectural unity sacrificed for a warren of offices and storerooms. From next Thursday, for the first time since it was re-ordered by Dublin Corporation in 1852, visitors will be able to appreciate the stunning sense of space within the original building as it was designed by Thomas Cooley in 1769. For the Royal Exchange has been re-born in spectacular style.