Adam Court
Adam Court
In Brief
"Adam court" is a short dead-end pedestrian alley opening off
of Grafton Street to the east. Today it is dedicated to
drinking and musical entertainment. In Joyce's time it was not
much different.
Read More
Lestrygonians shows Bloom passing the alley on his
way down Grafton Street: "Mr Bloom, quickbreathing,
slowlier walking, passed Adam court." He thinks,"this is
street here middle of the day Bob
Doran’s bottle shoulders. On his annual bend, M'Coy
said. They drink in order to say or do something or cherchez
la femme." The syntax suggests that Bloom may be
thinking of some other time when he saw Doran lurching into
Adam Court, but some sentences soon afterward make it seem
more likely that he has spotted Doran's form in the crowd and
now confirms the sighting: "Yes. Thought so. Sloping into
the Empire. Gone. Plain soda would do him good.
Where Pat Kinsella had his Harp theatre before
Whitbred ran the Queen's."
In 1904 the Empire Buffet was a pub and restaurant at 1-3
Adam Court, on the Grafton Street corner. A 1919 advertisement
in the Freeman's Journal shows that it remained at
that address through the war years. Bloom thinks back to a
time in the 1890s when there was a cabaret called the Harp
Musical Hall at the same address. In recent years the music
has returned. From the 1990s until April 2019 the building
housed Lillie's Bordello, a glitzy upscale nightclub with
music and dancing where celebrities regularly congregated. Now
the space is occupied by Lost Lane, another nightclub with a
less exclusive appeal and an emphasis squarely on live music.
