Dublin Zoo (South American House)

Detached double-height single-storey animal enclosure, built c.1890, with front and rear entrance blocks, and red brick flat-roofed retail unit to northwest, built c.1970. Double-hipped artificial slate roofs with artificial terracotta ridge tiles and terracotta finials. Full-span glazing to west pitch and replacement uPVC guttering to timber box fascia, and cast-iron downpipes. Painted cement rendered walls. Raised square-headed window openings with concrete sills and top-hung timber casement windows. Square-headed door openings with double-leaf timber glazed doors and rectangular over-lights. Interior retains wrought-iron roof trusses and octagonal-plan cast-iron columns.

This late nineteenth-century animal enclosure has undergone successive renovations and modernisations, resulting in a building of little historic appearance. The roof structure and some cast-iron columns to the interior allude to its earlier origins. The building continues to serve as an important zoological building.