Survey Data

Reg No

50010149


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Original Use

House


In Use As

Guest house/b&b


Date

1820 - 1830


Coordinates

316314, 234773


Date Recorded

18/10/2012


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Terraced two-bay four-storey house over raised basement, built c.1825, now in use as guest house with two-storey hipped roofed return to rear. M-profile pitched slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and shared brick chimneystack, brick parapet with squared granite coping concealing gutters and having shared cast-iron hopper and downpipe. Flemish bond brown brick walls having granite plinth course over rendered basement area. Diminishing square-headed window openings, having gauged brick voussoirs, patent rendered reveals and granite sills. Timber sliding sash windows throughout having three-over-three pane arrangements to third floor, eight-over-eight pane to basement and six-over-six pane elsewhere. Rectangular-plan decorative cast-iron window boxes to first floor windows of front (west) elevation. Replacement uPVC windows to rear elevation openings with exception of round-headed multiple-pane timber-framed sliding sash stairwell window. Three-centred-arch door opening with gauged-brick voussoirs and moulded rendered reveals to painted stucco doorcase comprising engaged fluted Ionic columns surmounted by panel moulded entablature with laurel motif, cornice and single-pane fanlight. Timber panelled door opening onto shared granite flagged platform with round-nosed stepped approach bridging basement area. Approach flanked by wrought and cast-iron spearheaded railings on granite plinths, returning to enclose basement area. Single-leaf wrought-iron gate granting access to basement area via rendered steps. Square-headed door opening to basement area having recent glazed timber door.

Appraisal

Built as part of a long terrace of similarly-scaled buildings stretching from the Loop Line Bridge to Talbot Street, this fine house forms an integral component of the streetscape. Finding use as a guest house, the building has retained many period features including its original fenestration pattern, doorcase, approach and pleasantly detailed ironwork, including some unusual window boxes. The rear return seen from Talbot Street also appears to have survived largely intact and contributes to the architectural character of the building. This street was laid out in the 1790s by Luke Gardiner as part of a planned route which linked the new symbol of the mercantile power base the Custom House with Mountjoy Square, Gardiner's planned upper-class residential development on an elevated site to the north. The houses on Gardiner Street Middle and Lower formed a vista focused on the rear portico of the Custom House, though later disrupted by the installation (1888-89) of the raised Loop Line Bridge to this end of Gardiner Street.