Survey Data
Reg No
50010398
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1910 - 1930
Coordinates
315789, 234497
Date Recorded
23/11/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced three-bay five-storey over basement commercial building, built c.1920, having shopfront to ground floor. Now in use as shop with offices to upper floors. Flat roof concealed behind red brick parapet wall with pilasters laid in Flemish bond with squared granite coping. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond having square-plan pilasters flanking window bays. Portland stone platbands forming header courses to all floors having moulded cornices over to first, second and fourth floors. Prominent dentillated cornice to third floor forming sill course to fourth floor having moulded cornice. Square-headed window openings throughout having red brick reveals, carved Portland stone lintels and granite sills. Decorative terracotta plaques with garlands of fruit and flowers below sills to first and second floors. Original timber casement windows having expressed timber mullions and transoms with leaded panes and top-lights. Replacement timber casement windows to third and fourth floor openings. Painted masonry shopfront having decorative acanthus console brackets to pilasters either side supporting projecting cornice, over unadorned entablature set on recessed panelled pilasters with swag motif at capital. Pilaster to east of door opening continues to underside of entablature with no capital. Square-headed door opening with metal-framed three-pane overlight over projecting broken pediment and later hardwood glazed timber door opening directly onto street. Original street door with multiple–letterbox slots visible in what is now lobby to interior. Single opening to shopfront having glazed windows and doors surmounted by concealed rolling shutters.
Appraisal
This fine commercial building is located at the north side of Middle Abbey Street, a broad street which was one of the earliest streets to be developed in Dublin. The south-facing side of the street was extensively damaged in the 1916 rising and redeveloped in the late twentieth century, resulting in the larger commercial developments that now dominate its northern side. This decorative building has retained numerous original features, including a pleasant doorcase and the numerous Portland stone embellishments, that greatly enliven the architectural character of the surrounding streetscape.