Survey Data
Reg No
50010473
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Bewley and Sons
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1915 - 1920
Coordinates
315760, 234618
Date Recorded
26/10/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced four-bay four-storey commercial building, rebuilt 1916-18 and dated 1917, with two shopfronts to ground floor. Flat roof hidden behind red brick part balustraded parapet wall incorporating central broken pediment, built in red brick laid in basket-weave bond, having two stone panels reading "AD" and "1917". Full-span cornice to base of parapet with squat piers to either end and to centre of pediment surmounted by tapered limestone finials. Shared red brick chimneystack to west party wall. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with pilasters rising from ground floor cornice to parapet and flanking each bay. Continuous moulded Portland stone cornice above each floor spanning entire façade. Elliptical-headed window openings to third floor with moulded archivolt, fluted keystones, impost mouldings and tripartite timber casement windows on moulded sill having terracotta apron panels with swags. Square-headed window openings to first and second floors with decorative sandstone lintels, terracotta panels to second floor, moulded sills and tripartite timber casement windows. Two replacement shopfronts to ground floor with replacement pilasters and original full-span Portland limestone cornice.
Appraisal
This decorative commercial building was built at a cost of £19,257 as part of the reconstruction of Henry Street (1916-18) after the Easter Rising, by G.P. Beater, who also designed some of the neighbouring buildings; the contractor was H. and J. Martin. Beater employed decorative brick and stone motifs, which resulted in a lively façade. Located on one of Dublin's prime commercial streets, this building forms part of a collection of early twentieth-century buildings that now form the principal eclectic architectural character of the O'Connell Street area.