Survey Data
Reg No
50010523
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Montague Burton or The Palace
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1915 - 1925
Coordinates
315937, 234642
Date Recorded
30/10/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced three-bay four-storey shop over concealed basement, built 1920, now in multiple use. Flat roof hidden behind granite ashlar parapet having chimneystacks on party walls shared with No.29 to south and No.31 to north. Unified granite ashlar façade with Nos.29-33 O'Connell Street Lower, sharing same parapet height and having small variations in main (west) elevations. Minimal granite classicism with engaged pilasters to attic storey, with moulded string course and having dentillated entablature below. Pilasters with rectangular panels to north and south. Giant pilasters to first and second floors, pilasters shared with neighbours. Plain moulded platband and squat channelled engaged pilasters to ground floor flanking canted recessed shopfront. Square-headed window openings to upper floors throughout, moulded granite surrounds to first to third floors, square moulded panels to second floors risers, having fluted carved disc date plaque 'AD 1920' to central panel. Timber-framed side-hung casement windows throughout having granite sills. Shop accessed from main entrance at No.31, having combined interior. Recessed canted shopfront, having shuttered side entrance accessing upper floors at south end of west elevation. Rear access from Earl Place via modern brick Clery's building.
Appraisal
This terraced retail building shares a unified minimal granite ashlar façade with Nos.29-33, having slight variations in each individual façade. The canted shopfront hints that there may have originally been a central doorway, but this building is now accessed from No.31. These recent additions have not detracted from the restrained classicism of the façade overall, and it continues to make a positive contribution to the streetscape. Sackville Mall was initiated by Luke Gardiner from 1749 when he purchased land from the Moore Estate and demolished the northern part of Drogheda Street, widening it to create a rectangular Mall. Leases were issued in 1751 and private mansions were built on the east and west sides of the street over the next decade. Gardiner’s Mall was extended through Drogheda Street to the river as Lower Sackville Street by the Wide Streets Commissioners during the 1780s and 1790s and Carlisle Bridge was opened to the south of Sackville Street in 1795. No.30 was converted into a bank for the Munster & Leinster Bank in 1896 by John Joseph O'Callaghan but was destroyed in the 1916 Rising. Nos.29-34 were rebuilt in 1919 to designs by Donnelly, Moore, Keefe & Robinson and no. 30 was photographed (1920) when it was trading as a branch of Montague Burton known as "The Palace".