Survey Data
Reg No
50011049
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1810 - 1820
Coordinates
316129, 235514
Date Recorded
16/11/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced three-bay four-storey hosue over exposed basement, built c.1815, as one of six identical houses. Double-pile hipped tiled roof with cruciform lead valley. Roof hidden behind rebuilt parapet wall with granite coping and stepped rendered and brick chimneystacks to both party walls. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with iron tie-plates. Chamfered granite plinth course above painted rendered basement walls. Cement rendered walls to rear elevation. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with patent rendered reveals, painted granite sills and replacement six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows to all floors. Replacement iron balcony spanning first floor. Gauged brick round-headed door opening with rendered surround and painted stone Ionic doorcase. Replacement timber panelled door flanked by plain rendered jambs and Ionic columns on plinth bases supporting lintel cornice and replacement fanlight. Door opens onto granite platform with cast-iron bootscraper and four granite steps bridging basement. Platform and basement enclosed by original wrought-iron railings and cast-iron corner posts set on moulded granite plinth wall to street with matching iron gate. Rear site developed along with Nos. 19 and 20.
Appraisal
Mountjoy Square was built on lands formerly belonging to Saint Mary’s Abbey, laid out in 1790 by Luke Gardiner II and complete by 1818. This house retains its fenestration pattern and overall composition as part of a coherent terrace. The retetnion of timber sash windows throughout contributes to the architectural character of the building and the granite steps and plinth and iron railings to the basement area provide an appropriate setting to this fine Georgian townhouse. It is one of a group of six similar houses, the last to be completed on the Square and built by Charles Thorpe, stuccodore, alderman and one-time Lord Mayor of Dublin. The houses all have identical doorcases, in a simplified Ionic order, with freestanding columns and forms an important component part of the overall square with its subtle variations contributing to the architectural interest on this most uniform of Georgian squares.