Survey Data
Reg No
50030159
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1855 - 1860
Coordinates
319322, 236238
Date Recorded
19/12/2014
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terrace of four double-pile three-bay two-storey houses over raised basements, built 1859, having canted two-storey returns with pitched roofs to rear (west) elevation. M-profile pitched artificial slate roofs with red brick chimneystacks having clay pots, proud chimney-breasts to south elevation of No. 20, and some cast-iron rainwater goods with corbelled gutter to front elevation. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond to front elevation, with cut granite plinth course over rendered walls to basement, render quoins, lined-and-ruled rendered walls to other elevations. Square-headed window openings, one with timber sliding sash window with margin lights. Segmental-headed door openings with timber panelled doors, projecting moulded render doorcases with corbelled cornices, overlights with margin lights, flights of nosed granite steps with cast-iron railings, and cast-iron railings on cut granite plinth enclosing basement area with cast-iron pedestrian gates. Enclosed yards to rear, entrance to north of terrace with double-leaf wrought-iron vehicular gates having rendered piers, rubble stone boundary wall to north site boundary. Set at junction of Castle Avenue and Kincora Avenue.
Appraisal
Built in 1859 by Francis Byrne, this terrace addresses the street, and heralded a new typology in the area. The raised ground floor is typically Victorian, as is the extensive use of red brick and the ornately detailed doorcases. The shallow canted returns to the rear are notable. The retention of cast-iron railings creates an intact street boundary, making a positive contribution to the streetscape. The terrace is representative of suburban developments in Clontarf in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Castle Avenue was the home to large country villas such as Elm View and Grace Ville, as well as Clontarf Castle, all set back from the road on sites of one acre or more.