Survey Data
Reg No
50030277
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Clontarf Railway Station
Original Use
Railway station
In Use As
House
Date
1890 - 1900
Coordinates
318594, 236647
Date Recorded
10/11/2014
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached complex-plan three-bay single-storey railway station, built c. 1895, having projecting gable-fronted porch to centre of front (south) elevation with triple window, flanked by double windows, and having returns to rear. Now in use as house. Pitched natural slate roof with red brick chimneystacks and clay pots, timber bargeboards, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Red brick, laid in English bond, to walls, with yellow brick quoins, black and yellow brick stringcourse, and yellow brick plinth course. Timber clapboarding to porch gable. Square-headed four-over-two pane and double-round-headed two-over-two pane windows to front of porch. Paired segmental-headed window openings to end bays of building, having stepped reveals, yellow brick voussoirs, chamfered granite sills and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Square- and segmental-headed window openings to west and rear elevations, having render sills and steel casement windows. Oculus to north elevation of return, with yellow brick surround and timber window. Square-headed door opening to west side of porch, with timber architrave and recent door. Square-headed door opening to west elevation of return, with half-glazed timber battened door. Recent double-leaf gate and square-plan roughcast rendered piers, and roughcast rendered wall with smooth render coping to front. Recent gate flanked by square-plan red brick piers to west of site, and granite steps to former platform. Set within own grounds, adjoining former stationmaster's house.
Appraisal
This former station building forms part of a group with the attached stationmaster's house. A station on the Dublin & Drogheda Railway line opened at this site in 1844, though stylistically this building is of a later date and was opened in 1898. The Dublin & Drogheda Railway was an early part of the endeavour to provide a railway connection between the capital, Dublin, and the flourishing industrial city of Belfast. Although no longer in its original use, this building retains its historic form and character, and is enlivened by the use of fine polychrome brick work and subtle architectural detailing. The railway was of great social and economic importance, providing employment and increased connections between areas of economic productivity, as well as facilitating the development of Clontarf as a suburb of Dublin, within easy commuting distance of the city. This station was closed in 1956, and a more recent station was constructed further south.