Reg No
50030329
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Blackheath
Original Use
House
In Use As
Hospital/infirmary
Date
1870 - 1960
Coordinates
319742, 236747
Date Recorded
14/01/1915
Date Updated
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Formerly detached complex-plan multiple-bay three-storey house with dormer attic, built 1872 and extended 1879, having canted-bays with hipped roofs to garden (south) elevation, box-bays, one with hipped roof, one gabled, to west elevation, gabled breakfront to entrance (north) elevation, gabled porch to east of this, to front of stair hall with cat-slide roof, and having lower three-bay block to east end, with flat-roof two-bay two-storey extension with bowed elevation, built c. 1950, to north of this. Now in use as hospital administration building. Pitched and hipped natural slate roofs, with clay ridge tiles and ridge cresting clay finials, carved timber brackets to eaves to east end, carved timbering to some gables to north elevation, concave render eaves course to north elevation, stepped red brick chimneystacks with cornices and cast-iron rainwater goods, some rooflights, and with flat-roof dormer window to north elevation. Roughcast rendered walls with moulded render stringcourses to upper floors and cut granite walls with red brick courses to ground floor. Square-headed window openings having carved Portland stone surrounds and transoms and sculpted sandstone panels to aprons to southwest corner, decorative render surrounds and moulded render sills to other bay windows to south elevation, with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows, tripartite arrangement with Portland stone mullions to box-bay. Timber casement windows to first floor of west bay of south elevation. Mixed segmental-headed and square-headed window openings to ground floor having three-over-three and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows with cut granite sills. Tripartite arrangements of windows to gables to north elevation, one with central round-headed window, having one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows flanked by casement windows. Segmental-headed window openings to stair hall to north elevation, timber framed stained glass windows, cut granite sills. Square-headed window openings to other openings to north elevation, mixed Portland stone surrounds and decorative render surrounds, mixed one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows and replacement windows. Round-headed door opening to porch with round-headed sidelight and blind opening to side (east and west) elevations, moulded render archivolts and impost moulding, timber panelled door and lettered overlight. Square-headed door opening to north elevation having chamfered reveals, half-glazed timber door with plain overlight, nosed granite steps with rendered retaining walls. Rendered walls with red brick pilasters and render cornice to twentieth-century extension, and square-headed window openings with render surrounds and timber casement windows. Retains interior features, including decorative plasterwork, timber panelling and joinery and stained glass. Set in own grounds, with more recent buildings to south, nurses' home to west, and carpark to north.
This house was designed by Thomas Drew for Gibson Black, a wine merchant, Justice of the Peace, and Commissioner of the Township of Clontarf. It was built in two phases in the 1870s and contained elaborately decorated reception rooms with the large bay windows providing views over Dublin Bay. The descendants of Gibson Black bequeathed it to the Church of Ireland in 1942, and the Orthopaedic Hospital (established in Dublin City in 1876) occupied it. The flat-roof extension to the east was built to provide sanitary accommodation when the building was turned into a hospital and was probably designed by Buckley & O'Gorman, who also built the nurses' home. Notwithstanding its change of use it retains much of its domestic Victorian character. The numerous bay windows and various roof types create a number of pleasing elevations, with the more elaborate window treatments reserved for the west end. The stair hall is of note, with decorative plasterwork, stained glass and joinery indicating the skill of late nineteenth-century artisans. There was formerly a gate lodge to the south-west.