Survey Data
Reg No
50060014
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Islandbridge Gate
Original Use
Gate lodge
In Use As
House
Date
1830 - 1850
Coordinates
312501, 234402
Date Recorded
09/09/2014
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached L-plan two-bay one-and-a-half-storey gate lodge in Tudor cottage ornée style, built c.1840. Now in use as house. Projecting gabled north bay, dormer window to south bay, and return to rear. Pitched natural slate roof, with angled clay ridge tiles, lead valleys, decorative painted timber fascia and bargeboards with tall timber finials to all gables and dormer, and overhanging timber sheeted eaves. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Tall three-stage chimneystack with offsets rises from wall head to east (rear). Painted lime-rendered walling with projecting plinth, jettied to first floor at north elevation only, over decorative corbel brackets. Generally square-headed window openings, with plain reveals, granite sills, and three-light mullioned windows with arched lights having label-mouldings over. Deep chamfered reveals to north elevation window. Diminished depressed three-centred-arch window to ground floor of projecting gable. Dormer windows having slated cheeks and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Ground floor south bay spanned by colonnaded porch with three pointed-arch openings. Original pointed-arch six-panelled entrance door with iron furniture, accessed by stone step. Surrounded by enclosed garden bounded by hooped wrought-iron gate and railings. Adjacent to gate screen, bounded to Chapelizod Road by rubble stone boundary wall of Phoenix Park. Stone setts to park entrance.
Appraisal
An appealing mid-nineteenth-century gate lodge, in Tudor cottage ornée style, built to designs attributed to Jacob Owen. The building is characterised by neat proportions and lively detailing, including fine curly bargeboards and a Gothic-style colonnaded porch. This lodge is one of several individually-designed lodges within Phoenix Park, one of the largest designed urban parks in Europe. Prominently located in public view and complemented by the adjacent gate screen, the ensemble constitutes an important show-piece at one of the principal entrances into Phoenix Park.