Survey Data

Reg No

50070288


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Social


Previous Name

Ormond Quay Post Office


Original Use

House


Historical Use

Post office


In Use As

Office


Date

1700 - 1740


Coordinates

315309, 234236


Date Recorded

20/09/2012


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Terraced two-bay four-storey former house, built c.1720, with later shopfront to front (south) elevation, and later corrugated-iron return to rear. Formerly in use as post office to ground floor, now in use as offices to upper floors. M-profile pitched slate roof having rebuilt brick parapet with granite coping. Brick and rendered chimneystacks to gables having clay chimney pots. Brick walls laid in Flemish bond over rendered shopfront to front elevation, and to rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with patent reveals to upper floors having six-over-one pane timber sash windows to first floor, one-over-one pane to second floor, and three-over-three panes to third floor. Wrought-iron balconettes to second floor windows. Square-headed window openings to rear elevation third floor having three-over-three pane timber sash windows. Tripartite timber sash window to rear elevation second floor. Round-headed window opening with spoked timber-framed window to rear half-landing. Shopfront comprising recent fascias, segmental-headed fixed-pane timber-framed windows having wrought-iron grilles, flanking segmental-headed central door opening having flush metal doors with integral letter plate, fanlight over. Segmental-headed hall door opening having two granite steps, timber panelled door, fanlight over. Render impost course and plinth to piers flanking openings. Outbuildings to rear.

Appraisal

A well proportioned building retaining much of its early fabric, particularly to the rear elevation with early timber sash windows. The remaining post office letter plate is a reminder of its social significance due to its historical use as a post office. The wrought-iron window grilles are typical of historic shopfronts and are becoming increasingly rare. It shares material and proportional characteristics with neighbouring buildings on Ormond Quay, together they form a cohesive elevation to the River Liffey. Ormond Quay was developed by Sir Humphrey Jervis in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century and is named after the Duke of Ormond who is credited with proposing that Dublin's riverside buildings should face the Liffey with a stone quay to the river's edge and a carriageway between. This proposal made a significant contribution to the development of Dublin's quays.