Survey Data
Reg No
50080362
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Johnstown
Original Use
House
Historical Use
School
In Use As
Monastery
Date
1740 - 1750
Coordinates
309549, 233873
Date Recorded
02/05/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay two-storey over raised basement former house, dated 1745, with Doric portico to front (north-east) elevation and recent two-storey extension to rear (south-west) elevation. Formerly in use as school, now in use as brothers' residence. Recent flat roof, chimneystacks removed, with moulded cornice to parapet. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls to front elevation, having painted string courses and sill course to first floor. Roughcast rendered walls to all other elevations. Square-headed window openings with painted granite sills and replacement uPVC windows. Remains of timber framed window to basement level. Tetrastyle portico to front elevation, having Doric columns and piers and plain entablature, approached by cut granite steps and platform. Square-headed door opening with timber panelled door having replacement uPVC overlight and square-headed sidelights with painted granite sills. Curved screen walls flanking front elevation, having square-headed opening leading to gardens, with cast-iron gate to southern wall. Coach house to north-west with hipped roof, rubble stone walls partly rendered, and elliptical-headed carriage arch having red brick voussoirs. Roughcast rendered wall to south-east to Le Fanu Road, with recent gate piers.
Appraisal
Despite alterations to the roof, this substantial house retains much of the proportions and scale of a mid eighteenth-century country house, and early features including an attractive porch and doorcase. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of 1837 cites Johnstown as the residence of T. Daly, Esq., and the house and coach house are visible on historic maps. It became unoccupied in the 1940s and was used as a location for the film ‘Return to Glenascaul’ starring Orson Welles (1951). The De La Salle Brothers opened a secondary school in Johnstown House in 1955 until the new Saint John’s College was opened to the north-east in 1957. The house continues to be occupied as a residence by the De La Salle Brothers.