Survey Data
Reg No
50080403
Original Use
Worker's house
In Use As
House
Date
1870 - 1880
Coordinates
311522, 233401
Date Recorded
24/05/2013
Date Updated
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Description
Terrace of twenty two-bay two-storey former railway worker’s houses, built c.1875, with two-storey returns to rear (south) elevation, and extended by one house to east end of terrace. Now in use as private houses. Pitched slate and artificial slate roofs, hipped to west end, with red brick chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods. Brown brick eaves course, some rendered. Brown brick walls to front (north) elevation laid in Flemish bond red brick with block-and-start quoins to end houses. Later render to some houses. Cast-iron wall plaque to no.20. Square-headed window openings, with bull-nosed red brick block-and-start surrounds and cut granite sills. Two-over-two pane timber sash windows to some houses, replacement uPVC windows elsewhere. Segmental-headed door openings, having bull-nosed red brick block-and-start surrounds. Early timber panelled door with overlight to some houses, replacement uPVC doors elsewhere. Front gardens enclosed by rendered boundary walls, some replaced.
Appraisal
The Great Southern & Western Railway was established in 1844, and the GS&WR engineering works was constructed on a 73 acre site at Inchicore from 1846 onward. The Works Estate was constructed to the east of the GS&WR Works to accommodate workers and their families, as little suitable housing existed in the then largely rural area. Abercorn Terrace was one of the later terraces to be built, with Inchicore Square and North and South Terraces constructed first, along with the model school. Though few residents of the Works Estate are now employed in the nearby railway works, the estate survives as an excellent example of nineteenth-century industrial planning. Abercorn Terrace is typical of late nineteenth-century construction, with extensive use of brown and red brick and arched door openings. These terraced houses are characterised by their paired door openings and gardens to the north. A wall plaque to no.1 Abercorn Terrace associates the house with Kathleen Mills (b.1923, d.1996), the Dublin camogie player, whose record of fifteen senior All-Ireland medals is still unbeaten in any sport.