Survey Data
Reg No
50080422
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Office
In Use As
Office
Date
1845 - 1855
Coordinates
311284, 233471
Date Recorded
29/05/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached L-plan two-storey office building, built c.1850, having eleven-bay front (north) elevation, eight-bay east elevation and three-bay south elevation. Recent entrance porch to front elevation. Hipped artificial slate roof having brown brick chimneystacks with clay chimney pots. Snecked cut limestone walls having cut limestone plinth. Square-headed window openings having brown brick block-and-start surrounds, granite sills, and two-over-two pane timber sash windows. Recent aluminium framed glazed door within aluminium clad entrance porch.
Appraisal
The Inchicore Works was established in 1846 to maintain and construct rolling stock for the Great Southern & Western Railway. Now the headquarters for mechanical engineering and rolling stock maintenance at Irish Rail, it is the largest engineering complex of its kind in Ireland. The development of the Works was responsible for the transformation of this area from rural agricultural to an industrial village in the nineteenth century. The railway network transformed Ireland, linking remote areas in the country with urban settlements and ports, while promoting the commercialisation and industrialisation of larger towns. This building accommodated the chief mechanical engineer's office and retains its early form and character, and is enhanced by the retention of timber sash windows. While the scale of operations at the site has greatly reduced since the latter half of the twentieth century the building retains its original use of office accommodation.