Survey Data

Reg No

50100095


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Previous Name

Gormley's


Original Use

House


In Use As

Shop/retail outlet


Date

1730 - 1830


Coordinates

316185, 233831


Date Recorded

11/07/2016


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Attached two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1740, with full-height gable-ended closet return to rear. Now in mixed commercial and gallery use. Modified c. 1820. Slate roof with cruciform ridge having valleys, half-hipped to east end, concealed by painted brick parapet with stone coping to front, and having steep gable to rear. Large shared rendered chimneystack to south party wall, and concealed gutters and replacement uPVC downpipes. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling, with painted brick to top floor. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with patent reveals, painted masonry sills and timber sliding sash windows with cylinder glass, six-over-three pane to top floor, six-over-six pane to middle floors, enlarged tripartite display window to ground floor with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash window to middle, double six-over-six pane window to basement, and replacement uPVC to rear. Elliptical-headed door opening having engaged Doric columns, plain entablature with projecting cornice, ornate leaded batwing fanlight and six-panel raised-and-fielded timber door with brass furniture. Stone-paved platform bridging basement area, having single bull-nosed step to street level. Basement area enclosed by wrought-iron railings on painted granite plinth, with separate entrance gate and recent steel steps. Cast-iron railings flanking north side of entrance. Dublin Civic Trust notes that interior retains its original plan, including two rooms with corner chimneybreasts, original box cornice and ceilings, raised-and-fielded timber panelled doors with lugged-and-kneed architrave surrounds, deep moulded skirting and panelled timber window linings; entrance hall divided from stairs hall by elliptical arch with decorative timber mouldings and coloured glazed fanlight of c. 1850 and further square arch with fluted Corinthian pilasters leading to stairs hall and containing early dog-leg closed-string timber stairs with turned pear-drop balusters and other details.

Appraisal

A mid-eighteenth-century house, originally gable-fronted, but characteristically having the attic storey later built up in the early nineteenth century to conform with the later Georgian character. The early roof form and original appearance of the rear elevation are both retained, with a steeply pitched gable and closet return. Such features stand in contrast with the Georgian uniformity and horizontal parapet line of the streetscape, serving as an important physical record of how the city's architecture evolved to suit changing fashions. The Dublin Civic Trust have recorded that the interior retains significant early fabric. The fine doorcase and fanlight provide a strong visual focus for this former house, and the basement area detailing ensures the intactness of the setting. No. 25 forms part of a largely unified Georgian terrace lining the northeast side of South Frederick Street and constituting one of the most coherent and intact examples of a group of formerly gable-fronted houses in the city.