Survey Data
Reg No
50100194
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1730 - 1760
Coordinates
316193, 233531
Date Recorded
07/06/2016
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1745 as pair with No. 19, having various small additions to rear. Now in use as shop. Flat roof, having rendered parapet with masonry coping, no chimneystacks, and replacement aluminium downpipes. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling, with painted coping over basement. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, having plain reveals, painted masonry sills and replacement six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows to first floor, bipartite side-hung timber casements to second floor, replacement uPVC to top floor, and replacement fixed window to basement. Enlarged display window to ground floor with late twentieth-century drip-moulding on brackets and having fixed lettering above; some timber sash windows to rear. Round-headed door opening with moulded surround, recessed doorcase comprising Ionic columns, plain entablature, simple moulded cornice, cast-iron peacock-tail fanlight and replacement timber panelled door. Shared granite entrance platform, with two granite steps from street level, and wrought-iron railings with decorative cast-iron corner posts on granite plinth enclosing basement area. Late twentieth-century steel round arch and lamp over gateway to basement steps. Set back from main street-line of Kildare Street. Large gabled building further back in plot, parallel to street.
Appraisal
A mid-eighteenth-century Georgian house, likely built as a pair with No. 19 to the north. Despite some alterations to the original fabric, particularly the windows, the overall character is relatively well retained displaying well-balanced proportions and a good Ionic doorcase with cast-iron fanlight. The four houses on this south end of Kildare Street are all set back from the main street-line, as is first shown on Rocque's map (1756) and subsequent OS maps. Formerly known as Coote Lane, Kildare Street was widened and renamed after 1745, when work on Kildare (Leinster) House began, and soon developed as an exclusive residential thoroughfare. Many houses in the street were built in the mid-1750s by John and George Ensor, although a further nine were also built by George Spring about 1756. In conjunction with the similarly dated terraces to the north and south, No. 19 makes an important contribution to the early character of Kildare Street, which has been fairly well retained along this stretch.