Survey Data
Reg No
50100197
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1760 - 1780
Coordinates
316188, 233508
Date Recorded
01/07/2016
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached three-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1770, with yard to rear. Now in commercial office use. Flat roof, concealed behind recently reconstructed parapet wall with machined brown brick and cement copings, shared rendered chimneystack to north party wall with terracotta pots, and concealed rainwater goods. Flemish bond brown brick walling with granite ashlar plinth course over painted ruled-and-lined rendered walls to basement; wetdashed walling to rear elevation. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with granite sills and plain reveals. Timber sliding sash windows, nine-over-nine pane to ground and first floors with convex horns, six-over-six pane to second floor and three-over-three pane to top floor, with timber louvered openings at basement level; multiple-pane sash windows to rear elevation. Segmental-headed door opening with tripartite painted masonry doorcase, having engaged columns and respondent pilasters with Ionic capitals, plain sidelights, stepped entablature with festooned frieze, plain fanlight with festoons to panelled archivolt, and twelve-panel timber door with brass furniture. Door opens onto granite platform bridging basement, having two steps to street level. Basement area enclosed by wrought-iron railings with decorative cast-iron corner posts on moulded granite plinth. Adjoining building to south slightly advanced from street-line and building to north slightly set back.
Appraisal
An eighteenth-century Georgian house that, despite some alterations, survives relatively well. Displaying well-balanced proportions and graded fenestration, the austere façade is enriched with an ornamented Ionic doorcase. Formerly known as Coote Lane, Kildare Street was widened and renamed in 1745 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 slightly earlier terrace to the north, No. 15 makes an important contribution to the early character of Kildare Street, which has been fairly well retained on this stretch.