Survey Data
Reg No
50100229
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1750 - 1770
Coordinates
316523, 233692
Date Recorded
04/08/2016
Date Updated
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Description
Attached two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1760, originally as one house with No. 92. Now in use as offices. Slate roof of three parts, concealed behind granite parapet, front hipped to south end and pitched to north, middle is low-pitched, and rear is hipped and at right angle to street; rendered chimneystacks to north end of front and rear roofs. Flemish bond brown brick walls on granite plinth course over ruled-and-lined rendered walls to basement, quoins of adjoining No. 90 being partly overlain by brickwork of No. 91; rendered to rear. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, having patent reveals, painted granite sills and timber sliding sash windows, three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane elsewhere; apparently timber sash windows to rear, three-over-three pane to top floor and two-over-two pane below. Decorative wrought-iron balconettes to first floor. Round-headed door opening with rendered linings, plain frieze and cornice on Doric columns, cobweb fanlight, and eleven-panel timber door with brass door furniture, with brass night safe to north. Granite platform with cast-iron boot-scrape and four bull-nosed granite steps. Basement area enclosed by wrought-iron railings on carved granite plinth. Abutted to rear, with carparking to rear of plot.
Appraisal
No. 91 is an elegant Georgian house built as part of the original laying out of Merrion Square. Developed as part of the Fitzwilliam Estate, this square is one of the best-preserved Georgian streetscapes in Ireland. The north, east and south sides of the square have terraced houses of eighteenth and nineteenth-century date, while the west side is terminated by the garden front of Leinster House and the neighbouring Natural History Museum and National Gallery. The terraced houses maintain a relatively uniform building height and design, attributed to standards promoted in Fitzwilliam's leases. This short terrace on the west side is among the earliest, dating from the 1750s-60s. Originally forming part of a larger four-bay house, No. 91 was divided from the adjoining No. 92 in the mid-nineteenth century. It retains a Doric doorcase and large window openings, likely added during the conversion, and the stepped entrance and intact setting enhance the building and the streetscape.