Survey Data
Reg No
50100416
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1775 - 1795
Coordinates
316603, 233478
Date Recorded
03/07/2016
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached three-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1785 apparently as one in terrace of seventeen, with bow to two western bays of rear and third bay having two-storey return with partly hipped and partly pitched higher part, latter with canted-bay window to south end. Now in use as offices. Pitched slate roof to front, behind refaced brick parapet with granite coping, and two hipped roofs to rear perpendicular to street and larger over western bays. Shouldered brick and rendered chimneystacks with clay pots. Cast-iron rainwater goods to east end of front. Flemish bond red brick walls with granite plinth course over painted rendered walls to basement. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, having raised rendered reveals and painted granite sills; carved granite block-and-start surrounds and wrought-iron grilles to basement at front. Timber sliding sash windows, front elevation having three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane elsewhere, hornless to basement and second floor; rear elevation has one-over-one pane windows to top floor and six-over-six pane elsewhere and to bay window of return. Ornate wrought-iron full-length balcony to first floor and wrought-iron window-guards to second and third floors. Round-headed principal doorway with rendered linings, fluted frieze and cornice, engaged Ionic columns with respond pilasters framing ornate stained-glass sidelights, elaborate batwing fanlight and eleven-panel timber door with brass furniture. Marble platform with five bull-nosed marble steps. Wrought-iron railings enclosing basement area with decorative cast-iron posts, on carved granite plinth. Cast-iron coal-hole covers set in granite flags to footpath. carparking to rear. Three-bay two-storey former mews house to Fitzwilliam Lane.
Appraisal
No. 72 Merrion Square is an elegant Georgian house that forms part of the eighteenth-century square developed by the Fitzwilliam Estate. It has an Ionic doorcase with decorative glazing to the sidelights and an elaborate fanlight, that add artistic detailing to the otherwise restrained façade. The work of a skilled artisan is evident in the ironwork to the railings, balcony and window-guards. The railings also provide visual and craft interest. The building and its intact setting details contribute significantly to the intact appearance of this important architectural set-piece. The square is one of the best-preserved Georgian streetscapes in Ireland. The north, east and south sides are lined with terraced houses of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century date, while the west side is terminated by the garden front of Leinster House. The houses maintain a relatively uniform building height and design, attributed to standards promoted in Fitzwilliam's leases. Individuality was introduced through the design of doorcases, window ironwork and interior decorative schemes. The south side of Merrion Square was initially set in large plots of twelve leases; plots were leased consecutively from east to west up until the row was completed in 1791.