Survey Data

Reg No

50100466


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Original Use

House


In Use As

Apartment/flat (converted)


Date

1790 - 1800


Coordinates

316528, 233351


Date Recorded

10/07/2016


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Attached two-bay four-storey house over basement, built c. 1795, having single-bay single-storey porch to front and having three-storey return and two-storey addition to rear. Now in use as apartments. Mainly flat roof, with replacement slate slopes front and rear, having brick parapet wall with granite coping. Shouldered rendered chimneystack to east party wall with terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Flat roof to porch. Flemish bond yellow brick walling with wigged pointing, and painted smooth-rendered basement; rendered to rear. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with patent reveals and painted masonry sills. Timber sliding sash windows, three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane elsewhere, with attached wrought-iron flower box to ground floor and grilles to basement; rear has apparently timber sash windows, tripartite to eastern bay and having round-headed stairs window to western bay. Round-headed door opening having pole-moulded stucco surround, dentillated lintel, sidelights with leaded diamond and roundel motif over panelled aprons, leaded peacock's-tail fanlight and five-panel timber door with brass furniture. Accessed by granite platform with three steps to street level. Entrance platform and basement area enclosed by wrought-iron railings with decorative cast-iron posts and decorative cast-iron lamp standard on moulded granite plinth. Rear enclosed by recent apartments.

Appraisal

No. 18 Baggot Street Lower terminates a well-preserved group of late Georgian houses lining the north side of the street. The position of this building, set back from the street line to its immediate west, reflects the aims of the Wide Streets Commissioners, essentially Dublin's first planning authority. Its recessed position in the street line diminishes its prominence along the busy street and footpath from the west, although the porch, unusual in a Georgian house, adds significantly to its presence in the view from the east. The site was assigned to the Rev. Gilbert Austin in 1790. It retains salient features, including its doorcase, unusual for the street in not having a classical order, and also decorative ironwork to the ground floor window, and retains timber sash windows. The cast-iron lamp post and typical ironwork to the street frontage enhance its setting. It thus makes a worthy contribution to the architectural heritage of Baggot Street Lower and the wider Georgian core of south Dublin. The development of this street was planned in the late 1780s and approved by the Wide Streets Commissioners in 1791. Characterized by rhythmic proportions and graded fenestration, the austere and relatively modest facades of the row are aggrandized by the width of the tree-lined street, as the building line steps back considerably from No. 18 to the west, expanding to a breadth of 30m (100ft)