Survey Data
Reg No
50100474
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1790 - 1830
Coordinates
316576, 233327
Date Recorded
18/07/2016
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1810 as one of pair, having two-storey rear return. Now in use as offices. M-profile pitched slate roof, behind brick parapet with granite coping and parapet gutters; two rendered chimneystacks to east party wall with terracotta pots; shared replacement metal downpipe. Flemish bond red brick walling on painted masonry plinth over painted smooth-rendered basement walling; rendered to rear. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with patent reveals and painted masonry sills. Timber sliding sash windows with profiled horns, three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane elsewhere to front elevation, all with profiled horns; timber sash windows to rear, eight-over-eight pane to ground floor. Decorative cast-iron balconettes to first floor, wrought-iron window-guards to second floor and wrought-iron grilles to basement. Round-headed painted masonry doorcase with pole-moulded rendered reveals, engaged columns with Adamesque Ionic capitals, entablature with fluted frieze and rosettes, decorative leaded petal fanlight, and eight-panel timber door with brass furniture, including ram's-head knob. Granite entrance platform with three steps to street level. Wrought-iron railings enclosing basement area with decorative cast-iron corner posts on moulded granite plinth. Recent mews building to rear plot, bound by rubble stone wall to Fitzwilliam Lane having painted smooth rendered piers flanking steel roller vehicular gate.
Appraisal
No. 26 Baggot Street Lower is sited within a fairly unified late Georgian terrace lining the north side of the street. It is a well-preserved house built as a pair with the building to the east around the turn of the nineteenth century. The building retains the well-balanced proportions and graded fenestration pattern typical of the period, and is enriched with a neo-Classical doorcase and fanlight that provide a visual focal point to the modestly ornamented exterior. Further interest is provided by the ornate balconettes to the first floor. The retention of timber sash windows, and the intact setting to the front enhance this building. Despite some loss of original detailing, No. 26 is relatively well retained, forming part of this principal Georgian streetscape and contributing to the historic core of south central 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 this 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).