Survey Data
Reg No
50100487
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1790 - 1810
Coordinates
316653, 233283
Date Recorded
20/07/2016
Date Updated
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Description
Attached two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1800 as one of three (Nos. 37-39)and having four-storey addition to rear. Now in use as offices. M-profile pitched slate roof, behind brick parapet with granite coping, having flat-roofed addition to valley. Shouldered rendered chimneystacks to east party wall with clay pots; concealed rainwater goods. Flemish bond brown brick walls above painted granite sill course to first floor, channelled rendered walling to ground floor on granite plinth over painted rendered basement walls; rendered walls to rear elevation. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, having rendered reveals, voussoirs and painted granite sills. Timber sliding sash windows, six-over-six pane to top two floors and to basement, lacking horns to second floor, one-over-one pane to ground and first floors lacking horns; rear elevation has three-over-three pane to top floor and eight-over-eight pane to first and second floors. Wrought-iron balconettes to first floor and wrought-iron window-guards to second floor. Round-headed door opening with moulded rendered surround, fluted frieze and cornice on engaged Ionic columns, decorative batwing fanlight and ten-panel timber door with recent brass furniture. Granite platform with cast-iron boot-scrape and two granite steps. Wrought-iron railings with decorative cast-iron posts on moulded granite plinth enclosing basement area. Rear plot amalgamated with No. 38, with carparking, having vehicular entrance to lane.
Appraisal
No. 39 Baggot Street Lower is a well-preserved Georgian house, built around the turn of the nineteenth century. The house retains the well-balanced proportions and graded fenestration pattern typical of the period, and is enriched with a fine Ionic doorcase with an elaborate fanlight. Mirrored in the neighbouring buildings to the east and west, the classical façade of No. 39 is ornamented with channelled rendering at ground floor level, adding additional architectural detailing to the group. It also has wrought-iron window-guards, which add further visual interest. No. 39 was built with its pair, No. 38, in a grander style than many of the more modest houses on the street. These two buildings make a strong contribution to the early streetscape character, which has been fairly well retained along this northern stretch. The row maintains a relatively uniform building height and design, with architectural variations attributable to individual developers. An ancient arterial route out of Dublin, Baggot Street was named for Robert Baggot, a local landowner, and it was laid out from the west end in the late nineteenth century, with the approval of the Wide Streets Commissioners in 1791, but the street was slow to develop due to the recession at the time. The majority of the ground west of Fitzwilliam Street had been leased by 1789 the developer of the plots to the west of this junction was David Courtney.