Survey Data

Reg No

50100504


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Original Use

House


In Use As

Office


Date

1780 - 1800


Coordinates

316852, 233511


Date Recorded

24/08/2016


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Attached three-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1790 as one of terrace of four (Nos. 37-40), with bowed rear elevation and two and three-storey return. Now in use as offices. Pitched slate roof to front part, hipped to north end, behind refaced light red brick parapet with granite coping, and having two roofs perpendicular to street to rear, south roof being fully hipped and north having curved hip to east. Shared brick chimneystack to south with rendered base and clay pots; parapet gutters. Flemish bond red brick walling on painted moulded masonry plinth over painted rendered basement walling. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with painted rendered reveals and painted granite sills, and having painted granite block-and-start surrounds to basement openings. Timber sliding sash windows with simple horns, three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane elsewhere. Apparently timber sliding sash windows to rear. Decorative cast-iron balconettes to first floor and steel grilles to basement. Round-headed tripartite door opening, with painted masonry doorcase comprising engaged Adamesque Ionic columns with respond quarter-pilasters, stepped entablature with fluted and rosetted frieze, radial fanlight with swagged and fluting to front face of archivolt, geometric-motif sidelights and ten-panel timber door with beaded muntin and brass furniture. Shared granite platform with decorative cast-iron boot-scrape and five granite steps, Wrought-iron railings enclosing basement area, with decorative cast-iron posts and decorative wrought-iron lamp standard, on moulded granite plinth. Stone flags to basement area. Cast-iron coal-hole cover set in granite flags to pavement.

Appraisal

No. 38 Merrion Square was constructed as part of a cohesive group (Nos. 38-40) for Edward Kent the northeast side of the square, . It is well-retained and features an elegant tripartite Adamesque doorcase with delicate plasterwork to the archivolt, providing a strong decorative focus to the otherwise restrained façade. The decorative theme is supplemented by the balconettes and setting details, all ensuring that the building contributes to the intact appearance of the square. Developed as part of the Fitzwilliam Estate, the square is one of the best-preserved Georgian streetscapes in Ireland. The north, east and south sides of the square are lined with terraced houses of eighteenth and nineteenth-century date, while the west side is terminated by the garden front of Leinster House. The houses of the east side are the most uniform of the terraces on the square, maintaining similar building heights and fenestration patterns. Individuality was introduced through the use of elaborate doorcases, ironwork features and interior decorative schemes. The east side of the square was originally set out in five large plots; the houses built here being generally narrower than those on the north side, and in a piecemeal fashion.