Survey Data

Reg No

50100607


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Original Use

House


In Use As

Office


Date

1800 - 1860


Coordinates

316843, 233345


Date Recorded

10/06/2016


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Corner-sited two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1830 as one of terrace of three (Nos. 52-54). Now in use as offices. M-profile pitched slate roof, hipped to west end of rear span, having brick parapet with granite coping and parapet gutters, moulded cornice and platband. Shouldered red brick chimneystacks (rendered to rear) with octagonal clay pots. Cast-iron downpipe to west elevation. Front elevation has Flemish bond red brick walling to upper floors with rusticated granite quoins at northwest, rusticated granite walling to ground floor with projecting moulded granite sill course above and projecting granite course below, over painted tool-faced coursed limestone basement walling; yellow brick walls to side (west) and rear elevations, with large areas apparently rebuilt to rear. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with patent reveals and painted masonry sills, having granite surrounds to front basement and ground floors, plain brick surrounds to side and rear elevations, and two round-headed stairs window openings to rear. Timber sliding sash windows with simple horns, front having two-over-one pane to top floor, ten-over-ten pane to basement and one-over-one pane elsewhere; rear having six-over-three pane to top floor, one-over-one pane to second floor, tripartite six-over-six pane to ground and first floors and six-over-six pane to stairs windows. Ornate cast-iron balcony spanning first floor openings to front, wrought-iron window-guards to some rear windows, and wrought-iron grilles to basement and to lower floors at rear. Round-headed doorcase with moulded surround, masonry columns with Ionic capitals, plain entablature, plain fanlight, and four-panel timber door with beaded muntin and replacement brass furniture. Granite entrance platform with decorative cast-iron boot-scrape and five bull-nosed steps to street. Decorative spear-headed cast-iron railings on moulded granite plinth enclosing basement areas, with cast-iron gate. Simple square-headed doorway and two-over-two pane timber sash window with wrought-iron grille under entrance platform. Cast-iron coal-hole to pavement. Rear of plot enclosed by rubble stone wall with recent brick coping, having dressed granite surround to pedestrian doorway to west and cut limestone piers to south with vehicular gate.

Appraisal

A late Georgian house pleasantly forming the west end of a unified terrace of three (Nos. 52-54 Mount Street Upper), distinguished by a granite rusticated ground floor and terminating granite quoins. It retains a fine Ionic doorcase with a good fanlight, and ornate metalwork to its full-width balcony and railings. The intact setting contributes to the cohesiveness of the streetscape. The retention of the boundary and entrances to the rear and side are a notable survival. Laid out in the 1780s and principally developed by a Mr Osburne and David Courtney, although the building leases for nos. 53 and 54 were taken by the builders Arthur Williams and Gilbert Cockburne on 25th March and 26th April 1830. The street was built to link the newly constructed Grand Canal to the upper-class residential developments radiating from Leinster House. Built in pairs and rows over a period of thirty years, the fifty-four houses within the street were completed by 1834. The refined terrace is characterized by well-balanced proportions and good Ionic doorcases, typical of the period. Variations within the street, such as differences in parapet heights, are a telling feature of its piecemeal development. Mount Street Upper is terminated by St. Stephen's Church at the east end, transforming what is a typical and relatively modest late Georgian street into an urban set-piece forming part of one of the key vistas of Georgian Dublin.