Survey Data

Reg No

50100640


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Original Use

House


In Use As

Office


Date

1835 - 1855


Coordinates

316835, 233117


Date Recorded

11/07/2016


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Attached two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1845 as one in pair with No. 63, with flat-roof two-storey return to west end of rear. Now in use as offices. M-profile roof, hipped to west end, having brick parapet having parapet gutters and granite copings, shared brown brick chimneystack having mixed pots to south party wall and with top section rebuilt in red brick to front, and cast-iron downpipes. Flemish bond brown brick walling on painted granite plinth over painted rendered ruled-and-lined basement. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with painted rendered reveals, painted granite sills and brick voussoirs. Timber sliding sashes with cavetto horns (ogee to ground floor), three-over-three pane to top floor, ten-over-ten pane to basement and six-over-six pane elsewhere. Decorative cast-iron balconettes to ground, first and second floors. Apparently timber sash windows to rear, three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane below, tripartite to ground and first floors and with round-headed stairs window to west bay. Round-headed doorcase with moulded reveal, painted masonry freestanding Ionic columns, plain entablature, leaded peacock's tail fanlight and nine-panel timber door with brass furniture, including figurative knocker. Granite entrance platform bridging basement, with two granite steps and basal remains of cast-iron boot-scrape. Decorative cast-iron railings on moulded granite plinth enclosing basement area. Cast-iron gate and recent steel staircase accessing basement. Recent timber glazed door to basement level. carparking behind, with recent two-storey building and yard to rear end of plot.

Appraisal

No. 62 Baggot Street Lower is a well-preserved mid-nineteenth-century former house, forming part of a cohesive row on a street that has been well retained. It was offered for sale unfinished with the adjoining site in 1849. (Casey, 2005) It displays the well-balanced proportions and graded fenestration pattern typical of the period and is enriched with decorative iron balconettes to three storeys, and a Greek Revival doorcase in Portland limestone with an intricate leaded fanlight. The intact setting contributes to the character of the streetscape. Development of Baggot Street began at the west end in the late eighteenth century, but was slow due to recession during the mid-1790s. The majority of houses were built during the early decades of the nineteenth century, but a number of plots were still being advertised during the early 1840s, by which time the street had developed into a thriving residential street. There are many signs of speculative building across the architectural fabric of the street, including variation in levels, materials and detailing. The majority of the ground west of Fitzwilliam Street had been leased by 1789 along with a sizable portion of the street to the east of this junction; Nos. 60-63 Baggot Street Lower had not been erected by 1843.