Survey Data
Reg No
50110416
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical
Previous Name
Convent of the Little Sisters of the Assumption
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Convent/nunnery
Date
1810 - 1820
Coordinates
315614, 232836
Date Recorded
01/05/2017
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay three-storey former house over basement, built c. 1815, as pair with adjoining house to south. Later used as convent, currently disused. M-profile roof, hipped to north, having shared red brick chimneystack, hidden behind rendered parapet with cut granite coping. Lined-and-ruled rendered wall to front (east) elevation having render quoins, cut granite plinth course over rendered basement wall. Square-headed window openings with masonry sills, mixed one-over-one pane, six-over-six pane timber sliding sash and replacement windows. Steel grilles to ground floor and basement windows. Round-headed door opening having moulded render surround. Masonry Ionic doorcase with plain fanlight and timber panelled door, steel grille over. Granite steps and platform. Wrought-iron railings, having cast-iron corner posts, set on carved granite plinth wall enclosing basement area. Matching gate.
Appraisal
This building retains its early form and proportions. Salient features such as a well-executed classically-influenced doorcase and railings lend visual as well as architectural interest to the composition. A convent was established in this building and its neighbours to the north by the Little Sisters of the Assumption in 1891. Mosaic work was undertaken there by Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd in 1915. Casey (2005) refers to Nos. 1-12 Camden Street Upper as 'the most complete and satisfying terrace on the street'. She notes their 'tall piano nobile windows, Adamesque doorcases, granite area parapets and old-fashioned railings with urn newels'. St. Kevin’s Port was renamed Camden Street, after the 1st Earl Camden, in 1776. Much of the original housing stock on the street was rebuilt in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.