Survey Data

Reg No

50110466


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical


Original Use

House


In Use As

House


Date

1825 - 1835


Coordinates

316100, 232706


Date Recorded

25/06/2017


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Semi-detached two-bay three-storey house over basement, built 1830, as one of pair, with single-storey bay to side (north) elevation. M-profile hipped slate roof having terracotta ridge tiles, concealed by rendered parapet with stucco scrolls having anthropomorphic and foliate decoration. Brown brick and rendered chimneystacks with clay pots. Hipped slate roof to side bay, concealed by rendered parapet surmounted by urns over laurel wreaths. Rendered walls. Render pilasters to second floor, Ionic pilasters and entablature to ground floor. Rendered plinth course over basement. Recent commemorative plaque to wall. Fluted Doric columns supporting frieze having triglyphs and metopes, with casts of fighting lapiths and centaurs, having moulded cornice, to front of porch. Square-headed window openings with moulded render surrounds, those to first floor having scrolled consoles with moulded cornices and pediments, and cast-iron balconettes. Stone sills to ground floor openings. Continuous masonry sill course to first and second floor windows openings. Three-over-three pane and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Segmental-headed door opening having moulded render surround. Doorcase comprising panelled pilasters with foliate decoration supporting panelled stepped cornice. Decorative leaded fanlight. Timber panelled door, granite platform having cast-iron boot-scrape. Square-headed door openings to basement. Wrought-iron railings set on granite plinth wall fronting site.

Appraisal

This building exhibits motifs emblematic of ancient Greek design, which was undergoing a revival at the time. The decorative metopes are based on those from the Parthenon marbles, which had been on display in the British museum from 1816. The pediments, niche, and pilasters provide a central focus, lending a strong sense of symmetry to the façade, while the elaborate stucco frontage has a unifying effect on the paired form. Formerly overlooking a large wedge-shaped green, the houses were built as a speculative venture by Charles Jaspar Joly, the son of Jean Jaspar Joly (d.1823) who came to Ireland from France as private secretary of Lord William Fitzgerald and acquired land in the environs of what became Harcourt Terrace. Harcourt Terrace is acknowledged as Ireland’s finest surviving group of Regency houses. The playwright/actor Michael MacLiammoir and his partner the actor Hilton Edwards lived here.