Survey Data
Reg No
50120130
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1900 - 1905
Coordinates
318203, 236493
Date Recorded
17/11/2017
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay three-storey house, built 1904 as one of pair, having full-height canted-bay to front (east) elevation, single-storey recessed porch and two-storey bay to north, and return to rear. M-profile hipped artificial slate roof, pitched to rear, hipped roof to side bay, flat roof to porch with granite coping, terracotta ridge tiles, cresting and ball finials, red brick chimneystacks to south party wall and to north gable wall to rear pitch with clay pots, cast-iron box-profile rainwater goods, and shaped paired corbelled brick eaves course. Red brick walling to front and north elevations, laid in English garden wall bond, with ruled-and-lined rendered walling to first floor, raised red brick block-and-start quoins to corners, moulded red brick stringcourses to first floor, granite plinth course, and rendered to rear. Square-headed recessed window openings with granite sills, replacement timber sliding sash windows to canted-bay, north and rear elevations, original paired round-headed stained-glass windows to two-storey recessed bay and porch, and segmental-headed window with multiple-pane stained-glass window having timber mullions to north elevation. Round-headed doorway to front, having bull-nosed brick jambs, moulded brick archivolt and fluted terracotta keystone, with timber panelled door and replacement fanlight, approached by two granite steps; mosaic tiles to porch floor. Part-garden and part-carparking to front, with red brick garden wall to north having moulded brick detail to parapet and square-headed timber battened door, wrought-iron single-leaf gate flanked by red brick piers with carved masonry caps and granite plinths with matching railings on rendered and red brick boundary walls with granite copings.
Appraisal
Together with its pair to the south, this house constitutes one of the most unusual, elegant and architecturally rich structures on this section of Howth Road. Ornament informed by classical and medieval architecture enriches the traditional massing and composition. Romanesque-style windows sit adjacent to finials resembling Gothic pinnacles, while stylized quoins and red brick voussoirs ground the design in classical sensibility. The staggered massing of the porch and two-storey rear bay balance the canted-bay window and provide a sense of modernity, echoed by the Arts and Crafts-style stained-glass windows. The sum of the design is firmly grounded in the early twentieth century, which saw a resurgence and reinterpretation of older building forms and features. Historic photographs indicate that an entrance doorway was once located on the north side of the porch and was only recently enclosed. Elegant, artistic and thoroughly designed, this building and its twin are important landmarks in the historic streetscape.