Survey Data
Reg No
50930024
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Gaj's Restaurant
Original Use
House
In Use As
Restaurant
Date
1790 - 1810
Coordinates
316510, 233321
Date Recorded
13/11/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay three-storey over concealed basement former house, built c. 1800, with projecting timber shopfront inserted c. 1900. Now in use as restaurant. M-profile slate roof with red brick chimneystacks rising from the east gable having lipped clay pots. Roof set behind parapet wall with granite coping and cast-iron hoppers and downpipes to the east gable. Buff brick walls laid in Flemish bond, cement rendered to east gable. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with feathered reveals, painted granite sills, wrought-iron balconettes and replacement single-pane timber sash windows. Replacement top-hung timber casement windows to rear elevation. Timber shopfront comprises canted-bay window with slender colonnettes and square-headed door opening with glazed timber door, all framed by panelled Doric pilasters to fascia having wreaths and lead-lined hood cornice. Doorcase comprises square-headed door opening with timber panelled door flanked by engaged Doric columns supporting open-bed pediment housing plain glazed fanlight. Door opens onto cement paved platform and two granite steps directly to the street. Terminating terrace of former houses lining south side of Lower Baggot Street.
Appraisal
A substantial former townhouse with a shopfront inserted to the ground floor at the turn of the last century. Retaining most of its external detailing complete with a good pedimented doorcase, the house conforms to the typology of the surrounding streets and adds to the wealth of variety that characterises this streetscape in the south Georgian core. 132 Baggot Street Lower was the location of the famous Gaj's Restaurant opened in the mid sixties by Margaret Gaj (née Dunlop) (1919-2011) whose diverse customer base, according to Rosita Sweetman, included 'trade unionists, aristocrats, lawyers, bank robbers, prostitutes, students, artists, prisoners, civil-rights activists and Women's Libbers'. Gaj's Restaurant closed in August 1980.