Survey Data
Reg No
30343028
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Previous Name
Higgisson
Original Use
House
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1830 - 1870
Coordinates
185378, 204624
Date Recorded
09/09/2009
Date Updated
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Description
Corner-sited building, built c.1850, comprising three-bay two-storey house with dormer attic on Saint Patrick's Street, and four-bay three-storey house on Clonfert Avenue, having shopfronts to ground floor. Pitched slate roofs, with cement rendered chimneystack to three-bay façade, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with moulded render surrounds, stone sills with timber sliding sash windows, two-over-two pane to three-bay part and one-over-one pane to four-bay part. Square-headed doorway to north elevation accesses upper floors, and has recent timber panelled door and overlight. Shopfront to east end of same is topped with rendered entablature with raised lettering and moulded cornice, latter continuing to rest of three-bay building. West elevation has square-headed display windows and recessed glazed timber door. Square-headed plate-glass display windows to four-bay building has moulded render cornice, raised lettering to fascia, and glazed timber panelled door and sidelights.
Appraisal
This prominently sited building stands at the main crossroads in Portumna. Its irregular roofline provides architectural character, as well as reflecting the fact that it comprises two or three buildings. The well executed lettering to the nameplates provides artistic interest. Formerly known as New Road, Clonfert Avenue was laid out in the late nineteenth century with detached houses on large plots. The west part of this building appears to predate the return, and the building was extended as the street became formalised.