Survey Data
Reg No
12000070
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Archaeological, Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1900 - 1905
Coordinates
250579, 155956
Date Recorded
16/06/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced five-bay three-storey over basement commercial building, opened 1904, on a rectangular plan; pair of single-bay (single-bay deep) three-storey returns (east). Occupied, 1911. Subdivided, 1931. Renovated, ----, with replacement shopfront inserted to ground floor. Now disused. Replacement pitched artificial slate roof; replacement hipped artificial slate roofs (east), ridge tiles, rendered chimney stack (north) on a T-shaped plan with capping supporting terracotta pots, and no rainwater goods on rendered stepped eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hopper and downpipe. Rendered walls. Square-headed window openings (upper floors) with sill courses, and rendered "bas-relief" surrounds having chamfered reveals framing one-over-one timber sash windows. Interior including remodelled ground floor retaining chimneypiece centred on embossed coat of arms. Street fronted with concrete brick cobbled footpath to front.
Appraisal
A commercial building representing an important component of the built heritage of Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition, one repurposing a house obtained (1854) by John Feehan (d. 1868) who in 'converting it into a West of England Cloth Hall [uncovered] a house of much antiquity [with] pointed-arch doorways, stone-cased windows…massive oak timber floors and roofs [and] an elaborately carved stone chimney-piece surmounted by an armorial achievement' (Proceedings and Transactions of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society III 1854, 83), confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form; and the very slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a feint graduated visual impression. Although recently much modified at street level, the elementary form and massing survive intact overhead together with quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior including a chimneypiece carrying 'the arms of the ancient family of Shee granted to that family in 1582…[with] the letters E.S. probably for Elias Shee [the] brother of Sir Richard Shee of Upper Court' (ibid., 83). NOTE: Occupied (1911) by John Robert Statham (----), 'Watchmaker [and] Motor [and] Cycle Dealer'; and George James Statham (----), 'Motor [and] Cycle Dealer's Assistant' (NA 1911).