Survey Data
Reg No
12001026
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Kilkenny Theatre
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Theatre/opera house/concert hall
In Use As
Hotel
Date
1740 - 1760
Coordinates
250656, 155587
Date Recorded
17/06/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced two-bay three-storey house, c.1750. Extensively renovated, 1902, with rendered façade enrichments added to accommodate use as theatre. Closed, 1962. Subsequently in commercial use, post-1962. Extensively renovated, post-2001, with interior remodelled to accommodate use as hotel. Pitched roof behind parapet with replacement slate, post-2001, clay ridge tiles, red and yellow brick Running bond chimney stacks having decorative terracotta pots, and concealed rainwater goods. Painted rendered walls with rendered façade enrichments, 1902, including moulded cornice to ground floor on profiled course having consoles supporting full-height half-fluted Composite pilasters to upper floors, panel to top floor having rendered surround, decorative band having foliate detailing, frieze, moulded cornice, blocking course supporting balustraded parapet with panelled plinths, and moulded coping. Square-headed window openings with cut-stone sills (concealed to first floor behind cornice), moulded rendered surrounds, 1902, replacement six-over-six (first floor) and three-over-three (top floor) timber sash windows, post-2001. Elliptical-headed door opening to centre ground floor with pair of round-headed flanking door openings having block-and-start surrounds incorporating keystones, and replacement glazed timber panelled accordion doors, post-2001, having overlight with replacement glazed timber panelled double doors, post-2001, to flanking openings having overlights. Interior remodelled, post-2001. Road fronted with concrete brick cobbled footpath to front.
Appraisal
A well-appointed middle-size house representing an important element of the architectural heritage of Kilkenny on account of the associations with Ellen Odette Desart (née Bischoffsheim), fourth Countess of Desart (1857-1933) and Otway Frederick Seymour Cuffe (1853-1912) who sponsored the development of the Kilkenny Theatre on site at the beginning of the twentieth century. Despite the closure of the theatre in the mid twentieth century together with the subsequent loss of the auditorium the elevation fronting on to Patrick Street Lower retains many of the attributes associated with the redevelopment of the site including robust Classically-inspired rendered dressings exhibiting high quality craftsmanship: further fine details throughout include the decorative chimney pots having a subtle, yet important impact on the architectural and artistic design values of the composition. Although renovation works to accommodate an alternative use have resulted in the alteration of the internal spaces elsewhere fittings have been installed in keeping with the historic appearance of the site, thereby maintaining the character of the house in the street scene.