Survey Data
Reg No
12401927
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1860 - 1870
Coordinates
249393, 156114
Date Recorded
04/10/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay two-storey house, built 1863-5, on an irregular plan with single-bay two-storey side elevations; two-bay two-storey return (south). Completed, 1884-90. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Sold, 1999. Extended, 2004, producing present composition. Hipped slate roof with perforated crested terracotta ridge tiles extending into pressed or rolled lead ridges, paired rendered central chimney stacks on axis with ridge having stepped capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on slightly overhanging eaves having timber consoles. Creeper-covered rendered walls. Square-headed window openings (ground floor) with sills, and rendered surrounds with ogee-detailed pedimented hood mouldings on consoles framing one-over-one timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings (first floor) with sills, and rendered surrounds framing one-over-one timber sash windows. Interior including spinal hall retaining herring bone-pattern timber parquet floor, carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors, modillioned plasterwork cornice to ceiling, staircase on a dog leg plan with cast-iron balustrade supporting carved timber banister terminating in ball finial-topped newel, Classical-style surrounds to door openings to landing framing timber panelled doors, and plasterwork cornice to ceiling; drawing room (north-east) retaining carved timber Classical-style surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled shutters on panelled risers, cut-veined black marble pillared chimneypiece, and moulded plasterwork cornice to ceiling centred on decorative plasterwork ceiling rose; reception room (east) retaining encaustic tiled floor, carved timber Classical-style surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors with carved timber Classical-style surround to window opening framing glazed timber panelled double doors having sidelights on panelled risers, and modillioned plasterwork cornice to ceiling centred on decorative plasterwork ceiling rose; drawing room (south-east) retaining carved timber Classical-style surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled shutters, cut-white marble Classical-style chimneypiece, and egg-and-dart-detailed decorative plasterwork cornice to ceiling centred on decorative plasterwork ceiling rose; billiard room (south-west) retaining carved timber surrounds to door openings framing glazed timber panelled doors with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled reveals or shutters, timber boarded panelled wainscoting with carved timber dado rail centred on reclaimed pillared chimneypiece, and diagonal timber-boarded vaulted ceiling in carved timber frame on carved timber cornice; and carved timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled shutters. Set in relandscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A house erected for John William Smithwick (1833-94) to designs by Charles Geoghegan (1820-1908) of Great Brunswick Street [Pearse Street], Dublin (Dublin Builder 1st September 1865, 214), representing an important component of the domestic built heritage of Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition, one potentially repurposing an earlier house occupied (1806) by George Arkwright (Finn's Leinster Journal 6th September 1806), confirmed by such attributes as the irregular footprint; the uniform or near uniform proportions of the openings on each floor with those openings showing sleek "stucco" dressings underpinning an Italianate theme; and the decorative timber work embellishing the roof. Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or sympathetically replicated fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior where contemporary joinery; chimneypieces; decorative plasterwork enrichments; and a vaulted billiard room centring on a 'good late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century chimneypiece brought from Kilcreene [sic] House' (Bence-Jones 1978, 166), all highlight the artistic potential of a house having historic connections with the Smithwick family including James Joseph Smithwick (1869-1930) and Walter Aloysius Smithwick (1908-93) who sponsored the translation (1961) of "Liber Primus Kilkenniensis", or "The First Book of Kilkenny", by Professor Annette Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven (1909-89).