Survey Data

Reg No

21517227


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Previous Name

Saint Munchin's Diocesan Seminary


Original Use

House


Historical Use

School


In Use As

Office


Date

1815 - 1840


Coordinates

157384, 156584


Date Recorded

30/12/1899


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

End-of-terrace two-bay four-storey over basement brick and render former townhouse, built c. 1830, with a front railed basement area and two-storey return. Probable M-profiled slate roof concealed behind rebuilt rendered parapet with heavy cornice. Single pitched roof to return. Brick and cement rendered chimneystack to east party wall and a substantial brick chimneystack rising from the west gable wall. Red brick laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing, channel-rusticated rendered ground floor with smooth rendered wall to basement. Cement rendered walls to rear elevation and return. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with patent rendered reveals and limestone sills to third, second and first floors. Round-arched window openings to ground floor with cement channel-rusticated voussoir surrounds. Replacement uPVC windows to front and rear elevations. Segmental-arched door opening with channel-rusticated voussoir surround having an inset timber doorcase comprising of a pair of scrolled guttae enriched console brackets supporting a reeded entablature and original decorative webbed fanlight with original glass above. Replacement flat-panelled timber door leaf opens onto a limestone step and limestone flagged platform bridging basement, with four limestone steps to the street. Flanked on both sides by original wrought-iron spear-headed railings and cast-iron rail posts on limestone plinth, returning to east to enclose basement, with simple iron bootscraper. Gable-ended coach house to rear with pebbledash render finish, now converted to a dwelling with uPVC windows to the gable.

Appraisal

The An Foras Forbatha Report states that this is a curious row, having more in common with English architecture than Irish architectural practise. Apart from the loss of its windows, this former house is in very good condition and provides an original aspect to the terrace and the streetscape. Saint Munchins College opened here in 1853, under the patronage of Bishop Ryan. The College, known as Saint Munchin's Diocesan Seminary. A Diocesan College was an educational institution in which both laymen and future priests pursue their secondary studies together. A wide range of subjects was on offer, including Music, Drawing, Painting, and Dancing. A major change in the running of Saint Munchin's took place when Bishop Ryan decided to remove the diocesan clergy from the college. Bishop Ryan approached the Society of Jesus with a request to take over the administration of the College. After formal negotiations were successfully concluded between the Bishop and the Society of Jesus, both in Ireland and in Rome, Saint Munchin's College became a Jesuit-run school on 10th March, 1859. By 1862 the Diocesan College moved to Crescent House. The coach house in Hartstonge Street is quite modified but forms part of an intact row of coach houses to the rear of the terrace. This house breaks the line of the terrace, as does No. 6, and is similar to the formation of the Tontine terrace on Pery Square. The formal composition of the entire terrace make this a most significant architectural feature of Limerick City.