Survey Data

Reg No

31204012


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Original Use

House


In Use As

Office


Date

1800 - 1838


Coordinates

124214, 318723


Date Recorded

08/12/2008


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Terraced three-bay three-storey townhouse, extant 1838, on a rectangular plan. In alternative use, 1994. Now disused. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, concrete or rendered coping to gables with rendered chimney stacks to apexes having cut-limestone stringcourses below capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta tapered pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered cut-limestone eaves[?] retaining cast-iron downpipe. Rendered, ruled and lined walls with rusticated rendered piers to ends. Hipped segmental-headed central door opening in segmental-headed recess with timber mullions on tooled cut-limestone step threshold supporting timber transom, and concealed dressings with hood moulding over on "Acanthus"-detailed label stops framing replacement timber panelled door having sidelights below fanlight. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over framing six-over-six or six-over-three (top floor) timber sash windows without horns. Interior including (ground floor): central hall retaining carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors; and carved timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Street fronted with concrete footpath to front.

Appraisal

A townhouse erected as one of a pair (including 31204011) representing an integral component of the early nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of Ballina with the architectural value of the composition, one of the 'many new houses built [within the last ten years] by merchants and others engaged in trade and commerce' (Lewis 1837 I, 104), suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on an elegant doorcase; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression: meanwhile, aspects of the composition, in particular the "stucco" refinements introducing a mild Tudor theme, clearly illustrate the continued development or "improvement" of the townhouse at the turn of the twentieth century. A prolonged period of unoccupancy or neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, including crown or cylinder glazing panels in hornless sash frames: meanwhile, contemporary joinery; Classical-style chimneypieces; and decorative plasterwork enrichments, all highlight the artistic potential of a townhouse forming part of a self-contained ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in Kevin Barry Street.