Survey Data
Reg No
31204071
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1800 - 1838
Coordinates
124573, 318924
Date Recorded
09/12/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced two-bay three-storey double-pile over basement townhouse, extant 1838, with shopfront to ground floor. One of a terrace of six. Pitched double-pile (M-profile) slate roof with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stack having corbelled stepped capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves board on cut-limestone eaves retaining cast-iron hopper and downpipe. Drag edged tooled limestone ashlar wall (upper floors). Shopfront to ground floor including pair of segmental-headed door openings with dragged limestone ashlar voussoirs framing timber panelled doors having fanlights. Tuck pointed drag edged tooled limestone ashlar wall (upper floors). Square-headed window openings (upper floors) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and drag edged tooled cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones framing six-over-six (first floor) or six-over-three (top floor) timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): vestibule; square-headed door opening into entrance hall-cum-staircase hall with glazed timber panelled door having overlight; entrance hall-cum-staircase hall retaining staircase on a dog leg plan with timber "match stick" balusters supporting carved timber banister terminating in timber newel; and (upper floors): carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Street fronted with cobbled footpath to front.
Appraisal
A townhouse erected as one of a terrace of six identical houses (including 31204069 - 31204070; 31204072 - 31204073) representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century 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), confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form; the arcaded street front recalling contemporary shopfronts at Enniscorthy, County Wexford (cf. 15603124); and Youghal, County Cork (cf. 20823037); the "sparrow pecked" surface finish offset by sheer limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thereby upholding the character or integrity of a townhouse forming part of a neat self-contained ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in Pearse Street.