Survey Data
Reg No
31204073
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1800 - 1838
Coordinates
124563, 318913
Date Recorded
09/12/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
End-of-terrace two-bay three-storey double-pile over basement townhouse, extant 1838, with shopfront to ground floor. Renovated with replacement shopfront inserted to ground floor. One of a terrace of six. Pitched double-pile (M-profile) slate roof with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stack having stringcourse below capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves board on cut-limestone eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hopper downpipe. Tuck pointed drag edged tooled limestone ashlar wall (upper floors) with drag edged tooled cut-limestone flush quoins to corner. 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 replacement uPVC casement windows replacing six-over-six (first floor) or six-over-three (top floor) timber sash windows. Interior including (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 - 31204072) 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 quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: the introduction of replacement fittings to the openings, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of a townhouse forming part of a neat self-contained ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in Pearse Street.