Survey Data
Reg No
14819011
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social, Technical
Original Use
Post office
In Use As
Post office
Date
1900 - 1905
Coordinates
206064, 205042
Date Recorded
23/08/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
End of terrace three-bay two-storey post office with attic storey, built in 1903, having gabled breakfront to façade, central gable to rear elevation and extensions to rear. Fronts directly onto street. Pitched slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, red brick chimneystack, stone coping to gabled breakfront and some cast-iron rainwater goods. Roof hidden behind stone parapet and central gable. Hipped and pitched slate roofs with terracotta ridge tiles to outer extensions, flat roof to central extension. Ashlar limestone to ground floor of façade with red brick to upper storey and gable. String course and quoins to breakfront. Smooth rendered rear elevation with pebbledash and smooth render to extensions. Tooled limestone segmental pediment to apex of breakfront gable with date carved to frieze, tooled stone scrolls to base and finial. Timber sash windows with stone sills and keystones to first floor. Roughcast render to extension. Timber casement windows with cut stone surrounds and hoodmoulding to gabled breakfront. Segmental-headed window openings to ground floor with tooled stone surround enclosing recessed canted-bays with timber casement windows to ground floor. Segmental-headed timber casement windows to rear extension. Central entrance to breakfront with segmental-headed door opening beneath limestone canopy with glazed timber double doors and by fanlight, entrance flanked by square-headed timber sash windows. Limestone date plaque with metal harp surmounts entrance.
Appraisal
With an ornamental style, executed in uniform red brick and worked limestone, Birr Post Office expresses a quality design and boasts elements that are shared by a number of other late nineteenth and early twentieth-century post offices around Ireland. Built in 1903, the structure is unique within the town and is the only red brick building on Emmet Square. As such it has an individual architectural character buts compliments the Georgian streetscapes in the locality.