Survey Data
Reg No
14819250
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Birr Presbyterian Church
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Library/archive
Date
1880 - 1890
Coordinates
206232, 204948
Date Recorded
07/09/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached two-bay single-storey former Presbyterian church, built in 1885, with four-bay nave, projecting entrance porch to side and vestry to rear. Now in use as library. Fronts directly onto street. Pitched slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods. Cut stone gable coping and eaves course. Snecked limestone walls with plinth course and cut stone buttresses to corners. Double lancets with engaged columns and roses within pointed arched window openings with tooled stone arches to gable. Mandorla shaped traceried window below apex of entrance gable. Rose window to southern gable. Paired lancets to side elevations. Projecting gable-fronted porch with cast-iron finial, pointed-arched door opening having tooled stone surround and timber battened double door with wrought-iron hinges. Building flanked by random course stone plinth wall with limestone coping surmounted by cast-iron railings.
Appraisal
Birr Town Library is presently located in the former Presbyterian Church situated on John's Place. The building, with its impressive architectural design, makes a positive addition to the streetscape of John's Place. Along with retaining its Gothic features, the structure also retains many architectural features which tell of its religious past, such as the lancet windows with stone mullions, the timber battened doors as well as the fine stone buttresses. Now used as a library, it continues to play an important role in the history of Birr.