Survey Data
Reg No
15000289
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Office
In Use As
Restaurant
Date
1800 - 1810
Coordinates
203861, 241335
Date Recorded
06/09/2004
Date Updated
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Description
End-of-terrace single-bay three-storey house, built c.1806, with restored shopfront to ground floor. Formerly premises of a branch of the Irish National Foresters. Now in use as restaurant with offices over. One of a terrace of four. Pitched natural slate roof with (shared) rendered chimneystack to the east end and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered walls with raised block quoins to the corners and a plinth to the base. Shallow segmental-headed openings to the first and second floors with tripartite timber sliding sash windows and block-and-start surrounds. Shopfront to ground floor consisting of bowed fixed pane windows with leaded glass separated by timber pilasters with timber fascia board over. Restored shopfront contains fabric of earlier shopfront. Central squared-headed entrance to shopfront with glazed timber doors. Road-fronted.
Appraisal
An elegant building that survives with its early form and character intact. The early nineteenth-century Georgian shopfront, although restored, is a noteworthy feature and a very rare survival. This building forms part of an important early nineteenth-century terrace of uniform design with features such as the wide Wyatt-style windows with block-and-start surrounds. The wide windows are a feature more commonly found in urban settings in the south of the country and were a conscious move away from the older vernacular styles with small narrow fenestration. This building is of additional importance as a former branch office of the Irish National Foresters, a 'friendly' society founded in 1877. It supported Irish nationalism and its constitution called for "government for Ireland by the Irish people in accordance with Irish ideas and Irish aspirations". An attractive element of the streetscape located in the historic core of Athlone Town.