Survey Data
Reg No
15605119
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Hospital of the Holy Trinity
Original Use
Almshouse
Date
1770 - 1775
Coordinates
271846, 127279
Date Recorded
21/06/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached seven-bay two-storey almshouse or "hospital", dated 1772, on a rectangular plan. One of a pair. Hipped slate roof with ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks having red brick corbelled stepped capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined battered walls. Square-headed door openings centred on square-headed door opening below cut-limestone date stone ("1772") with cut-granite step thresholds, and concealed dressings framing timber boarded doors. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing one-over-one (ground floor) or six-over-six (first floor) timber sash windows without horns having flush exposed sash boxes. Street fronted with concrete footpath to front.
Appraisal
An almshouse or "hospital" erected by Charles Tottenham (1716-95) of Mac Murragh House (see 15702913) representing an important component of the later eighteenth-century built heritage of New Ross with the architectural value of the composition, one occupying the site of a sixteenth-century hospital founded (1584) by Thomas Gregory [SMR WX029-013011-], confirmed by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form; the feint battered silhouette; the somewhat disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing compounded by the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the centralised openings on each floor; and the high pitched roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, including crown or cylinder glazing panels in hornless sash frames, thus upholding the character or integrity of an almshouse or "hospital" forming part of a self-contained ensemble (including 15605120) making a pleasing visual statement in South Street.