Survey Data
Reg No
15613012
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Blackwater Garda Síochána Station
Original Use
Garda station/constabulary barracks
In Use As
House
Date
1920 - 1930
Coordinates
312328, 133913
Date Recorded
08/03/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey Garda Síochána station, "surveyed" 1924; rebuilt 1925, on a T-shaped plan with single-bay two-storey side elevations; single-bay (single-bay deep) two-storey central return (west). Closed, ----. Renovated, ----, to accommodate continued alternative use. Hipped slate roof on a T-shaped plan with clay ridge tiles, red brick Running bond off-central chimney stack having stepped capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on box eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls on rendered plinth. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement six-over-six sash windows having exposed sash boxes replacing six-over-six timber sash windows. Set back from line of road in relandscaped grounds with roughcast stepped boundary wall to perimeter having rounded coping.
Appraisal
A Garda Síochána station erected to a design produced (1924) by the Office of Public Works (established 1831) representing an integral component of the early twentieth-century built heritage of Blackwater with the architectural value of the composition, one repurposing the shell of a constabulary barrack shown as a ruin on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey (surveyed 1921; published 1924), suggested by such attributes as the compact symmetrical footprint; and the very slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a feint graduated visual impression. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original or sympathetically replicated fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a Garda Síochána station making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.