Survey Data

Reg No

50010277


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Historical


Previous Name

Royal Hibernian Academy


Original Use

Museum/gallery


In Use As

Office


Date

1820 - 1925


Coordinates

316028, 234518


Date Recorded

03/11/2011


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Terraced four-bay three-storey commercial building, built c.1825, destroyed in 1916 with front façade retained and largely rebuilt c.1920. Shopfront to ground floor inserted c.1950. Flat roof hidden behind parapet wall with chimneystacks to both party walls. Coursed squared granite ashlar walls with deep moulded granite cornice to parapet. Square-headed window openings with granite sills, moulded architrave surrounds and replacement six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Lugged architrave surrounds to first floor windows with pulvinated frieze and granite pediments resting on granite blocking course and full-span granite cornice to ground floor. Shopfront comprising polished granite surround with pair of chrome-framed display windows and glazed entrance to west.

Appraisal

This neoclassical style building was built and paid for by Francis Johnston, when he was president of the Royal Hibernian Academy. Largely destroyed during the 1916 Rising, the façade was retained and incorporated into the rebuilt terrace. The classical detailing and granite façade stand out in the early twentieth-century streetscape, while the Modernist shopfront provides further interest. As a remnant of the original streetscape, this building adds an important layer of architectural history to the area.