Survey Data

Reg No

50010299


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical


Original Use

House


In Use As

Hotel


Date

1790 - 1795


Coordinates

316393, 234672


Date Recorded

30/10/2011


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Terraced five-bay four-storey house over raised basement, built c.1793, with three-bay south side elevation fronting onto Beresford Place. Built as part of crescent of five similar houses to designs of James Gandon. Recently restored and now in use as hotel together with No. 2. Triple-span slate roof set perpendicular to east elevation and hipped to east with glazed sections to rear. Roof hidden behind rebuilt parapet wall with granite coping and moulded granite string course to base. Brick chimneystack to west party wall and rendered chimneystack to north party wall. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with recent lime pointing. Deep moulded granite cornice to third floor sill level, plain granite sill course to second floor and rusticated coursed granite walls to ground floor with plain frieze and moulded cornice to first floor sill level, all spanning both elevations. Cement rendered basement walls. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with patent rendered reveals and replacement timber sliding sash windows throughout. Voussoired granite heads to ground floor windows with replacement iron balconettes to first floor and wrought-iron grilles to basement windows. Voussoired round-headed door opening with Portland stone tripartite doorcase. Replacement timber panelled door flanked by slender pilasters, sidelights with lead tracery and responding corner pilasters supporting fluted lintel cornice and original webbed leaded fanlight over. Door opens onto platform with replacement granite paving and cast-iron boot-scrape, opening onto street via two granite steps and bridging basement. Platform and basement area enclosed by wrought-iron railings and cast-iron corner posts set on moulded granite plinth wall curved to corner. Matching iron gate with concrete steps provide basement access with sandstone flags to basement area.

Appraisal

This townhouse was built as part of a crescent of five similar houses for John Beresford, designed by James Gandon and approved by the Wide Street Commissioners in 1792. Recently restored along with No.2, the house terminates to eastern end of the crescent with its principal symmetrical elevation fronting onto Store Street. The house has been sympathetically restored with the reinstatement of appropriate materials. The crescent was intended to be one of several to encircle his Custom House, but the project was never fully realized. Nonetheless, this house and crescent remain the only example of Gandon’s domestic work and his involvement in urban design and now forms part of the rich variety of architectural styles fronting on Beresford Place. The contrast between the excellently executed channelled ashlar of the ground floor and the fine brickwork of the upper floors is very pleasant, and the clear demarcation of the floors through the prominent use of cut-stone string courses enhances the facades. The east-facing principal facade is fully symmetrical and is essentially a mansion-front.