Survey Data
Reg No
50011013
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Surgery/clinic
Date
1750 - 1760
Coordinates
315738, 235127
Date Recorded
26/09/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced three-bay four-storey house over exposed basement, built c.1755, having recent dormer attic. Now in use as clinic. Built as pair with No. 8. Pitched slate roof behind rebuilt red brick parapet wall with squared granite coping. Rendered and red brick chimneystack with clay pots to party wall, shared with No. 8. Mixed cast-iron and replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Flemish bond red brick walls with wigged cement pointing having granite plinth course over rendered walls to basement level. Cast-iron bracing plate and ventilation grates to front elevation. Gauged red brick flat-arched window openings with mixed brick and rendered reveals and granite sills. Six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows to first and second floors, historic replacement one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows to ground floor, uPVC replacements elsewhere. Later cast-iron balconettes to first and second floor openings. Round-headed door opening within pedimented painted stone doorcase having engaged Tuscan pilasters on plinth blocks surmounted by stepped lintel with cornice and entablature supporting open-bed pediment housing cobweb fanlight with timber glazing bars. Replacement timber panelled door opening onto limestone-flagged platform with stepped approach bridging basement area. Approach flanked by nineteenth-century wrought-iron railings with square-plan rendered corner piers on granite plinth. Wrought-iron gate accessing basement via cement staircase with timber handrail. Building backs onto Rutland Place with modern building to rear.
Appraisal
Located on historic Parnell Square, this townhouse with its pleasantly proportioned façade is an integral component of the streetscape. The house was built as a pair with No. 8 in 1753-55 by Lewis Thomas and has maintained an historic aspect through the retention of various historic and original features including pleasant balconettes, historic sash windows and a finely executed doorcase. Parnell Square was the product of Dr Bartholomew Mosse; in 1748 he leased four acres at the junction of three important sites; the Gardiner Estate, Sackville (now O’Connell) and Great Britain (now Parnell) Streets. There the New Gardens (now the Garden of Remembrance) were constructed, a landscaped tract of land with illuminated paths, obelisks and a loggia. Entrance fees to the gardens funded the construction of the Rotunda Hospital to the south, Mosse’s life ambition, and the success of the gardens precipitated the development of the surrounding square, largely by the hospital’s chief builders.