Survey Data
Reg No
50020027
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Restaurant
Date
1840 - 1860
Coordinates
315460, 234072
Date Recorded
28/02/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay five-storey former house, built c.1850, having recent shopfront to front (west) elevation. Now in use as restaurant. Pitched M-profile roof hidden behind red brick parapet with cut granite coping, and some cast-iron rainwater goods. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond to upper floors to front, brown brick walls laid in English garden wall bond to rear (east) elevation. Square-headed window openings to upper floors having cut granite sills and two-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows. Segmental-headed window opening to first floor of rear elevation having recent timber windows. Recent shopfront with square-headed door and window openings. Situated to east side and centre of Parliament Street. Rear elevation situated to west side and centre of Crane Lane.
Appraisal
Parliament Street is the first example of formal axial planning in mid-eighteenth-century Dublin. George Semple designed the rebuilding of Essex Bridge (1753-55) and his plan showed a new wide street linking the bridge to Dublin Castle; this plan for Parliament Street was implemented by the Wide Street Commissioners in 1762. Many of the buildings, including this one, were altered and rebuilt in the nineteenth century. The proportions of its upper floor openings give a hierarchy to each floor, creating a pleasantly balanced façade typical of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century townhouses. Historic fabric including the brickwork and windows add to its character. Thom's Directory of 1862 states that the building was in use by a military merchant tailor.