Survey Data
Reg No
50020081
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Store/warehouse
In Use As
Store/warehouse
Date
1840 - 1860
Coordinates
315552, 234070
Date Recorded
28/02/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay three-storey store, built c.1850, having integral carriage arch. Now with apartments above. L-plan hipped slate roof hidden behind rebuilt red brick parapet with cut granite coping to front (west) elevation. Brown brick walls laid in Flemish bond to upper floors, having carved granite cornice and platband over rusticated granite to ground floor. Square-headed window openings to upper floors having cut granite sills and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Segmental-headed opening to carriage arch to ground floor with rusticated granite voussoirs and keystone, recent timber door with flanking infill panels having concrete sills to side panels. Square-headed door opening having rusticated granite voussoirs and keystone, now blocked and with recent concrete sill. Situated on east side of Sycamore Street.
Appraisal
Early fabric including brickwork and granite adds to the building's historic character. The robust ground floor granite detailing is suited to its early commercial use and the carriage arch lends contextual interest, while the upper floor refined brickwork and well-proportioned window openings are typical of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century townhouses. It was in use, along with the building to the north, by the Bewley Tea Company, which began to import tea from China to Dublin in 1835, expanding into the café trade in the 1890s. The Bewley family, who were Quakers, had strong ties with the area and were patrons of the nearby Friends Meeting House.