Survey Data

Reg No

50020245


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social


Previous Name

Battersby & Co.


Original Use

Office


In Use As

Shop/retail outlet


Date

1880 - 1900


Coordinates

315967, 234213


Date Recorded

14/04/2015


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Attached gable-fronted single-bay four-storey over basement and with attic accommodation former office building, built 1889, having shallow central breakfront and shopfront to front (east) elevation. Now in use as retail outlet. Pitched slate roof hidden behind red brick Dutch gable with carved sandstone coping and pediment, inset fluted carved sandstone panels. Red brick pilasters having carved sandstone panels, blind brick arcade, red brick chimneystack. Carved sandstone entablature with egg-and-dart moulding and scrolled ends, supported on carved sandstone brackets over red brick walls, laid in Flemish bond, having raised red brick pilasters and carved red brick string courses. Round-headed window opening to attic with sandstone keystone detail and recent balustrade, square- and segmental-headed window openings having carved sandstone sill courses and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows. Those to first and second floor in triple arrangement, with carved red brick entablatures, segmental pediment to first floor, sandstone keystone detail to second floor. Carved limestone shopfront comprising engaged Doric pilasters supporting entablature having dentillated cornice. Infilled display window on limestone stall riser, square-headed door opening with lugged-and-kneed architrave on block bases, with pediment over and foliate carvings, timber panelled door. Basement lights to pavement to front. Located on west side of Westmoreland Street.

Appraisal

Westmoreland Street, named after the tenth Earl of Westmoreland, was developed by the Wide Street Commissioners in the late eighteenth century as part of a network of streets connecting O'Connell Bridge (then Carlisle Bridge) and College Green. As new commercial and financial uses were introduced to the street in the second half of the nineteenth century, many of the original structures were rebuilt or remodelled, including this building and its immediate neighbours. Built to designs by James Joseph Farrell for Battersby & Company, estate agents and auctioneers, this is a notable late nineteenth-century commercial composition. Farrell had his office in the building. The highly ornamental façade is an eclectic composition, with moulded brick and sandstone detailing providing tonal contrast with the neighbouring buildings to the north and south. Although it is now partially obscured by recent signage, the limestone shopfront is a well-executed feature.