Reg No
50020451
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
House
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1830 - 1870
Coordinates
316576, 233796
Date Recorded
24/03/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Terraced two-bay four-storey over basement former house, built c.1850, having shopfront to front (east) elevation. Now in use as shop. M-profile pitched slate roof concealed behind ashlar granite parapet, rendered chimneystacks with clay pots. Carved granite cornice and render eaves course over red brick, laid in Flemish bond with rusticated granite quoins to front. Yellow brick, laid in Flemish bond, to rear (west) elevation. Square-headed window openings having moulded masonry architraves, granite sills and three-over-three pane and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Round-headed window opening to rear having six-over-six pane timber sliding sash window and bars. Shopfront comprising timber panelled pilasters, acanthus leaf moulding to scrolled console brackets, carved cornice over nameplate with recent lettering. Square-headed window and door openings with recent fittings. Replacement basement lights. Nosed granite step. Street fronted on Merrion Street facing north-east to junction with Westland Row.
This building is part of a terrace of similar buildings which define the junction with Lincoln Place. The façade is framed by granite quoins and cornice, giving it a pleasing aspect, and creating an interesting tonal and textural contrast. The well-fired red brick of the front and the darker, more poorly fired brick used to the rear is an interesting indication of contemporary construction saving costs. The retention of features including timber sash windows and shopfront add to the historic character of both the building and the streetscape. Thom's Directory suggests that it was already in commercial use by 1862. The premises may well have been built with commercial use to the ground floor. Merrion Street Lower was built as an extension to the mid-eighteenth-century Merrion Street Upper, which was developed by the Fitzwilliam Estate and named after the second Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion.