Reg No
50130300
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Rathdown Terrace
Original Use
House
In Use As
Apartment/flat (converted)
Date
1880 - 1900
Coordinates
314455, 235621
Date Recorded
15/06/2018
Date Updated
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Terraced two-bay two-storey two-pile former house over raised basement, built c. 1890 as one of terrace of fourteen, having full-height return to rear (south) elevation. Now in use as apartments. M-profile pitched slate roof, hipped to west end of rear pile, with red brick chimneystacks having clay pots to east and west ends and to return, metal gutter supported on corbelled yellow brick eaves course, and replacement uPVC downpipe to east end. Red brick walling to upper floors, laid in Flemish bond, with yellow brick stringcourse over granite plinth course and snecked limestone walls to basement to front (north) elevation; rendered to rear. Square-headed window openings with granite sills and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows, having red brick block-and-start surrounds to basement; replacement uPVC windows to rear. Round-headed principal doorway, with carved timber doorcase comprising panelled pilasters having scrolled brackets, supporting timber frieze and plain fanlight, and carved timber panelled door; square-headed doorway to basement with red brick block-and-start surround. Flight of eleven nosed granite steps and granite platform shared with house to west, with wrought-iron handrail on granite plinth to east having cast-iron uprights. Garden to front, bounded by decorative cast-iron railings on cut granite plinth and having decorative cast-iron pedestrian gate with ornate piers.
This well-built house is part of a terrace of fourteen late nineteenth-century houses with similar parapet heights and fenestration patterns. The combination of snecked limestone and red brick adds visual and textural interest to the facade. The corbelled brick detailing to the eaves places the house in a late nineteenth-century context. Retention of timber sash windows, as well as the carved timber door and doorcase, enhances the historic appearance of the building. The impressive steps and the intact setting details considerable enhance the site. The North Circular Road was laid out in the 1780s to create a convenient approach to the city, but developed slowly over the following century with little development west of Phibsborough till the 1870s.