Survey Data
Reg No
50910126
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Commercial Hall Co./Switzer & Co.
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1855 - 1865
Coordinates
315956, 233858
Date Recorded
30/10/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached six-bay four-storey commercial block, built 1859-62, having recent shopfront to ground floor. Hipped roof to east, flat to rear (west), concealed behind rendered parapet, with replacement rainwater goods mounted on projecting replacement cornice with replacement downpipe breaking through to north elevation. Painted rendered walling with stucco dressings, including continuous stringcourse over top floor openings, and continuous sill courses to top two floors, moulded to second floor. Segmental-headed window openings to top two floors, with smaller double openings to top floor, and having raised architraves with keystones, scroll-lugs to base of top floor openings, and hood-cornices to second floor. Square-headed openings to first floor, with lugged architraves, surmounted by triangular pediments on scrolled consoles. Windows are replacement timber sliding sash, one-over-one pane to top floor, two-over-two pane to second floor, and replacement casement to first floor. Forms part of retail complex comprising Nos. 1-5 Clarendon Street, Nos. 38-44 Wicklow Street and Nos. 88-95 Grafton Street.
Appraisal
This mid-nineteenth-century commercial premises, previously known as 'Commercial Hall', was built in an Italianate style to the designs of Rawson Carroll, as the new drapery premises for Switzer, Ferguson & Son, later Switzer & Co. Successive alterations and extensions were carried out during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1995 the complex was remodelled for Brown Thomas department store, which included alterations to the ground floor to create a cohesive shopfront, unifying the disparate buildings within the retail complex. Despite such alterations, and some loss of historic fabric, the main façade is a focal point within the historic streetscape of Grafton Street and contributes to the rich and diverse character of the area.