Survey Data
Reg No
50130311
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
314551, 235667
Date Recorded
29/06/2018
Date Updated
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Description
Corner-sited end-of-terrace two-bay two-storey former house over raised basement, built c. 1890 as one of terrace of six, having full-height return to rear (north) elevation. Now in use as apartments. M-profile pitched roof having granite barges to west end, red brick chimneystacks having clay pots to east and west ends and to return, and profiled metal gutter supported on corbelled yellow brick eaves course. Red brick walling, laid in Flemish bond, having yellow brick stringcourse, granite block-and-start quoins to corners of west gable, over granite plinth course and snecked limestone walls to basement to front; red brick walling to gable, laid in English garden wall bond, with yellow brick stringcourse and granite block-and-start quoins; rendered to rear. Square-headed window openings, having red brick block-and-start surrounds to basement, granite sills and replacement uPVC windows. Round-headed principal doorway with carved timber doorcase comprising panelled pilasters having scrolled brackets, supporting timber frieze, moulded cornice and plain fanlight, and timber four-panel door with stained-glass upper panels, approached by flight of eleven nosed granite steps and granite platform, shared with house to east, having wrought-iron handrails on granite plinths; polychrome tiled path. Square-headed doorway to basement with red brick block-and-start surround and timber door. Garden to front, bounded to front by decorative cast-iron railings on cut granite plinth, with similar cast-iron pedestrian gate with ornate piers.
Appraisal
This well-built house pleasantly terminates a terrace of six 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 and the tiled path place the house in a late nineteenth-century context. Its well-detailed entrance provides a decorative focus. 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 until the 1870s.