Survey Data
Reg No
31311031
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Scientific
Original Use
Unknown
Date
1800 - 1838
Coordinates
126136, 268365
Date Recorded
07/03/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay two-storey building, extant 1838, on a symmetrical plan. Disused, 1986. "Restored" to accommodate alternative use. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles terminating in chimney stacks having cut-limestone stringcourses below capping supporting terracotta pots, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on cut-limestone eaves. Repointed snecked limestone walls originally rendered[?] with dragged cut-limestone "bas-relief" strips to corners. Paired elliptical-headed central openings (ground floor) with benchmark-inscribed dragged cut-limestone "bas-relief" surrounds. Square-headed window openings (first floor) with cut-limestone sills, and cut- or hammered limestone lintels framing replacement two-over-two timber sash windows having exposed sash boxes. Street fronted with concrete footpath to front.
Appraisal
A building of undetermined provenance representing a curious component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of Hollymount with the architectural value of the composition, one reminiscent of a provincial market house, confirmed by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on an arcaded "loggia"; and the dramatic diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. Having been sympathetically "restored" following a prolonged period of neglect in the later twentieth century, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or replicated fabric: the removal of the surface finish, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the external expression or integrity of a building forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside a much modified opposing police station (see 31311032) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in an estate village setting.