Survey Data
Reg No
11803123
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Royal College of Saint Patrick
Original Use
Building misc
In Use As
Building misc
Date
1831 - 1833
Coordinates
293472, 237395
Date Recorded
07/02/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached twenty-bay three-storey house, built 1831-3, probably over basement on a symmetrical plan comprising six-bay three-storey pedimented advanced central block with four-bay three-storey recessed flanking lateral wings having three-bay three-storey advanced end bays. Refenestrated, c.1990. One of a pair. Hipped roof behind parapet wall with slate (gabled to pediment). Clay ridge tiles. Rendered chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast walls. Unpainted. Cut-stone quoins to corners. Cut-stone stringcourse to parapet wall with cut-stone coping. Cut-stone dressings to pediment. Square-headed window openings. Stone sills. Replacement 6/6 and 6/3 timber sash windows, c.1990. Elliptical-headed door opening. Cut-stone doorcase with consoles, lintel and moulded cornice. Timber panelled door. 4/4 sidelights. Fanlight. Set in grounds shared with Saint Patrick’s College fronting on to green.
Appraisal
Rhetoric House, built as one of an identical pair of buildings forming the Junior College with Riverstown Lodge (11803125/KD-05-03-125), is a fine and imposing substantial range of graceful Classical proportions and detailing. Renovated in the late twentieth century, replacement materials have been installed in keeping with the original integrity of the design to present an early aspect. The building retains some original features and materials, including the fittings to the door opening and a slate roof with cast-iron rainwater goods. The house, together with the second in the pair (Junior House; 11803126/KD-05-03-126) is an attractive component of the architectural heritage of Saint Patrick’s College and is of social and historical significance, representing the continued development of the college as a seminary in the early to mid nineteenth century.