Survey Data
Reg No
12005031
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Garda station/constabulary barracks
In Use As
Garda station/constabulary barracks
Date
1940 - 1945
Coordinates
250155, 155907
Date Recorded
07/07/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached eleven-bay two-storey Garda Síochána station, built 1942; dated 1942, on a U-shaped plan; six-bay two-storey side elevations. Hipped slate roof on a U-shaped plan with ridge tiles, red brick English Garden Wall bond chimney stacks having ogee-detailed capping supporting terracotta pots, and concealed rainwater goods in ogee-detailed cornice with embossed cast-iron hoppers ("1942") and downpipes. Red brick Running bond walls on rendered plinth. Square-headed central door opening with margined tooled cut-limestone step, cut-limestone lugged doorcase overlaid on channelled pilasters on plinths supporting ogee-detailed hood moulding on panelled frieze framing timber panelled double doors. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and red brick soldier voussoirs framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Set back from line of street with red brick English bond piers to perimeter having concrete capping supporting wrought iron gate.
Appraisal
A Garda Síochána station designed by the Office of Public Works representing an integral component of the mid twentieth-century built heritage of Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling the contemporary Sundrive Garda Síochána Station (1945) in Crumlin, Dublin (see 50080200), confirmed by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase demonstrating good quality workmanship in a silver-grey limestone; the construction in a machine-made red brick; the uniform proportions of the openings on each floor with those openings showing conservative neo-Georgian glazing patterns; and the high pitched sprocketed roof. Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the utilitarian interior, thus upholding the character of a Garda Síochána station making a pleasing visual statement in Dominic Street.