Survey Data
Reg No
20870012
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
Date
1850 - 1890
Coordinates
167544, 70327
Date Recorded
13/05/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding Roman Catholic mortuary chapel, built c.1870, having three-bay side elevation to nave, lower single bay sanctuary to west and porch projecting to east end. Currently not in use. Pitched slate roof having decorative cast iron cresting, limestone coping to gables, red brick pedimented bellcote to east gable with limestone coping, wrought-iron finials and cast-iron rainwater goods. Squared-and-snecked limestone walls having brick quoins and platbands. Pointed arch window openings with red brick block-and-start reveals, brick archivolts and limestone sills. Pointed arch door opening to porch with stepped red brick surround and limestone steps. Doors and windows now blocked-up. Set within St Joseph's Cemetery.
Appraisal
This mortuary chapel, no longer in use, is typical of the religious architecture of this period in Cork with its use of lancet windows and the distinctive polychromatic mix of red brick and grey limestone. The finials and decorative ridge cresting add ornamentation to an otherwise simple building. St Joseph's Cemetery was established in the mid nineteenth century by Fr Theobald Mathew, a temperance reformer, who is also buried in the cemetery.