Survey Data
Reg No
40815046
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1930 - 1940
Coordinates
234898, 432121
Date Recorded
30/10/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached three-bay single-storey former shop, built c. 1935, having projecting flat-roofed canopy with rounded corners to the front elevation (west), and having projecting piers to either end of the front elevation having rounded corners to inner face. Later disused (2010) and now possibly in use as a restaurant\cafe. Roof hidden to front elevation (west) by raised roughcast rendered parapet having smooth rendered coping over; two smooth rendered funnel-like structures (on circular-plan) to centre of parapet. flat-roofed concrete canopy to front having dentilled stringcourse. Smooth rendered walls with recessed double and triple banded channels to curved projections to either end. Square-headed window openings with fixed-pane display windows with multiple-pane overlights, and having curved corners to either side of central entrance. Central recessed square-headed door opening having glazed timber double-doors with overlight. . Chequered tiles to threshold and under canopy. Road-fronted to the centre of Buncrana.
Appraisal
This interesting and well-detailed single-storey building, of early-to-mid twentieth-century date, retains its original form and character. Its distinctive form with rounded canopy having dentilated stringcourse, recessed windows with rounded corners, and with rounded projections to either end of the front elevation all give this building an Art Deco architectural character that is unusual to find in County Donegal, and gives this building a strong presence in the streetscape to the centre of Buncrana. The long low form creates a composition with a strong horizontal bias, which is reinforced by the horizontal bands to the rounded projections and by the horizontal emphasis of the overlights to the windows and doors. This building is similar in detailing to a contemporary cinema, and the rounded corners and detailing gives it something of a maritime character that is befitting of a seaside resort. Similar buildings are found in British seaside resort but are uncommon in Ireland. Constructed in the first part of the twentieth century, this building is a good example of architectural design and theory of that time, and is a well designed early-to-mid twentieth-century addition to the predominantly nineteenth-century streetscape of Buncrana, and is in integral element of the built heritage of the town.