Survey Data
Reg No
40843020
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Technical
Original Use
House
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1840 - 1880
Coordinates
192979, 378390
Date Recorded
09/11/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
End-of-terrace three-bay three-storey house, built c. 1860, with later Vitrolite shopfront to ground floor, added c. 1950. Pitched artificial slate roof (fibre cement) with slightly sprocket eaves, four rendered chimneystacks (two to centre and one to either gable end), profiled metal gutters and cast-iron downpipes. Dentilated eaves cornice/course with paired brackets over supporting gutter. Roughcast rendered walls with smooth rendered bands to the margins, smooth rendered band above second floor window openings, smooth rendered sill course at first floor level, and with render/stucco cornice above shopfront. Square-headed window openings to upper floors having rendered reveals, stone sills, and with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows to upper floor and replacement fittings at first floor level. Square-headed display windows to shopfront having chrome surrounds. Central square-headed doorway to the main elevation having replacement timber panelled door with overlight. Recessed square-headed doorway to shopfront to the east end of the main elevation (north-west); square-headed doorway to the shopfront to the west end of the main elevation. Black Vitrolite cladding at ground floor level having chrome detailing and raised chrome lettering to fascia to the eastern shopfront. Building faces onto easternmost angle of The Diamond in the centre of Donegal Town. Outbuildings to the rear (south-east).
Appraisal
This well-proportioned building, of mid-nineteenth-century appearance retains much of its early character and form. It retains some of its early fabric, including sash windows to the upper floors, but the replacement of the roof and the replacement window fittings detracts somewhat from its visual expression. The decorative bracketed and dentilated eaves cornice adds an element of decorative interest to the otherwise plain upper floors. The mid twentieth-century Vitrolite shopfront is a particularly interesting feature and is a rare surviving example of its type in County Donegal. The use of black Vitrolite with raised chrome lettering represents the modern design spirit of the twentieth century with plain functional detailing in new materials. This building is an addition to the built heritage of Donegal Town, and adds variety to the streetscape at the centre of the town.