Survey Data
Reg No
40852024
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1890 - 1915
Coordinates
187717, 361507
Date Recorded
23/10/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Corner-sited multiple-bay three-storey commercial building with accommodation over. , built c. 1910. having canted corner and façade that follows line of Castle Street. Shopfront to the canted corner and to west and south elevations adjacent. Now in use as a pharmacy/chemist with apartments over. Three-storey addition to the east end. Shallow roof hidden behind raised red brick parapet with cement coping over. Red brick chimneystack with yellow brick detailing. Red brick walls (English Garden Bond) with flush yellow brick banding, and having recessed rectangular panels above first floor openings; channelled pilasters to corners having moulded cornices at window sill level to first and second stories; pilasters terminate in ball finials over at parapet level. Render fluted pilasters to shopfront and to corners at ground floor level having moulded cornices. Round-headed window openings, paired to upper floors apart from above canted corner, having yellow brick heads with yellow brick nail-headed hoodmouldings over, moulded sill courses to upper floors, and replacement windows. Square-headed triple-light fixed-pane replacement display windows to shopfront to west end, flanking canted corner. Round-headed doorway to canted corner having replacement double doors with plain overlight having moulded cornice and moulded render surround. Modern sign boards over shopfronts. Modern timber shopfront to extension to the east. Round-headed doorway to the south, to the east of shopfront, having timber panelled door, and plain overlight with yellow brick surround having yellow brick nail-headed hoodmouldings over. Set in a corner site in prominent location to the centre of Ballyshannon. Stone steps to footpath to the south.
Appraisal
This imposing purpose-built commercial building, of early twentieth-century appearance, retains its early architectural character and form. It is richly-detailed in good-quality materials (such as the cut stone detailing to the pilasters), while the contrast between the red brick construction, the yellow brick detailing and the corner pilasters creates a visually-pleasing and striking composition in a prominent corner site location. This polychromatic brickwork is unusual in Ballyshannon, creating architectural variety in the mainly late-eighteenth and particularly nineteenth-century streetscapes to the centre of the town. Its form and appearance is reminiscent (albeit in a subdued and reduced manner) of many substantial department stores that were being constructed in the larger towns and cities around the same time, and it represents a notable example of its type in County Donegal. The loss of the original window fittings, although regrettable, fails to detract substantially from its visual appeal. This landmark building is an integral element of the built heritage of Ballyshannon, creating an architectural set piece in an important corner site to the centre of the town. This building replaced a number of three-storey buildings, some with attic storey, on the same site (Lawrence Collection photograph c. 1890).