Survey Data
Reg No
50010382
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1915 - 1920
Coordinates
315853, 234483
Date Recorded
12/10/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced single-bay four-storey commercial building over concealed basement, reconstructed 1917, with shopfront inserted to ground floor. Built as one of pair. Flat roof with shared rendered chimneystacks, hidden behind raised parapet wall with granite coping and cast-iron downpipe breaking through to east end. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with granite ashlar blocking course and deep moulded cornice above third floor flanked by scrolled console brackets and foliate panels. Full-span inset oriel window to all three floors with shallow canted central section, continuous cornice and frieze with swags and wreaths above first and second floor windows. Original timber casement windows with overlights. Replacement glazed shopfront flanked by polished granite pilasters surmounted by scrolled console brackets with pediments framing full-span cornice.
Appraisal
This building replaced a townhouse destroyed during the 1916 Rising, along with much of the Abbey Street Middle. It was designed by the architect Patrick Munden who later formed the partnership of Munden and Purcell Architects, which continued until the 1980s. It is one of six similar buildings employing decorative elements such as full-width glazing and stone embellishments. The contractor was Thomas Mackey and Sons of Camden Street. Although the shopfront has been altered, the basic elements remain and the building adds to a collection of early twentieth-century buildings that respect the former plot ratio of the streetscape while adding architectural interest to the street's composition.