Survey Data
Reg No
50020150
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
House
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1720 - 1740
Coordinates
315705, 234090
Date Recorded
24/02/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached five-bay three-storey former house over basement and with attic accommodation, built c.1730, having paired shopfronts to front (east) elevation and returns to rear (west) elevation. Built as pair with building to north. Now in use as flats and retail unit. Slate mansard roof having square-headed dormer windows, stepped brick chimneystacks with clay pots and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered walls having steel wall ties. Square-headed window openings with continuous masonry sill course to first floor, masonry sills to second floor, replacement six-over-six pane and three-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows with exposed sash boxes. Round-headed door opening with carved stone block-and-start surround having stone cornice, plain fanlight and cast-iron steps to recent timber panelled door. Late nineteenth-century shopfronts comprising timber pilasters and fascia, dentillated cornice over shopfront to north, round-headed display windows with timber mullions and masonry risers, square-headed door openings having half-glazed timber panelled doors and plain overlights, approached by steps. Located to west side of Fownes Street Upper, facing Central Bank Plaza.
Appraisal
This is a significant mid-eighteenth-century house retaining a Gibbsian door surround, a rare survivor in the city, adding architectural interest as well as providing a central focal point on the facade. Sensitively restored, the design of the exposed sash boxes was modelled on a surviving window from the rear elevation. Part of a group of three houses of similar date, located on the west side of Fownes Street, it contributes positively to the early architectural heritage of the area. Fownes Street was named after Sir William Fownes, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1708. While the street was unnamed on Charles Brookings map of Dublin dating to 1728, a number of large houses are depicted on the west side of Fownes Street on John Rocque’s map of Dublin dating to 1756.