Survey Data
Reg No
50070404
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Original Use
House
In Use As
Apartment/flat (converted)
Date
1790 - 1810
Coordinates
315267, 235491
Date Recorded
23/11/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
End-of-terrace pair of terraced two-bay three-storey over basement former houses, built c.1800, attached on east side by adjoining terrace. Two-storey extension to west elevation of no.40. Now in use as flats and offices. Hipped M-profile roofs having continuous parapet to front (north) elevation with cut granite capping. Stepped rendered chimneystacks having clay chimneypots. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond having cut granite plinth course over rendered walls to basement level. Recent red brick to parapet. Rendered wall to west elevation over rubble limestone wall. Square-headed window openings having rendered reveals and cut granite sills, some painted. Cast-iron balconettes to no.39 first floor windows. Six-over-six pane timber sash windows, three-over-three pane timber sash window to basement of no.40, replacement uPVC window to basement of no.39. UPVC window to first floor of side elevation. Round-arched door openings, each having painted masonry surround and plain fanlight. Timber panelled doors. Concrete steps to entrance platforms having metal railings. Basement areas enclosed from pavement level by cut granite plinth wall with metal railings. Access from pavement level to basement areas by recent concrete stairs and metal gates. Cast-iron coal-hole covers set in granite paving to front.
Appraisal
This pair of houses makes an important contribution to the streetscape of Blessington Street, it marks the transition at the end a well defined streetscape to the neighbouring open space of Blessington Basin Park. They retain much early fabric including brickwork, door surrounds and sash windows. They share proportions and characteristics with neighbouring buildings that are typical of Georgian Dublin houses. Blessington Street was laid out at the end of the eighteenth century, appearing in the alphabetical list of streets in Wilson's Dublin Directory for the first time in 1795. It terminates to the west end at Blessington Street Basin, constructed in 1810 as a city reservoir supplied from the nearby canal, it is now a public park.