Survey Data
Reg No
50080420
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Workshop
In Use As
Building misc
Date
1850 - 1890
Coordinates
311176, 233384
Date Recorded
29/05/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached nine-bay single-storey tool shop, built c.1870, having three-bay west gable. M-profile pitched roof having recent metal covering having rooflights to apex, with raised parapet and granite coping to west gable. Cut snecked limestone walls having cut limestone quoins. Later metal ladder to west gable. Square-headed window openings having brown brick block-and-start surrounds and granite sills. Replacement timber windows. Square-headed door openings with brown brick block-and-start surrounds to south elevation, having replacement glazed timber doors. Square-headed entrance to front (north) elevation having recent metal shutter. Recent single-storey flat-roofed extension to front and rear elevations.
Appraisal
The Inchicore Works was established in 1846 to maintain and construct rolling stock for the Great Southern & Western Railway. Now the headquarters for mechanical engineering and rolling stock maintenance at Irish Rail, it is the largest engineering complex of its kind in Ireland. The development of the Works was responsible for the transformation of this area from rural agricultural to an industrial village in the nineteenth century. The railway network transformed Ireland, linking remote areas in the country with urban settlements and ports, while promoting the commercialisation and industrialisation of larger towns. This building retains its early form, character and stonemasonry. The well cut stone and snecked pattern are evidence of highly skilled nineteenth century stonemasonry, typical of railway architecture. While the scale of operations at the site has greatly reduced in the later half of the twentieth century this building remains in use.