Survey Data
Reg No
50100678
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1795 - 1835
Coordinates
317026, 233128
Date Recorded
02/08/2016
Date Updated
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Description
Attached two-bay three-storey former house over raised basement, built c. 1815 as one of terrace of twelve (Nos. 4-15) within longer row of similar houses, and having shared flat-roofed three-storey return to south end of rear. Converted to offices and apartments, vacant at time of survey. M-profile roof, hipped to south end, having brick parapet with moulded granite coping, shouldered rendered chimneystacks to north party wall with clay pots, and concealed rainwater goods. Flemish bond buff brick walling to upper floors on granite plinth course over rendered basement walling. Square-headed window openings with patent reveals and granite sills; painted rendered surround to basement opening to front, set in segmental-headed recess; rendered walling to rear. Timber sliding sash windows, replacement eight-over-eight pane to basement with profiled horns, and six-over-six pane elsewhere without horns; rear has apparently timber sash windows, three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane below, with round-headed window to south bay. Elliptical-headed doorway with painted moulded surround and stone doorcase comprising pro-style fluted Doric columns, plain entablature, decorative leaded fanlight and bolection-moulded two-panel timber door with beaded muntin and replacement brass furniture. Shared granite-paved entrance platform with two stages of five and five bull-nosed steps, flanked by decorative cast-iron railings on moulded granite plinth. Decorative cast-iron railings to front boundary on moulded granite plinth with foliate motifs and decorative openwork piers to pedestrian gate. Plain square-headed doorway beneath entrance platform. Yard to rear of plot, with two-storey rubble-stone mews building to lane.
Appraisal
No. 15 Herbert Place forms part of a cohesive late Georgian terrace of twenty-five houses (Nos. 4-24), set back from the Grand Canal above exposed basements. The historic form and architectural character of the terrace are largely well retained, with notable Greek Revival doorcases, decorative fanlights and good ironwork setting features. Forming part of a unified group lining the west bank of the Grand Canal, this terrace enhances this historic streetscape and contributes to the wider Georgian core of south Dublin. The survival of the original mews building to the rear, albeit modified, enhances this property. The birthplace of the writer Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973). Her short memoir Seven Winters(1942)is set here. She described it thus, "No. 15 Herbert Place, in fact was a winter house: early dusks, humid reflections and pale sunshine seemed a part of its being." Originally built as a southward continuation of Warrington Place, the street was renamed following the accession of Sidney Herbert to his father's estates in 1827.