Survey Data
Reg No
50110500
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Cultural, Social
Original Use
House
In Use As
Building misc
Date
1830 - 1840
Coordinates
316323, 232873
Date Recorded
23/06/2017
Date Updated
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Description
Attached three-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1835, as one of pair, having three-storey return to rear (west) elevation. Now in use as religious archive. M-profile hipped roof, hidden behind granite parapet having carved granite cornice and eaves course. Flat roof to return. Brick and rendered chimneystacks with clay pots. Brown brick, laid in Flemish bond to walls to front and rear elevations, channelled granite to ground floor to front, cut granite plinth course over dressed limestone walls to basement. Square- and round-headed window openings, having raised render reveals and granite sills. Continuous granite sill course to first floor, granite surround to basement. Cast-iron balcony with Anthemion detailing to first floor. Replacement windows throughout. Elliptical-headed door opening with moulded render surround. Carved stone doorcase comprising Ionic columns and entablature, plain fanlight and timber panelled door. Nosed granite steps and platform. Cast-iron railings having decorative finials, on carved granite plinth wall. Cast-iron coal-hole cover set in granite pavior to footpath to front.
Appraisal
One of the more grandly scaled and distinctive houses on this side of Leeson Street Lower, the use of cut granite detailing provides a pleasing sense of contrast to the brick to the upper floors. Salient features, notably a fine Greek Revival doorcase and well-executed balcony, lend artistic interest to the building and contribute to a sense of grandeur. Captain James Dombrain, who developed a terrace of houses on Leeson Street, took a lease of the site in the 1833 with the intention of building his own house. The materials to be used in its construction were stipulated in the lease. It is one of three houses on the street now belonging to the Jesuit community. The road leading from St. Stephen's Green to Donnybrook was originally called Suesey Street. It was renamed Leeson Street in 1728 to commemorate the Leeson brewing family, who were responsible for significant development in the area. Some early Georgian houses remain but construction predominantly dates from the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries.