Survey Data
Reg No
50130315
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Rathdown Terrace
Original Use
House
In Use As
Guest house/b&b
Date
1880 - 1900
Coordinates
314578, 235681
Date Recorded
11/07/2018
Date Updated
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Description
Terraced two-bay two-storey former house over raised basement, built c. 1890 as one of terrace of six, having full-height return to rear (south) elevation. Now in use as guest house. M-profile pitched roof, having clay ridge tiles, red brick chimneystacks with clay pots to east and west ends and to return, and profiled metal gutter supported on bracketed brick eaves course over painted brick course. Red brick walling, laid in Flemish bond, over granite plinth course and snecked limestone walls to basement to front elevation; rendered to rear. Square-headed window openings, having red brick block-and-start surround to basement, with granite sills and replacement uPVC windows. Round-headed principal doorway with carved timber doorcase comprising panelled pilasters with foliate brackets supporting timber frieze and moulded cornice, plain fanlight, and timber four-panel door, approached by flight of ten nosed granite steps and four recent concrete steps at right angle; shared with house to east and having wrought and cast-iron handrails. Square-headed doorway to basement with red brick block-and-start surround. Cast-iron railings to front boundary on cut granite plinth, with cast-iron pedestrian gate having ornate piers.
Appraisal
This well-built house forms part of terrace of six late nineteenth-century houses with similar parapet heights and fenestration patterns. The combination of snecked limestone and red brick adds visual and textural interest to the facade. The corbelled brick detailing to the eaves places the house in a late nineteenth-century context. Its well-detailed entrance provides a decorative focus. The North Circular Road was laid out in the 1780s to create a convenient approach to the city, but developed slowly over the following century, with little development west of Phibsborough till the 1870s.