Survey Data
Reg No
50910133
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
Historical Use
House
In Use As
Shop/retail outlet
Date
1860 - 1865
Coordinates
315930, 233786
Date Recorded
02/10/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Corner-sited two-bay four-storey commercial building, rebuilt 1861 from previous Georgian block, one of pair with No. 82, top floor being addition. Side elevation on Johnson Court. Replacement shopfronts to ground floor of front and side elevations. Hipped roof, concealed behind rebuilt machined red brick parapet with masonry coping. Two machine-made red brick chimneystacks to south elevation with masonry copings. Concealed gutters with replacement uPVC hopper and downpipe breaking through to rear (west). Painted brick walling laid in Flemish bond to middle floors of front (east) elevation, with moulded quoins to south end, surmounted by projecting moulded cornice over panelled frieze, with paired scrolled and foliate console brackets over second floor level. Machine-made red brick walling to top floor of front and rear elevations, laid in stretcher bond. Buff brick walls to south elevation over horizontally channelled rendered walls to ground floor. Buff brick walls to lower floors of rear (west), laid to English garden wall bond with cementitious platband over second floor level. Front elevation has round-headed openings to first floor, with stuccoed surrounds having scrolled heads and returns, and scrolled keystones flanked by rosette motifs, rising to triangular pediments; segmental-headed openings to second floor with scrolled keystones supporting segmental hood-mouldings over stuccoed lugged architraves and sills; and square-headed openings to top floor with moulded architrave surrounds. Timber sliding sash windows with convex horns, two-over-two pane to top two floors, and one-over-one pane to first floor. South elevation lacks windows. Windows to rear have brick voussoirs, patent reveals, concrete sills and are mainly six-over-six pane timber sliding sash, with some early metal-framed casements to top floor, and recent replacements to second floor, and bipartite timber casements.
Appraisal
Nos. 81-82 were rebuilt to the designs of John Burne, and given a decorative Italianate stucco façade. Despite these substantial alterations, the original Georgian domestic plot size and façade proportions remain evident, but is unclear if any pre-1860 fabric survives. Dublin Street Directory of 1862 noted that Nos. 81-82 were ruins, but Shaw's Directory (1850) records William Reynolds, Irish poplin mercer, at no.81. Despite some modern changes, the pair constitutes a strong presence within the varied streetscape of Grafton Street and displays an attractive example of Victorian stuccowork.