Survey Data
Reg No
50920295
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
College
Date
1800 - 1840
Coordinates
316243, 232994
Date Recorded
29/09/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached two-bay four-storey over basement former townhouse, built c. 1820, with return to rear (south) elevation. Now in use as college. M-profile pitched roof, hipped to east end, hidden behind refaced brick parapet with granite coping, having red brick chimneystacks with lipped yellow clay pots to west party wall. Brown brick walls laid in Flemish bond over granite plinth course and rendered walls to basement. West wall partially rebuilt in red brick. Square-headed window openings with masonry sills, brick voussoirs and raised rendered reveals, with timber sliding sash windows; six-over-six to first and second floor, three-over-three with angled horns to third floor, one-over-one with ogee horns to ground floor. Some Wyatt-style windows to rear (south) elevation. Wrought-iron balconettes to second floor and cast-iron balconettes to first floor. Round-headed door opening with brick voussoirs, rendered moulded reveals, Ionic columns supporting fluted frieze and cornice, with plain fanlight and raised-and-fielded timber panelled door with brass furniture. Shared granite entrance platform with cast-iron boot scraper and granite steps, flanked by iron railings with cast-iron corner posts on granite plinth, continuing to west to enclose basement area. Replacement steel steps to basement level. Street-fronted on the south side of Leeson Street Lower.
Appraisal
A typical Georgian townhouse, the restrained classical façade is ornamented by the handsome Neo-classical doorcase, and decorative railings and balconettes. The building is largely well retained. It forms a pair with the former townhouse to the east, No. 21, contributing to the historic streetscape in the heart of the south Georgian core. Leeson Street forms part of an ancient routeway, Suesey Street, leading from the city towards Donnybrook. Located within the Fitzwilliam Estate, which covered much of the south-east of the city, the street was named after Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown. Plots were leased for development in the mid-eighteenth century but, apart from the north-western end, it remained undeveloped until the 1780s and was largely completed by the early nineteenth century.