Building misc in Clare, County Mayo (31214010)

Attached six-bay three-storey "double-fronted" commercial building, extant 1913, on an L-shaped plan with two-bay (north-west) or three-bay (south-west) three-storey elevations. Sold, 2004[?]. Now disused. Pitched slate roof on an L-shaped plan including half-octagonal slate roofs (south-west) with roll moulded clay ridge tiles, remains of coping to gables with red brick Running bond chimney stacks to apexes on red brick Running bond bases having stringcourses below capping supporting yellow terracotta octagonal pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on box eaves retaining cast-iron square-profile downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined walls on rendered chamfered plinth with rendered band to eaves. Square-headed door openings with step thresholds, and moulded rendered surrounds supporting "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed cornices on panelled friezes framing timber panelled double doors. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and moulded rendered surrounds with one-over-one timber sash windows now boarded-up behind wrought iron sill guards. Square-headed window openings (upper floors) including square-headed window openings in tripartite arrangement (north-west) with dragged cut-limestone sill courses, and moulded rendered surrounds framing one-over-one timber sash windows having one-over-one sidelights. Interior including (upper floors): carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled reveals or shutters. Street fronted on a corner site with concrete brick cobbled footpath to front.

A dilapidated commercial building representing an integral component of the early twentieth-century built heritage of Claremorris with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the "double-fronted" plan form skilfully negotiating a constrained corner site; and the slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a feint graduated visual impression with those openings showing sleek "stucco" refinements. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thereby upholding much of the character or integrity of a commercial building making a pleasing, if increasingly forlorn visual statement in James Street.