Celts House

Pair of terraced two-bay three-storey over basement former houses, built c.1800, now in use as flats and hostel. Hipped M-profile roofs having parapet to front (south) elevation with cut granite capping. Brown brick chimneystacks. Rendered walls having cut granite plinth course over rendered walls to basement, channelled render to ground floor of no.32. Square-headed window openings having cut granite sills. Cast-iron balconettes to first floor windows of no.32. Six-over-six pane timber sash windows. Replacement uPVC windows to basement levels. Round-arched door openings having painted render surrounds with engaged Ionic columns supporting frieze and cornice. Petal fanlights, timber panelled doors. Cut granite steps to entrance platform of no.32, concrete steps to no.31. Basement areas enclosed from pavement and entrance platform by cut granite plinth wall with metal railings. Access from pavement level to basement area by recent stairs and metal gates. Recent enclosures to basement area of no.31 having corrugated metal roofs. Cast-iron coal-hole covers set in granite paving to front.

These buildings make an important contribution to the streetscape of Blessington Street. They retain early fabric including sash windows. The shared entrance platform is enhanced by the sweeping granite plinth wall and the matching early door surrounds and ornate fanlights. They share proportions and characteristics with neighbours resulting in a coherent Georgian streetscape. Blessington Street was laid out at the end of the eighteenth century, appearing in the alphabetical list of streets in Wilson's Dublin Directory for the first time in 1795. It terminates to the west at Blessington Street Basin, constructed in 1810 as a city reservoir supplied from the nearby canal, it is now a public park.