house

Attached two-bay three-storey former house over basement, built c. 1825 as one of terrace of three (Nos. 68-70) within longer row, with single-pitched three-storey return to west end of rear. M-profile roof, hipped to west end, behind parapet with granite coping. Rendered chimneystacks to south party wall with yellow clay pots. Flemish bond red brick walling to upper floors on granite plinth course over ruled-and-lined rendered basement walling; rendered to rear. Square-headed window openings with painted rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and late nineteenth-century one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows with convex horns to basement and ogee horns elsewhere. Replacement and possibly some timber sash windows to rear. Round-headed doorway with moulded reveals, doorcase comprising Ionic columns, entablature with fluted frieze and rosettes, plain fanlight, and replacement timber panelled door with recent brass furniture. Shared granite entrance platform with cast-iron boot-scrape and three granite steps to street. Basement area enclosed by wrought-iron railings with decorative cast-iron posts on painted moulded granite plinth. Mild steel steps to basement with replacement door and replacement uPVC casement window beneath entrance platform. Two-storey flat-roofed building at rear of plot.

An early nineteenth-century house forming part of a modest terrace of three within a longer row characterized by well-balanced proportions, neo-Classical doorcases and intact setting features. Although the group has been modified with the loss of some historic fabric, including doors, fanlights and fenestration, the terrace contributes to the architectural character of Baggot Street Lower and to the wider Georgian core of south Dublin. Planned in the late 1780s, development of the street began towards the west end, but progress was hampered by recession in the 1790s and the majority of buildings were constructed in the early nineteenth century, with some gaps remaining until the mid-1840s. The variations in levels, materials, doorcase treatment and detailing across the streetscape highlight the speculative nature of its development.