house

Pair of terraced two-bay three-storey over basement former houses, built c.1800, now in use as flats and offices. Hipped M-profile roof having parapet to front (south) elevation with cut granite capping. Shared rendered chimneystacks having clay chimneypots. Rendered walls having cut granite plinth course at ground floor level over rendered walls to basement. Square-headed window openings having cut granite sills. Cast-iron balconettes to first floor windows and to ground floor of no.37. Six-over-six pane timber sash windows. Replacement timber window to basement level of no.36, replacement uPVC window to basement level of no.37. Round-arched door openings, having painted render surrounds, that to no.37 having engaged Ionic columns supporting frieze with Greek key pattern and cornice. Plain fanlight to no.36, replacement fanlight to no.37. Timber panelled doors. Cut granite steps to entrance platform of no.37, concrete steps to no.36, having metal railings. Basement areas enclosed from pavement level by cut granite plinth wall with metal railings. Access from pavement level to basement area by recent concrete and metal stairs and metal gate. Cast-iron coal-hole covers set in granite paving to front.

This pair of houses makes an important contribution to the streetscape of Blessington Street. They retain early fabric including cut granite details and a decorative door surround to no.37. They share proportions and characteristics with neighbours that are typical of Georgian Dublin houses, with tall windows and regular fenestration. 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.