house

Pair of terraced two-bay four-storey over basement former houses, built c.1800, with shared three-storey flat-roofed return to rear. Now in use as flats. Pitched M-profile roof, hipped to west, hidden behind parapet to front (north) elevation with cut granite coping. Rendered chimneystacks on party wall. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond. Cut granite plinth course over rendered walls to basement areas. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls to rear elevation. Square-headed window openings having painted granite sills and patent reveals. Cast-iron balconettes to first floor windows. Timber sash windows, three-over-three pane to third floor front elevation, bipartite windows with two-over-two panes to basement, six-over-six pane to other front openings. Mixed two-over-two pane timber sash windows and replacement windows to rear elevation. Round-headed stair windows to rear elevation, having small-pane timber sash windows. Round-arched door openings having painted masonry surrounds with engaged Ionic columns supporting fluted frieze and cornice. Petal fanlight to no.64, replacement fanlight to no.63. Timber panelled doors. Cut granite steps to entrance platforms having cast-iron railings and corner posts on granite retaining walls. Basement areas enclosed from pavement by cut granite plinth wall with cast-iron railings.

This pair of houses makes an important contribution to the streetscape. Their proportions and details are shared with neighbouring houses on Blessington Street resulting in a coherent terrace. They retain early fabric and form, with elevations typical of Georgian Dublin, the simple elevations with vertical windows enlivened by round-headed decorative door openings . Blessington Street was laid out in the late 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 end at Blessington Street Basin, constructed in 1810 as a city reservoir supplied from the nearby canal, it is now a public park.