house

Terraced four-storey house over raised basement, built c.1805, having three-bay ground floor and two-bay upper floors. Now in use as hostel, together with Nos. 8-10. M-profile roof hidden behind parapet wall with granite coping. Shared rendered chimneystack to north party wall with clay pots. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond, set on painted masonry plinth course above rendered basement. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and replacement uPVC windows. Enlarged window openings to cement rendered rear elevation with replacement uPVC windows. Gauged brick round-headed door opening with moulded surround and painted masonry Ionic doorcase with slender sidelights and columns having plinth blocks, with replacement timber door, and supporting stepped and fluted lintel cornice and plain fanlight. Door opens onto tiled platform and five tiled steps bridging basement area with decorative iron lantern arch. Platform and basement area enclosed by original wrought-iron railings and cast-iron corner posts on painted moulded granite plinth wall to street.

Gardiner Street Upper was laid out by Luke Gardiner II as part of the development of Mountjoy Square in 1792, and this terrace, lining the west side of the street, was completed by 1818. The decorative focus for the face of this Georgian townhouse is the fine Ionic doorcase. The retention of the stone steps to the entrance, and of the stone plinth and iron railings to the basement area, enhances the setting. The building is part of a terrace that helps define the area as one of strongly Georgian character.