house

Terraced two-bay four-storey over basement house, c.1800, incorporating fabric of earlier house, c.1575, on site. Extensively renovated, c.1950. Renovated with replacement two-storey shopfront inserted to ground and to first floor. Pitched roof behind parapet with replacement artificial slate, c.1950, clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks, and concealed rainwater goods. Painted rendered, ruled and lined walls with rendered quoins to ends, and fascia to second floor having moulded surround. Square-headed window openings with cut-stone sills, and replacement one-over-one timber sash windows, c.1950. Replacement two-storey limestone-clad shopfront to ground floor on a symmetrical plan with 'channelled' piers, fixed-pane display windows, glazed timber double doors having overlight, fascia with stepped coping supporting fixed-pane (four-light) window having cut-limestone surround, and moulded course over. Road fronted with concrete brick cobbled footpath to front.

A well-composed substantial house of lofty appearance on account of the vertical emphasis of the massing rising above the flanking ranges in the terrace. Despite a number of renovation projects over the course of the twentieth century much of the original form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the early fabric. A simple shopfront incorporating a symmetrical plan together with sparse detailing complements rather than disturbs the reserved treatment to the upper floors. Reputed to incorporate the fabric of an earlier medieval range the present building representing the continuation of a long-standing presence on site forms an important element of the archaeological heritage of Kilkenny. The house remains of additional importance for the historic connections with Edward Rothe (n. d.) and Bishop David Rothe (1573-1650).