house

Detached five-bay three-storey house, built c.1820. Hipped slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots and cast-iron rainwater goods. Set back from the road. Smooth render to walls. Timber sash windows with tooled limestone sills. Segmental-headed door opening with coved rendered surround and petal fanlight having central hub. Timber panelled door flanked by fluted engaged columns and sidelights with limestone threshold. Timber battened double doors give access to rear of site. Front of site bounded by rendered wall with cut limestone coping with wrought- and cast-iron railings with spear-headed finials and gate. Laneway to east of house accesses outbuilding with pitched slate roof to rear.

This well proportioned building forms part of a group of townhouses along John's Place. Like its neighbours, the house possess typical early nineteenth-century features, which include the coved door opening, a popular feature among Birr's finer domestic buildings. The attractive and colourful fanlight is a notable addition, adding artistic merit to the entrance. A further element that is repeated along this thoroughfare, and indeed throughout Oxmantown Mall, is the front site railings. With spear heads they enclose and protect the front gardens, providing a sense of security and privacy. As a large detached house, this structure compliments the street's architecturally significant building stock.