house

Attached two-bay two-storey house over raised basement, built c. 1880 as pair with No. 243 to east, having return to rear (north) elevation. M-profile pitched roof, with red brick chimneystacks having clay pots to west end, rendered eaves course and profiled cast-iron and replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Rendered walls with raised rendered quoins, over granite plinth course with channelled rendered walls to basement; rendered to rear. Camber-arch window openings to upper floors, with moulded rendered surrounds and granite sills; square-headed opening to basement with wrought-iron window-guard; replacement uPVC sliding sash windows throughout. Round-headed principal doorway with channelled render pilasters having moulded capitals, carved timber doorcase comprising panelled pilasters with scrolled brackets supporting timber frieze and plain fanlight with moulded render surround, and having replacement timber door; square-headed doorway to basement with rendered reveals. Flight of eleven granite steps and granite platform, with decorative cast-iron handrail to west side and cast-iron coal-hole cover. Garden to front, having red brick boundary wall, laid in English garden wall bond, with moulded brick coping, having pedestrian gateway with red brick piers having granite caps and cast-iron gate.

This well-built house is part of a pair of late nineteenth-century houses with similar parapet heights and fenestration patterns. The use of both smooth and channelled render adds visual and textural interest to the facade. Craftsmanship is evident in the design of the cast-iron handrail and gate which provide a sense of enclosure from the busy road. The North Circular Road was laid out in the 1780s to create a convenient approach to the city. It developed slowly over the following century with little development west of Phibsborough till the 1870s.