house

Terrace of four two-bay three-storey houses, built c.1840, with dormer attics to western pair of houses, and gable-fronted two-bay three-storey house attached to west c.1880. Pitched slate and artificial slate roofs, double-pile roof to eastern pair, with smooth-rendered and red brick chimneystacks and replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Some cast-iron rainwater goods survive to western house. Gable-fronted dormers with timber bargeboards. Smooth-rendered walls with platbands at first floor sill level to western three houses. Blind oculus to gable of western house with roughcast render to ground floor walls. Round-headed window openings to first and second floors and camber-headed window openings to ground floors and west house with stone sills and replacement windows throughout. Moulded render surrounds incorporating keystones to western pair. Eastern house with square-headed openings. Round-headed and camber-headed door openings with moulded render surrounds, timber panelled doors and overlights. Some with replacement doors. Square-headed door opening to east house with replacement timber door. Set on an elevated south-facing slope with gardens to front (south) and rear sites bounded be rendered wall.

This terrace represents an interesting illustration of the development of Cork's suburbs in the mid nineteenth century. The earliest map Ordnance Survey map shows the two eastern houses having already been built, together with the two houses attached to the west of the terrace. The remaining houses were constructed at a later date. The houses are stylistically different in some ways, though there are similarities. Purported to have been built by local merchants so they could have a view of the port, with its shipping traffic and the source of their wealth, the houses form part of a group with contemporary houses in the area which were built by the growing middle class.