Leinster Leader

Attached two-bay three-storey double-pile building, c.1900, possibly originally two-storey retaining early fenestration. Renovated, c.1990, with ground floor remodelled. Now in use as news paper offices. Gable-ended double-pile (M-profile) roof with slate (gabled to window openings to top floor in form of dormer attic windows). Clay ridge tiles. Red brick chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Granite ashlar cladding, c.1990, to ground floor. Red brick Flemish bond walls to upper floor. Cut-stone date stone/plaque. Cut-stone stringcourse to second floor possibly originally roof cornice. Square-headed openings (remodelled, c.1980, to ground floor). Stone sills (no sills to ground floor). 1/1 timber sash windows (replacement uPVC casement windows, c.1990, to ground floor). Road fronted. Concrete flagged footpath to front.

This building is a fine and well-maintained composition of balanced appearance that retains some of its original form and character – it was, however, possibly originally two-storey as indicated by the cut-stone stringcourse/roof cornice to second floor. The gablets to the top floor are an interesting feature on the street and add variety to the streetscape. Constructed of fine materials, the juxtaposition of cut-granite with early red brick, echoing the form of the building immediately to south-west (11814026/KD-19-14-26), has a positive impact on Main Street South. Although remodelled to ground floor in the late twentieth century, the upper floors retain early features and materials, including timber sash fenestration and a slate roof with cast-iron rainwater goods. The building is of some social and historic interest as evidence of the continued development of the historic core of Naas in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. The building is of considerable importance to the streetscape, continuing the established streetline of Main Street South while contributing to the varied roofline of the street.