Othello House

Terraced two-bay four-storey house over raised basement, built c.1820, currently in use as guest house. Front (west) elevation rebuilt to third and second floors. M-profile pitched slate roof, concealed behind red brick parapet wall with squared granite coping and cast iron hopper and downpipe. Yellow brick chimneystacks with clay pots to boundaries with Nos.75 and 73. Yellow brick walls laid in Flemish bond, with third floor and part of second floor rebuilt in red brick laid in English garden wall bond. Moulded granite plinth course over rendered walls to basement. Diminishing square-headed window openings with gauged brick voussoirs, patent rendered reveals, granite sills and timber sliding sash windows, having original six-over-six pane arrangement to second and third floor openings. Replacement sashes elsewhere including two-over-one pane arrangements to first floor, two-over-two to ground floor and eight-over-eight pane arrangements to basement. Round-headed door opening with gauged brick voussoirs, recent canopy and painted stone doorcase comprising Ionic columns on stone bases surmounted by plain frieze, projecting masonry cornice and replacement single-pane fanlight. Replacement timber panelled door opening onto granite platform bridging basement with original cast-iron bootscraper and bull-nosed granite stepped approach. Approach flanked by wrought-iron railings on moulded granite plinths, with cast-iron finials to south, railings returning to enclose basement area. Square-headed door opening to basement with replacement timber door having replacement uPVC sidelight and iron grille. Gate formed in railings and metal steps grant access to basement area from street. Limited access to rear of property which is heavily developed. Recent rendered mews building with replacement uPVC windows addresses Mabbot Lane.

Dating from the early nineteenth century, this well-appointed house forms an integral component of Lower Gardiner Street, a significant streetscape of the north Georgian city. Despite some alterations to the façade, the building has retained much of its historic form and character with the use of historically sympathetic materials complementing the remaining historic features including a fine doorcase, granite stepped approach and enclosing railings. No.74 breaks the rhythm of the terrace of paired doorcases, and displays a different doorcase to Nos.75 to 80, suggesting it was not built as part of that group. Lower Gardiner Street was developed by Luke Gardiner in the late eighteenth century, with leases dating from the 1790s. Lower Gardiner Street formed part of Gardiner’s route from Beresford Place to Mountjoy Square, and No.74 forms part of a surviving terrace along this street.