house

Attached two-bay four-storey house over basement, built c. 1830 as middle of terrace of three (Nos. 71-73), rear having three-storey return to west end and fire escape to east end. M-profile roof, hipped to west end, behind parapet with stone cornice, blocking course and ashlar platband. Rendered chimneystacks to south party wall with clay pots, and with shared chimneystack to return gable end. Flemish bond buff brick walling to upper floors on granite plinth course over rusticated granite basement walling; smooth rendered to rear. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with painted rendered reveals and painted masonry sills; round-headed window opening to west bay of rear. Timber sliding sash windows, three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane to lower floors, all lacking horns, and replacement two-over-two pane to basement with angled horns and decorative cast-iron grille. Decorative cast-iron balconettes to first floor and decorative cast-iron iron window-guards to second floor. Elliptical-headed doorway with moulded reveal, half-fluted columns, Scamozzian Ionic capitals, entablature with panelled frieze and laurel wreaths, Ionic doorcase with plain entablature, decorative leaded fanlight and six-panel timber door with beaded muntin and replacement brass furniture. Shared sandstone entrance platform with cast-iron boot-scrape and three bull-nosed granite steps to street. Spear-headed cast-iron railings on painted moulded granite plinth enclosing basement area. Cast-iron gate and mild steel steps to basement; plainly detailed timber-sheeted door beneath entrance platform with recent timber sidelights. Yard and two-storey building to rear of plot.

An early to mid-nineteenth-century house forming part of a cohesive terrace of three (Nos. 71-73) that bookends a row of nine. The trio are unified by rusticated granite end quoins and a continuous projecting eaves cornice. Characterized by elegant proportions, a good Scamozzian Ionic doorcase and early Victorian detailing, in particular fine cast-iron balconettes and window-guards, No. 72 is well retained, making a worthy contribution to the architectural character of this stretch of Baggot Street Lower and to the wider Georgian core of south Dublin. Planned in the late 1780s, development of the street began towards the west end, but progress was hampered by recession in the 1790s and the majority of buildings were constructed in the early nineteenth century, with some gaps remaining until the mid-1840s.