house

Pair of mid-terrace two-bay three-storey over basement former houses, built c.1800, now in use as flats. Pitched M-profile roof, hipped to west end, hidden behind continuous parapet to front (south) elevation with cut granite coping. Rendered stepped chimneystacks having clay chimneypots. Rendered walls having painted cut granite plinth course to ground floor. Rendered walls to rear. Square-headed window openings having patent reveals and cut stone sills. Replacement timber windows. Round-headed door openings having painted masonry surrounds, having engaged Ionic columns supporting a fluted frieze with paterae and cornice. Plain fanlights. Timber panelled doors. Concrete steps and entrance platform to no.16. Cut granite step and concrete entrance platform to no.17. Metal railings. Basement areas enclosed from pavement level by cut granite plinth wall with metal railings and gates. Access from pavement level to basement areas by recent external concrete stairs.

This pair of houses makes an important contribution to the streetscape of Blessington Street. Although recently altered they maintain a number of early features such as door surrounds, and they share proportions and characteristics with their neighbours. Blessington Street was laid out at the end of the eighteenth century, appearing in the alphabetical list of streets in Wilson's Dublin Directory for the first time in 1795. It terminates to the west end at Blessington Street Basin, constructed in 1810 as a city reservoir supplied from the nearby canal, it is now a public park.