house

Pair of mid-terrace two-bay four-storey over basement former houses, built c.1800, now in use as flats. Pitched M-profile artificial slate roof, hipped to west end. Parapet to front (south) elevation with cut granite coping. Brown brick and rendered chimneystacks. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond having recent yellow brick to parapet of no.9. Cut granite plinth course over rendered walls to basement level. Brown brick walls to rear of no.10 having recent brick to third floor. Rendered walls to rear of no.9. Square-headed window openings having cut stone sills. Patent reveals to front windows of no.10. Wrought-iron balconettes to first floor windows. Timber sliding sash windows to no.10, three-over-three pane to third floor, six-over-six pane to lower floors. Two-over-two pane timber sash window to first and second floor of no.9, one-over-one pane to ground and third floors, eight-over-four pane to basement. Ogee-headed windows rear of no.9, having two-over-one pane timber sash windows. Round-headed door openings each having painted masonry surround with engaged Ionic columns supporting a fluted frieze and cornice. Cobweb fanlight to no.9, plain fanlight to no.10. Timber panelled doors. Cut granite steps to tiled entrance platforms with cast-iron railings. Basement areas enclosed from pavement level by cut granite plinth wall with metal railings. Recent external concrete stairs provides access from pavement to basement level.

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. There are notable ogee-headed window openings to the rear elevation. 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.