house

Pair of mid-terrace two-bay three-storey over basement houses, built c.1800, now in use as flats. M-profile hipped roof, hidden behind parapet to front (south) elevation with cut granite coping. Brown brick stepped chimneystacks having clay chimneypots. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond to no.20 having painted cut stone plinth course over rendered walls to basement level, rendered walls to rear. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls to no.21 having painted cut stone plinth course to ground level, brown brick walls laid in English garden wall bond to rear. Square-headed window openings having painted stone sills. Replacement uPVC windows. Round-headed stair window to rear of no.20. Round-headed door openings, each having painted surround with engaged Ionic columns supporting frieze and cornice. Plain fanlights, and timber panelled door. Cut granite steps to entrance platforms having metal railings and cast-iron corner post to no.20. Basement areas enclosed from pavement level by cut granite plinth wall with metal railings and gate. 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 cut granite steps, plinth course and coping, 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.