house

Attached three-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1765, with seven-bay three-storey return to rear shared with No. 19. Now in use as offices. Pitched slate roof to front [art, behind refaced brick parapet with granite coping, and rear part having pitched roof to west shared with No. 19 and hipped roof to east. Shouldered brick chimneystack to east with clay pots and concealed rainwater goods. Flemish bond brown brick walls, refaced from second floor level upwards, over granite stringcourse on rusticated granite walls to ground floor and rendered walls to basement; rendered walls to rear and return. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with painted granite sills; ground floor has recessed granite surrounds and granite sills, lintels and keystones. Timber sliding sash windows, two-over-two pane to basement, three-over-three pane to top floor and six-over-six pane elsewhere to front facade; apparently timber sash windows to rear. Decorative cast-iron balconettes to first floor, and wrought-iron grilles to basement. Round-headed entrance doorway with recessed granite surround, panelled pilasters, moulded timber cornice, plain fanlight and eight-panel timber door with brass furniture. Granite platform with two granite steps. Wrought-iron railings enclosing basement area with decorative wrought and cast-iron corner posts on carved granite plinth. Cast-iron coal-hole covers set in granite flags to footpath. Entrance hall has timber panelling below dado rail, dentillated plasterwork cornice; stairs hall has timber open-string staircase with turned balusters, heavy timber starting newel, ramped mahogany handrail; return has round-headed opening to first half-landing with fluted Corinthian columns, plasterwork tympanum and decorative archivolt. Rear of plot has yard and carparking shared with No. 19, recent three-storey apartment block to rearmost part straddling Nos. 19-21, and recent rubble stone wall to boundary.

This house has the contrasting granite ground and brick upper floors of its neighbours that forms an interesting section of streetscape. The facade is enhanced by the modest doorcase and the moulded stringcourse. The intactness of its setting details contributes to the appearance of the important architectural set-piece that is Merrion Square. Its interior is notable for the arched opening, which would originally have held a stairs window, that is framed by Corinthian columns and a Rococo tympanum with plasterwork birds and volutes. No. 20 thus makes a strong contribution to the early character of the square, which has been well retained along this northern stretch. It was built as part of the original development of the Georgian square. Laid out as part of the Fitzwilliam Estate, Merrion Square is one of the best-preserved Georgian streetscapes in Ireland. The north, east and south sides of the square are lined with terraced houses of eighteenth and nineteenth-century date while the west side is terminated by the garden front of Leinster House. The houses maintain a relatively uniform building height and design, attributed to standards promoted in Fitzwilliam's leases. Individuality was introduced through the design of doorcases, ironwork and interior decorative schemes.