house

Terraced two-bay two-storey house over raised basement, built c. 1885 as one of terrace of nine, having full-height return to rear (north) elevation. M-profile pitched roof, having brick chimneystacks to each end and to return, with clay pots, profiled metal gutter supported on corbelled yellow brick eaves course over yellow brick course, and with replacement uPVC downpipe to east end. Red brick walling, laid in Flemish bond, over granite plinth course and snecked limestone walls to basement to front elevation; yellow brick, laid in English garden wall bond, to rear. Square-headed window openings, having red brick block-and-start surrounds to basement, with granite sills and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows. Round-headed principal doorway with carved timber doorcase comprising panelled pilasters having scrolled brackets, supporting moulded timber cornice and plain fanlight, and timber four-panel door, approached by flight of eleven nosed granite steps and granite platform, shared with house to west, having cast-iron boot-scrape, and with wrought-iron handrail on granite plinth to east side and mild steel handrail to west. Square-headed doorway to basement with red brick block-and-start surround. Garden to front, bounded by cast-iron railings on cut granite plinth, with cast-iron pedestrian gate having ornate piers.

This well-built house is part of a terrace of ten late nineteenth-century houses with similar parapet heights and fenestration patterns. Skilled artisanship is evident in the boot-scrape and railings. The combination of snecked Calp limestone and red brick adds visual and textural interest to the facade. The corbelled brick detailing to the eaves places the house in a late nineteenth-century context. Its well-designed entrance and steps provide a decorative focus. North Circular Road was laid out in the 1780s to create a convenient approach to the city, but developed slowly over the following century, with little development west of Phibsborough until the 1870s. The terrace was named Charleville Terrace for Charleville House in Wicklow, home of Charles Monck, the landowner responsible for development along this stretch of the road.