house

Terraced two-bay three-storey house, c.1800. Reroofed and refenestrated, c.1990. Gable-ended roof. Replacement artificial slate, c.1990. Now in use as offices to part ground floor. Concrete ridge tiles. Rendered chimney stacks. Iron rainwater goods on eaves course. Rendered walls. Painted. Square-headed openings. Stone sills. Rendered surrounds. Replacement timber casement windows, c.1990. Square-headed door opening. Timber panelled door. Spoked fanlight in rectangular frame. Road fronted. Tarmacadam footpath to front.

This house is a fine, middle-size building of considerable social and historic interest, having been built as a product of the commercialisation and industrialisation of Monasterevin following the development of the Grand Canal in the locality in the late eighteenth century. The house represents the substantial dwellings of the prosperous merchant class that capitalised on the potential of the introduction of the canal to the area. Comprehensively renovated in the late twentieth century leading to the loss of much of the original features and materials, the house nevertheless retains most of its original form, and an important survival is the original doorcase with spoked fanlight. The re-instatement of traditional timber fenestration might restore a more accurate representation of the original appearance of the house. The house is an integral component of a terrace of middle-size houses that flanks both West End and Moore Street, leading to Main Street to the south-east, and is an attractive landmark from the River Barrow to south-west. An unusual feature, and something that is shared with its neighbours, thus distinguishing the street, is the detached garden plot located on the opposite side of the street on the bank of the River Barrow. Many of these plots have now become disused and/or overgrown, and are picturesque features that ought to be maintained and preserved.