house — Parnell Square East

Terraced five-bay four-storey house over exposed basement, built c.1755, with central doorcase and full-height rear bow. Double-pile slate roof with flat central valley, L-plan hipped section over rear bow and further rear section to north. Brick and rendered chimneystacks with clay and terracotta pots. Roof hidden behind rebuilt brick parapet wall with granite coping. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond to painted moulded granite plinth course at ground floor level above ruled-and-lined rendered basement walls. Gauged brick flat-arched window openings with patent rendered reveals, painted stone sills and replacement timber sliding sash windows, nine-over-six pane to ground and first floors, six-over-six pane to second floor and basement, and three-over-three pane to top floor. Central round-headed door opening with painted stone Doric doorcase. Polished hardwood door with ten raised-and-fielded panels and decorative brass door furniture, inserted c.1900. Plain door jambs with stepped lintel cornice and stained leaded fanlight. Door opening flanked by large engaged Doric columns on plinth blocks supporting full Doric entablature with decorative panels to metopes, mutules to cornice surmounted by painted armorial piece, c.1900, stating 'Beart do réir ár mbriathar'. Door opens onto granite platform and two granite steps bridging basement. Platform and basement enclosed by decorative wrought-iron railings on moulded granite plinth wall with panelled granite piers framing platform and matching iron gate providing basement access. Rear elevation abutted to north by two-storey flat-roofed six-bay red brick building and modern steel fire escape. Rear site tarred and marked for parking and accessed from Rutland Place via large painted steel gates. Interior extensively remodelled c.1901 for use as Dublin County Council Chambers with insertion of full panelled room to rear at first floor level in Tudor and Celtic Revival style with Art Nouveau ironwork, neo-Classical door and fire surrounds. Eighteenth-century details include oval room to rear with Rococco plaster ceilings, original lugged-and-kneed timber joinery and open-well open-string stone stair with iron balustrade.