Ross Road Flats

Group of eleven attached north-facing and south-facing three-bay or five-bay three-storey residential tenement blocks, built c.1900, with central entrance breakfront having stepped gablet to each block. Pitched slate roofs with red brick chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods hidden behind red brick parapet wall with moulded render coping, shaped gablets to front and end elevations. Red brick walls laid in English garden wall bond, with brick plinth course. Some later brickwork. Segmental-headed window openings with brick voussoirs and reveals and two-over-two pane timber sash windows. Paired square-headed window openings with brick voussoirs and reveals to breakfront. Flush granite sills to ground floor, continuous granite sill course to first floor and granite sills to second floor. Segmental-headed door openings with brick piers, brick voussoirs and reveals. Timber panelled doors with overlights. Refurbished 2000.

The Ross Road Flats form part of the most significant renewal scheme undertaken in Dublin during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Developed for Dublin Corporation and designed by C. J. McCarthy, these purpose-built apartment blocks provided improved quality housing for hundreds of families. Often referred to as tenement blocks, this simply refers to their form, with several apartments accessed by one staircase. The residential blocks on Ross Road are relatively plain, though they are enlivened by the the curved gables and central breakfronts, motifs also seen in the facades of the nearby Iveagh Buildings. The variety in the window design, and particularly the sill types, provides architectural detail to the front facades.