Tolka Lodge

Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c. 1760, having canted-bays to ground floor at front, and single-storey abutment to south. M-profiled replaced pantile roof with half-round clay ridge tiles, concealed behind parapet with leaded copings; red brick chimneystacks to gables and rear elevation with projecting brick course and red clay pots; concealed parapet gutters with cast-iron hopper and downpipe breaking through, and replacement uPVC gutters and downpipes to abutment. Painted smooth-rendered walling to front (east) elevation, ruled-and-lined painted render to south, and roughcast to north elevation and abutment. Square-headed window openings with plain rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and replacement uPVC windows. Elliptical-arch central doorway having Ionic doorcase with engaged columns, fluted frieze with rosettes, leaded cobweb fanlight and geometric leaded sidelights, with Ionic responds, and having timber panelled door with cast-iron boot-scrapes. Set in garden with gravel driveway, accessed from north via driveway with recent mild steel gates.

This fine Georgian lodge first appears on the 1773 update of John Rocque's Survey of the City Harbour Bay and Environs of Dublin. While the extensive grounds shown on historic maps have been recently redeveloped as contemporary suburban housing, separating the house from the river from which it derives its name, the lodge still sits within a substantial garden. Despite undergoing alterations in recent years, such as replacement of windows and the installation of lead flashings to the parapets, the house retains its character as a noteworthy and imposing country lodge with distinctive Georgian massing, projecting canted-bay windows to the ground floor reception rooms and an elaborate Ionic doorcase of some distinction. The presence of this elaborate Georgian country lodge within a contemporary housing estate makes an important contribution to the history and architectural variety of the area.