Valetta

Detached three-bay single-storey house with half-dormer attic, c.1880, on an irregular plan with single-bay single-storey gabled advanced bay to centre, single-bay single-storey flanking bay to left (south) and single-bay single-storey recessed end bay to right (north) having single-bay single-storey lean-to lower entrance bay to front and two-bay single-storey wing to right (north). Renovated and refenestrated, c.1990. Gable-ended roofs on a complex plan with slate (lean-to to entrance bay). Red clay ridge tiles with finials to apexes. Red brick chimney stacks. Timber eaves and bargeboards. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods, c.1990. Rendered walls. Painted. Square-headed window openings. Rendered sills. Replacement uPVC casement windows, c.1990. Square-headed door opening. Rendered pilaster doorcase with frieze and moulded rendered pediment over. Replacement glazed uPVC door, c.1990. Set back from road in own grounds. Tarmacadam grounds to site.

Valetta (House), the current use of which is uncertain, is a fine and imposing house of characteristic late-Victorian complex planning and massing - the house gives the impression of a two-storey complex, although it is in fact a single-storey range with half-dormer attic. The house is of some social and historical significance, representing the continued development of the outskirts of Kildare town in the late nineteenth century by the prosperous merchant or professional class. Renovated in the late twentieth century to accommodate its present use, the house nevertheless retains most of its original form and some of its original character – the re-instatement of traditional-style timber fenestration would benefit the appearance of the composition, the current models producing a blank effect in the elevations. Valetta (House) is an attractive and prominent feature on the streetscape of Tully Road.