Henrietta Street Conservation Plan - The Heritage Council

Fig.5.3.24
No.13, doorcase
Fig.5.3.26
No.15, elevation
Fig.5.3.25
No.14, elevation
known occupant of the house, was a Nicholas Viscount
Loftus, and later the Earl of Ely, who leased this house
from Luke Gardiner in 1755. The house was later home to
the peripatetic Bishop of Meath, Richard Pocock, and his
successor Henry Maxwell, brother of the Earl of Farnham
who lived across the street in No. 4.
No. 13 is a four storey over basement, four bay, house,
with predominantly original 1740s red brick but with mainly
later 18th-century window sashes to the front of the house.
It has an original 1740s Doric aedicular stone doorway
(fig.5.3.24), which with the doorcase belonging to No. 14,
is one of only two on this side of the street; the granite plinth
and wrought-iron railings are also original. Although the
staircase itself was removed in the late-19th century, the
combined entrance and stair hall retains much of its original
decorative scheme, including a pedimented Portland stone
chimneypiece on the ground floor, and plaster wall panelling
and full entablature on the first floor level. However the
loss of the original stair was to a great deal overcome by
the introduction of an equally important 1730s staircase
that was salvaged from Lisle House in Molesworth Street,
demolished in 1974 (Pearson 2000). The secondary
staircase was re-built in the 1770s. This resulted in the stair
compartment cutting into the space of the original closets.
The rear ground floor reception is of exceptional quality
retaining its “original panelling, full embellished entablature
with modillion cornice and chimney piece.” (Dublin Civic
Trust Inventory 1997). Various fine survivals in other rooms
include, a c.1770s rococo ceiling in the front ground floor
reception, good egg and dart door and window architraves
in the first floor rooms, and a large rococo centrepiece in
one of the rear first floor rooms. The second floor retains
most of its original plaster and joinery.
No. 14 (fig.5.3.25)
Built simultaneously, as part of a uniform terrace, with Nos.
13 and 15, this house originally replicated the plan of No.
13. Although it has suffered considerably the depredations
of vandalism and neglect, the house still retains some
important original features of note. Built by Luke Gardiner,
its first known occupant (from c.1755) was Richard, 3rd
Viscount Molesworth, Commander in Chief of the military
in Ireland. A four bay, four storey over basement house,
the red brick façade retains much of its original brick work
although the windows on the ground and first floors were
lowered in the late 18th century. One of the finest surviving
features of the house is the stone door case, consisting
of an Ionic aedicule with full entablature and pulvinated
frieze with a segmental pediment. The original plinth wall
and wrought-iron railings have also survived. The grand
staircase was removed in the late 19th-century, and
only fragments of the 1740s timber panelling and some
elements of the plaster decoration beneath the original first
floor landing entrance hall have survived. The secondary
staircase, whose fine balusters, Doric newel posts and
ramped handrail were used by squatters as firewood in
the 1980s, is in very poor repair. The main reception rooms
were considerably altered at the end of the 18th century
in a neo-classical style (frieze and cornice), with new
lowered and splayed windows. While much of the plaster
work has survived, a good deal of the joinery was lost,
especially in the last two decades. The second floor is very
badly damaged: original early-18th-century shutters to
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