1-17 Lower Catherine Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terrace of nine two and a half storey/ two-bay polychromatic brick houses fronting east side of Lower Catherine St. All but no17 are occupied; no 15 is vacant and no 17 is derelict.

All houses share a common pitched fibre cement slate roof. Red brick chimneys on all houses - at left end of those to left of coach arch (nos 11-17), and to right on remainder. All have decorative bands of black and yellow brick and projecting rendered copings. Rainwater goods (a mixture of metal and plastic) supported on projecting eaves course over painted moulded brackets; between the brackets are diamond panels of black tile.

All ground floor walls of street facade are smooth cement rendered; nos 1 and 3 also pebbledashed. The first floor walls are of red brick with a projecting rendered string course between the two floors. The quoins of the end house at left (no 17) are stepped, raised and rendered at ground floor, and of stepped yellow brick at first floor. All first floor window openings have polychrome jack arches; granite cills. A string course of yellow brick connects the heads. Between the heads and eaves brackets, are two parallel lines of black brick, between which is a ribbon of four yellow bricks set in quatrefoil pattern around a black brick. Between each first floor window is a single quatrefoil yellow-brick
setting. The facade is interrupted, at ground floor, by a semi-elliptical coach arch between no’s 9 and 11. The wall and window above this arch have been rebuilt without embellishment (but retaining their bracketed eaves). Between first floor windows of no 17 is a circular smooth granite panel in a black brick setting. It is inscribed "Caulfield Terrace 1879" and also bears the interlocked initials ‘JOH’.

Door openings, which are to left on nos 1-9 and at right on nos 11-17, surrounded by raised piers supporting strapwork consoles with entablature above. No original doors remain. Window openings at front comprise one to room beside door and two above, over ground floor openings. Only no 15 retains its original windows, all 2/2 replacement sliding sash windows. The facade of no 5 now incorporates a shop front, with enlarged ground floor window opening.

All houses originally had gabled timber dormers at centre of front pitch, all now removed except nos 5, 15 and 17 (that to no 11 is a modern rebuild). Only no 15 is completely intact, with fretted barge boards, glazed single-pane cheeks, 2/2 sliding sash window with triangular louvre above at front. Skylights have bee inserted in some houses, and nos 1 and 3 have had their eaves raised to accommodate a third storey.

The arch between nos 9 and 11 leads into a rear alley behind enclosed yards. The shallow semi-elliptical arch is of brick on granite base and spring stones. Decorative encaustic tiles in quatrefoil pattern are set into a band of black brick half way up the jambs.

With the exception of no 15, all the rear elevations have been altered to a significant degree with the insertion of new skylights or dormers, flat-roofed extensions, modern windows and cement render. No 15 is closest to its original state, with mortar-rendered random granite rubble walls, one-storey scullery return at right (with door to yard and gabled slate roof), 2/2 sliding sash window on first-second floor landing (with brick trimming), and 2/1 sliding sash window to second floor bedroom (also with brick trim). The ground and first floor windows at rear are obscured by a modern timber-clad monopitch return at left.

The left and right gables are abutted by houses.

Historical information

These buildings were erected in the 1870s, starting with no.1. They first appear in the Valuation Books in the following years: nos 1, 3, 5 = 1873 (by first occupied 1874); no 7 = 1876; no 9 = 1878; coach arch and no.11 = 1879; nos 13, 15, 17 = 1881 (but “built on 1879” also noted). They were built by John O’Hare (cf JOH inscription), shortly before the adjoining terrace of nos 19-27 (HB 16/28/66). The terrace may be named after the original proprietor of the nearby Newry Distillery.

Primary Sources:

1. Valuation revision books, 1866-1930, PRONI - VAL 12B/15/1C, p.278.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Terrace of nine two and a half storey/ two-bay polychromatic brick houses. They are of local interest in reflecting the systematic development of Lower Catherine Street in the later 19th century.