house, 16, Merrion Square · NIAH 50100363

Attached three-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1770, rear having one-storey over basement return with further small addition to house end, and fire escape stairs. Now in use as offices. Slate roof, pitched to front part, behind brick parapet with granite coping, and rear having hipped lean-to roof to east and hipped roof to west. Shouldered brick chimneystacks to party walls with clay pots, and with cast-iron rainwater goods to west. Flemish bond red brick walls over granite stringcourse, with rusticated granite walls to ground floor and rendered walls to basement. Square-headed window openings, diminishing in height to upper floors, with raised rendered reveals, painted granite sills and timber sliding sash windows, six-over-six pane to basement, ground and second floors, nine-over-nine pane to first floor and three-over-three to top floor. Round-headed entrance doorway with granite surround, frieze and cornice, peacock's tail fanlight and eight-panel timber door with brass furniture. Granite platform with three granite bull-nosed steps. Wrought-iron railings enclosing basement area with decorative wrought and cast-iron corner posts on moulded granite plinth. Cast-iron coal-hole covers set in granite flags to footpath. Entrance hall and stair halls have tiled floors, moulded dado rails and egg-and-dart plasterwork cornices; entrance hall has plaster ceiling rose, square-headed door openings with lugged and kneed architraves and timber panelled doors; stairs hall has timber open-string staircase with turned balusters and mahogany handrail; first floor landing has round-headed recess to square-headed doorway, flanked by pilasters with ornate capitals and archivolt with inset lugged and kneed timber surround with timber six-panel door having Rococo plasterwork to tympanum; ground floor rooms have deep timber skirtings, chair rails, chimneybreasts to west wall, and timber lugged-and-kneed architraves to panelled doors, windows have lugged and kneed surrounds, panelled shutters and egg-and-dart cornice; first floor rooms have deep timber skirtings, chair rails, chimneybreasts (marble to west wall), square-headed doorways with reeded or lugged and kneed architraves and panelled doors, Rococo plasterwork ceilings, dentillated cornice to front room, coved cornice to rear. Return has engaged Corinthian columns supporting dentillated cornice with lunette window above and inset with square-headed doorway having panelled pilasters with decorative capitals, guilloche decoration to frieze, moulded cornice and six-panel door; round-headed window to west side with panelled reveals; whole approached by segmental archway with clustered pilasters having dentillated capitals and decorative spandrels.