Recording of buildings along Wolfe Tone Street and Vicar Street, Kilkenny for the Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Rob Goodbody Historic Building Consultant March 2012 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents Contents Contents ................................................................................................................. 2 List of figures .......................................................................................................... 5 List of photographs ................................................................................................. 6 Summary .............................................................................................................. 12 Background .......................................................................................................... 13 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 14 Technical details ........................................................................................... 15 Site locations ........................................................................................................ 16 Site AH 2: Wall at Wolfe Tone Street ................................................................... 17 Historical background ....................................................................................... 18 Site AH 2 .............................................................................................................. 20 Survey sheet ..................................................................................................... 20 Protection status................................................................................................... 21 Protected structure ........................................................................................... 21 Architectural conservation area ........................................................................ 21 National Inventory of Architectural Heritage...................................................... 21 Survey............................................................................................................... 22 Padmore and Barnes .................................................................................... 22 Site AH 4: Wall at Wolfe Tone House ................................................................... 24 Historical background ....................................................................................... 25 Kilkenny Fever Hospital ................................................................................ 25 Kilkenny City and County Fever Hospital ...................................................... 26 The site ......................................................................................................... 28 Site AH 4 .............................................................................................................. 29 Survey sheet ..................................................................................................... 29 Protection status................................................................................................... 30 Protected structure ........................................................................................... 30 Architectural conservation area ........................................................................ 30 National Inventory of Architectural Heritage...................................................... 30 Survey............................................................................................................... 31 Historic Building Consultants Page 2 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents Fever hospital ............................................................................................... 31 Sites AH 5, AH 6 and AH 7: 20-22 Vicar Street .................................................... 34 Note: report of March 2008. .............................................................................. 34 Historical background ....................................................................................... 35 Sites AH 5, AH6 and AH 7 ................................................................................... 41 Survey sheet ..................................................................................................... 41 Protection status................................................................................................... 42 Protected structure ........................................................................................... 42 Architectural conservation area ........................................................................ 42 Record of Monuments and Places (RMP)......................................................... 42 National Inventory of Architectural Heritage...................................................... 42 Building survey – sites AH 5, AH 6 and AH 7 ....................................................... 43 Opening up survey, 2008 .................................................................................. 45 20 Vicar Street – building survey ...................................................................... 46 Exterior .......................................................................................................... 46 Interior – ground floor .................................................................................... 49 Interior – first floor ......................................................................................... 57 Opening up survey – number 20 ....................................................................... 67 Return ........................................................................................................... 69 First floor ....................................................................................................... 70 Ground floor .................................................................................................. 73 Exterior .......................................................................................................... 75 Stone structure at rear .................................................................................. 77 Concrete structure at rear ............................................................................. 82 21 Vicar Street .................................................................................................. 83 Exterior .......................................................................................................... 83 Archway ........................................................................................................ 85 Interior – ground floor .................................................................................... 88 Interior – first floor ......................................................................................... 93 Attic ............................................................................................................. 102 Structures at rear ........................................................................................ 103 22 Vicar Street ................................................................................................ 107 Exterior ........................................................................................................ 107 Interior – ground floor .................................................................................. 109 Interior – first floor ....................................................................................... 114 Historic Building Consultants Page 3 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents Buildings at rear .......................................................................................... 120 Boundary walls ............................................................................................ 129 Opening up survey – number 22 ..................................................................... 137 Front façade ................................................................................................ 138 Southern gable ............................................................................................ 139 Rear wall ..................................................................................................... 140 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 144 Feature at rear of 22 Vicar Street ................................................................... 144 Outbuilding at rear of 20 Vicar Street .............................................................. 146 Arch at rear of 21 Vicar Street ........................................................................ 146 Outbuildings and boundary walls at 22 Vicar Street ....................................... 147 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 148 Historic Building Consultants Page 4 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents List of figures 1. Location of site AH 2 in relation to the proposed road scheme .................... 17 2. Detail of Rocque’s map of 1758 with site AH 2 arrowed .............................. 18 3. First edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1839.................................... 19 4. Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1900 showing street width. ...................... 19 5. Location of site AH 4 in relation to the proposed road scheme .................... 24 6. Ordnance Survey map showing fever hospital (arrowed) ............................ 27 7. Detail of Rocque’s map of Kilkenny, 1758 ................................................... 28 8. Location of sites AH 5, 6 and 7 in relation to the proposed road scheme .... 34 9. Detail of Rocque’s map of Kilkenny, 1758 with site arrowed ........................ 35 10. First edition Ordnance Survey six-inch sheet, 1839 ..................................... 36 11. Detail of OS manuscript map of Kilkenny, 1841 ........................................... 37 12. Enlarged detail of 1841 map with modern map superimposed .................... 37 13. Undated valuation map showing the houses in Vicar Street ........................ 38 14. Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1900 ........................................................ 39 15. Ground floor plan, 20 Vicar Street................................................................ 49 16. First floor plan, 20 Vicar Street..................................................................... 57 17. Ground floor plan of 20 Vicar Street showing location of photographs ........ 67 18. First floor plan of 20 Vicar Street showing location of photographs ............. 68 19. Ground floor plan, 21 Vicar Street................................................................ 88 20. First floor plan, 21 Vicar Street..................................................................... 93 21. Ground floor plan of 22 Vicar Street........................................................... 109 22. First floor plan of 22 Vicar Street................................................................ 114 23. Layout of structures to rear of 22 Vicar Street............................................ 120 24. Enlarged detail of Rocque’s map of 1758 .................................................. 145 Historic Building Consultants Page 5 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents List of photographs 1. Padmore and Barnes’ premises with wall at site AH 2 on left .................... 22 2. Northern face of wall at AH 2 ..................................................................... 23 3. The former Kilkenny City and County Fever Hospital ................................ 31 4. Front boundary wall of fever hospital ......................................................... 32 5. Boundary wall seen from the west ............................................................. 32 6. Internal face of wall at road frontage .......................................................... 33 7. Northern end of front wall, and northern boundary wall ............................. 33 8. Numbers 20 to 22 Vicar Street ................................................................... 43 9. Rear of number 20 and 21 ......................................................................... 44 10. Rear of number 22, with number 21 on right .............................................. 44 11. Medieval ope in stone wall within car park adjoining 22 Vicar Street. ........ 45 12. Front facade of 20 Vicar Street .................................................................. 46 13. Front doorway to number 20 ...................................................................... 46 14. Side of 20 Vicar Street and its return ......................................................... 47 15. Rear elevation of 20 Vicar Street ............................................................... 47 16. Rear of 20 and 21 between returns ........................................................... 48 17. South side of return of no. 20..................................................................... 48 18. Gable end of return of number 20 .............................................................. 48 19. View to front of hall .................................................................................... 50 20. Front door .................................................................................................. 50 21. Timber beam over hallway ......................................................................... 50 22. Stairs.......................................................................................................... 51 23. Doorway to return at rear ........................................................................... 51 24. View to front of larger room........................................................................ 52 25. Inner wall, with fireplace and niche ............................................................ 52 26. Rear window of large room ........................................................................ 53 27. Detail of timber beam crossing ceiling ....................................................... 53 28. Hearth ........................................................................................................ 53 29. Front wall of small room, with window........................................................ 54 30. Rear of small room, with door .................................................................... 54 31. Doorway to return, with view to front door beyond ..................................... 55 32. Rear wall of return ..................................................................................... 55 Historic Building Consultants Page 6 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents 33. External door in return ............................................................................... 56 34 . Window to side of return ............................................................................ 56 35. Staircase and balustrade ........................................................................... 58 36. Ope in rear wall at staircase ...................................................................... 58 37. Landing and door to return......................................................................... 59 38. Landing, looking towards staircase ............................................................ 59 39. Doorway to front room 1 at first floor level ................................................. 60 40. Front wall of room ...................................................................................... 60 41. Window in front room 1 .............................................................................. 60 42. Window in front room 2 .............................................................................. 61 43. Door in front room 2 ................................................................................... 61 44. Blocked up in external wall of front room 2 ................................................ 62 45. Former hearth in front room 2 .................................................................... 62 46. Door to rear room ...................................................................................... 63 47. Window and blocked hearth in rear room .................................................. 63 48. Return at upper floor level, looking towards main house ........................... 64 49. Return at upper floor level, looking to rear ................................................. 64 50. Corner of return at rear, with window ......................................................... 65 51. East-facing side wall of return .................................................................... 65 52. Western wall of return at first floor level ..................................................... 66 53. Roof structure in return .............................................................................. 66 54. Interior of northern wall of return of number 20 Vicar Street. ................... 69 55. Interior of front wall of number 20 at northern corner ................................. 70 56. Inner face of front wall of number 20 Vicar Street at southern end ............ 71 57. Inner face of northern end wall of number 20 Vicar Street ......................... 71 58. Party wall between numbers 20 and 21 at first floor level .......................... 72 59. Opening in front wall at ground floor of number 20 .................................... 73 60. Opening on inside face of northern end wall, ground floor ......................... 74 61. Opening on internal wall between hall and main reception room ............... 74 62. Front corner of 20 Vicar Street, at north-western corner ............................ 75 63. Rear view of 20 Vicar Street, with return of number 21 on left ................... 76 64. Part of northern boundary wall, close to house .......................................... 76 65. Shed at rear, northern face, to Mill Lane .................................................... 77 66. North-western corner of shed .................................................................... 77 67. Southern wall of outbuilding ....................................................................... 78 Historic Building Consultants Page 7 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents 68. Details of hammer-dressed stone quoins at corner ................................... 78 69. Details of hammer-dressed stone at former ope ........................................ 78 70. Western wall of outbuilding ........................................................................ 79 71. Detail of arch of doorway ........................................................................... 79 72. Eastern side of outbuilding, with concrete porch ........................................ 80 73. Detail of quoins on south-eastern corner of outbuilding ............................. 80 74. Interior of arch on southern wall of outbuilding .......................................... 81 75. Interior of doorway on northern wall of outbuilding .................................... 81 76. Ope on eastern wall, with skewbacks marked with arrows ........................ 81 77. Concrete structure at rear of 20 Vicar Street ............................................. 82 78. Front facade of 21 Vicar Street .................................................................. 83 79. Rear of 21 Vicar Street .............................................................................. 84 80. Southern side of return .............................................................................. 84 81. Rear of arch at 21 Vicar Street .................................................................. 85 82. Detail of skewback on arch ........................................................................ 85 83. Interior of access through 21 Vicar Street .................................................. 86 84. Detail of wall, with brick at back of hearth .................................................. 86 85. Detail of reused dressed stone in wall at arch ........................................... 87 86. Detail of reused dressed stone in wall at arch ........................................... 87 87. Front door .................................................................................................. 89 88. View to rear of corridor............................................................................... 89 89. Detail of rear of corridor ............................................................................. 89 90. Front room on northern side ...................................................................... 90 91. Rear of room .............................................................................................. 90 92. En suite at rear of northern room ............................................................... 91 93. Timber beam in large room, with cornice at right ....................................... 91 94. Rear corridor .............................................................................................. 92 95. Upper section of staircase ......................................................................... 94 96. Balustrade.................................................................................................. 94 97. Lower flight of stairs ................................................................................... 94 98. Landing at staircase ................................................................................... 95 99. View along corridor .................................................................................... 95 100. Door to room next to stairs......................................................................... 95 101. Room adjacent to staircase ....................................................................... 96 102. Surviving architrave and window lining ...................................................... 96 Historic Building Consultants Page 8 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents 103. View to front of central room ...................................................................... 97 104. View to rear of central room ....................................................................... 97 105. Kitchen in central room .............................................................................. 98 106. Chimneypiece in central room ................................................................... 98 107. Partition in room over archway .................................................................. 99 108. Rear window .............................................................................................. 99 109. View to south in room in return ................................................................ 100 110. View to north in room in return ................................................................. 100 111. Door to WC from room in return ................................................................ 101 112. Shower in room in return.......................................................................... 101 113. Corridor leading in to return ..................................................................... 101 114. Underside of roof in attic of 21 Vicar Street ............................................. 102 115. Face of spine wall in attic ......................................................................... 102 116. View of yard at rear of 21 Vicar Street from vehicular access.................. 103 117. View of rear of house from eastern end of yard ....................................... 103 118. Gateway to rear of 22 Vicar Street ........................................................... 104 119. Fender close to gateway .......................................................................... 104 120. Fender near to archway ........................................................................... 104 121. Southern boundary wall, at right .............................................................. 105 122. Northern boundary wall ............................................................................ 105 123. Storage sheds at rear of 21 Vicar Street .................................................. 105 124. Western front of flat-roofed building ......................................................... 106 125. Northern side of flat-roofed building. ........................................................ 106 126. Front facade of 22 Vicar Street ................................................................ 107 127. Southern gable end ................................................................................. 108 128. Ground floor rear window......................................................................... 108 129. Rear facade of 22 Vicar Street ................................................................. 108 130. View to front of passageway .................................................................... 110 131. Detail of spring of arch and capital of pilaster .......................................... 110 132. Window at front of main room .................................................................. 111 133. View to rear of main room ........................................................................ 111 134. View to front of main room ....................................................................... 111 135. View to front of smaller room at ground floor level ................................... 112 136. Chimney piece in smaller room ................................................................ 112 137. Lobby at foot of stairs............................................................................... 113 Historic Building Consultants Page 9 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents 138. Foot of staircase ...................................................................................... 113 139. Cupboard in lobby .................................................................................... 113 140. Window ope beneath stairs ...................................................................... 113 141. View down main flight of stairs ................................................................. 115 142. View up main flight ................................................................................... 115 143. Window on staircase ................................................................................ 115 144. View to front of corridor ............................................................................ 116 145. View to rear of main corridor .................................................................... 116 146. Door to bathroom ..................................................................................... 117 147. View from the door ................................................................................... 117 148. WC area................................................................................................... 117 149. Window to stairwell .................................................................................. 117 150. Window in small front office ..................................................................... 118 151. View across small front office .................................................................. 118 152. Larger office at front of building ............................................................... 119 153. Door to larger office ................................................................................. 119 154. Window to larger office ............................................................................ 119 155. Shed A at rear of yard behind 22 Vicar Street ......................................... 121 156. Northern end of building, above shed B ................................................... 121 157. Wall to the left of the doorway, shed A..................................................... 122 158. Buttress at front of shed A ....................................................................... 122 159. Area to right of door of Shed A ................................................................ 123 160. Area to right of window of shed A ............................................................ 123 161. View northwards along larger room ......................................................... 124 162. View southwards along larger room ......................................................... 124 163. Entrance and door linking the rooms ....................................................... 125 164. Window in smaller room........................................................................... 125 165. Shed B ..................................................................................................... 126 166. Shed C ..................................................................................................... 126 167. Eastern end of shed D ............................................................................. 127 168. Collapsed gable at eastern end of shed D ............................................... 127 169. Pier at end of shed D with dressed stone in mid section.......................... 128 170. Northern boundary wall ............................................................................ 129 171. Eastern section of southern boundary wall .............................................. 130 172. boundary wall, seen within shed C .......................................................... 131 Historic Building Consultants Page 10 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Contents 173. Ventilation slit seen within the shed ......................................................... 131 174. Central section of southern boundary, seen from car park ...................... 132 175. Southern boundary, western section, seen within shed D ....................... 133 176. Southern boundary, western section, adjacent to house ......................... 133 177. Southern boundary, western section, seen from car park ........................ 134 178. Western end of southern boundary wall, at rear corner of house ............ 135 179. Western end of southern boundary wall.................................................. 135 180. Wall projecting from south-western corner of 22 Vicar Street .................. 136 181. Southern part of ground floor facade showing shopfront ......................... 137 182. Opening in front facade of number 22 Vicar Street .................................. 138 183. Southern gable end of 22 Vicar Street ..................................................... 139 184. Masonry at chimney stack ....................................................................... 139 185. Masonry at base of gable wall ................................................................. 139 186. Rear of 22 Vicar Street ............................................................................ 140 187. South-eastern corner of building with change in face indicated ............... 140 188. South-eastern corner of 22 Vicar Street................................................... 141 Historic Building Consultants Page 11 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Summary Summary This report has been produced as a historical and historic building survey of a number of structures that would be affected by the construction of the Kilkenny Central Access Scheme. The purpose of the report is to record the structures for posterity and to investigate the history of their development, particularly in relation to the potential for any older fabric to be incorporated in the structures now standing. The reference numbers by which these structures are labelled are derived from the reports produced during the environmental impact assessment stage of the planning of the proposed route. As a result, the numbers are not in sequence as not all structures addressed in the statement would be directly impacted by the road scheme. Site AH 2 is a stretch of boundary wall adjacent to the premises of Padmore and Barnes in Wolfe Tone Street. This is a concrete wall that rises from a lower level of rubble stone. The historical background shows that the stone wall is a retaining wall dating from the widening of this street in the mid-nineteenth century. Site AH 4 is the front boundary wall of Wolfe Tone House, Wolfe Tone Street. The historical background shows that this building was erected in the 1820s as the Kilkenny City and County Fever Hospital to replace a charitable institution that had previously cared for fever patients. Prior to that time the land had been in agricultural use. The wall to the front of the premises if of rubble stone, faced on the side facing the public street by cement render. One corner of the wall is of concrete. Sites AH 5, AH 6 and AH 7 are three houses in a terrace at 20, 21 and 22 Vicar Street, together with a number of associated outbuildings. The historical background shows that it is likely that there have been buildings on this site since medieval times, and possibly as early as the 13th century. By the beginning of the nineteenth century there were four houses on the site and during the mid-century these were rebuilt as three houses. The walls of the previous houses may have been incorporated in the reconstruction, though probably only at the front. Investigation of the fabric of these walls has found that there is a significant quantity of broken brick of a post-medieval type in the rubble, indicating that the existing three houses are post-medieval, and that the houses that were previously on the site would also appear to have been post-medieval. Some dressed stone from an earlier period is found in the walls of the building, some of it as reused rubble. In the south-east corner of number 22 Vicar Street the corner of an earlier building was identified in this survey, and this earlier building is identified as having stood on the adjacent site to the south. The stones of the remaining corner of that building are of dressed limestone and of late medieval or early modern date, though they are not in their original locations and have been reused in the construction of this surviving corner of the building. Historic Building Consultants Page 12 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Background Background This report has been prepared for Valerie J Keeley Ltd on behalf of their clients, Kilkenny City Council, as part of the Kilkenny Central Access Scheme. The sites were inspected for the purposes of preparing this report on 25th September and 16th November 2012 and 8th and 18th February 2013 on which occasions the photographs incorporated in the report were taken and the sites examined to prepare the descriptions contained therein. Photographs are also included from previous visits to the premises on 5th and 12th March and 30th November 2008. Historical research was carried out on the background history of the properties and the results are set down below. While this report contains comment on aspects of the condition of the buildings it is not a condition report or a structural report and must not be read as such This report has been prepared by Rob Goodbody BA(mod), DipEnvPlanning, DipABRC, MA, MUBC, MIPI, MRTPI. © Rob Goodbody 2013 Historic Building Consultants Page 13 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Methodology Methodology The requirement for the architectural survey was for five sites that had been identified in the Environmental Impact Statement as requiring some level of recording prior to construction. In all cases the requirement was for an architectural survey, to include measured survey and architectural assessment accompanied by plans, elevations, sections and photographs. This report goes further than the required written and photographic survey of each of the sites and includes a historical background section for each of the sites. This was included through the author’s belief that the recording of a structure is better informed if some light is thrown on the historical origins and development of the site. This point has been of particular significance in the examination of the sites along Wolfe Tone Street, as the historical background has identified the date of construction of the former fever hospital and has indicated that the boundary along the northern side of the street changed during the nineteenth century. The research in relation to the historical background was carried out chiefly through the examination of historic maps coupled with the valuation records. This was based primarily on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1839 and 1900, and also included John Rocque’s map of the city of Kilkenny, produced in 1758. Each of the sites was visited more than once for the survey and those in Vicar Street visited several times. A comprehensive set of photographs was taken of each site and its setting and information collected on which the descriptions were based. The background historical research was not finalised until after the full inspections of the sites were completed in order to ensure that information from the site itself would form part of the research. A great deal of research was also carried out prior to the visits as this was seen as necessary for full appreciation of the site. Historic Building Consultants Page 14 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Methodology Technical details Any measurements taken on the sites were taken for the most part using electronic distance measurement (EDM) for the horizontal distances. Vertical distances also used a hand-held EDM device, though retractable steel tapes were also used, particularly where a scale was required for the photograph. Telescopic measuring rod was used for ascertaining heights where EDM was not possible, such as with the wall heights at Wolfe Tone Street, while levels were taken with an electronic water level. Photographs were taken using a Canon EOS 7D digital SLR with stabilised lens and for the most part were used without processing. Where processing was necessary it was done using Adobe Photoshop Elements version 9.0 and was used predominantly to reduce the contrast between light and shadow where there was strong sunlight. Flash was avoided as far as possible as it flattens the resulting photographs and severely reduces contrasts. The report was produced in MS Word 2007 and saved into Adobe Acrobat. Note: In respect of each of the sites the text, photographs and historical background are intended to be read together and the site is not fully described except as an integration of these individual elements. Historic Building Consultants Page 15 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Site locations Site locations The description of each site as set down in this report gives a small extract from the road design drawing, on Ordnance Survey base, showing the site. This is not enough in itself to readily identify the site and is supplemented by a twelve digit National Grid reference set down for each site in the survey sheet incorporated in the text. The sites are identified using the same numbers as in the Environmental Impact Statement for sake of continuity. One result of this system is that the numbers are not continuous and some numbers are not represented – notably site AH-1, which is the Padmore and Barnes factory and site AH 3, which is the former fever hospital, neither of which required a full architectural survey. Historic Building Consultants Page 16 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Site AH 2, Wolfe Tone Street Site AH 2: Wall at Wolfe Tone Street The Padmore and Barnes factory stands on the northern side of Wolfe Tone Street. To the west of the factory building there is an open area that is part of the factory property. This area is bounded on the street frontage by a wall that is designated AH 2 in the Environmental Impact Statement. The map extract below shows the site and its relationship to the road scheme. Figure 1: Location of site AH 2 in relation to the proposed road scheme The site is described in the Environmental Impact Statement as “Boundary wall”. As seen in the map extract, the scheme would result in the removal of this section of the wall to facilitate the junction between the proposed road and the existing Wolfe Tone Street. The factory building, designated site AH 1, is not directly impacted by the scheme. Historic Building Consultants Page 17 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Site AH 2, Wolfe Tone Street Historical background The Padmore and Barnes factory was built in 1934 as a north-light factory, a form that was common at that time for industrial premises. Prior to that time the site had been open land. To the east lay the wall that separated the factory site from the former Kilkenny City and County Infirmary, while to the west the boundary wall was shared with the former Kilkenny City and County Fever Hospital. John Rocque’s map of the city of Kilkenny depicted Wolfe Tone Street, then not named. The configuration of the street as shown on the map is very similar to the way that it appeared on the early Ordnance Survey maps, with a wider section at the western end where it met Greensbridge Street, narrowing at a point to the east of this, more or less where the western end of site AH 2 begins. Later nineteenth century Ordnance Survey maps show Wolfe Tone Street as having a more consistent width, suggesting that this part of the street was widened in the midnineteenth century. Figure 2: Detail of Rocque’s map of 1758 with site AH 2 arrowed The difference in width is clearly seen in the extract from Rocque’s map reproduced above. The later Ordnance Survey maps are reproduced overleaf. Historic Building Consultants Page 18 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Site AH 2, Wolfe Tone Street Figure 3: First edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1839 The narrowing of the street at the eastern boundary of the fever hospital is seen in the 1839 Ordnance Survey map reproduced above. The later map, dating from about 1900 is shown below and the difference in the width of the street is no longer evident. Figure 4: Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1900 showing street width. Historic Building Consultants Page 19 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Site AH 2, Wolfe Tone Street Site AH 2 Survey sheet Site: AH-02 Site type Boundary wall Survey requirement Architectural Survey Townland Roachpond Parish St Maul’s Barony Municipal Borough of Kilkenny County City of Kilkenny Status Not protected National grid reference 650730 656440 OS six-inch map Kilkenny sheet 19 OS 1:2500 map Kilkenny sheet 19-7 Impact of scheme Direct impact Original use Boundary wall Current use Boundary wall Condition Good Date 19th century Special interest Record only. Rating Record only Description High wall on front boundary of Padmore and Barnes, Wolfe Tone Street Date of survey 5th & 12th March 2008 and 25th September 2012 Historic Building Consultants Page 20 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Protection status The Padmore and Barnes site is in the area covered by the Kilkenny City and Environs Development Plan 2008-2014, which is Volume III of the Kilkenny County Development Plan 2008-2014. This plan covers the Kilkenny City area and includes the Record of Protected Structures and the Architectural Conservation Areas for the city. Protected structure Neither the Padmore and Barnes factory nor the boundary wall is included in the Record of Protected Structures set down in the Kilkenny City and Environs Development Plan 2008-2014. Architectural conservation area The wall along the road frontage forms the boundary of the Michael Street Conservation Area as set down in the current development plan. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) covered the Kilkenny area in 2004-2005 and the results have been published. The Padmore and Barnes factory is included in the inventory, reference number 12000202. The appraisal of the building in that survey concludes that the factory is: A large-scale building representing an important element of the early to mid twentieth-century architectural heritage of Kilkenny. In addition to the scale of the site the building is identified in the streetscape by attributes including the distinctive profile of the roof with the many gables presenting an appealing rhythmic effect in the street scene, and so on. Having been reasonably well maintained the building presents an early aspect with most of the composition attributes surviving intact together with increasingly-rare steel fittings to some window openings. Historic Building Consultants Page 21 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Survey Padmore and Barnes Plate 1: Padmore and Barnes’ premises with wall at site AH 2 on left The boundary wall to the west of the factory building at Padmore and Barnes is seen at left in the photograph above, with the factory building running to the east of the wall. Seen from the road, the wall appears to be of concrete construction, faced with roughcast render or pebbledash, and capped with precast concrete copings. Immediately to the west of the main factory buildings there is a single-storey, flat-roofed extension to the factory, and the boundary wall rises to form the side wall of this structure. The wall rises higher than the extension and is faced with a similar roughcast render, though without the precast concrete capping that is seen on the boundary wall. Historic Building Consultants Page 22 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Plate 2: Northern face of wall at AH 2 Seen from the property at Padmore and Barnes, the northern side of the boundary wall is of two-stage construction. The upper portion, corresponding to the wall seen from the road, is of mass concrete, plank-shuttered and raised in three lifts, with integral mass concrete piers at intervals. This is perched on top of the lower section – a rubble stone wall, which is buttressed with mass concrete buttresses at intervals. The stone wall is constructed of modest-sized stones, many of which are rounded, indicating an origin as field stones, rather than the more rounded type found was water-worn stones. The stonework is laid with a general horizontal emphasis, but without any obvious coursing. Historic Building Consultants Page 23 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Site AH 4: Wall at Wolfe Tone House Wolfe Tone House is the former Kilkenny City and County Fever Hospital, built in the early 1820s and more recently used as the Kilkenny Women’s Primary Education Project. The building itself if marked as AH 3 in the map extract below, while the boundary wall is AH 4. The map extract below shows the site and its relationship to the road scheme. Figure 5: Location of site AH 4 in relation to the proposed road scheme The site is described in the Environmental Impact Statement as “Boundary wall”. As seen in the map extract, the scheme would cut through the front part of the grounds associated with the former hospital and would result in the demolition of the entire street frontage of the wall, along with a small length of the western boundary and a more substantial part of the eastern boundary. The former fever hospital building would not be directly impacted. Historic Building Consultants Page 24 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Historical background Until the nineteenth century the majority of facilities for the care of the health of the population and for the provision of relief for the poor were privately run. Until the sixteenth century hospitals had been largely the responsibility of the monasteries, which also took some of the responsibilities for the care of the poor and the elderly. Under that system, the parishes also had a duty of care for the elderly, the infirm and those in poverty. The two major changes that occurred under Henry VIII – the Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries – changed this system and left a vacuum, particularly in hospital care. The parishes retained some function for social services and this was administered as a local service independent of religious persuasion, at least in theory. The role of charities in the provision of the care of the disadvantaged built up gradually. Initially such works were undertaken by wealthy benefactors, who established alms houses in some localities and contributed funds to other projects. This was augmented by groups of benefactors who were prepared to put time into the provision of facilities, funded by their own resources together with any other funding that could be raised – much of it from the local gentry, while in some instances public money was available. Except in the few cases where money was voted by parliament to support a charitable cause, the public money that enabled charitable bodies to carry out their work came from the grand juries. The grand jury system was built up from the seventeenth century, based on counties, cities and the larger corporate towns, and responsible initially for the provision and maintenance of roads and bridges. Gradually these bodies were given further responsibilities in relation to public services and their remits were extensive by the time that their duties were handed over to the county councils that were established under the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898. Kilkenny Fever Hospital At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was a fever hospital, with a dispensary, in Kilkenny, though the site is not known. This was described in the Leinster Journal as the Kilkenny House of Recovery and Fever Hospital1. This institution was run by a charity and was dependent on donations for its daily running costs and any capital improvements that were required. From 1806 a significant sum was voted twice a year by the Kilkenny City Grand Jury for the support of the fever hospital and dispensary. This varied over the years, beginning with £20 in each of the grand jury sessions in 1806, increasing to £40 in 1810 and then £50 in 18132. 1 2 Bradley, John, 2000, Kilkenny: Irish Historic Towns Atlas no. 10, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin Grand Jury Presentments, Kilkenny City Historic Building Consultants Page 25 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Following the end of the Napoleonic wars the Irish economy suffered from the loss of the lucrative export trade in provisions that had fed the army for the duration of the war, and the Kilkenny area would have suffered. To add to this there was a famine caused by poor harvests in 1816 and 1817 and this, in turn, led to a severe outbreak of typhus fever. The Kilkenny City Grand Jury voted as much as £250 for the support of the fever hospital in the Spring assizes in 1818 and repeated the sum in the Summer assizes3. At the same time, in August 1818, the death occurred of Joseph Evans, one of the city’s wealthier inhabitants, and he left his substantial fortune to be divided between a list of charities in the city. Amongst these was the Fever Hospital of the City of Kilkenny, to which he left an income of £100 per year4. After the epidemic was over the grand jury reduced its donations to £25 twice a year, increasing it again to £40 and £50 in the two assizes in 1823, probably as a result of the famine that occurred at that time. Kilkenny City and County Fever Hospital In 1818, as a measure to tackle the typhus epidemic, parliament passed legislation that Whereas Fevers of an infectious Nature have for some time past greatly prevailed among the Poor in several Parts of Ireland, whereby the Health and Prosperity of the whole Country have been considerably endangered; and it is expedient that Hospitals should be established for the Relief of Sufferers in such Cases, and that Regulations should be made to prevent, as effectually as possible, the Increase of Infection, as well at present as on future Occasions; and such good Purposes are most likely to be promoted by creating Corporations in every County at large, and every County of a City or County of a Town in Ireland, who may execute the Powers and Trusts hereinafter expressed; Be it therefore enacted ...5 The text went on to establish these corporations and to empower grand juries to pay for fever hospitals. This included the power to raise money for the erection of fever hospitals in instalments over a six year period6. For the time being the Kilkenny City Grand Jury continued to provide funds for the existing fever hospital. In 1823, however, the decision was made to build a new fever hospital to be funded jointly by Kilkenny City Grand Jury and Kilkenny County Grand Jury. At the Spring assizes the city’s grand jury recorded that it had voted7: To Samuel Mathews, John Kinchela, Joseph Brandish, Christopher Humphreys and Thomas C Duffy Esqrs to build an Hospital for the reception of Fever patients. 3 4 5 6 7 Grand Jury presentments, Kilkenny City Shearman, T, 1839, The New Commercial Directory for the Cities of Waterford and Kilkenny and the towns of Clonmell, Carrick-on-Suir, New Ross and Carlow, Kilkenny. In 1837 Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland recorded that the payment of this annual sum “has been for some time suspended, from the non-payment of interest on certain debts chargeable on estates, for the sale of which proceedings have been for some years pending in the court of Chancery”. 58 Geo III, c.47 Ibid. s.7 Grand Jury presentments, Kilkenny City, Spring assizes 1823 Historic Building Consultants Page 26 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background £300 – one twelfth – to be raised at this assizes and an equal sum from each succeeding Assizes until all is raised – this being the first instalment £25. NB – the above named Gentlemen are appointed to act as a Committee with the Committee appointed by the County of Kilkenny Grand Jury for the purpose of Building a Fever Hospital for the County of Kilkenny and City of Kilkenny. At the same time, the Kilkenny County Grand Jury made a similar resolution, voting the sum of £91-13s-4d: To the Committee appointed to contract with a person for the building of a Fever Hospital, in aid thereof £1100 – 1/12th to be raised at all assizes till all is raised8. Up to this time the county grand jury had not contributed to the fever hospital in the city, though it had made regular contributions to the Kilkenny County Infirmary and also to fever hospitals in Freshford, Kells & Stoneyford and Kilmaganny9. Slater’s directory of 1846 stated that “the county infirmary and the fever hospital contiguous, are commodious erections, on airy sites, on the north-eastern side of the river”. This is not quite accurate, as the word contiguous meant the same then as now, and was defined in a contemporary dictionary as “meeting so as to touch; bordering upon10”. As the Ordnance Survey map below shows, there was a substantial open area between the two hospitals. Figure 6: Ordnance Survey map showing fever hospital (arrowed) 8 9 10 Kilkenny County Grand Jury presentments, Spring 1823. Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published in 1837, mentioned the sum of £1100 as “a loan from Government, and subsequently repaid by Grand Jury assessments”. This was, of course, the county’s contribution and the Topographical Dictionary overlooked the city contribution. Kilkenny County Grand Jury presentments Johnson, Samuel and John Walker, 1828, A Dictionary of the English Language .. with the addition of several thousand words by R S Jameson Esq., London. Historic Building Consultants Page 27 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland recorded that: The Kilkenny fever hospital is ... a well-managed institution, and is quite sufficient for the wants of its district, and in 1839, it received £683-6s-7¾d, expended £8106s-10¾d, and admitted 1,203 patients11. The site There is little information as to what occupied the site of the fever hospital prior to its erection. Rocque’s map of the city, produced in 1758, shows the street and alongside it shows the land as open – presumably as fields. Figure 7: Detail of Rocque’s map of Kilkenny, 1758 It is worth noting that the street is shown to be relatively wide alongside the future site of the fever hospital. Comparison with the Ordnance Survey map in the previous figure shows a similar widening at this point, with a noticeable narrowing further along towards Gallows Hill – the future site of the county infirmary. This, however, does not give any indication as to the nature of the boundary to the road. In the absence of any basis for reading this boundary as a wall it should be assumed that it was otherwise demarcated. It would not have been normal to build walls alongside roads in the eighteenth century except where there was a deer park or some other property that needed to be protected from the incursion of trespassers or the escape of animals that would not be contained by a mere fence. 11 Fullarton, A, 1846, A Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, vol. 2, p.438, Dublin, London and Edinburgh Historic Building Consultants Page 28 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Site AH 4 Survey sheet Site: AH-04 Site type Boundary wall Survey requirement Architectural Survey Townland Roachpond Parish St Maul’s Barony Municipal Borough of Kilkenny County City of Kilkenny Status Not protected National grid reference 650680 656450 OS six-inch map Kilkenny sheet 19 OS 1:2500 map Kilkenny sheet 19-7 Impact of scheme Direct impact Original use Boundary wall Current use Boundary wall Condition Good Date 19th century Special interest Record only. Rating Record only Description High wall on front boundary of former fever hospital Date of survey 5th & 12th March 2008 and 25th September 2012 Historic Building Consultants Page 29 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Protection status The former fever hospital at Wolfe Tone House is in the area covered by the Kilkenny City and Environs Development Plan 2008-2014, which is Volume III of the Kilkenny County Development Plan 2008-2014. This plan covers the Kilkenny City area and includes the Record of Protected Structures and the Architectural Conservation Areas for the city. Protected structure Neither the former fever hospital nor the boundary wall is included in the Record of Protected Structures set down in the Kilkenny City and Environs Development Plan 2008-2014. Architectural conservation area The wall along the road frontage forms the boundary of the Michael Street Conservation Area as set down in the current development plan. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) covered the Kilkenny area in 2004-2005 and the results have been published. The former fever hospital is not included in the inventory. Historic Building Consultants Page 30 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Survey Fever hospital Plate 3: The former Kilkenny City and County Fever Hospital The former Kilkenny City and County Fever Hospital is a three-storey, sevenbay building on the northern side of Wolfe Tone Street. The building has a hipped, slated roof and the facade is rendered with sand and cement. In its original form the building had a gabled and pedimented breakfront in the central bay, and while this is still in place, a rectangular structure has been built against it, running up through the height of the building to rise above the breakfront. This structure is off centre to the breakfront and the original window layout has been amended to include a window on each floor set offcentre to the building. The windows throughout the main building have been replaced with aluminium casements. There are no windows in the additional structure. To the front of the hospital building there is an extensive area of car parking, paved with asphalt. The hospital building stands on high ground above the valley of the River Nore. Greensbridge Street rises up from the bridge and the western end of Wolfe Tone Street rises to the east, away from the junction with Greensbridge Street. Historic Building Consultants Page 31 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Plate 4: Front boundary wall of fever hospital The grounds associated with the former fever hospital are surrounded by a high wall. This runs along the frontage with Wolfe Tone Street, extending almost to the junction with Greensbridge Street, before returning along the western side boundary of the property. At the eastern end the wall also returns to form the eastern side boundary. Plate 5: Boundary wall seen from the west The top of the wall is more or less level, without any stepping, despite the slope in the road surface. Towards the western end the road level drops significantly and the lower part of the wall is rising above a plinth of mass concrete. This part of the wall is not surfaced with roughcast render to match the upper section. Historic Building Consultants Page 32 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Plate 6: Internal face of wall at road frontage Within the property the wall is faced with harling, or rough-cast render. This differs from the render on the outer face in being a lime-based harling, with small aggregate size and set in a lime-based binder. The wall beneath the render is of rubble stone. Plate 7: Northern end of front wall, and northern boundary wall At the northern end the front boundary wall is of concrete, and rises more vertically, in comparison with the older stone wall adjacent. Historic Building Consultants Page 33 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Sites AH 5, AH 6 and AH 7: 20-22 Vicar Street Vicar Street runs north-south, meeting Dean Street at its southern end with an abrupt right angle. On the inner side of this angle the road has been broadened to make the sweep of the bend less tight. On the western side of the road at its southernmost extreme there is a terrace of three houses known as 20 to 22 Vicar Street. Note: report of March 2008. An earlier report on these houses was produced in March 2008 and this included an assessment of the period of construction based on the historical record and on opening up investigations to examine the masonry. The content of that report is incorporated below, along with additional descriptions based on an internal room-by-room survey of the houses and on a measured survey carried out in the winter of 2012-2013. This has been done in order to carry the findings of both investigations within a single document. The map extract below shows the site and its relationship to the road scheme. Figure 8: Location of sites AH 5, 6 and 7 in relation to the proposed road scheme The three properties are each described in the Environmental Impact Statement as “House”. Number 20 is a derelict house. Number 21 is occupied for residential purposes, while number 22 is in use as offices for a community organisation. The scheme would require the demolition of all three houses. The sites of numbers 21 and 22 would be subsumed into the new road, while only the frontage of number 20 would be used, facilitating the sweep from the present Vicar Street into the new road. Historic Building Consultants Page 34 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Historical background The city of Kilkenny has its early origins in the foundation of a monastery in the Early Christian period, and the presence of the round tower suggests that this was a monastery of significance. Ecclesiastical foundations at that time were invariably enclosed within a sub-circular area, bounded by banks and ditches. With the arrival of the Normans in the 12th century the city took on a new direction, with the centre of the Norman city being to the south of the monastery. The northern portion of the settlement remained in occupation, though under a different administration and known as Irishtown. The area between Vicar Street and the river, to the east, was developed in the 13th century and it is likely that there have been buildings on or around the present site more or less continuously since that time. The first published map of Kilkenny to any significant scale was that produced by John Rocque in 1758. This map has west at the top, but is otherwise a reasonably clear representation of the city. The scale is medium, unlike the larger scale map Rocque produced for Dublin, and as a result buildings are shown as blocks rather than as individual structures. Figure 9: Detail of Rocque’s map of Kilkenny, 1758 with site arrowed This map shows the present site built up as part of the block on the eastern side of the street. The implications of the buildings depicted on this map are considered in the discussion section below. Historic Building Consultants Page 35 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background The Ordnance Survey reached the Kilkenny area in 1839 and in the same year the first edition of the six-inch map of Kilkenny was published. A detail from this is shown in Fig. 2 below. Figure 10: First edition Ordnance Survey six-inch sheet, 1839 What this maps seems to show is a building shown in a dark colour on the site of the present-day number 22 Vicar Street. The curtilage of the building is shown in blue on this coloured version, and extends back from the building past a long structure that runs parallel to the main building at the front. On the northern side of this building there is a gap before a group of about three houses fronting on to Vicar Street and what appears to be others forming an L-shape with them and returning into Mill Lane to the north. The adjoining site to the south of number 22 appears to be open ground with ranges of buildings at the rear, to the south east of 22 Vicar Street and running back from Vicar Street along the south western boundary. It is uncertain what is the meaning of the colour scheme on this map. At first sight it appears to be individual properties, but whole groups of buildings are shown with a single colour, while the cathedral grounds are shown in three colours. It is more than likely that the colours are comparatively random, merely intended to make the map more attractive and slightly easier to read. Two years after the publication of this first edition six-inch map the Ordnance Survey produced its manuscript map of Kilkenny at a scale of five foot to the mile, or 1 : 1056. This is ten times the scale of the six-inch map and hence does not suffer from the same level of generalisation that is necessary with the small scale of the six-inch. The relevant section of the manuscript map is reproduced overleaf. Historic Building Consultants Page 36 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Figure 11: Detail of OS manuscript map of Kilkenny, 1841 Figure 12: Enlarged detail of 1841 map with modern map superimposed The overlay of the modern map on this 1841 sheet shows that there is a surprising correlation between the main parts of the buildings at 20, 21 and 22 Vicar Street. The arch is shown as narrower on the older map and the returns are quite different. The building at the rear of number 22 is shown with precisely the same footprint within the site of 22, though it extends across the rear of number 21 as well. To the north of number 20 there is the ruin of an additional building in the terrace. The site to the south is shown exactly as it was on the 1839 six-inch sheet. Historic Building Consultants Page 37 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background The returns of the buildings are shown on this map and the six-inch as being quite different to those found today. The question is whether there has been an actual change, or whether they were shown incorrectly on the map. In particular, there appear to be two returns at the rear of the property now known as 20 Vicar Street. The resolution of this issue is to be found in the records of the Valuation Office, where the information on each rateable property is to be found, and keyed to maps. The map extract below is a detail of an early valuation map, unfortunately not dated, showing the buildings in Vicar Street. The red lines show the modern Ordnance Survey map overlaid on the grey of the original valuation map. Figure 13: Undated valuation map showing the houses in Vicar Street The present valuation was established in the late 1840s and began to record the valuations of properties in the 1850s. It is safe to say that this map is unlikely to predate the 1850s and could be later. The information on the map is similar to the 1841 manuscript map reproduced above, though not identical. In particular, the building at the rear that crosses the boundary between numbers 21 and 22 is shown as a different shape. The northernmost return at the rear of number 20 is also shown with a simpler outline. The building to the north of number 20 is shown crossed out, and this would have been a later amendment to show that the ruined building on that site had been demolished. Most importantly, the valuation map shows the property boundaries. As the only maps available now are photographic reproductions in monochrome it is difficult to be certain whether there is a wall on a boundary, or whether the line merely depicts the property boundary. The detail of the boundary between numbers 21 and 22 seems to represent a wall, however, as it shows a gateway leading to the rear of 22. No wall was shown on the previous map of 1841. Historic Building Consultants Page 38 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Perhaps the most important factor to be clarified on this valuation map is the subdivision of the terrace into individual houses. The house now known as number 22 was then shown as number 3, numbers 1 and 2 being the site now occupied by the car park next door. This house is shown almost exactly the same as on the modern map, except that there is a return at the rear where the outbuilding today sits, but is not attached to the building. The house at number 21, then number 4, is shown slightly smaller than it is today, with a smaller return. The space that is omitted from number 4 is included with the present number 20 next door, which is shown as two houses, numbered 5 and 6. The information given on this map is confirmed by the information set down in the valuation office’s cancelled books for the period around 1860. This shows that the four houses numbered 3, 4, 5 and 6 Vicar Street were let to tenants by the same landlord, Michael Shortall. Number 3 was a substantial house, valued at £7, while the other three were valued at £3-15s-0d, £3-10s-0d and £3-0s-0d respectively. Number 7 is shown as a ruin. Figure 14: Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1900 At some time later in the 19th century some of the houses were rebuilt. Certainly numbers 4, 5 and 6 were reconstructed to produce the two houses now known as numbers 20 and 21. It is not clear whether number 3 was also reconstructed at that time. The Ordnance Survey map of 1900 shows three houses on the site, with the building at the rear of number 22 contained within that site, with no equivalent to the rear of number 21. No boundary is shown between numbers 20 and 21, and it might be noted that the present boundary is of concrete. Historic Building Consultants Page 39 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Information offered by the occupants of number 22 during the survey suggests that the buildings at the rear of number 22 were used as cattle sheds until the mid- to late-twentieth century. Information from the owner of number 21 is that the house was formerly in use as a dairy. He further stated that the entire roof of the terrace of houses was replaced by a man named Bill Brennan in 1959-60. Historic Building Consultants Page 40 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Sites AH 5, AH6 and AH 7 Survey sheet Site: AH-05, AH-06 and AH-07 Site type Three houses Survey requirement Architectural Survey Townland Gardens Parish St Canice’s Barony Municipal Borough of Kilkenny County City of Kilkenny Status Not protected National grid reference 650370 656400 OS six-inch map Kilkenny sheet 19 OS 1:2500 map Kilkenny sheet 19-7 Impact of scheme Direct impact Original use Three houses Current use Derelict house, house and offices Condition One house in poor condition, others good Date 19th century Special interest Record only. Rating Record only Description Terrace of two-storey houses Date of survey 5th & 12th March 2008, 25th September and 16th November 2012, 8th and 18th February 2013. Historic Building Consultants Page 41 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Historical background Protection status The three houses at 20-22 Vicar Street are in the area covered by the Kilkenny County Development Plan 2008-2014. Volume III of that plan covers the Kilkenny City area and is entitled Kilkenny City and Environs Development Plan 2008-2014. The plan includes the Record of Protected Structures and the Architectural Conservation Areas for the city. Protected structure None of the three houses investigated in this report is included in the Record of Protected Structures set down current development plan. Architectural conservation area The site lies within the St. Canice’s Architectural Conservation Area as set down in Kilkenny City and Environs Development Plan 2008-2014. Record of Monuments and Places (RMP) The three houses at 20-22 Vicar Street are included on the Record of Monuments and Places, reference KK019-026122. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) covered the Kilkenny area in 2004-2005 and the results have been published. This inventory includes number 20 Vicar Street, but did not examine numbers 21 or 22. The description and appraisal of number 20 read as follows: End-of-terrace three-bay two-storey house, c.1900, possibly originally two separate single-bay two-storey houses incorporating fabric of earlier house, pre1840, on site. Now disused. Hipped and pitched (shared) artificial slate roof with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stack, and iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves. Unpainted roughcast walls with painted rendered quoins to ends. Squareheaded window openings with painted sills, and one-over-one timber sash windows (now boarded-up to ground floor). Square-headed door opening with moulded rendered surround, and timber door having overlight. Interior with remains of timber panelled reveals/shutters to window openings. Road fronted with concrete footpath to front. Appraisal Although having fallen into disrepair following a prolonged period of disuse a modest-scale range possibly originally intended as two separate houses retains the essential composition characteristics together with substantial quantities of the early fabric, thereby making a positive impression on the character of the street scene. Historic Building Consultants Page 42 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Building survey – sites AH 5, AH 6 and AH 7 This section includes a brief examination of the exterior of the three houses. Detailed examinations of the interiors of each of the houses and their outbuildings are set down in later sections. Plate 8: Numbers 20 (left) to 22 (right) Vicar Street The three houses at 20, 21 and 22 Vicar Street form a terrace that faces directly westwards towards Dean Street. All three are two-storey houses with slate roof and rendered walls. There are other similarities between the houses including the general levels of the window heads and sills and the dimensions of the windows. While all three houses have been altered significantly such that they appear quite different, there are features that they have in common. Number 20 is three-bay at ground floor level and two-bay above. The façade of number 21 is a mirror image of number 20, but with an extra bay to the south containing an arched access to the rear with a window above it. The arrangement of doors and windows in number 22 is very similar to that on number 20, except that the upper and lower floor windows in the left-hand bay are aligned in number 20 and not in 22. The symmetry in the facades of numbers 20 and 21 is carried through into the chimney stacks, which are placed above an internal wall that rises to one side of the front door. Number 22, however, has a stack at each end of the roof and none above internal walls. Number 20 has a hipped roof, while number 22 is gabled. Number 20 is roughcast rendered with plaster quoins. Number 21 is sand and cement rendered, ruled and lined. Number 22 is lime rendered, ruled lined and painted. Historic Building Consultants Page 43 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 9: Rear of number 20 (right) and 21 (left) Both numbers 20 and 21 have two-storey returns to the rear. These are extend approximately the same distance back from the front section of the house. The return on number 21 was lower than that on 22 originally, but the side walls have been built up to form a flat-roofed return. Plate 10: Rear of number 22, with number 21 on right There is no original return at the rear of number 22. There is a modern singlestorey extension to the rear built of concrete and with a corrugated iron roof. The upper floor windows of number 22 have the sash weight boxes partly visible, though the windows are set back behind a reveal. Historic Building Consultants Page 44 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Opening up survey, 2008 During March 2008 exploratory work was carried out at numbers 20 and 22 Vicar Street to investigate the nature of the masonry. Opening up took place on the interior of number 20 and the exterior of number 22. In common with many older buildings in Kilkenny the three houses considered in this assessment are constructed of rubble stone. It is notoriously difficult to date rubble stone construction in the absence of other pointers. Where the stonework is of some quality the masonry can provide clues, and where dressed stone is incorporated the tooling of the stone can sometimes give an indication of the period. Care must be taken in using dressed stone as an indicator, or indeed any individual stone, as these were often reused following the demolition of an earlier structure. This was common sense when the preparation of a stone involved a substantial investment of time and therefore expense. It also reduced the need to dispose of rubble following demolition. Where the masonry is of a poor quality it is usually very difficult to distinguish between one period of construction and another. One indicator that can be reasonably used is brick. Brick is extremely rare in the archaeological record in Ireland and only made its first appearance in greater quantities in Ireland in the 16th century; at that time it was sparingly used in important structures. It only began to be used in any quantity in modest buildings in the later 17th century and truly came into its own in the 18th. In Kilkenny the abundance of limestone of varying qualities ensured that this remained the favoured material for walling right through to the later 19 th century. Kilkenny limestone can be squared for use in quoins and the heads and jambs of windows and doors. Rougher stones used in less expensive houses were less regular and were not readily squared. In these instances brick was used for forming window and door opes. When a building such as this is altered or demolished the brick will often remain as fragments in the rubble used for rebuilding. The very early brick is thin, and resembles tiles, and so thicker brick is indicative of post-medieval work. The presence of brick in walls can thus be used to indicate a post-medieval date, though care needs to be taken that the brick is not merely present in a later repair or alteration. Plate 11: Medieval ope in stone wall within car park adjoining 22 Vicar Street. There is no brick in the masonry beneath or to the right of the ope. To the left, however, there is a great deal of brick fragments, indicating a later alteration or reconstruction. Historic Building Consultants Page 45 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 20 Vicar Street – building survey Exterior Plate 12: Front facade of 20 Vicar Street The photograph above shows number 20 as it was in 2008. The house has subsequently been tidied up and painted externally, though the new boarding of the windows conceals the nature of the first floor windows seen in the above view. The house is two-bay and two-storey with a roughcast rendered facade having rendered quoins. There is a smooth render plinth with cast iron vents beneath each of the windows. The front doorway has a moulded architrave and there is a rectangular light over the doorway. The original door is missing and there is a midtwentieth century glazed door in its place, now concealed behind boarding. The first floor windows are one-over-one timber sliding sashes with simple quadrant horns. The ground floor windows are similar, though concealed behind boarding. The roof is hipped at one end and has a covering of fibre-cement tiles and with a single stack near the centre at the ridge. The rainwater goods consist of half-round cast iron guttering. Plate 13: Front doorway to number 20 Historic Building Consultants Page 46 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 14: Side of 20 Vicar Street and its return The side elevation of number 20 Vicar Street is pebble-dashed with no opes. The hipped roof terminates at eaves with uPVC guttering. The rear elevation on the northern side of the return is roughcast rendered and has a window ope on each floor, located close to the wall of the return. The lower window is boarded up externally at ground floor level and has a casement window on the upper floor. The area between the windows has been broken open and filled with concrete blocks, though not finished. The lintel over the upper floor window is concrete and has been inserted without the ope around it backfilled. The return is roughcast rendered and has a two-over-two timber sash window on the upper floor level and no windows at the lower level. Plate 15: Rear elevation of 20 Vicar Street The area to the northern side of the return is enclosed behind a mild steel railing set in concrete on a rubble plinth wall. The boundary wall to the rear is higher and of rubble stone with cement capping. Historic Building Consultants Page 47 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey There is a narrow section of the rear elevation of the main house visible to the south of the return, along with a narrow section of number 21. The lower part of the wall of both houses has been rebuilt in concrete block, with a small uPVC window in the rear of number 21. At midlevel there is an ope in number 20, lighting the stairs within. There is a uPVC window at the upper level of number 21. Plate 16: Rear of 20 and 21 between returns Plate 17: South side of return of no. 20 There is a steel window and a panelled door in the southern side wall of the return of number 20 Vicar Street, and two vacant window opes on the upper level. The rear elevation of the return has no opes. Both elevations are roughcast rendered, though at the rear this is breaking away to reveal the brickwork at the flue. The gable end has a red brick chimney stack with one small pot. Plate 18: Gable end of return of number 20 Historic Building Consultants Page 48 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Interior – ground floor 5 2 3 1 4 Figure 15: Ground floor plan, 20 Vicar Street As the ground floor plan shows, number 20 Vicar Street has three rooms on this level. One large room runs from front to rear on the left-hand side of the house, with a small room to the right of the entrance passage. At the rear on the righthand side is the location for the staircase, now missing at its lower level. The return at the rear was undivided at the time of the survey, with the ceiling and the floor above missing. In the diagram the thickness of the wall running from front to rear to the left of the entrance hall is noted. This carries the flue from the fireplace that serves the principal room and also the hearths on the floor above, and also carries the stack through the roof. The other two walls in the house are partitions, probably timber stud and brick fill, though they were not investigated as part of the opening up survey as they were not likely to predate the existing building. The very thin party wall is also noted. This was evident during the opening up survey in 2008 when a timber stud and part of the brick fill were encountered in this wall at first floor level. The numbers shown on the plan above indicate the sequence of the rooms described below. Historic Building Consultants Page 49 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 1. Entrance hall The entrance hall runs from the front door to the rear return, with doors leading off to the two ground floor rooms. The wall covering is gypsum plaster of recent date and there is plasterboard on the ceiling at the front of the hall. At the rear there is no ceiling. A beam crosses the hall in line with the rear wall of the small room, resting on the lintel over the door to the main room. This beam is shaped to resemble a segmental arch and has mouldings where it meets the wall. Plate 19 (right): View to front of hall Plate 20 (left): Front door The front door is a glazed and of midtwentieth century date, with a rectangular light over. The ope on either side of the door is faced with brick and has two timber lintels over, one at the front of the ope, the other at the rear. The floor in the hall is of concrete. Plate 21: Timber beam over hallway Historic Building Consultants Page 50 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 2. Stairs The staircase is to the rear of the entrance hall, on the right-hand side, approaching from the front. There was no partition separating this from the entrance hall at the time of the survey. The lower flight of the stairs was missing and the upper flight and half-landing were of recent date, supported on a timber beam that was also fitted in recent years. Plate 22: Stairs The walls around the staircase are rendered for the most part with sand and cement, with some small areas of original masonry visible. At the rear of the entrance hall and staircase is a doorway leading to the return to the rear. This ope has been modified in recent times, with concrete lintel over the door ope and concrete blocks and sand and cement around the margins of the ope. Plate 23: Doorway to return at rear Historic Building Consultants Page 51 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 3. Principal room The larger room at ground floor level runs from the front to the rear of the house. The walls have been rendered with a hard sand and cement base render, over which is gypsum plaster. The ceiling is of plasterboard with gypsum plaster skim. A timber beam crosses the ceiling near the middle of the room. The floor is of concrete. Plate 24: View to front of larger room Plate 25: Inner wall, with fireplace and niche There are three external walls in this room, the long one having no features, the two shorter walls, to front and back, having windows, set in splayed opes with no shutters or linings. On the one internal wall the four-panelled door leads from the hall. There is a rectangular niche that would have been a second door, now blocked up. Adjacent to this niche is a plain rectangular hearth with no chimneypiece. Historic Building Consultants Page 52 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 26: Rear window of large room The rear window is a six-paned hardwood casement of recent date. The front window is a one-over-one timber sliding sash with quadrant horns. Plate 27: Detail of timber beam crossing ceiling The timber beam that crosses the ceiling has pairs of nails driven in on the rear face. The paint on the beam has faded, leaving stronger elements of paint in line with the pairs of nails. It is clear from this that there were timber studs fixed to the rear of the beam and that this formerly facilitated a timber stud wall that divided this room into two smaller rooms. The hearth is deep and rectangular, with a rear wall of concrete block. One face of the hearth is of brick, the other has a sand and cement render. Plate 28: Hearth Historic Building Consultants Page 53 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 4. Small front room The smaller room at the front of the house measures approximately 3.45 metres by 2.25 metres. The walls have been plastered with sand and cement and skimmed with gypsum plaster. The ceiling is of plasterboard and the floor of concrete. The window to the front of the room has a one-over-one timber sliding sash with quadrant horns. There are no shutters or architrave. The door is fourpanelled and has no architrave. Plate 29: Front wall of small room, with window Plate 30: Rear of small room, with door Historic Building Consultants Page 54 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 5. Return The return at the rear of 20 Vicar Street has been stripped, with the ceiling and floor above missing and the plaster taken off the walls. The doorway from the main house is in the centre of one wall and has been modified, with an area of concrete blocks and bricks around, and a concrete lintel over the door. Plate 31: Doorway to return, with view to front door beyond Plate 32: Rear wall of return At the rear of the return some of the plaster remains on the wall. Part of the wall is thicker, with a blocked hearth having a segmental arch. The thicker section does not rise to the floor above. The walls in this room are of rubble stone with a significant quantity of brick fragments amongst the rubble. Historic Building Consultants Page 55 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey A four-panelled door leads to the exterior on one side of the return. Some of the original plaster remains on this wall, while much has been removed. The window lighting the return is in the same external wall as the door. This has a steel I-beam serving as a lintel on the inner face, with timber adjacent. The window is missing and the wall beneath the window ope has partially collapsed. Plate 33: External door in return Plate 34: Window to side of return Historic Building Consultants Page 56 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Interior – first floor 10 9 8 6 7 Figure 16: First floor plan, 20 Vicar Street At first floor level there are three rooms in the main house, together with the stairway and landing. The return has been stripped and has no floor, ceiling or internal divisions, though this was previously divided into smaller spaces, as seen in the description below. The thick internal wall seen in the floor plan above sits above the equivalent wall on the ground floor and carries the flues from the various fireplaces that originally heated the rooms. The rest of the spaces are divided by stud partition walls and this includes the party wall to number 21 Vicar Street. The numbers shown on the plan above indicate the sequence of the rooms described below. Historic Building Consultants Page 57 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 6. Landing Plate 35: Staircase and balustrade The staircase at ground floor level has been noted above. This rises to the first floor landing, where there is a balustrade consisting of turned balusters supporting a timber handrail and with a turned newel at the edge of the staircase. The rear wall of the house adjacent to the staircase has been altered, with the creation of a new ope in place of the original. The view of the exterior of this ope suggests that the window head has not been altered, through there is a timber lintel at a higher level than the present window head, visible in the adjacent photograph. Below the window the rear wall of the house has been rebuilt in concrete blocks, as described above in considering the exterior, and as seen in plate 15 above. Plate 36: Ope in rear wall at staircase Historic Building Consultants Page 58 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey At the head of the stairs a landing leads to the doorway to the rear return. The floor joists are in place at this landing, though the floorboards are missing. The door ope has been modified with concrete blocks and brick. The plaster remains on part of the walls surrounding the staircase, while it is missing over extensive areas. Plate 37: Landing and door to return The first floor landing is L-shaped, leading away from the staircase to each of the three rooms in the main house. The floor is boarded, though with some of the boards missing. The ceiling is of lath and plaster, with an extensive area of the ceiling missing from over the stairs. There are no cornices at the margins of the ceiling. The doorways leading off to the three rooms have simple small timber architraves. Plate 38: Landing, looking towards staircase Historic Building Consultants Page 59 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 7. Front room 1 The room on the eastern side of the front at first floor level appears not to have been altered in the recent works to the building, other than the removal of wallpaper. The room is rectangular, except that one corner projects into the room to allow for sufficient width on the landing for access to the other two rooms. The door is in that part of the room and is a four-panelled door set in a narrow timber architrave. The floor is boarded and the walls have a covering of lime-based plaster. The ceiling is of lath and plaster. Plate 39: Doorway to front room 1 at first floor level Plate 40 (above): Front wall of room The window in this room is a one-over-one timber sliding sash with quadrant horns. This is set in a moulded architrave with panelled shutters. Plate 41: Window in front room 1 Historic Building Consultants Page 60 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 8. Front room 2 The second room at the front of the house is similar to the first, though without the projection of the wall into the room. The door is four-panelled with a slender architrave. The window is a one-over-one timber sliding sash with quadrant horns set in an architrave and with panelled shutters. There is a simple skirting board. The walls have a covering of lime-based plaster and the ceiling is lath and plaster. The floor is boarded. Plate 42: Window in front room 2 Plate 43: Door in front room 2 Historic Building Consultants Page 61 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 44: Blocked up in external wall of front room 2 In the external side wall of front room 2 there is an area of gypsum plaster set into the middle of the wall, surrounded by the original lime-based plaster on the walls. At the top of this area a horizontally-set piece of timber may be seen. This appears to be a blocked ope in the external wall, probably a side-facing window. It appears to have been blocked for some time, as there is no indication in the external render that there was an ope in this location. Plate 45: Former hearth in front room 2 Near the door, on the wall separating this room from the other front room, there is a rectangular area with a covering of gypsum plaster, in which there is a small hole. This is an area of plasterboard with a void at the rear and represents the former location of the hearth that provided the heating for this room. Historic Building Consultants Page 62 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 9. Rear room The room at the rear at first floor level of the main house has a projection at one corner to facilitate the landing outside. The door to the room is set in this projection and is four-panelled, set in a slender timber architrave. In the narrow area between this projection and the rear wall of the house there is a small rectangular hole in the wall with a void at the rear. This indicates the location of a blocked-up hearth that provided the heating for this room. The walls in this room have a covering of gypsum plaster and a plasterboard ceiling. The window faces to the rear and is a hardwood timber casement of recent date, set in a splayed architrave without shutters or linings. Plate 46: Door to rear room Plate 47: Window and blocked hearth in rear room Historic Building Consultants Page 63 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 10. Return Given that there is no floor in the upper floor of the return the photographs that illustrate the survey of this part of the building have all been taken from the lower level of the return. Plate 48: Return at upper floor level, looking towards main house The lime-based plaster remains on the greater part of the walls on the upper floor of the return. The door ope has been partly rebuilt, with the upper part more or less intact, while the lower part has been reconstructed in brick and concrete block. The four-panelled door seen in the ope is probably the original door, but is now being used as a means of blocking the ope. Plate 49: Return at upper floor level, looking to rear There are no opes in the rear elevation of the return. A spar of timber fixed vertically to the rear wall indicates that there was some form of partition in this location. Historic Building Consultants Page 64 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 50: Corner of return at rear, with window The remnant of the timber partition noted above is accompanied by a similar timber on the adjacent wall. A foul waste pipe through the end wall of the return denotes that there was a WC in this position and the partition walls would have provided a small partitioned space for this facility. There is a small timber casement window lighting the WC area. This window is in the side of the return that faces towards the return next door, as seen at top right in plate 16 above. Plate 51: East-facing side wall of return A second, larger, window in the same wall lit the main room in the return. This is a two-over-two timber sash with timber sheeting lining the soffit. This room retains its lime plaster covering, with wallpaper falling off the surface. Two timber boards at the margin of the roof above suggest that the ceiling in the return had had a covering of timber sheeting. Historic Building Consultants Page 65 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 52: Western wall of return at first floor level The western wall of the return shows evidence that the return had another partitioned area in the north-western corner, probably a bathroom, to judge by the drain pipes set into the wall, and which turn into the rainwater stack on the outer face of this wall. This bathroom area is lit by a small two-over-two timber sash window. Plate 53: Roof structure in return In the absence of the ceiling in the return the roof structure is exposed. This consists of coupled rafters set at a relatively shallow pitch and without collars, the ceiling joists serving this function. The underside of the slates has a coating of parge. Historic Building Consultants Page 66 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Opening up survey – number 20 The house at 20 Vicar Street has had a great deal of work carried out on it, in which parts of the walls have been rebuilt with concrete blocks. At ground floor level the inner faces of the walls have been replastered with two coats of hard Portland cement render with a minimum thickness of 50mm. The original plaster has been removed prior to this later cover. The diagrams below show the layout of this house with the locations of walls investigated marked, and the location and direction of photographs indicated. In all openings it was assumed that there would be brick lining to window and door opes and that brick in the vicinity of these opes would be of 19th century date. Only those bricks or fragments of brick that were significantly removed from the opes were taken as indicators of post-medieval walls. 53 60 59 58 61 Figure 17: Ground floor plan of 20 Vicar Street showing location and direction of photographs that illustrate the opening up of the walls Historic Building Consultants Page 67 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 55 54 56 57 Figure 18: First floor plan of 20 Vicar Street showing location and direction of photographs that illustrate the opening up of the walls Historic Building Consultants Page 68 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Return The investigation of the interior of this house began with the return, which has been stripped of plaster and the intermediate floor, leaving the masonry open and readily examined. Some of the plaster still clung to the walls, but enough was visible to ensure that the masonry could be examined without removing further cover of plaster. Here it was found that the stone walls had significant amounts of brick fragments. At the level of the intermediate floor a great deal of brick was used to facilitate regular spacing and firm anchoring of the floor joists. Plate 54: Interior of northern wall of return of number 20 Vicar Street. Fragments of brick in the walls are indicated with arrows In Plate 53 above fragments of brick in the northern wall of the return and the rear wall of the main house are indicated by arrows. Near the top of the photograph the horizontal channel in the masonry marks the location of the floor, with significant quantities of brick. There are other brick fragments in these walls that are not indicated, the arrows showing a representative sample. Investigation of the rear wall and the southern wall of the return showed that these also had significant quantities of brick in the masonry. Historic Building Consultants Page 69 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey First floor In view of the thick and hard sand and cement plaster on the ground floor walls the upper floor was investigated first, on the premise that any medieval masonry found at that level must also occur below. It was recognised that should the upper floor prove to be post-medieval there was still as possibility that the ground floor walls were earlier. In view of the identification of brick in the rear wall, found in the investigation of the return, no opening up was done in the rear of the upper floor. Plaster was removed from walls in four locations, one at either end of the front façade, near the corners of the building and one on each side wall. Plate 55: Interior of front wall of number 20 at northern corner Plate 54 shows the opening up at the northern corner of the front façade. Brick may be seen at the left-hand edge of the exposed area, this being related to the lining of the window. Two other fragments of brick are indicated in the photograph, each sufficiently far from the window to suggest that they were part of the original masonry of the wall, which is thus post-medieval. The opening seen in Plate 55 below is at the southern end of the same façade. Again fragments of brick are seen in the masonry. Plate 56 shows an opening in the front room of the northern end of the building. There is a rectangular area of modern hard plaster on this wall, suggesting a failure of the original lime plaster in this area. At the top of the modern plaster there is a timber buried in the wall. This is not a bonding timber as it does not extend to the corner. It would appear to be the lintel of a blocked up window. If this is so it is noted that there appears to be no brick lining to the window ope. There are fragments of brick in the rough stonework of this wall. Historic Building Consultants Page 70 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 56: Inner face of front wall of number 20 Vicar Street at southern end Plate 57: Inner face of northern end wall of number 20 Vicar Street The timber lintel is seen to the right of the upper arrow, at a higher level Historic Building Consultants Page 71 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 58: Party wall between numbers 20 and 21 at first floor level In the photograph in Plate 57 the opening in the front wall at the southern end is seen at right. Near the centre of the photo the strong vertical element is a timber stud forming the end of the party wall where it abuts the front wall. To the left of this timber stud there is brick. This wall is a timber stud wall with brick nogging. Historic Building Consultants Page 72 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Ground floor As noted above, the walls at ground floor level have been given a covering of strong sand and cement plaster. Sections of this were removed in strategic locations to reveal the masonry beneath to explore the possibility that the lower parts of the wall were older, despite the evidence that the upper floor level was post-medieval. The first opening was made on the inside of the front wall to the left of the window in the larger front room. This ope was commenced at the window so as to establish the extent of the brick lining to the window ope, if any. Plate 59: Opening in front wall at ground floor of number 20 In the photograph above this ope may be seen with extensive brick at the window ope. This is well-ordered brick masonry using whole bricks to establish a regular vertical edge to the ope. To the left of this three fragments of brick may be seen used at random to fill spaces within the rough masonry. This indicates a post-medieval date for this wall. The front wall of the other front room in this house was not investigated. It is a very narrow room with a window to the front. It was not considered that any of the walling was at a sufficient distance from the window ope to be certain that it would be free of interference if the window had been inserted into an earlier wall. Historic Building Consultants Page 73 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 60: Opening on inside face of northern end wall, ground floor Plate 61: Opening on internal wall between hall and main reception room Plate 59 above shows an opening in the northern wall in which brick appears again, forming part of the original masonry. The photograph in Plate 60 shows a small opening in the face of the internal wall between the corridor or entrance hall that leads through the house and the main room to the left, or west of it. This wall appears to be built of brick. An opening at the door jamb of this room found to be formed with concrete blocks. Historic Building Consultants Page 74 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Exterior For the most part the exteriors of the walls of the house have been examined on their inner faces, as has been seen above. The north western corner of the house was checked for quoins, using a pre-existing area of damage to the plaster quoins. The stone revealed in this opening is seen below. Plate 62: Front corner of 20 Vicar Street, at north-western corner What is revealed in this opening is a limestone quoin. This is larger and more regular than the stones seen elsewhere in the walling, as would be expected given that the small irregular stones seen elsewhere are not suited to the construction of a strong junction between walls. It is noted that this stone shows no indication of any tooling such as chiselling or punching. Plate 62 below shows the rear of the house, with its return. There has been some intervention with concrete blocks and concrete lintels in the rear wall. There is a substantial amount of brick in the gable of the return, this being part of the chimney flue. There is a small single-storey structure of mass concrete attached to the gable end. The southern and eastern boundary walls of the property are of concrete, as is the eastern section of the northern boundary wall. The western section of the northern boundary wall is seen in Plate 63 below. This is built of poor quality masonry with a large proportion of water-worn stone and a significant amount of brick, both whole and broken. Historic Building Consultants Page 75 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 63: Rear view of 20 Vicar Street, with return of number 21 on left Plate 64: Part of northern boundary wall, close to house Historic Building Consultants Page 76 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Stone structure at rear There is a single-storey structure in the rear garden of 20 Vicar Street that is worthy of note. Plate 65: Shed at rear, northern face, to Mill Lane The eastern end wall of this building is of concrete, seen at left in the photograph below. The front wall, facing onto the adjoining Mill Lane, is of mixed quality. The bulk of the wall is of similar type to the walling of the main house, with rubble limestone incorporating the occasional fragment of brick. The top section is of the poorer quality stonework with smaller water-worn stones and some brick. To the east the stone wall is broken and grafted into a concrete boundary wall and in the centre a large ope has been created in a mix of concrete blocks and mass concrete. At the western end of this wall there are quoins of a better quality than is found elsewhere in the wall. These are squared, but not dressed, and appear similar to the portion of the quoin revealed in the front of the house and seen in Plate 61 above. Plate 66: North-western corner of shed Historic Building Consultants Page 77 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey The two sides of this outbuilding that are within the grounds of the house are of a different quality. The southern wall is built of better quality masonry than has been seen elsewhere in the building, with larger stones of split limestone interspersed with smaller stone. On the right-hand side as seen in the photograph there is what appears to be the remnants of a doorway, with hammer-dressed squared stones, and with the skewback of an arch at the top, now with concrete in place of the adjoining voussoir. The quoins at the left hand side of the wall are also hammer-dressed. Plate 67: Southern wall of outbuilding Plate 68 (left): Details of hammerdressed stone quoins at corner Plate 69 (right): Details of hammerdressed stone at former ope Historic Building Consultants Page 78 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey The western wall of the outbuilding is of masonry that is not as well built as that on the southern face, though still of reasonable quality. The top section is of the poorer quality work seen in the main walls of the house, with smaller stones and some brick. The striking feature of this wall is the arched doorway in the centre of the façade. This is formed with hammered limestone both in the jambs and in the arch, executed to a good quality. The arch is segmental and formed of seven voussoirs between the skewbacks. Plate 70: Western wall of outbuilding Plate 71: Detail of arch of doorway Historic Building Consultants Page 79 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 72: Eastern side of outbuilding, with concrete porch Plate 73: Detail of quoins on south-eastern corner of outbuilding Interior The interior of this outbuilding is not subdivided, other than the lobby or porch of concrete that has been added to the eastern side of the building. As noted in examining the exterior the northern wall of the building is constructed of concrete blocks. The Interior of the blocked doorway on the northern facade is seen as a concrete infill on the inside, with the smaller steel door inserted. On the interior of the western wall a segmental brick arch is seen, corresponding with the stone arch on the outer facade. The partial arch noted above in plate 68 is expressed on the inside with three courses of brick functioning as a skewback, but now closed off with concrete. On the opposite side of the present opening there is a similar feature in brick, marking another former ope. These opes may have been windows, particularly if the ground level was originally lower in this area. Historic Building Consultants Page 80 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 74: Interior of arch on southern wall of outbuilding Plate 75: Interior of doorway on northern wall of outbuilding Plate 76: Ope on eastern wall, with skewbacks marked with arrows Historic Building Consultants Page 81 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Concrete structure at rear Plate 77: Concrete structure at rear of 20 Vicar Street Attached to the rear of the return at 20 Vicar Street there is a shed formed with mass concrete. This consists of two walls of mass concrete attached to the boundary wall on the northern side of the property, which acts as the rear of the shed. The fourth side is the rear wall of the return. This shed was crudely constructed in shuttered mass concrete and has a shallow pitched roof of corrugated iron. Historic Building Consultants Page 82 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 21 Vicar Street Exterior Plate 78: Front facade of 21 Vicar Street The front facade of number 21 Vicar Street is two storeys in height, three bay on the upper floor and four bay on the ground floor. At the right-hand side of the elevation is a vehicular archway through the building, closed with a pair of timber-sheeted doors, with a timber wicket gate in the left-hand door. The facade is cement rendered without ruling or lining. There is a recessed plinth in smooth sand and cement render. The roof has a covering of fibre-cement tiles. There are two chimney stacks, one on the southern, or right-hand, party wall, the other immediately to the left of the front door. The rainwater goods are of white uPVC, the gutters being ogee profiled and the downpipes of rectangular box section. The front windows are uPVC casements. Those on the upper floor are divided vertically and horizontally with opening sections at the top and on one side of the lower section. At ground floor level the two windows have an opening top light and a single undivided light in the main section. The front door is of mid-twentieth century date with a top glazed panel above a pair of glazed panels, below which are three timber panels. Historic Building Consultants Page 83 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 79: Rear of 21 Vicar Street At the rear the house has a single bay to the side of the rear arch and a twostorey return projecting to the rear. The return has been raised in height, as is seen by the markings on the rear wall. The rear facade is sand and cement rendered. The roof is of fibre cement, with uPVC rainwater and drainage goods. The windows are uPVC casements except for the one window at ground floor level in the main house, which is a timber casement. The doorway to the return has been moved, as seen in the markings in the render. On the northern side of the return the wall is plain, with no opes. The rear of the house on that side of the return is seen in plate 15 above. Plate 80: Southern side of return Historic Building Consultants Page 84 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Archway Plate 81: Rear of arch at 21 Vicar Street At the rear of the vehicular entrance through number 21 Vicar Street is a segmental arch formed of hammer-dressed limestone voussoirs. On the lefthand side a hammer-dressed skewback is visible, while the right-hand spring is plastered over and not visible. A small part of the wall beneath the spring of the arch is visible on the left-hand side and this shows hammer-dressed quoins. The inner face and soffit of this arch are not visible as they have been plastered over. The arch to the front of the building is also plastered and its construction is unknown. Plate 82: Detail of skewback on arch Historic Building Consultants Page 85 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 83: Interior of access through 21 Vicar Street The interior of the vehicular access through number 21 Vicar Street has masonry walls on either side. The northern side, at number 21, is cement rendered. The southern side, abounding number 22 Vicar Street, has a masonry wall originally with a covering of render that has now mostly gone. The stonework is of limestone rubble, brought to courses. The stone varies greatly in size and shape, with some larger squared blocks towards the bottom and smaller stones with random shapes elsewhere. There are fragments of brick throughout the masonry, with particular concentrations at the rear of the hearth within the house. Plate 84: Detail of wall, with brick at back of hearth Historic Building Consultants Page 86 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Some of the stones in the wall of the arch show marks of dressing, though in each of the cases identified in the survey the stones seen were randomly placed and did not appear to have been worked for use in their present positions. These are evidently stones that have been reused from an earlier building. Whether on this site or elsewhere is not known. Plate 85: Detail of reused dressed stone in wall at arch Plate 86: Detail of reused dressed stone in wall at arch Historic Building Consultants Page 87 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Interior – ground floor 5 6 3 2 1 4 Figure 19: Ground floor plan, 21 Vicar Street As with number 20 Vicar Street, number 21 has one large room running from front to back in the house. On the opposite side of the entrance hall and passageway there is one room, with a shower/wc at the rear of it. At the back of the house is the return, with a single room. To the right of the floor plan the archway that gives vehicular access to the rear is seen, with the pair of doors to the street frontage. Number 21 Vicar Street differs from the other two houses in having the vehicular access. As this is at ground floor level, the accommodation elsewhere on this floor is similar to that in number 20, though not arranged in the same way. The most notable feature in the floor plan is the angle at which the vehicular access runs through the building and the consequent effect it has on the shape of the adjacent room. It seems likely that this arrangement was a result of a need to minimise the loss at the rear of number 22, where the southern boundary wall is at an angle similar, but not identical, to that of the archway. Not only is the shape of the house at number 22 maintained to a reasonable shape, but it also enables the rear yard to be kept to a good size. It is understood that the rear yard at number 22 was in use until the midtwentieth century as a cattle yard. The numbers on the plan above indicate the sequence of the rooms described below. While access was available to the house the confined spaces and occupied rooms limited the number of photographs that could be taken. Historic Building Consultants Page 88 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 1. Entrance hall The entrance hall runs from front to back of the main house, giving access to the rear return, before turning to exit to the rear yard. The space has been entirely refurbished, with replacement flooring and skirtings and wall plaster. The doors leading off this space are all six-panelled timber doors of comparatively recent date. The simple timber architraves are late replacements. The front door, as noted above, is a replacement panelled and glazed door. Towards the rear of the corridor a timber beam crosses the ceiling, at which point the corridor narrows slightly. Plate 87 (above): Front door Plate 88 (left): View to rear of corridor Plate 89: Detail of rear of corridor Historic Building Consultants Page 89 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 2. Room to left of hall The room on the left-hand or northern side of the entrance hall is a narrow room with a window to the front. This is a uPVC casement without shutters or architrave. The wall plaster and ceiling in this room have been replaced, as has the door. There is a narrow dado rail, of recent date. To the rear this room is separated by a partition wall from an en suite bathroom at the rear. The doorway to the en suite is narrow and has no architrave. It appears to be a recent addition, as may be the partition wall. A timber beam crosses the ceiling at this partition. Plate 90: Front room on northern side Plate 91: Rear of room Historic Building Consultants Page 90 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 3. En suite at rear The en suite at the rear of the front room is located beneath the stairs. The lower flight and half landing of the stairs run over the WC. A partition wall separates this from the shower cubicle, which is located under the upper flight of the stairs and the landing above. The floor in this bathroom is raised above the prevailing floor, possibly to facilitate drainage from the shower. A small uPVC casement window lights the bathroom and opens to the space between the return of this house and that of number 20, as seen in plate 15 above. Plate 92: En suite at rear of northern room 4. Room to right of hall To the right of the hall is a room that runs from front to rear of the house, narrowing as it does due to the angle of the adjacent archway. The ceilings and wall plaster have been replaced in this room, though a modest run cornice survives on the ceiling in the front section of the room, to the front of a timber beam that crosses the ceiling. This room has a fitted kitchen. The room appears to have been two rooms originally. Plate 93: Timber beam in large room, with cornice at right Historic Building Consultants Page 91 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 5. Room in return There is one room in the return, used as a bed-sit. This room has been completely refurbished, with replacement plaster on the walls and ceiling, skirtings etc. The partition that separates the room from the corridor to the rear is a late insertion, and the six-panelled door and its architrave are also of late date. The room is lit by a uPVC window facing to the side of the return. 6 Rear corridor The corridor that leads from the house to the rear yard has been partitioned off from the return and leaves the house via a doorway of comparatively recent date. This is closed by a glass-panelled door. There are no surviving features in this corridor from an earlier period, with the flooring, wall plaster, ceiling and other features all being replacements. Plate 94: Rear corridor Historic Building Consultants Page 92 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Interior – first floor 12 8 7 9 10 11 Figure 20: First floor plan, 21 Vicar Street At first floor level number 21 Vicar Street is larger than the other two houses in the terrace due to the additional space over the rear vehicular access. An access corridor runs along the rear wall from the staircase to the room at the opposite end and a door leads off this to the rear return. The thick wall in the middle of the floor plan denotes the position of the hearths that serve the rooms on either side on each floor, though most of these have now gone. A noticeable feature on this level is the rectilinear layout of the room divisions, despite the angle of the wall at the side of the archway below. The partition wall between rooms 8 and 9 in the diagram above runs diagonally across the top of that masonry wall below, standing mainly on top of the wall, though not entirely. As is seen in the survey below, many of the room divisions are of late date, as this house was refurbished comprehensively in recent years. The numbers shown on the plan above indicate the sequence of the rooms described below. Historic Building Consultants Page 93 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 7. Stairs The staircase is a relatively recent replacement. It rises through on major flight, through a winder and a step at right-angles to the rest of the flight, to a half landing, before climbing a final short flight to the first floor. The balustrade is a recent addition in mild steel and hardwood. The wall surfaces have been replastered and the window alongside the stairs has been replaced in uPVC, without shutters or linings. Plate 95: Upper section of staircase Plate 96: Balustrade Plate 97: Lower flight of stairs Historic Building Consultants Page 94 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 8. Landing and corridor The landing at the top of the stairs leads to a narrower corridor across the rear of the house, giving access to each of the rooms, including the return. The entire area has been refurbished, with walls replastered and ceiling replaced. The ope through the spine wall that contains the flues is squared with no architraves or other features and no nib wall against the rear wall of the house. This suggests that the ope is a later insertion. The ope leading to the return is also featureless and has squared arrises. Plate 98: Landing at staircase Plate 99 (left): View along corridor The door to the room nearest to the stairs is set at an angle in a partition that appears to be of late date. All the doors leading off this corridor are six-panelled timber doors of late date Plate 100: Door to room next to stairs Historic Building Consultants Page 95 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 9. Room adjacent to staircase Plate 101: Room adjacent to staircase The room adjacent to the staircase has been subdivided to provide an en suite bathroom, which is located immediately inside the door from the landing. The room has been refurbished with replacement of plaster and ceiling. One surviving feature is the architrave and window lining that surround the window. This indicates that there never were shutters in this room. Plate 102: Surviving architrave and window lining Historic Building Consultants Page 96 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 10. Centre room The room in the centre at first floor level was unoccupied at the time of the survey and could be photographed in greater detail. This room runs from the front of the house to the corridor at the rear. Part of the room is partitioned off to form a bedroom, but with the partition not reaching the ceiling. The room has been entirely refurbished, the only original feature to survive being a cast iron chimneypiece described below. Plate 103: View to front of central room Plate 104: View to rear of central room Historic Building Consultants Page 97 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey At the front of this room a kitchen has been fitted, with tiled walls, kitchen units and extract unit. Plate 105: Kitchen in central room Plate 106: Chimneypiece in central room The chimneypiece that survives in this room is cast iron and has a tiled insert with a domed hood over the hearth. Historic Building Consultants Page 98 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 11. Room over archway The room over the archway has been subdivided by a partition to provide a living room in the front of the house, with access gained through the kitchen area at the rear. The partition wall has a hollow door of later twentieth century date. The walls and ceilings in this area have been replastered and the entire area refurbished. Plate 107: Partition in room over archway Plate 108: Rear window Historic Building Consultants Page 99 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 12. Room in return As with the rest of the house, the room in the return has been entirely refurbished and redivided. The accommodation now includes a bedroom or bedsitting room with a WC leading off it on the southern side, between the room and the main house, while a shower leads off the room on the opposite side of the entrance corridor. Between the shower and the main house is a store room accessed off the corridor approaching the room in the return. On the opposite side of this corridor is a bathroom, located between the WC and the main house Plate 109: View to south in room in return Plate 110: View to north in room in return Historic Building Consultants Page 100 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 111: Door to WC from room in return Plate 112: Shower in room in return Plate 113: Corridor leading in to return Historic Building Consultants Page 101 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Attic Plate 114: Underside of roof in attic of 21 Vicar Street The owner of the property informed the present writer that the entire terrace of three houses was completely re-roofed in the late 1950s. The appearance of the fibre-cement tiles on the roof of the terrace would be consistent with their being in place for around fifty years. There is a layer of slater’s felt beneath the tiles. The roof structure consists of paired rafters supported near the mid-point by a purlin running between the spine walls. One of the walls was visible on the inspection and is a masonry wall with a rendered surface having a coating of lime-wash. This prevents any detailed inspection of the nature of the masonry. Plate 115: Face of spine wall in attic Historic Building Consultants Page 102 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Structures at rear To the rear of 21 Vicar Street there is a yard, paved in part with concrete and in part with asphalt. On approaching this yard from the vehicular access the yard turns to the left, while to the right is a gateway leading in to the yard at the rear of 22 Vicar Street. At the far end of the yard is another building, described below. Plate 116: View of yard at rear of 21 Vicar Street from vehicular access Plate 117: View of rear of house from eastern end of yard Historic Building Consultants Page 103 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Gateway and boundary Plate 118: Gateway to rear of 22 Vicar Street The boundary wall between 21 and 22 Vicar Street is a high masonry wall, rendered on the side facing 21 Vicar Street with sand and cement render. Immediately to the rear of the houses the wall curves splays towards the south and there are two stones set against the wall to guard against impact by cart wheels. The gateway is approximately 2.7 metres wide and is closed with a pair of wrought iron gates of nineteenth century date. These are further closed with sheet corrugated iron. The fender stone close to the gates is of dressed and shaped limestone with two square holes and appears to be a reused window sill from an earlier building that had wrought iron bars. Plate 119 (left): Fender close to gateway Plate: 120 (right) Fender near to archway Historic Building Consultants Page 104 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Boundaries and stores As noted above, the southern boundary wall is high and is cement rendered. This is seen in the adjacent photograph, with the gateway at right. Plate 121: Southern boundary wall, at right The boundary wall between numbers 20 and 21 Vicar Street is of mass concrete, with a concrete capping. This terminates at a mass concrete pier that is slightly thicker than the wall. It is noted that the Ordnance Survey map of 1900, reproduced in Figure 14 above, shows that there was no boundary wall at that time. Plate 122: Northern boundary wall There is a group of four storage sheds built as a lean-to against the southern boundary wall. These are of concrete construction with timber doors and a corrugated roof. Plate 123: Storage sheds at rear of 21 Vicar Street Historic Building Consultants Page 105 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Flat at rear At the rear of the property at 21 Vicar Street there is a flat-roofed building that is in use as a residential apartment. This has a front door and a large window facing west towards the main house. The northern side wall is built off the continuation of the mass concrete boundary wall that was shown in plate 121 above, while a utility room extension projects northwards at the rear of this building. A small window faces north near the utility room. Plate 124: Western front of flat-roofed building Plate 125: Northern side of flat-roofed building. The front of the boundary wall from which this building rises has a gate pier with the remnants of a wrought iron gate hanging from it. The owner of the building informed the present writer that he took down the remaining older buildings on the site and built this flat-roofed building and an examination of the interior confirms that there are no traces of an earlier building in this structure. Historic Building Consultants Page 106 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 22 Vicar Street Exterior Plate 126: Front facade of 22 Vicar Street The front facade of number 22 Vicar Street is rendered, ruled lined and painted. The facade is two-storey and two-bay on the upper floor and three-bay below. At the left-hand, or northern end, of the facade it is attached to the house at 21 Vicar Street. At the southern end a high wall projects from the corner of the facade, and at an angle to it, before stopping at a short distance from the corner. Beyond this stub wall are the double gates leading to the adjacent yard. In the corner between the facade and the stub wall there is a sub-pyramidal feature of the type that was used to prevent loiterers from lounging in corners. It is noted that the facade of this house is not aligned with that of its neighbours to the north, and is offset at an angle of approximately 4 degrees. The windows are of uPVC with fixed principal lights and top-hung casements above. The front door is a twentieth-century panelled door with two glazed panels and one timber panel. Above it is a small porch roof supported on moulded brackets which appear to be of cast concrete. The roof is gable-ended with a covering of fibre-cement tiles and there are chimney stacks on the end gable and on the party wall. The rainwater goods are of cast iron, with a half-round gutter that is missing the southern end. Further comments on this facade and descriptions of the other two facades are found below in considering the opening-up survey. This is followed by a survey of the outbuildings at the rear of the premises. Historic Building Consultants Page 107 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey The southern gable end of the house is rendered, though with the render damaged in places. The chimney stack projects beyond the face of the gable and becomes narrower in stages towards the top. Below the approximate level of the first floor the facade is thicker to the rear of the chimneybreast. To the front of the chimneybreast there is a small area that is thickened near to the base. A wall projects to the front of the gable, while the boundary wall to the east meets the wall but is not aligned on it, projecting further into the adjacent property. This is discussed further in the opening up survey below. Plate 127: Southern gable end Plate 128: Ground floor rear window Plate 129: Rear facade of 22 Vicar Street As noted above, the rear wall of number 22 Vicar Street has a modern extension attached and there is no return. The rear of the main house is roughcast rendered. The roof covering is of fibre-cement tiles and the rainwater goods are of cast iron. The original windows remain on the upper floor of this facade, both being twoover-two timber sashes with semi-revealed weight boxes. A third window at top level is a timber casement, as is the one window at ground floor level in the original house. The later extension is smooth rendered and painted with a corrugated iron roof and with timber casement windows. Historic Building Consultants Page 108 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Interior – ground floor 4 3 1 2 Figure 21: Ground floor plan of 22 Vicar Street At ground floor level there are two rooms in the main house at 22 Vicar Street, in addition to the staircase with a lobby at the foot. There is no return at the rear, though a modern flat-roofed extension has been added across much of the rear of the building. The house is not regular in shape. As noted, the front wall is out of alignment with the front of the rest of the terrace by about four degrees, while the rear wall is also out of alignment, but by a slightly smaller angle. The side walls of the house are about ten degrees out from the grid in comparison with numbers 20 and 21 Vicar Street. Within these constraints, the house is divided relatively uniformly, with the room to the right on entering the front door being slightly narrower than that on the left. The room to the right runs the full depth of the house, while that on the left is foreshortened because of the location of the staircase at the rear. The numbers on the plan above indicate the sequence of the rooms described below. The rear extension is not included in the survey as it is of recent construction and does not form part of the original house. Historic Building Consultants Page 109 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 1. Entrance hall The entrance hall runs as a narrow passageway from front to rear in the building, where it enters the modern extension. Doors lead off to the side of the passageway into one room to the left, one to the right and to the staircase near the rear. Each of these doorways has a moulded timber architrave. The floor is tiled and the alignment of the tiles reflects the fact that the corridor is not of even width and the side walls are not parallel. A little closer to the front than half way down the passage a segmental arch crosses over, supported on timber pilasters with pyramidal mouldings at the capitals, this feature also running up the faces of the arch. The wall above the front door is thicker than the walls flanking the door, suggesting that there is a beam at this location. Plate 130: View to front of passageway Plate 131: Detail of spring of arch and capital of pilaster Historic Building Consultants Page 110 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 2. Room to right of front hall The principal room in the building is on the southern side of the entrance hall. A glazed hatch opens to the entrance hall and may originally have been a doorway, with the room divided into two smaller rooms. A timber beam crosses the ceiling dividing the room unevenly, with a smaller section to the front. The windows to the front and rear are uPVC casements without shutters or linings. Above the front window the wall projects significantly, indicating the presence of a beam continuing the one at the front door. There are various boxed-in pipes and services at the rear of the room, and a built-in cupboard from floor to ceiling in the corner at the rear. The door to this room is of recent date and has no architrave. Plate 132: Window at front of main room Plate 133: View to rear of main room Plate 134 (below): View to front of main room Historic Building Consultants Page 111 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 3. Room to left of front hall The room on the northern side of the front entrance passageway is narrower than that on the opposite side and does not project to the rear of the building. The window has a moulded architrave and timber linings, but no shutters. There is no cornice in this room or other original feature other than the window surround. The door is six-panelled and of recent date. The hearth is still in use and there is a brick chimneypiece of late twentieth century date. The walls are dry lined with plasterboard. Plate 135: View to front of smaller room at ground floor level Plate 136: Chimney piece in smaller room Historic Building Consultants Page 112 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 4. Staircase and lobby The original staircase had a long flight descending from the first floor to a small half landing where it turned to a short flight at the bottom. The longer flight remains in place but the bottom flight has been replaced by open treads. Plate 137 (above): Lobby at foot of stairs Plate 138 (left): Foot of staircase There is an original built-in cupboard of sheeted timber in the lobby at the foot of the stairs and beneath the stairs is a small ope, formerly a window and now facing in to the rear extension. Plate 139 (above): Cupboard in lobby Plate 140: Window ope beneath stairs Historic Building Consultants Page 113 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Interior – first floor 5 7 6 8 10 9 Figure 22: First floor plan of 22 Vicar Street On the upper floor there are four rooms, one of which is fitted out as a bathroom. The other three are offices. The staircase rises to a corridor that runs to the centre of the building to give access to each of the rooms. The divisions between the rooms on the upper floor are all light partitions and it is noted that none of these lies over any of the partition walls on the lower floor, nor do most of them run at the same angles as those on the ground floor. The right-hand wall of the building is the gable end wall. The floor plan does not give the thickness of this wall as no access to the adjacent property was available to take measurements at the time of the measured survey during 2012-13. However, access had been available during 2008 when it was possible to take photographs and to note the nature of the walls. At that time the carrying out of a measured survey was not contemplated. The numbers on the plan above indicate the sequence of the rooms described below. Historic Building Consultants Page 114 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 5. Stairs Plate 141: View down main flight of stairs Plate 142: View up main flight As noted above, the stairs has one main flight, with three steps forming a lesser flight at the base. The upper flight is original and the photograph above shows the original risers and treads. The original balustrade also survives in this section, with turned newels at top and bottom and stick balusters in between, with a wooden handrail. The stair is closed string. The stairs is lit by a two-over-two timber sash window set in an architrave with panelled shutters. Plate 143: Window on staircase Historic Building Consultants Page 115 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 7. Corridor Plate 144: View to front of corridor Plate 145: View to rear of main corridor The corridor that runs to the front from the staircase is in a straight line and is not lit by windows. Each of the four doors leading off the corridor has its original moulded timber architrave and its four-panelled timber door. There is no cornice in the corridor, and it seems likely that there never was one. The skirtings are original, and are simple timber boards with a plain moulding at the top. At the front end of the corridor the three architraves at the three doorways meet in the restricted space of the narrow corridor, but manage to retain their full size and mouldings. 8. Rear office At the time of the survey the rear office on the first floor was locked and there was not access to it for the purpose of this survey. Historic Building Consultants Page 116 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 9. Bathroom The rear room adjacent to the staircase is in use as a bathroom. This has a small rectangular window with reeded obscure glazing facing on to the stairwell. The door is four-panelled and set in an original moulded architrave. The room is otherwise devoid of original features other than a modest skirting. A projection of the room to the rear spans over the stairwell to the outside wall at the rear of the house where a small timber casement window provides light to the WC area. Plate 146: Door to bathroom Plate 147 (above): View from the door Plate 148 (above): WC area Plate 149 (left): Window to stairwell Historic Building Consultants Page 117 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 10. Front office – northern side On the northern side of the front facade is a small room in use as an office. This has a four-panelled door set in a moulded timber architrave. There is a modest skirting with a small moulding at the top. There is no cornice. The window is a uPVC casement set in the original surround with a moulded timber architrave and with panelled shutters. Plate 150: Window in small front office Plate 151: View across small front office Historic Building Consultants Page 118 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 11. Front office – southern side The office on the southern side of the front at first floor level is the largest of the three on this floor. It has a uPVC window to the front with a moulded timber architrave and panelled shutters. The door is four-panelled and set in a moulded timber architrave. There is a modest skirting with a simple moulding on the top. The ceiling has a covering of aeroboard tiles, the rectilinear form of which emphasises the angle of the southern external wall. Beneath this ceiling is a small coving, also of aeroboard and a comparatively recent addition to the room. Plate 152: Larger office at front of building Plate 153: Door to larger office Plate 154: Window to larger office Historic Building Consultants Page 119 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Buildings at rear The outbuildings at the rear of number 22 Vicar Street include a structure that runs across the rear boundary, a small shed attached to that structure, a shed at the rear of the house with the doorway facing the house, another shed at the rear of that. A B F C E G D H I Figure 23: Layout of structures to rear of 22 Vicar Street Each of the boundary walls is also examined in the next section. These are considered after the sheds have been investigated, as many of the boundary walls are also walls to sheds. The site plan above indicates the locations of each of these sheds and boundaries. Historic Building Consultants Page 120 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Shed A This shed runs across the entire rear boundary of the property and is raised at a height above the general level of the yard. Plate 155: Shed A at rear of yard behind 22 Vicar Street This building is shown on the 1841 Ordnance Survey manuscript map reproduced above, though the northern part of it as shown on that map is now missing. The external walls on the northern, eastern and southern sides were not inspected, as there was no access to those lands. The interior of the building is dry lined and hence the interiors of the walls are not available for inspection. The front wall of this building exhibits a wide variety of periods and materials, making it difficult to assess how the building looked originally. The following photographs look from the left-hand side towards the right, noting the materials in the front wall. Plate 156: Northern end of building, above shed B Historic Building Consultants Page 121 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey The front of the building is lime washed, making identification of the building materials difficult, though it is possible to be clear on this in some instances. The northern end of the building, seen in Plate 155 above, has brick built in with the rubble stone of the wall. This is particularly visible behind the drainpipe, but is also visible towards the right hand end of the photograph. Plate 157: Wall to the left of the doorway, shed A Immediately to the left of the door into the shed the wall is of mass concrete. There is a well-formed small buttress at the beginning of the stone wall beyond this, seen in the photograph above and in more detail in Plate 157 below. Plate 158: Buttress at front of shed A Historic Building Consultants Page 122 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey The function of this buttress is unclear, but given that it occurs adjacent to the mass concrete area beside the door it is possible that this represents a former edge of a wider ope into the building. The buttress is also in line with the internal wall. The stonework is well formed, but does not appear to be of antiquity. Plate 159: Area to right of door of Shed A The door to this building is set in an area of mass concrete and this is also found around the window, which is entirely set in mass concrete. There is a narrow area of stone masonry between the door and the window, and a further area of stonework to the right of the window. This latter section has extensive amounts of brick, both whole and fragmented. The suggestion from the masonry to this building is that while it existed at the time of the first edition Ordnance Survey it is not of ancient origin. Plate 160: Area to right of window of shed A Historic Building Consultants Page 123 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Interior The interior of shed A is divided into two unequal rooms. The building has been in use as a practice area for bands and the entire interior is dry-lined with a deep covering of insulating material. As a result, the true nature and thickness of the walls was not determined during the survey. Plate 161: View northwards along larger room Plate 162: View southwards along larger room The larger room is rectangular, except that the southern end wall is at an angle of about 17 degrees away from the norm. The walls are dry lined with softboard or similar material, and a similar covering is found on the ceiling. These coverings are in sheets of about 2.4 by 1.2 metres in dimension. There is a light timber dado rail. Historic Building Consultants Page 124 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 163: Entrance and door linking the rooms The entrance to the shed is via a twentieth-century panelled and glazed door and there is a timber skirting at the base of the walls, which continues to form an architrave around the internal door. Plate 164: Window in smaller room The smaller room is featureless except for a simple rectangular window overlooking the main room and the doorway to the other room, which lacks a door. The wall at the connecting doorway projects beyond the thickness of the remainder of the dividing wall. This room is also dry lined with softboard or similar material. Historic Building Consultants Page 125 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Shed B Shed B is a small lean-to built against the northern end of the front of Shed A. This structure is of mass concrete and is of 20th century origin. Plate 165: Shed B Shed C Shed C is also of 20th century origin. The stone walls at the side and rear are treated separately below. Plate 166: Shed C Historic Building Consultants Page 126 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Shed D Shed D is built up against the southern boundary wall and is constructed of stone. The quality of the masonry is similar to that of the walls in the houses, consisting of small stones with a significant amount of broken brick incorporated. The gable of the eastern wall has collapsed, revealing the structure of the wall in detail. Plate 167: Eastern end of shed D Plate 168: Collapsed gable at eastern end of shed D Historic Building Consultants Page 127 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey At the western end of Shed D, where it is closest to the house, there is a doorway facing the house. The end of the low wall at the doorway terminates in a pier with dressed stone in the mid section. This is seen in the photograph below where three courses of dressed stone may be seen. These rest on a plinth that includes a substantial amount of brick, showing that if this stone is of any age it has been reused in later times. Plate 169: Pier at end of shed D with dressed stone in mid section Historic Building Consultants Page 128 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Boundary walls The rear, or eastern, boundary wall of this property has not been seen, as it is not visible from within the site. The northern boundary wall is the party wall with number 21 Vicar Street. The southern wall is in three parts, as seen in the site plan above, where it turns through a right angle and then turns again. Each of the visible boundary walls is discussed below. E. Northern boundary Plate 170: Northern boundary wall The northern boundary wall consists of reasonably well-built rubble limestone masonry, brought to courses. The stones are generally of good quality and size. The wall is capped with sand and cement. The wall is divided vertically at intervals, with the courses and stonework being similar on either side of the divide. This suggests that the wall is built with Portland cement, necessitating expansion joints. It is noted that this wall is not shown on the 1841 large scale Ordnance Survey map, though it seems to be on the valuation map of ca. 1860 and has definitely appeared by 1900. Historic Building Consultants Page 129 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey F. Southern boundary – eastern section The eastern section of the southern wall is visible only from within the site, the opposite site bounding private land. This section of the wall is built in two stages. Plate 171: Eastern section of southern boundary wall The part of the boundary wall that lies behind Shed 3 and a little above and beyond it is built of brick and stone, with a well-defined vertical stop to this part of the wall. To the east of this and running across the entire upper section of the wall the structure is of concrete blocks. Historic Building Consultants Page 130 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey G. Southern wall – central section The central section of the southern boundary wall lies within Shed C and above it on its eastern side, and faces into the adjoining private car park on its western side. This is a stone wall, lime washed within the shed, though the lime wash has not been renewed in a considerable time. The wall consists of small to medium sized stones and is not of high quality masonry. Mid-way along the wall there is a ventilation slit with its narrow face on within the shed. As these features would normally have the splay within the building it appears that this ventilation slit was built to serve a building on the adjoining site, now the car park. The slit is 3800mm from the corner and the equivalent distance on the other side of the wall is concealed behind a rendered section of wall. Plate 172: boundary wall, seen within shed C Plate 173: Ventilation slit seen within the shed Historic Building Consultants Page 131 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 174: Central section of southern boundary, seen from car park The opposite side of this wall, within the adjacent car park, is not lime washed, enabling closer examination of the fabric of the wall. This is seen to be of rubble stone of mixed quality, with particularly poor work at the very top. A great deal of broken brick is visible throughout this wall, suggesting that it is of post-medieval date. A small section of the wall is rendered, with a sloping upper margin to the render, suggesting that there was a structure here at some stage. As has been noted above the ventilation slit that is visible within Shed C is within the area that is rendered, preventing examination of this feature from this side. Historic Building Consultants Page 132 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey H. Southern boundary – western section A great deal of the western section of the boundary wall to 22 Vicar Street is concealed behind Shed D and as it has been lime washed over the years close examination of the masonry is difficult. This wall is visible on the opposite side within the adjacent car park. Plate 175: Southern boundary, western section, seen within shed D Plate 176: Southern boundary, western section, adjacent to house Historic Building Consultants Page 133 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey It may be seen in Plate 170 that there is a significant quantity of brick in the upper section of this wall. This does not rule out the possibility that the lower section is older, though it has been seen above that this wall has been butted against the rear wall of the house, implying that it is of more recent date. Plate 177: Southern boundary, western section, seen from car park When seen from the car park the wall may be seen to be constructed like many of the other walls examined, with smallish, irregular stones of limestone, and incorporating a significant amount of broken brick. The pier at the left-hand end of this section of wall is of a later date than the rest of the wall. This has been constructed to repair the broken end of the wall that is part of the feature revealed in the rear wall of the house and discussed in the opening up survey below. There is a clear break between the masonry of the pier and that of the main section of the wall, and the stone in the pier is of better quality. This is clear in Plates 173 and 174 below. The south western corner of this pier is constructed of brick and the brick is of better quality than that seen elsewhere in the masonry and it is virtually the only section of brickwork encountered other than the use of odd bits of brick within the stonework of the walls. It would appear that the boundary wall was originally built butting up against the masonry of the feature found in the rear wall of the house. The remainder of this feature was subsequently demolished and the ragged end protruding from the corner of the house was repaired, blending it in with the stonework of the boundary wall and finishing off the other end with brickwork keyed into the substantial stones of the feature, as seen in Plate 173 below. Historic Building Consultants Page 134 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Plate 178: Western end of southern boundary wall, at rear corner of house Plate 179: Western end of southern boundary wall Historic Building Consultants Page 135 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey I. Wing wall at south western corner Although it is outside the sites of 20 to 22 Vicar Street, the wall that runs out from the south western corner of number 22 is worthy of comment. Plate 180: Wall projecting from south-western corner of 22 Vicar Street The outer face of the wall, facing the street, is rendered and gives no clues as to its composition. The inner face, within the car park, is not rendered. The upper section of the is wall is built of the same rough masonry with smallish stones and brick fragments as is found elsewhere in the buildings. There is a vertical joint in the wall about two thirds of the way along its length from the house. The section nearer to the house has a small amount of brick built in with the stonework, while the part away from the house also has brick, some of it concentrated in the vicinity of the vertical joint. Historic Building Consultants Page 136 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Opening up survey – number 22 While there is a resemblance between this building and numbers 20 and 21 there are important differences. In the first instance there is no return at the rear of number 22, the projection to the rear seen on modern maps being a modern extension. Secondly, number 22 does not fully line up with the other two, the façade facing very slightly further to the south. Thirdly, the front wall of this building is a small but significant amount thicker than the front wall of number 20 – bearing in mind that number 21 was not surveyed. Plate 181: Southern part of ground floor facade showing shopfront A further difference is that there are scars to suggest that there was a shopfront on the façade of number 22. This is seen in the scar that extends over the front door and the window to the right of it. This could have been a signboard, but the presence of what appears to be a beam on the inner face of the wall makes it more likely that there was a shop window here at some time in the past. This possibility is made the more likely by a further scar at sill level between the door and window, which may reflect the location of the stall-riser on the shopfront, but this is not conclusive. It was noted that the ground floor plan of the building is similar to that of the other houses, with a corridor penetrating the full depth and a stair to one side at the rear. Number 22 is occupied as offices by the Noreside Resource Centre. While this body kindly made access freely available it was not realistic to carry out opening up of the walls inside the building, particularly as some of the walls are dry-lined and gaining sufficient access to clear back significant amounts of plaster would have been extremely disruptive. Opening up of walls externally was possible. Historic Building Consultants Page 137 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Front façade In deciding on locations for the opening up to examine the front wall of the building the probable presence of a shopfront in the past was taken into account. This would have cut through any earlier masonry that might have been present and hence it was decided not to open in that location. An area of render was removed from the front wall of the building, keeping it low down as any earlier masonry would exist at the lower level where it might not be present higher up. Plate 182: Opening in front facade of number 22 Vicar Street This opening reveals a similar type of masonry to that found in the walls of number 20 Vicar Street. The masonry is generally of comparatively small stones of irregular shape. At the bottom on the right there is an area of brick, though it is possible that this is part of the brick lining of the door ope. A small fragment of brick was found near the top of the opening suggesting that this part of the wall is of post-medieval date. The lack of any change in the style of the masonry suggests that all of the stonework revealed in this opening was erected at the same time. The side wall of this building on the southern side could be accessed for viewing as it faces into a car park. This car park is privately owned and there was no permission for access to open up the walls for examination. As seen in the photographs below the gable end of the house is rendered. There are other walls butted against this gable, including a low section of masonry with the appearance of a buttress. The render in this additional masonry was cracked in places to reveal some brick in the walls, but the only place where this occurs on the main gable is at the chimney where brick would be expected in a building of this age. Historic Building Consultants Page 138 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Southern gable Plate 183: Southern gable end of 22 Vicar Street The photograph in Plate 26 above shows the gable end with the chimneystack projecting. To either side there is a thickening of the wall that may be of a different period to the main gable wall. These abutted walls contain fragments of brick and the masonry is of poor quality. The stone walls on either side of the gable are considered separately below. Plate 184: Masonry at chimney stack Plate 185: Masonry at base of gable wall Historic Building Consultants Page 139 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Rear wall Plate 186: Rear of 22 Vicar Street The occupants had no objection to the removal of plaster from a small area of the rear wall beneath the staircase. It was considered, however, that the external wall to the left of the extension, being the south eastern corner, would provide more information and would enable the opening up of a larger area. There was also a slight change in the face of the building here that warranted investigation. Plate 187: South-eastern corner of building with change in face indicated Historic Building Consultants Page 140 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey The opening up of this part of the building revealed that the cause of the change in direction of the face of the building was a section of different masonry buried in the wall. Plate 188: South-eastern corner of 22 Vicar Street To the right of this feature the wall of the house is similar to that found at the front and in number 20 Vicar Street, with small stones making up a rough, poor quality wall. The feature itself has the appearance of the edge of a building, either a corner or one side of an opening. The firm edge is formed with what appear to be quoins, while to the left of this the masonry consists generally of smaller stones. This feature appears to be earlier than the house, as the wall of the house is clearly built up against it. It also predates the boundary wall, seen at left in the photograph, as the boundary wall buts up against the feature and is not keyed in to it. The feature itself is post-medieval and the better quality stones in the masonry are reused from another structure. The arrows in the above photograph indicate where fragments of brick are built in to the masonry, indicating that the wall is post-medieval. The stones themselves are of varying style, suggesting that they did not all come from the same origin, while the dressed stone that is not acting as a quoin is dressed as if to form the jamb of a door or window, complete with a dressed chamfer. The principal stones in this feature are discussed below. Historic Building Consultants Page 141 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey 1 The larger stone are each given a number as shown in the key on the left. 2 Each is described below, with a photograph to illustrate the nature of the stone and how it is dressed. 3 5 4 The dimensions of each stone are given, these being the maximum length and height. 6 Stone 1: Only the bottom of this stone was revealed in the opening. It is hammer dressed with drafted margins ca. 50-60mm wide. The field is raised. The stone is approximately 510mm long, height unknown. Stone 2: A vertical stone, hammer dressed with lightly chiselled, but not drafted, margin, circa 30mm wide. The stone is approximately 270mm horizontally and 420mm in height. Stone 3: An irregularly-shaped stone with lightly chiselled, but not drafted, margin ca. 20mm broad. The surface is otherwise rock faced. The stone is approximately 550mm in length and 440mm in height Historic Building Consultants Page 142 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Building survey Stone 4: A small, irregular stone ca. 175mm horizontally and 330mm in height. There is no sign on dressing on the exposed surface of this stone. Stone 5: This is the only shaped stone that is not incorporated as a quoin, but is set back from the edge of the feature. The stone is set slightly off horizontal. The main face is finely punched with drafted margins ca. 25mm broad. The righthand edge of the stone is chamfered, suggesting that this was the jamb stone of a door or window. The stone is ca. 450mm long and 250mm high. Stone 6: This stone is somewhat irregular, having a well-defined right-hand edge, but otherwise poorly shaped. The surface is hammer dressed, but without any chiselling or punching. The stone is approximately 565mm in length and 480mm in height. The great variety of surface dressing is seen in these details of the stones and suggests that they may have been reused from a variety of sources. Historic Building Consultants Page 143 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Discussion Discussion The large scale Ordnance Survey map of 1841 suggests that the six-inch map published two years before was misleading when it seems to show a separate building on the site of 22 Vicar Street, with a gap before the adjacent buildings. It is possible that the site was redeveloped in the intervening two years, but this seems unlikely, particularly as the buildings were at that stage part of a five-house terrace, the end one of which was in ruins. It is notable that the returns on the houses as seen on the 1841 map and the valuation map are different to those existing today. This could be a mapping error, relating to parts of the buildings that were not visible from the street. This is unlikely, however. Private cartographers such as John Rocque worked from the road without rights of access to the rear of buildings, but the Ordnance Survey was supposed to have all the detail right. If the OS had sketched in returns that had not been seen it is unlikely that the result would have been the complex configuration of the returns as shown on the maps. That the houses were not in the exact form seen today is confirmed by the valuation map, showing four houses rather than three. It is notable that a great deal of the stonework seen within the houses when the plaster was removed had been lime washed in the past. This could have been lime that was already on the stones when reused from an earlier building, but if this was the case it would be expected that a greater mix of lime washed and clean stones would be found, as the face of the stone left visible would be random, rather than always being the lime washed face. It is suggested, then, that the houses were built in the late 18 th century or early 19th as four two-storey cottages, stone-built and faced in lime wash, this being the usual finish for modest buildings. At some time in the mid- to late-19th century the houses were refurbished, or rebuilt around the shell of the earlier houses, with three houses rather than the previous four, and at this time they were given plaster surfaces to the internal walls. Feature at rear of 22 Vicar Street The feature of dressed stone that emerged when the render was removed at the back of 22 Vicar Street has been seen from the examination of the structure to be an earlier feature than the houses. This is seen in the way that the rear wall of 22 Vicar Street butts up to the more substantial masonry without any keying between the two phases of wall. It has also been shown above that the feature is postmedieval, as is seen in the fragments of brick built into it, and the stones incorporated into it have been reused from elsewhere. While it is not possible to say exactly when the structure associated with this feature was built, nor when it was demolished, the evidence from maps shows that there was a building here in the mid-18th century, and it was gone before 1839. Historic Building Consultants Page 144 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Discussion Examination of Rocque’s map of 1758 shows the building that this feature belonged to. Figure 24: Enlarged detail of Rocque’s map of 1758 In this greatly enlarged extract from Rocque’s map a building is seen on the site now occupied by the adjacent car park. The corner of the street is greater than a right angle, such that buildings facing the street on either side of the corner do not meet square on. This scenario explains the presence of the feature clearly, and shows it to be the corner of the building that formerly occupied the adjoining property. Other features seen on Rocque’s map are also worthy of note. Firstly, the area on the bottom left of this extract is shown as an orchard, which also appears on the 1841 Ordnance Survey map. There is no sign, however, of a structure at the corner of the orchard property at rear of 22 Vicar Street such as would explain the ventilation slot in the central section of the southern boundary of that house. Secondly, Mill lane is seen running southwards from the “r” of “Vicar” and it is shown as being built up along the southern side, to the left in this map extract. This would agree with the ruins shown on the 1841 manuscript map, which seem to depict the ruins of a range of small buildings in this location. The six-inch map of 1839 also seems to show buildings facing Mill Lane. This might suggest that the buildings on this site were in place as early as 1758. Historic Building Consultants Page 145 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Discussion Outbuilding at rear of 20 Vicar Street The outbuilding at the rear of 20 Vicar Street appears to have masonry that is of better quality than that found in the main house, at least in the southern and western elevations. The most notable part of this is the segmental arch over the doorway in the western wall, and a presumably similar ones, now gone, in the southern wall. These features are further discussed in the next section in considering the arch at the rear of number 21. Arch at rear of 21 Vicar Street The arch at the rear of the carriage entrance that runs through 21 Vicar Street has been described above and shown in Plate 80. It is likely that there is a similar stone arch at the front of the carriage entrance, though not visible beneath a covering of render. This type of arch is not unusual. Carriage entrances through buildings are found throughout the country, and many of them are rendered so as to conceal the nature of the arch. There are three common options for spanning the entrance – a stone arch, a brick arch or a beam. Beams are not common in the 18 th or early 19th century due to the weight of the wall to be carried and the limitations of the materials available for a beam. Brick is used in those areas where good quality brick was available, but Kilkenny is an area of good dimension stone and a stone arch is the most likely option. The better the quality of stone the stronger the arch, and well-shaped limestone voussoirs would ensure that the arch was good. The use of the segmental arch became common in the later 18 th century as knowledge of the construction of arches improved and their popularity was largely due to their low rise, allowing significant spans without penetrating into the upper floor of the building. It might be noted that earlier arches in Kilkenny were semicircular, as at Butter Slip, The Tholsel and Kilkenny Castle. In the light of the above, it would appear that this arch dates from the late 18th or early 19th century. It is noted that the arched ope in the outbuilding at the rear of 20 Vicar Street is also segmental and has similar dressed limestone voussoirs and skewbacks, though perhaps not so well made as that in the carriage entrance. It is likely that the opes in that outbuilding are of similar date – i.e. late 18th or early 19th century. Historic Building Consultants Page 146 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Discussion Outbuildings and boundary walls at 22 Vicar Street It has been seen above that the building at the rear of the property at 22 Vicar Street has substantial elements of mass concrete in the front wall, while the remaining sections of earlier masonry include significant amounts of brick. This shows that the front elevation, at least, is of post-medieval construction, probably late 18th or early 19th century. No opinion is offered on the other three walls, as these were not visible. Of the other outbuildings, sheds B and C are of 20th century date, while shed D includes significant amounts of brick and is probably of the same period as the houses. The boundary walls are of mixed age, but none is of medieval date as the brick included in the masonry demonstrates. The ventilation slit in the central section of the southern wall appears to have been part of a building formerly on the site of the car park. A building is shown in this location on the first edition six-inch map of 1839, though it is not on the larger scale manuscript map produced two years later in 1841. It is likely that there was an outbuilding of some kind on this site in the early 19th century and, as indicated by the nature of the masonry, this would be of 18th or early 19th century date. The section of the wall of the car park that projects from the south western corner of 22 Vicar Street is also of later date. The valuation map suggests that there was an entrance here in the mid-19th century, probably explaining the vertical joint in this wall. Historic Building Consultants Page 147 Kilkenny Central Access Scheme Discussion Conclusion The examination of the buildings at 20 to 22 Vicar Street has found no masonry that appears to predate the 18th century. It is possible that some of the individual stones found in the south eastern corner of number 22, representing the corner of a now demolished building on the car park site, are of late medieval or early modern date. These stones have been reused, however, and the feature itself is not of medieval date. There are also worked stones in the side wall of the archway through number 21 Vicar Street, though these are also reused and not in their original locations. There may be other, similar, stones elsewhere in the buildings. While it is recognised that brick has been found on rare occasions in medieval buildings in Ireland, the brick used prior to the modern period was thinner than that used from the eighteenth century. In those instances when it has been possible to see the size of the original brick from which the fragments in the masonry have been derived, these have been of the thicker, post-medieval type. There were certain limits to the extent of the investigation undertaken. The occupation of number 22 as an office meant that it was impractical to carry out invasive investigative works within the building. While much of the required information was gained from investigations externally, the southern gable wall of the building could not be examined from either side. It is possible that there could be masonry of an earlier date built into this gable. However, the revealed corner of the earlier structure at the rear of this gable wall would suggest that at least part of the gable wall still contains part of that post-medieval structure. The outbuilding at the rear of 22 Vicar Street was also only partially investigated. As has been seen, the front wall is not of medieval date. No opinion is possible on the dating of the other walls. Historic Building Consultants Page 148 20 Vicar Street Historic Building Consultants, Old Bawn, Old Connaught, Bray 21 Vicar Street 22 Vicar Street Job: Kilkenny Inner Relief Scheme Title: 20-22 Vicar Street - Ground floor Drg. no.: 565-01 Scale: 1 : 400 Date: 01 March 2013 rob.goodbody@historicbuildingconsultants.ie 20 Vicar Street Historic Building Consultants, Old Bawn, Old Connaught, Bray 21 Vicar Street 22 Vicar Street Job: Kilkenny Inner Relief Scheme Title: 20-22 Vicar Street - First floor Drg. no.: 565-02 Scale: 1 : 400 Date: 01 March 2013 rob.goodbody@historicbuildingconsultants.ie