Caught in a (very) momentary lull in traffic, this is Jasmine Lodge, located at the northern end of Main Street in Celbridge, County Kildare. The house is thought to date from c.1750 when built by Charles Davis, then acting as land agent for the Conolly family of nearby Castletown. Its most distinctive feature is the floating pediment at the top of the building, inset with a small Diocletian window. The present doorcase with its wide fanlight and sidelights was, it seems, installed around 1800 while the decorative iron archway was reportedly made using material salvaged from Dublin’s General Post Office after the 1916 Rising.
Lovely iron work and door/fanlight etc.
What’s your thoughts on the roof being hipped at one end and gabled at the other side? Original or revised at some point along the way?
Yes, isn’t it curious. I’d have investigate further (when traffic allows: it is on such a busy corner site) but instinctively feel there was some later work undertaken which accounts for the imbalance…
Also curious to render the lower part of the house but not the rubble built pediment. Perhaps the local ladders didnt reach that far.
I suspect that may be a relatively recent innovation: there has been a fashion in Ireland of late for removing render in the (mistaken) belief that somehow exposing rubble gives the building more authenticity…