18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

ANNE CAREY, MA, MUBC, MIAI, ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORIC BUILDINGS CONSULTANT 80 PORTACARRON, BALLYMONEEN ROAD, GALWAY 091 503894/086 8137102 [email protected] Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment at junction of 18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Pre-Planning

Client: Tipperary County Council, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. Consultant: Moore Group, Galway.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 1

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Contents

List of Illustrations…………………………………………………………...…...... 3

List of Plates……………………………………………………………………...... 3

1. Background………………………………………………...... ………...... 4

1.1 Introduction……………………………………………...... …….……..4

1.2 Description of the Site……………………………………………...... …4

1.3 Architectural Report………………………………………………...... 5

1.4 Locational Information………………………………………………...... 6

1.5 Aims and Objective………………………………………………...... 7

1.6 Statutory Protection………………………………………………...... 7

1.7 Planning Context………………………………………………...... 7

2. Methodology………………………………………………...... ………...... 8

2.1 Guiding Principles………………………………………………...... 8

2.2 Research and Analysis………………………………………………...... 8

3. Historical Information……………………………………...... ………...... 9

3.1 Historical Background………………………………………………...... 9

4. Architectural Inventory………………………………………………...... 13

4.1 External Description – Mitchel Street………………………………...... 13

4.2 Internal Description – Mitchel Street………………………………...... 15

4.3 External and Internal Description-Emmet Place…………………………..18

5. Assessment of Significance…………………………………………………...... 20

5.1 Introduction………………………………………………...... …...... 20

5.2 Statement of Significance……………………………………………...…..20

6. Impact Assessment………………………………………………...... 22

6.1 The Proposed Development………………………………...... 22

6.2 Impact of the Proposed Development……………………...... 23

6.3 Effects of the Proposed Development……………………...... 23

7. Conclusions and Recommendations. ………………………………………...... 25

Levels of Significance: (Guidelines for the Assessment of Architectural Heritage Impacts of National Road Schemes, 2005, National Roads Authority).

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

List of Illustrations

Illus. 1 Site Location Map. © Government of Ireland.

Illus. 2 Architectural Conservation Area, Nenagh.

Illus. 3 Historic Mapping. Extract of First Edition OS 6” Sheet TN020, 1839-41. © Government of Ireland.

Illus. 4 Historic Mapping. Extract of Second Edition OS 25” Sheet TN020, 1901-2. © Government of Ireland.

Illus. 5 Historic Mapping. Extract of Cassini Edition OS 6” Sheet TN020, mid- twentieth century. © Government of Ireland.

Illus. 6 Front façade of north-eastern end of Mitchel Street, with buildings proposed for demolition outlined.

Illus. 7 Plan of No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, with dotted lines indicating structures proposed for demolition.

Illus. 8 Plan of the proposed junction at Mitchel Street, Emmet Place and Sarsfield Street. List of Plates

Plate 1 No.’s 14-20 Mitchel St, Nenagh. Plate 2 No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street, Nenagh, with Emmet Place visible to left. Plate 3 Interior of office in ground floor of No. 18 Mitchel Street, looking to street. Plate 4 Interior of No. 19, ground floor, looking to rear. Plate 5 Rear wall at first floor, No. 19 Mitchel Street. Plate 6 Cast iron fireplace, first floor, No. 19 Mitchel Street. Plate 7 Fireplace in No. 20 Mitchel Street. Plate 8 Stairs between first and second floors. Plate 9 Bedroom, second floor, No. 20 Mitchel Street. Plate 10 Subject site, Emmet Place, from north-east. Plate 11 Subject site, Emmet Place, from north-east. Plate 12 Subject site, Emmet Place, from south-west. Plate 13 Front façade of subject site, Emmet Place. Plate 14 Interior ground floor of subject site, Emmet Place. Plate 15 Emmet Place at the junction with Mitchel Street, looking north-east to Nenagh Castle. Buildings proposed for demolition outlined in red.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 3

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

1. Background

1.1 Introduction

This report comprises an architectural heritage impact assessment (AHIA) on the proposed demolition of No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and an adjoining building on Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary to facilitate road widening at the junction of Mitchel Street and Emmet Place and the construction of a car park at Emmet Place. It was prepared by the writer at the request of Tipperary County Council, through the Moore Group, Galway. The buildings are located in an Architectural Conservation Area for Nenagh town. They are not protected structures.

To facilitate an assessment of the impact of the proposed demolition of the buildings the report includes a history of the site and a description of the building externally and internally. The significance of the buildings is discussed, including an assessment of their architectural merit and in particular their contribution to the ACA.

1.2 Description of the Site

No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street, Nenagh, comprises three terraced two-bay, three-storey buildings at the north-western end of Mitchel Street, as it adjoins Emmet Street. The building fronting onto Emmet Place which adjoins the rear of No. 20 Mitchel Street, comprises a four-bay, two-storey building.

The ACA encompasses the eighteenth/nineteenth century urban streetscapes of Nenagh, which is of the typical market town appearance of the period. The principal streets, including Mitchel Street, are lined with terraces of two and three-storey buildings of Classical appearance, many of which have traditional-style shopfronts, with some surviving in their original form. Immediately to the north-east of the commercial streets are the distinctive remains of Nenagh Castle (RMP TN020-37001, RPS 4). The monumental architecture of the town, exemplified by the fine Courthouse (RPS 5, NIAH 22305007) in Banba Square and also by the Church of St. Mary of the Rosary (RPS 71, NIAH 22305008), is located to the north of the commercial centre. This area in the northern section of the town, including Banba Square and O’Rahilly Street, is of particular architectural interest, having other buildings of note, including the former prison complex, noting the fine prison gatehouse (RPS 41, NIAH 22305006)

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 4

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. and the governor’s house (RPS 39, NIAH 22305003) and primary (RPS 42) and secondary schools and St. Mary’s Chapel (RPS 70, NIAH 22305009).

1.3 Architectural Report

No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place are located in an Architectural Conservation Area (ACA). An Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment is required under Part IV of the Local Government Planning and Development Act 2000, in advance of the proposed road realignment. This report has been carried out in consultation with Appendix B of the Architectural Heritage Protection Guidelines for Planning Authorities, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, 2004.

The brief for the architectural report is an analysis of the existing structures to be affected by the proposed development and an impact assessment of proposed changes on the Architectural Conservation Area (ACA).

A site visit was carried out on 3rd August, 2019.

Illus. 1 Site Location Map. © Government of Ireland.

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

1.4 Locational Information

Address Junction of 18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

RPS No. N/A

ACA Nenagh town

NIAH N/A RMP No. TN020-037 Town O S Map No.: Sheet TN 020 Forms of ACA is protected under Local Government, Planning and Development Protection: Act 2000.

Illus. 2 Architectural Conservation Area, Nenagh.

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

1.5 Aims and Objectives

The aim of the architectural impact assessment is to compile an analysis of the buildings and to assess the likely impact of the proposed demolition on the ACA.

1.6 Statutory Protection

No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place are located within the ACA for Nenagh town. The buildings are subject to the provisions of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act 2000, which is one of the main legal mechanisms by which the architectural and cultural heritage resource is protected in Ireland.

1.7 Planning Context

Present local authority planning policy is contained within the ‘Nenagh and Environs Development Plan, 2012-2019’ issued by North Tipperary County Council in 2013. The following policies and strategic objective of the N&EDP are particularly relevant to the current development proposal:

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

2. Methodology

2.1 Guiding Principles

This report is carried out in compliance with Part IV of the Planning and Development Act 2000. It follows the Department of the Environment Architectural Protection Guidelines for Planning Authorities and The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Guidelines for the Conservation of Buildings.

A combined survey strategy was employed which consisted of;

 Consultation of primary sources including maps and relevant depositories

 Site inspections

 Photographic records

 Written descriptions

2.2 Research and Analysis

The assessment of the architectural and cultural heritage was based on a desktop study of published and unpublished documentary and cartographic sources, followed by a field visit. These sources include the following:

Record of Protected Structures, maintained by Nenagh Town Council/North Tipperary County Council.

The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage: The NIAH is a section within the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The work of the NIAH involves identifying and recording the architectural heritage of Ireland, from 1700 to the present day, in a systematic and consistent manner.

Cartographic Sources: Cartographic sources consulted include the Historic Mapping, accessed online at www.archaeology.ie and www.osi.ie and www.heritagemaps.ie

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

3. Historical Information

3.1 Historical Background

The town of Nenagh is located in the townlands of Nenagh North and Nenagh South, in the parish of Nenagh and in the baronies of Lower Ormond and Upper Ormond in Co. Tipperary (NR). The placename Nenagh derives from the Irish An tAonach which means ‘the place of assembly’1.

The town of Nenagh is primarily of eighteenth and nineteenth century origin. It was built to the south-west of a 13th century castle which had been associated with a much smaller settlement. Nenagh Castle is a National Monument and a protected structure (Nat. Mon. No. 513, RMP TN020-037001, RPS 5). A fine castle, it served as the main seat of the Butlers of Ormond from its construction in c. 1200-1220 until the second half of the fourteenth century2. It was built by Theobald Walter, who also founded a priory and the hospital of St. John the Baptist at Tyone in c. 1200 (RMP No. TN021- 042). This was a foundation of the Augustinian Hospitallers or Fratres Cruciferi3. The fifteenth century saw the castle occupied by the Irish Mac Ibrien Aradh family but it was retaken by Piers Bulter in 1533, following the granting to him of Ormond in 1505. Nenagh was burnt in 1548 and over one hundred years later the castle was surrendered to the Cromwellians after a short siege. Following the Restoration the castle and lands were claimed for the Marchioness of Ormond. According to the Civil Survey of 1654, the settlement around Nenagh Castle was little more than a collection of sixty thatched houses. A session house and gaol was built in 1696 at Pearse Street but no trace of this survives (RMP No. TN020-037004). The castle was partly dismantled after the Williamite War in the 1690s and shortly afterwards the castle and town were sold to Nehemiah Donnellan, Chief Baron of the Exchequer. The manor and lands were inherited by his son, also Nehemiah, who built a house in a picturesque location by the

1 www.logainm.ie 2 Farrelly, J. and O’Brien, C. 2002 The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1-North Tipperary. 3 Gleeson, DF and Leask HG, 1936 ‘The Castle and Manor of Nenagh’, JRSAI 7th Series, Vol. 6, No. 2, Dec. 31, 1936, pp 247-269.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 9

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. river4, instead of occupying the castle. He sold the town to the Holmes family in 1733 and Nenagh began to grow and develop, achieving a population of 8446 by 1837.5 The basic street plan, described by Lewis as ‘four streets meeting in the centre’, was in place in the eighteenth century. These streets comprise Mitchel Street, Pearse Street, Kenyon Street and Silver Street. According to Sheehan, Mitchel Street bore the name Limerick Street in the eighteenth century. It then took the name Pound Street, which it shared with the street that adjoins it to the north-west (now Sarsfield Street but shown as Pound Street in the historic mapping from the nineteenth century). It acquired the name Queen Street in 18396 and Mitchel Street in the early-twentieth century.

Sheehan records that buildings were constructed ‘fronting the street called Limerick Street’ (now Mitchel Street), from No.’s 14 to 20, by Wm. Connors and Mat Gleeson, with the premises demised by lease or transferred in 1745 inclusive (Plate 1 shows current view of No.’s 14-20). The plot of ground the buildings were constructed on was bounded on the north ‘by Tom Connors’ orchard’. Wm. Connors estate was legally vested in James Jocelyn Poe and proceedings of the Landed Estates Court in 1868 stated that ‘The piece of ground formerly built on by Wm. Connors, also Mat Gleeson’s former ground and former angle of Coghlan’s garden and all houses thereon in Queen Street, formerly called Limerick Street are in Queen Street, Nenagh’.

Plate 1 No.’s 14-20 Mitchel St, 18-20 Nenagh.

4 Gleeson, DF 1959 ‘The River of Geagh’ North Munster Antiquarian’s Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 2, pp 53-58. 5 Lewis, S. 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. 6 Sheehan, EH 1949 Nenagh and its Neighbourhood.

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Emmet Place was formerly called Dwyer’s Lane, after George Dwyer who had a premises in Pound Street. Sheehan records that in 1860 Dwyer’s Lane was extended to join Peter Street and it was renamed Bank Place, due to the location of the Provincial Bank. It was re-named Emmet Street in the mid-twentieth century.

Griffith’s Valuation of the mid-nineteenth century shows the properties of 18 and 19 Queen Street (Mitchel Street) occupied by Robert Armstrong and Benjamin Blake, with No. 20 shown as vacant. All three buildings were owned by Michael O’Brien. No.’s 18 and 19 are described as ‘house, office and yard’ and No. 20 is described as ‘house’.

The building stock in the town of Nenagh was constructed from the mid-eighteenth century to the late-nineteenth century, with some the finest of the buildings from the mid-eighteenth century located at Summerhill, to the east and north-east of the castle. Much of the public architecture, including Nenagh Courthouse and the prison complex, dates from the mid-nineteenth century and is located to the west of the castle. The streets to the south, including Kenyon Street and Silver Street, contain a mixture of eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings.

Illus. 3 Historic Mapping. Extract of First Edition OS 6” Sheet TN020, 1839-41. © Government of Ireland.

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Illus. 4 Historic Mapping. Extract of Second EditionOS 25” Sheet TN020, 1901-2. © Government of Ireland.

Illus. 5 Historic Mapping. Extract of Cassini Edition OS 6” Sheet TN020, mid- twentieth century. © Government of Ireland.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 12

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

4. Architectural Inventory

4.1 External Description: Mitchel Street façade

No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street comprises three end-of-terrace, two-bay, three-storey former businesses/dwellings, two of which are now vacant (Illus.’s 6-7, Plate 1). No. 18 (to right along terrace) is in use as an office on the ground floor.

20 19 18

Plate 2 No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street, Nenagh, with Emmet Place visible to left.

The facades of all three buildings are broadly the same, having the same roof height and plain plaster finish (Plate 2). The fenestration to the first and second floors is also similar, with the high square headed openings on the first floor giving way to small window opes on the second (attic) floor. All original windows have been removed and are now fitted with modern uPVC replacements.

The ground floor of all three buildings comprise three different door and window styles, with No. 20, at the end of the terrace, having a plain modern window and a half-glazed modern door in the front façade. No.’s 19 retains evidence of an earlier timber shop front, with a half-glazed timber door integrated into the large tripartite shop window. No. 18 has the most intact shopfront, having a moulded cornice and name board over the shop window and replacement uPVC door.

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Illus. 6 Front façade of north-eastern end of Mitchel Street, with buildings proposed for demolition outlined.

Illus. 7 Plan of No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, with dotted lines indicating structures proposed for demolition.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 14

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

4.2 Internal Description: Mitchel Street

No. 18 Mitchel Street.

The ground floor of this building is in use as an office. The upper floors were not accessible. The ground floor office is featureless, having plainly plastered walls and ceiling and a replacement timber floor (Plate 3).

Plate 3 Interior of office in ground floor of No. 18 Mitchel Street, looking to street.

No. 19 Mitchel Street.

This vacant building comprises a single room on the ground floor (Illus. 7; Plate 4). There is modern plasterboard to the walls and there is a half-glazed timber door in the rear wall. The stairs to the first floor is largely of modern construction but it retains timber wainscoting.

The stairs from the ground floor rises towards the rear wall, where it turns at a timber window, set in an embrasure (wall thickness 500mm) and partly obscured by the stud partition wall of a modern bathroom (Plate 5). There is one room to the front of the first floor, which has been partly dry-lined in recent times but which also retains a cast iron fireplace in the south-eastern side wall (Plate 6), a four panelled entrance door, timber skirting, a timber floor and a picture rail.

The stairs continues to the second floor, which was inaccessible due to the poor and collapsed condition of the ceiling.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 15

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Plate 4 Interior of No. 19, ground floor, looking to rear.

Plate 5 Rear wall at first floor, Plate 6 Cast iron fireplace, first floor,

No. 19 Mitchel Street. No. 19 Mitchel Street.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 16

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

No. 20 Mitchel Street.

The ground floor of the end of terrace house, No. 20, comprises a room to the front with a hallway with a toilet off it to the rear. The stairs rises from the rear of the hallway to the first floor, which comprises one room to the front and a small kitchen to the rear. The room to the front is accessed via a five-panelled door and it has a cast iron fireplace in the side wall to the north-west (Plate 7). The stairs winds to the second floor (Plate 8), which has two bedrooms, both having coved ceilings, finished in a modern insulating tile (Plate 9). The gable wall to Emmet Place measures 630mm in thickness.

Plate 7 Fireplace in No. 20 Mitchel Street.

Plate 9 Bedroom, second floor, No. 20 Mitchel Street.

Plate 8 Stairs between first and second floors.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 17

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

4.3 External and Internal Description: Emmet Place

Emmet Place joins Mitchel Street at the junction of Sarsfield Street and Mitchel Place (Illus. 1). The extant building on the site comprise a four-bay, two-storey building that abuts the rear of No. 20 Mitchel Street (Illus. 7).

Plate 10 Subject site,

Emmet Place, from north-east.

Plate 11 Subject site, Emmet Place, from north-east.

Plate 12 Subject site,

Emmet Place, from south-west.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 18

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

The façade of the building fronting onto Emmet Place and the front ground floor of the building was examined (Plates 11-14). The yard to the rear and the upper floor of the building were not accessible.

The façade comprises a lower two-storey section that adjoins the rear wall of No. 20 Mitchel Street and a taller section to the north-east. The façade is plastered, ruled and lined with a door to the right on ground floor level and two broad modern timber windows to the left (Plate 11). A second doorway appears blocked to the left of the façade. On first floor level, there is a small two-over-two timber sash window centrally placed in the lower section, with a modern poorly preserved metal frame name board immediately below. A taller two-over-two timber sash window is centrally located in the higher building to the north-east. Internally, the ground floor of a former cobblers shop was examined. It comprised mainly shop counters to the front and a workshop to the rear (Plate 14).

Plate 13 Front façade of subject site, Emmet Place.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 19

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Plate 14 Interior ground floor of subject site, Emmet Place.

5. Assessment of Significance

5.1 Introduction

Mitchel Street and Emmet Place are within the Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) of Nenagh town (Illus. 2). The centre of the town presents as a typical eighteenth to nineteenth century market town, with a number of fine public buildings to the north- west. The thirteenth century castle, with its recognisable donjon, which dates to the repair of the castle in the mid-nineteenth century, is visible from the subject site, along an important view from Emmet Place looking to the north-east that was identified in the Nenagh and Environs Development Plan 2013-2019 (Illus. 8).

5.2 Statement of Significance

No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and the adjacent site on Emmet Place are part of the eighteenth to-nineteenth century commercial centre of Nenagh town. The simple end of terrace grouping forms part of a varied and distinctive streetscape. Mitchel Street in general is of nineteenth century overall appearance and it retains much of its character and traditional design. The north-eastern side of Emmet Place has been the subject of demolition works in the past, with the removal of part of the terrace adjoining the

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

subject site. This section of Emmet Place is currently behind hoarding, which is visually obtrusive in the ACA (Plate 10).

Nenagh Castle

RPS 11

Emmet Place

Mitchel Street

Plate 15 Emmet Place at the junction with Mitchel Street, looking north-east to Nenagh Castle. Buildings proposed for demolition outlined in red.

No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and the adjacent building on Emmet Place are plain fronted buildings that have retained their external form but have not retained many original features externally or internally. The replacement of the original timber windows with modern examples to the Mitchell Street façade as well as the removal of original stairs and other internal joinery to the three buildings along the terrace has affected the character of the buildings. Apart from the survival of two cast iron fireplaces in No.’s 19 and 20, a timber panelled door and wainscoting to the stairs in No. 19, the interiors are otherwise almost completely featureless. The principal significance of these buildings is in their contribution to the streetscape and the Architectural Conservation Area, where they form part of a varied terrace of Classically-inspired largely commercial premises, many having Victorian-styled shop fronts, which typically formed the core of Irish provincial towns of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 21

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Illus. 8 Plan of the proposed junction at Mitchel Street, Emmet Place and Sarsfield Street.

6. Impact Assessment

6.1 The Proposed Development

The proposed development involves the demolition of No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and the demolition of the building adjoining No. 20 on Emmet Place (Illus. 8). It is proposed to prop the adjacent building to the south-east along Mitchel Street and to landscape the area adjacent. To the rear, accessed from Emmet Place, it is proposed to construct a surface car park.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 22

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

6.2 Impact of the Proposed Development

1. Intervention Demolition of three end of terrace buildings on Mitchel Street and demolition of building on Emmet Place.

Reason To facilitate the widening of the junction at Mitchel Street and Emmet Place and also to facilitate the construction of a new car park along Emmet Place.

Impact Significant physical impacts will result from the removal of the buildings. The visual impact on the ACA that will result from the works will not alter the overall character or integrity of the ACA, but it will have a locally significant effect.

Mitigation Full recording of the buildings prior to demolition. Salvage of fireplaces, for reuse elsewhere in the ACA.

Assessment The demolition of buildings in an ACA is judged to be a significant impact. The simplicity of the four subject buildings externally and the lack of features of note internally and externally indicates that the buildings themselves mainly significant in the part they play in the ACA.

6.3 Effects of the proposal

(based on the Chapter 3.10.3 of the ‘Architectural Heritage Protection Guidelines for Planning Authorities’ issued by the Department of Culture, Heritage the Gaeltacht).

1. Do the structures to be demolished contribute to the character of the area? Yes

2. What effect would removal of the structure have

a. on the setting of other structures in the area – The removal of the three buildings would leave the gable of the adjacent building, No. 17, exposed. It is part of the proposal that a RC tapering buttress be constructed against this gable (Illus. 6). This will have a moderate impact on the visual amenity of the building in the ACA

b. the balance of an architectural composition – The architectural composition is varied along the street and the three buildings proposed for demolition along Mitchel Street and the subject building on Emmet

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18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Place are not dominant along the streetscape. The impact on the balance of architectural composition would be slight to moderate.

c. the setting of any adjacent protected structures –There is one protected structure on Emmet Place (Brennan’s Shoe Repair, RPS 11), which overlooks the junction of Emmet Place and Mitchel Street. The proposed widening of the junction will result the removal of the narrow lane width from in front of the protected structure, resulting in a change of setting. There is one protected structure in close proximity to the subject sites on Mitchel Street. A post box, dating to the end of the nineteenth century, is incorporated into the wall of ‘The Well’ public house (RPS 34). The proposed junction widening will have an imperceptible effect on the post box, protected structure.

3. Would the character and special interest of the whole of the ACA be diminished by the demolition of a part? No. The end-of-terrace nature of the buildings as well as their outward simplicity and lack of internal features of note, reduces the impact of the proposed demolition to primarily a locally significant physical and visual impact.

4. Has the extent and the potential impact of the proposed demolition been minimised. Yes.

5. Are there alternatives to demolition? No.

6. What are the merits of alternative proposals for the site, taking into consideration the development plan objective to conserve the character of the area? The client has confirmed that the proposed scheme forms part of larger traffic management plan (TMP) for Nenagh Town which seeks to improve traffic flow. The alternatives can be described as follows:

(a) Do nothing. The acute need for the Nenagh TMP has arisen due to ongoing congestion.

(b) Optimising traffic signal timings at adjacent/associated signalised junctions. This would deliver short term improvements only.

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 24

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

The scheme under consideration comprises the implementation of a one way gyratory traffic system where some of the existing on street parking would be removed and relocated to the proposed carpark on Emmet Place. The proposed development will ultimately support the one way gyratory traffic system, as part of the overarching Nenagh TMP. This is expected to remove congestion in the long term in the town core, provide better circulation/access for all and enhance the urban realm/streetscape and provide future opportunities to upgrade pedestrian facilities such as widening of existing narrow/absent footway for example within the town centre.

7. Conclusions and Recommendations

No.’s 18-20 Mitchel Street and the subject building on Emmet Place appear to be of nineteenth century date, located along a terrace which may incorporate some eighteenth century fabric. The terraced buildings are located in the Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) for Nenagh town and are subject to the provisions of the Local Government Planning and Development Act 2000. Internally, much of the character of the buildings has been eroded through later alterations and neglect but some elements of historic interest still survive, in the form of two fireplaces and limited amounts of original joinery.

The current proposal to demolish the buildings at the end of the terrace on Mitchel Street and onto Emmet Place is to widen the narrow junction as part of a traffic management strategy due to the volume of traffic using these streets. It is also proposed that a car park be constructed to the north-east along Emmet Place.

The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht advise that the onus is on the applicant to make the case for any proposal to demolish buildings in an ACA (AHP Guidelines, p. 54). The current proposal is trying to reconcile traffic management needs with the objectives of Tipperary County Council regarding built heritage. In this difficult context, the changes that are being sought are regarded by the client as being necessary. From an architectural heritage protection point of view, the proposals

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 25

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. represent a significant physical impact through the removal of eighteenth to nineteenth century fabric from the site, with local visual impacts on the character of the Architectural Conservation Area and a visual impact on the protected structure adjacent (Brennan’s, RPS 11). Overall the proposal will not alter the character or integrity of the ACA as a whole.

It is useful to recall the Burra Charter Preamble ‘Do as much as necessary…. and as little as possible’7 in the context of changes to historic buildings. It is recommended that any demolition works are monitored by a conservation specialist, all features of note, such as the fireplaces and limited amounts of historic joinery are salvaged and a report on the works is prepared and submitted to the planning authority on their completion.

All recommendations are subject to the approval of the Heritage Officer, Tipperary County Council and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

______Anne Carey

7 Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance (2013).

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 26

18-20 Mitchel Street and Emmet Place, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Appendix 1 Levels of Significance (Guidelines for the Assessment of Architectural Heritage Impacts of National Road Schemes, 2005, National Roads Authority).

Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment 27