Re: Re: Irish say no to PVC windows

6/8/2007

I’m not sure if this is more suited to the Dundalk thread, but this thread seems to be increasingly covering vernacular stock as well as windows, so is perhaps more apt.

Up until recently, this delightful relic of times past stood picturesquely derelict on Church Street in Dundalk, leading into the main street of the town. A late 18th century merchant’s townhouse, it was clearly modifed around 1900 to accommodate a retail premises, with elegant timber shopfront added and its Georgian sash windows replaced with more fashionable plate.

The fast-disappearing soft pink paint also a distinctive remnant of 1930’s vernacular decorative treatment.

It suffered a small fire recently – all round a great opportunity for sensitive restoration.

Only, this is what it looked like during the works.

And completed as of a few weeks ago.

The late Victorian plate replaced with mock-Georgian sashes, and a hideous boxy plywood concoction tacked onto the ground floor.

What a monstrous contrivance. On a protected structure, in an ACA!
Similarly, the delightful Edwardian shopfront has received equally ridiculous ‘heritage’ treatment, with B&Q mouldings Pritt Sticked about its facade. They look even more incongruous in real life.

There were three sensitive options for this development: 1) Leave the ground floor residential window as it was, 2) Install a matching timber shopfront to that of the 1900 model on the other side, or 3) Install a decent contemporary interpretation. Instead we got the worst of all worlds – a typical developer piece of rubbish that compromises the entire building.

Similarly, why were the Victorian plates just dumped? Why ditch one aspect of the building’s history and retain another (shopfront)? Indeed if nothing else, the plate would at least have offered the opportunity for efficient double glazing. Instead, we have historically inaccurate, single-glazed, rubbishy mock-Georgian sashes in their place.

While decent enough from afar, if a tad chunky for the 1780s…

…up close they’re cheaply and clunkily beaded.