Handsome Edwardian in Bray for €1.8m

A handsome Edwardian house with lots of leaded stained glass windows, surprisingly ornate plasterwork, box bay windows and a wide entrance hall with a galleried landing over it, has many of the features that make houses of this period so attractive.

New owners will likely want to give Silverdale, a detached five-bedroom house in Bray built in the early 1900s, a modern makeover, but it has been very well cared for by the family who have lived here for 40 years.

Silverdale sits on good-sized private gardens near the corner of King Edward Road and Herbert Road in Bray, next to an apartment development also called Silverdale, built on land that belonged to the house.

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The 353sq m (3,800sq ft) five-bed property is now for sale for €1.8 million through Sherry FitzGerald.

Quirky features

The house also has some quirky features, like the American- style wet bar – a cocktail bar with a sink – off the entrance hall; the small room with a half-door was installed by the Irish owners who spent a lot of time in the States.

A previous owner was a marble importer, so there’s a marble splashback in the kitchen and a bath with a marble surround in the upstairs family bathroom.

Electronic gates open into a gravelled front garden where there’s room to park several cars. A quarry-tiled front porch has stained glass windows and stained glass-panelled double doors opening into the front hall.

There are three wide archways in the hall, which has a polished mahogany floor. A wide staircase with two stained glass windows over it curves up to the first floor.

A livingroom – called the library in the brochure – stands between the two main reception rooms.

Fireplace

The drawingroom at the end of the hall has a fireplace with a marble inset and an ornately carved white timber surround. The diningroom has an ornate brown timber fireplace and, like the drawingroom, looks over the back garden.

The livingroom/library opens through double doors into a conservatory  that former owners created by extending and enclosing a verandah beside the back garden.

There’s a small study with a white, cast-iron fireplace next to the wet bar at the opposite end of the hall, next to the kitchen/breakfastroom, with pine units and cork-tiled floors. There’s a small utility room off it and a downstairs toilet.

New owners would probably revamp the kitchen and may want to install en suites in some of the upstairs bedrooms.

Five open off the wide upstairs galleried landing: at one end is the main bedroom, which has a square box bay window – and views of the Wicklow hills. At the opposite end is a large guest bedroom with an en suite.

There’s a family bathroom, and three more bedrooms, one a large single, the others doubles. The back garden is in lawn, fringed by tall trees and planted with rhododendrons and azaleas.

There’s a raised wooded space at the side.

Silverdale is a fairly short walk from Bray town centre.