Taking the plunge at Westminster Road

A Foxrock six-bed with a sweeping gravel driveway, outdoor heated swimming pool, tennis court and detached games room comes with a price tag of €4.5 million

WHEN IT COMES to kerb appeal, it doesn’t get much better than Brynogue on Westminster Road in Foxrock, Dublin 18, a chocolate-box pretty Edwardian house on 1.5 acres of super-manicured gardens.

The six-bedroom house also comes with a sweeping gravel driveway, an outdoor heated swimming pool, a tennis court, a detached games room and two entrances, one on Westminster Road and another on its junction with leafy Mart Lane.

A lovely example of the Arts and Crafts-style of house that’s prevalent in the area, it’s on the market through Sherry FitzGerald, asking €4.5 million.

Built in 1906, the current owners, who’ve lived there for more than a quarter of a century, have added to the house significantly over the years and the extensions blend seamlessly with the original property.

It’s likely that Brynogue would be of more interest to a family than an embassy because although it’s big at 530sq m (5,700sq ft), it doesn’t have vast interconnecting reception rooms of the kind that many embassies require for functions. While its five reception rooms are all spacious and elegant, they are spread around the house. There’s a good sense of flow to the house, making it perfect for family entertaining.

As well as two entrances to the property, Brynogue has two front doors. There’s a dual aspect drawing room on one side of the inviting main reception hall with a square bay stained-glass window and a marble fireplace. The red-walled formal dining room on the other side of the hall is big enough to comfortably fit a 10-seater dining table.

Off the drawing room is a study, a warm, cosy space with striped blue wallpaper which leads out to an attractive Turner-style conservatory overlooking the neat rear lawn and the tennis court.

There’s also a living room – which, like some of the other rooms, is all pelmets and swags – with wainscot panelling, and a comfortable, less-formal family room overlooking the rear garden. The breakfastroom is a vast atrium-like space in the extended part of the house that overlooks the rear patio. Off it is an oak Christians kitchen with a larder and a shiny navy four-oven Aga. Other rooms include a utility room and a luxurious downstairs toilet off the second entrance lobby.

Upstairs off the gallery landing there are six good-sized bedrooms including a main en suite with its own lobby. A lovely feature is a stained-glass panel over the stairwell with vivid purples, reds, blues and greens. Three of the bedrooms are en suite, and each one has its own distinctive colour scheme.

The bathrooms differ too – the main family one is modern and Japanese in style, with a trendy trough-like sink whereas one of the en suites is like a gentleman’s bathroom, all dark woods and gold taps. There’s a ladder in another of the en suite bathrooms up to a floored attic in an extended part of the house.

The main bedroom suite has a bathroom with a shower and the mother of all Jacuzzis, and plenty of storage space in cream country-style units. The bedroom is suitably large and dual aspect. All of the bedrooms have high quality built-in wardrobes.

Outside, the gardens, which were landscaped by Gerry Daly some years ago, are sheltered by specimen trees and hedges, so there’s a feeling of privacy.

There’s a very big paved patio leading to a games room, which is built in the same style as the house, a grass tennis court and a pool house with changing and shower facilities. The swimming pool is a good size and is currently hidden beneath a cover.

Two sets of electronic gates provide access to and from the gravel driveway and there’s a detached building located just inside the Westminster Road entrance, which could be used as an office, for storage or converted into a garage.