Few houses in Dublin 4 are as private as Abingdon, a four-bedroom bungalow on over half an acre of garden behind Sydney Parade Avenue. Accessed from St Alban's Park, this long low redbrick house is totally hidden from the road and reached at the end of a curving driveway behind electronically controlled gates. It is scheduled for auction through Lisney on March 21st when selling agent Tom Day expects a price in the region of £2.7 million (€3.4 million).
Once an orchard behind one of the big Victorian houses on Sydney Parade Avenue, the site was bought by the current owners in the late 1980s and the house completed in 1991 to a high spec with reinforced foundations, Centrum double-glazed windows and doors throughout, extensive use of marble and timber flooring and sophisticated outdoor lighting and alarm systems.
The family is now seeking a smaller house in the area, hence the sale. With such a high degree of privacy and space, Abingdon will appeal to a wide range of buyers, including couples looking to trade down from large period homes in the area. It is a big house with 2,800 sq ft and potential to extend into the large double garage and workshop at the side.
Set in the middle of the site, the house has good-sized gardens front and back, and a tremendous sense of space and light throughout. A wide, marble-floored hallway has two corridors leading off to separate wings on one side, and the kitchen on the other.
The kitchen, which runs from front to back of the house, is neatly divided into working and dining areas with patio doors leading to the garden from the dining end.
In the working section, sleek Italian rosewood units are topped with polished granite worktops of a rusty brown hue that is repeated in the granite floor tiles. The dining area has a carved pine fireplace fitted with a gas fire. A lobby off the kitchen leads to a utility room and cloakroom, and to a covered area leading to the garage.
The drawingroom, at 18 ft by 23 ft, is extremely big and bright with two sets of patio doors leading to the garden. Folding doors also open into the diningroom with its Junckers oak floor and a further set of doors to the garden.
With this kind of layout it is easy to imagine summer parties with guests spilling out on to the large patio from the reception rooms and kitchen.
There are two bedrooms in each wing, the main bedroom being the biggest and brightest with a large en suite bathroom. The second wing, facing the front of the house, has a bathroom and study as well as its two double bedrooms.
The gardens are sheltered by mature trees on all sides and are exceptionally private and well kept.
