Rathmore on Adelaide Road in Glenageary is a rare survivor from the late Victorian era with its one-acre plot and stables still intact. Property Editor, Orna Mulcahy reports.
In the 18th century, Glenageary in Co Dublin was described as a place only suitable for grazing sheep but 100 years later, the land was being leased out in parcels for grand Victorian homes to house the prosperous middle classes.
One such parcel became Rathmore - an acre of walled garden with a fine redbrick house at its centre on the corner of Adelaide Road and Marlborough Road. The six-bedroom house, built in the mid- 1890s, has come on the market through Sherry FitzGerald with a guide of €4.75 million prior to auction on March 23rd.
Director Michael Grehan likens Rathmore to one of the better houses on Shrewsbury Road in Ballsbridge, and were it to take off and land in that most sought-after address, it would probably sell for €12-€15 million.
Only two families have lived at Rathmore since the 1940s. The current owners bought it in 1982 and, while at the time they carried out a good deal of refurbishment work, and since then have carefully maintained and redecorated it, the structure and layout of the house remain essentially the same as when it was built.
There seems no need to extend this big comfortable family home of 441 sq m (4,750 sq ft) which sits at the centre of the site, defying further development. It has three reception rooms, six bedrooms, a large kitchen and useful store and utility rooms. A handsome stable block at the back of the property has its original stalls and iron hay baskets, as well as a stable boy's sittingroom with stove. New owners may well convert the stable block into a stand-alone mews house with a separate driveway branching off from the main entrance.
The house is entered through a fine arched front door with stained glass fanlight opening into a wonderful wood-panelled hallway where an understairs booth once housed the telephone. The original tiled floor is in immaculate condition as is the huge brass lock on the front door.
The main hall is a room-sized space with its own fireplace and a high enough ceiling to take a really grand chandelier. It has rooms on three sides: a large family room to the right, and the diningroom and drawingroom running across the back of the house overlooking the garden. Both are impressive rooms with high marble fireplaces and tall windows complete with their original brass catches.
To the right of the hall, the kitchen is a long bright room with a series of windows looking onto the front garden. The shiny white lacquered fitted kitchen by Siematic, a classic from the 1980s, is still looking good. Bathrooms throughout the house have all been refitted in the last few years, with limestone-effect tiling and expensive shower and bath fittings throughout.
The handsome staircase takes one past a stunning stained glass window on the landing to a self-contained wing with three bedrooms and a superb family bathroom. Two of the bedrooms are attic rooms. The first floor has two further bedrooms, one with a clever arrangement of a walk-in shower room and a separate walk-in wardrobe.
The main bedroom at the back of the house is a delightfully bright room with another very well-fitted shower room and a fully-fitted dressingroom. All the rooms have pleasant views over the well-stocked gardens which, like the house, are in immaculate order.
