Saintbury Avenue must epitomise the word “discreet”; blink and you might miss the turn, down towards the sea from Killiney Hill Road. Find it though, and you are rewarded with a marvellous vantage point to soak up the views across Killiney Bay. No wonder rock stars and business luminaries like to live here – and film stars too.
Once upon a time, Saintbury House was the home of Maureen O’Sullivan, who left, aged 18, to go to America. She went on to star in a host of movies, including as Jane in the original Tarzan series.
Saintbury features in A Strange Kind of Loving, the 1990 memoir by O'Sullivan's sister, Sheila Mooney. Since then, the house, which sits on a sloping site, cut into the rock, with sweeping lawns for added privacy, front and back, has been divided. This has been done in such a way that, while it's technically a semi-detached, you're completely unaware of your neighbours once you've passed the shared access off Saintbury Avenue.
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You can see why they divided it too, as the half currently known as Saintbury House, which is for sale with Sherry FitzGerald for €2.95 million, extends to 410sq m (4,413sq ft), so there’s plenty of space. There’s also planning permission (until 2018) to extend via a terrace and connecting area to include what is currently the garage into the property, adding an extra 303sq m (3,261sq ft).
That part will, obviously, be up to you. The current owners are leaving for warmer climes, but will be sorry to leave. “It was the sea view that sold it,” the owner says, as we walk into the exceptionally elegant drawing room, with a huge bay window. “There’s a story,” he says, “that when they had parties, they’d send the Major [O’Sullivan’s father] off to a hotel. One night, Count John McCormack was playing the grand piano in this spot. They woke up to a crash, to find it had fallen through the floorboards.”
Any repairs have been seamless. The current owners re-did the kitchen, on the first, entrance, floor, alongside two of the bedrooms, both of which have sea views. Go down a magnificent wooden staircase to the lower level, where the hall has its lovely original tiled floors, and find a huge living room, the master bedroom and two further bedrooms. All but one of have sea views. The house is really special, with opportunities to update here and there to make it your own. But those sea views? Timeless.
