A house of many delights, sitting gently back from the road at the Fairview/city end of Clontarf Road, this once-modest Victorian dwelling has been turned into a contemporarily stylish and comfortable home by the owners.
Its Clontarf pedigree is impeccable: built by Daniel Joseph Quinn in 1898 on land owned by the local landowning Vernon family, it was rented that same year, on a 96-year lease, to one Frederick William Higginbotham, civil engineer and architect, who paid a yearly rent of £4, in half-yearly payments.
The vendors bought from the original owners 12 years ago, gutted the inside and, bit by bit, began a refurbishing rebuild. They added a rear kitchen/breakfast-room six years ago and, a year before that, converted the attic to a study/office. Everything was done with the original style and period in mind, and original features were retained and restored wherever possible: window boxes are original, as are floorboards, internal doors, coving, fireplaces and more. “We tried to take out as little as possible,” the vendor says, “leave as much as possible the way it was.”
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Family area
There are three bedrooms, an open-plan kitchen/breakfast/ family area, two reception rooms, an attic room and family bathroom in a 138sq m (1485sq ft) floor space. A low-maintenance rear garden has astroturf covering and rear pedestrian access. There are electric gates to the front, a feature evergreen and off-street parking. Sherry FitzGerald is asking €750,000 for the private treaty sale.
The original drawing and dining rooms are separated by double, panelled doors – glass knobs give a nice touch. The front bay window adds both dimension and light, and the marble fireplace has elaborate inset tiles. The coving here and elsewhere is stylishly simple.
Steps lead down to the open-plan rear where a white porcelain tiled floor catches light from a lightwell. A wall of wood-framed window overlooks and makes the garden a feature of the living space. The colours here are grey and paler grey and the well-equipped kitchen has an oak-topped centre isle, Belfast sink and range set into a tiled alcove.
Black and white diamond shaped tiles in the hallway look so at home they might be original but are, in fact, replacing original floorboards. Wooden panelling covering the lower third of the wall, and continuing up the stairwell, is similarly designed to look original, and does. A traditional arch at the end of the hallway is particularly graceful, and the stairs have their original banisters.
The high-ceilinged bedrooms – two facing the front, the third on the return – have a cool, limed finish to their original floorboards and have cast-iron fireplaces. The family bathroom has a standing bath, separate shower and wood-panelled walls.
The stairs to the attic have been given banisters to match those on the lower stairs. A couple of velux fill the attic space with light, timber floorboards and a stripped-to-the-brick chimney breast give it flair.
