Two houses – one Victorian and one Edwardian – show that if it's character and elegance you're after, a period home is hard to beat, writes EDEL MORGAN
DUBLIN 6: €1.1M:RATHGAR IS arguably the Dublin epicentre of imposing, and slightly intimidating-looking redbricks and from the outside 57 Brighton Road is no exception.
Off Terenure Road East, it was built around 1895 as part of a terrace of two-storey over garden level town houses built as city pads for the landed gentry. To get to the front door you have to negotiate 16 steps unless you are using what was originally the servant’s entrance at garden level. Douglas Newman Good is asking €1.1 million for the 294sq m (3,165sq ft) property.
Inside it’s got all the flourishes you’d expect: exquisite plaster work on the ceilings and cornices, and ceilings that must be at least 12ft high, even on the upper floors.
The owners, who bought it 15 years ago, after it had been a nursing home, set about removing special-access bathrooms, stair lifts, and a fire escape that spanned the entire back of the house. Despite the grandness of some of the proportions, they’ve made it a lovely lived-in family home with an abundance of rooms dedicated to hanging out en famille.
The more formal rooms are at hall level, an interconnecting drawingroom and diningroom with lovely soft green walls (the shade is called Flint and it’s by Malabar), a pair of almost-matching Victorian marble fireplaces, the original wide-plank floors, and sash windows and shutters, which all appear to be wearing well.
The drawingroom has a bay of sash windows overlooking Brighton Road and the original panelled sliding door between it and the diningroom is still in use. The original floorboards were stripped back, sanded and sound proofed.
At the end of the hall there are steps to a room that is used as an office, with two small windows. Down more steps into the Mulberry-hued (Colortrend) half-panelled hall to an area that’s the hub of family life. There’s a big room to the front with a bay window that’s used as a study/guest bedroom and, being at garden level, has views to the lush front garden with maple, bamboo and lavender.
The kitchen is a lovely, homey space with the original redbrick fireplace and a cream, Shaker-style kitchen with a built-in dresser. Light comes from a porthole window and double doors out to a family snug where the owners have put in a big, squishy sofa. Off that is a small sunroom and utility. The back yard was originally a space for coaches and horses but the current owners have turned it into a city garden with a curved lawn and an Indian sandstone path fringed by lavender, sweet pea, hollyhocks and climbing roses, There are fig, apple, pear and plum trees and a large garage at the bottom that opens onto Oaklands Terrace.
Upstairs, there’s a bathroom suite on the first floor return, with two bathrooms.
Off the main landing are three double bedrooms with wide-plank floors and tranquil colour schemes. On the next return there’s a cute bedroom with pink walls, ivory painted floorboards, floral wallpaper on the chimney breast and a cast-iron fireplace.
The attic room at the top is another chill-out room, with an en suite and dressing room and could be used as a bedroom. It has Velux windows and eaves storage.
DUBLIN 9: €575,000
NUMBER 45 Iona Road in Glasnevin, Dublin 9, built around 1908, has been lived in by generations of the same family since 1922 and is a good example of an Edwardian redbrick in near-original condition.
It was built by Alexander Strain, known for the sturdy redbricks he constructed on Dublin’s northside between 1908 and 1940. The houses were built for the middle classes and Strain added intriguing design touches to each house. While some have sash windows, others have vividly coloured stained glass panels on windows; a few have Tudor-style flourishes while others nod to Arts and Crafts.
Number 45 has sash windows and is one of the few houses on the road with decorative spyholes in the front door. Sherry FitzGerald is asking €575,000 for the four-bed, 155sq m (1,668sq ft) house, which has been well looked after – though a new owner might want to update. It is an executor sale.
There’s some nice ceiling plasterwork in the entrance hall and the main interconnecting reception rooms are well proportioned and bright with high ceilings with light fittings that have been there since the 1920s. The drawingroom has a bay window and grey marble fireplace, while the diningroom has a darker marble fireplace – a feature of Strain houses believed to represent day and night – and exquisite red and blue inset tiles.
A new owner might knock the breakfastroom, a small cosy room with a cast-iron fireplace, into the kitchen, which still has its original pantry.
Upstairs, off the upper landing, is the enormous main bedroom, with high ceilings, a bay window and a striking fireplace with art nouveau tulip tiles in vivid green and cream. A second, good-sized double room has a fireplace with amazing daffodil tiles. Off the lower landing there’s a toilet and a dated separate bathroom and two smaller bedrooms with cast-iron fireplaces.
The back garden is 70ft long with three storage outhouses and an outside toilet, and a lawn fringed by plants with an apple tree.
