Redbrick on record-breaking road in Rathmines

A Victorian on Temple Gardens is for sale just a few weeks after another house on the road sold for a record €4.5m. Bernice Harrison reports.

The selling season had barely started earlier this month when a house on Temple Gardens off Palmerston Road in Rathmines sold privately before the "for sale" sign went up - and for a record price too.

The new owners are believed to have paid €4.5 million. It's not unusual for houses on this particular road to sell quietly as buyers are drawn to the prestigious address and the lure of a substantial D6 redbrick that doesn't have a basement.

Hot on the heels of that sale comes 25 Temple Gardens, a handsome Victorian redbrick to be auctioned on October 16th by Douglas Newman Good with a guide price of €1.9 million. It's a smaller house than its record-breaking neighbour but at 250 sq m (2,700 sq ft) and with five bedrooms it is a substantial family home.

The house has been in the same family for 21 years and they are now downsizing. During that time they have certainly kept it in immaculate condition, updating where necessary, such as installing a new kitchen, and maintaining its many period features.

At one time the double fronted house would have been semi-detached, but sometime in the past another house was built onto the side, so technically it is now part of a small terrace.

Decorative wrought iron gates guard the small arched porch and the decorative stained glass on either side of the front door. Inside there are reception rooms on either side of the bright and airy hall. The formal livingroom with its bay window, decorative cornices, and period fireplace is on the right, while on the left is a room currently fitted out as a home office that opens via double doors into the large and quite grand formal diningroom. It in turn opens out onto the garden.

The kitchen is at the back of the house and it is newly fitted with Shaker-style units topped with granite. A large wood-burning stove is a feature of the room and there are doors opening out onto the garden. Upstairs the five double bedrooms are of varying sizes although one of them, on the first floor return, is currently fitted out as a livingroom. The bedrooms are spread over two floors, as this house has three storeys at the back.

The main bedroom is the largest and a small bedroom has been converted to provide it with a full-size en suite bathroom. There is another small room off the landing that is presently used as a junk room but it would easily make an en suite for the adjoining bedroom. The family bathroom is at the top of the house and there is a guest toilet downstairs.

The back garden is nearly 95 ft long and it is south facing and wide and the back wall of the house is exposed granite, which is always a striking architectural feature.

There is parking at the end of the garden but as there is also room for a couple of cars in the gravelled front driveway, it's unlikely to be in daily use.

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