Townhouse with potential a square deal in the city

Dublin 2: €1.35mA renovated two-storey over basement house on Pearse Square has held on to its period charm, writes Rose Doyle

Pearse Square, off Pearse Street in Dublin 2, has always had something of a cachet. In the 19th century it was called Queen's Square and was the place where celebrity performers of the day took lodgings.

It is at the centre of some of the most dramatic movements in today's city too, with the south Docklands development creating an interesting backdrop all around.

Being three-sided, Pearse Square is not, strictly speaking, a square at all. Its two-storey over basement houses overlook a restfully landscaped park.

Number 3, which is for sale by private treaty through Collier, Jackson Stops, has an asking price of €1.35 million.

In mint condition, its preserved period features have been made part of a comfortable, contemporary home. This house has a floor space of 167sq m (1,796sq ft) and includes three bedrooms, three reception rooms and a kitchen/breakfastroom.

The vendors, who have been careful to make only minimal changes to the original layout, have opted for very un-Victorian neutral paint work, with occasional surges of intense colour, for instance, in the deep lemon front sittingroom. This room, and the adjoining diningroom, have cast-iron period fireplaces with attractive tiled insets. Floors are in the original, wide-planked timber.

Double, glass-paned doors between the rooms are new, as are the windows which, here and elsewhere, have been replaced with Marvin sash windows. The original shutters are in working order.

The garden level has been opened out to create a bright kitchen/breakfastroom to the front and, to the rear, a family room from which French windows open to the garden.

The kitchen floor is in Italian porcelain and the fittings are subtly varied to provide good storage. There's a gas-fired Jotul stove in the light-filled family room.

An aqua coloured bathroom on the ground floor return has Italian marble flooring heated from underneath. The bedrooms, and a shower room, are off the first floor landing. The main bedroom, which is en suite, is to the rear and has a polished oak floor.

The 60ft garden has been landscaped to give it a paved patio area and small lawn with Barna shed. There is rear vehicle access. Planning permission existed, until recently, for a mews at the end of the garden and this could be reactivated - mews homes have been built at the end of most neighbouring gardens.