This charming Georgian two-storey-over-basement at Wellington Place, Ballsbridge, is a delight and could afford a decent chance to renovate while still possessing buckets of charm and elegance.
The house, on the corner of Waterloo Road and Wellington Place, overlooks upper Leeson Street and is BER-exempt as it dates from the 1840s. This row of terraces was built to surround St John’s at number 9, the erstwhile hunting lodge of Wellington himself when this land was still part of the Fitzwilliam estate.
Set well back from the road, it shares a front garden with its neighbour, and on entering the hallway, with its impressive fanlight, you can see all period features are present and correct. Original arches, dado rails, picture rails, ceiling roses and cornicing are in evidence in the ground-floor rooms of the interconnected drawingroom and diningroom.
The property runs on an east-west orientation, so morning light floods the drawingroom, which has a marble fireplace with blue inset tiles and brass hood. All the timber-frame sash windows, shutters and internal doors have been in situ for nearly two centuries and are still holding their own. The evening light and descending sun hit the diningroom, which has an attractive oak herringbone floor.
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Past the stairs, a tiny hall leads to a small bedroom, configured as a study. This room opens through to a conservatory, built by the owner, that overlooks the garden, which also benefits from westerly evening sun.
The basement floor is the highlight of the property, with an open-plan kitchen and living area that opens on to the garden through French doors. A utility to the front of the basement, lying beneath the steps, provides access to the front garden. There’s a nicely angled island, a fitted kitchen and four supporting columns – that new owners might want to replace with RSJ steel beams – that currently delineate the kitchen and living space nicely.
Beyond the livingroom, with windows on to the garden, is a bathroom that proves to be a surprise: spacious and large, it has a bank of storage units, a pedestal washbasin, shower, and a large Jacuzzi bath with a green marble surround that creates a serene space.
The garden is quite large for the area, especially considering part of it has already been sold for the development of mews decades ago. A path twists through it, revealing small patio areas designed to complement the planting and maximise the trajectory of the sun through the garden. Tall pines at the back provide shelter and privacy.
On the return of the stairs is a compact bathroom that will need to be remodelled. Two further good-sized bedrooms are on the first floor. The principal bedroom has carpet underfoot, a wall of wardrobes and two windows with six-over-six panes, making it a bright, cheerful room. The second bedroom, painted a pretty pale blue, looks out over the garden and has a fireplace and a good range of fitted units.
Shopping in Donnybrook is a stone’s throw away, and a walk into the city centre takes 20 minutes. On-street disk parking is available. This charmingly preserved Georgian home, extending to 188 sq m (2,023 q ft), is on the market with Sherry FitzGerald, seeking €1.35 million.
