When number 158 Botanic Road in Glasnevin was last for sale 15 years ago, owner Suzanne spotted it on her bus route and was curious to see inside. She and her husband, Martin, were taken by the potential of the three-bedroom end-of-terrace period property and its convenient location and bought it in 2005 – for about €610,000, Martin says – before setting out on a complete refurbishment. The property was stripped down to the walls and replastered, replumbed and rewired.
“While the construction and detailing in polychrome brick [of number 158] are typical of the period,” according to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, “the quality is elevated by the wealth of original detailing, including an elegant box-bay window with a lively tiled apron panel in a botanically themed design, shared between this house and its pair.”
“Extending a row of earlier terraced buildings, this group makes a strong contribution to the architectural character, variety and quality of Glasnevin,” it says.
The feel of the livingroom at the front of the house is elegant, highly sophisticated and quintessentially Victorian. It’s a space where one wouldn’t look out of place sipping tea from a bone china cup presented from a silver tray. It is a good size with 10.5ft-high ceilings centred around an original cast-iron fireplace. The decorative cornicing around the central light fixture was restored and a picture rail moulding was added about a foot below ceiling height. The bay window has thin double-glazing and was constructed in a sash design to mirror the original. Laminate wood-effect flooring in this room wears its durability well as it is in good condition given two cocker spaniels live here.
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The next room down the hallway is the diningroom; it has wooden floors and another restored cast-iron fireplace. The room has double doors which open out to the back garden. The kitchen toward the back of the house is quite small and has a country style, with light-blue walls and cream units. Many neighbours have extended this part of the house, Martin says, and there is certainly space to do so if a new owner were to secure planning permission; there is outdoor space to the left of the kitchen, where the outer wall of the diningroom could be knocked to make an open-plan space, and in the garden beyond.
The southwest-facing garden is quite long, mainly in lawn with a pathway leading to the back gate where there is pedestrian access to the lane beyond.
A decorative arch was constructed overhead at the foot of the stairs adding some character to the space. The main bathroom sits at the top of the first flight of stairs; it is a surprisingly large room with a black free-standing bath at its centre and dark wooden floors lit by sash window and a small Velux window overhead. The shower is nestled in the corner.
Up another few steps is a spacious landing which could conceivably fit a desk to make a work-from-home space. The principal bedroom is at the back of the house with a similar, slightly smaller double to the front, both with cast-iron fireplaces. The owners have not installed any inbuilt storage in these rooms but there is space to do so should a new owner wish to. The third bedroom to the front of the house is currently used as a dressingroom with built-in wardrobes on both sides; these could be removed to return it to a small double bedroom.
The owners haven’t touched the ceiling but it is ripe for conversion, Martin says, as many of their neighbours have done.
Across the road, an apartment and housing development is under construction on the site of the former Addison Lodge pub; situated as it is at the end of the terrace, you are not completely overlooked at number 158 by the four-storey development.
This area on the north side of the city is popular for good reason. With the Botanic Gardens just down the road as well as Griffith Park for daily walks, it offers plenty of breathing space just a 30-minute walk from the city centre. The couple are putting their home on the market and moving to a smaller home close by as they have decided to spend more time in Martin’s native Tipperary, where they are refurbishing an old house.
This Botanic Road property, measuring 120sq m (1,292sq ft), has a D2 Ber and is on the market through Sherry FitzGerald, seeking €825,000.
