Italian embassy to pay €7.5m for six-bedroom Dartry residence

The Italian embassy is understood to have reached a deal to buy a six-bedroom Victorian pile with a mews and a coach house on one of south Dublin’s most sought-after residential roads. The embassy is believed to have agreed to pay around the €7.5 million asking price for Lonsdale, on Temple Road, Dartry. The property, a three-storey residence extending to 791sq m (8,514sq ft), is expected to be used as an ambassadorial residence.

Lonsdale was brought to the market by the London-headquartered residential agency Inhous early last year, which, in its listing, described the property as “one of the finest detached Victorian homes on one of Dublin’s most exclusive roads”. With offices in London and in Dublin, Inhous typically specialises in the sale and sourcing of properties for high-net-worth and ultra-high net-worth individuals across the globe. Inhous declined to comment on the sale of Lonsdale when contacted by The Irish Times.

Lonsdale was a childhood home for a time of the late former taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, who recounted his parents paying £120 rent per year for the property during the war years. Temple Road itself was named for the third viscount Palmerston, Henry John Temple (1784-1865), the original owner of the lands, who also held the office of British prime minister on two occasions.

Before being brought to the market in 2023, Lonsdale, built circa 1884, had been in the hands of the same family for almost 40 years, who evidently maintained it with care as its period character has gone undisturbed.

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Beyond electric gates and a long, gravelled driveway, the imposing pile sits well back from the road on a half-acre site of lawned gardens surrounded by mature trees. A covered granite portico sits atop granite steps, welcoming residents into the hallway adorned with an elaborate archway, intricate ceiling cornicing and a central rose.

Dual-aspect interconnecting reception rooms provide the perfect space to host guests, while there is also a formal diningroom – that can seat up to 20 people – and a study on the first floor, all benefiting from 14ft-high ceilings.

The garden level consists of a kitchen/breakfastroom, a family room with access to the rear garden, as well as a spacious games room, a garden room, a double bedroom and an office. Five further bedrooms sit on the second floor.

There is also a two-bedroom mews on the property with its own entrance and a coach house, which could be developed with the relevant planning permission in place.