The former broadcaster Thelma Mansfield has lived in this lovely Georgian family home for the past 40 years, raising a family with her late husband, the photographer John Morris. Rus-in-Urbe, the bespoke group of six houses of which Mansfield’s home is number 5, is well named: it’s a piece of the French countryside in the heart of bustling Dún Laoghaire, set 100ft back from Glenageary Road, with beautifully landscaped gardens. Mansfield is a keen gardener, and she has created wonderful gardens to the front and back, filled with colourful agapanthus, wisteria, olive trees and a gorgeous fig tree.
Since retiring from RTÉ in the late 1990s, Mansfield has pursued her lifelong passion for painting, which began when she won the Texaco children’s art competition as a child. At the end of the back garden of her home is an original coach house which she currently uses as her artist’s studio. It has a wood-burning stove, a shower room and vehicular access to the side lane. On the beautiful day when we visited the house, the sun was streaming in to the back garden, illuminating the works-in-progress on the easels and the dabs of paint on the palettes.
Number 5 Rus-in-Urbe has a well-loved look about it – parts of the house would benefit from a refresh, but overall it exudes country charm, like visiting an old French farmhouse. Mansfield says it’s been a happy house over the past four decades, but now she feels it’s time to look for somewhere smaller and more manageable, and allow a new family to enjoy the wonders of country living in the suburbs that this fine five-bedroomed semidetached period house has to offer.
The property measures a roomy 235sq m (2,530sq ft), is Ber-exempt and is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald seeking €2.25 million.
Number 5 is set well back from Glenageary Road Lower, with a 100ft-long garden that has been lovingly cultivated over the years. During Covid, says Mansfield, she would sit out in the front, sipping her coffee and greeting her neighbours from a safe distance.
A fanlight and sidelights flank the front door, bringing light into the large entrance hall. The drawingroom to the left has two sash windows with working shutters, and folding doors lead in to the diningroom. Both these rooms have detailed timber fireplaces, and the intricate ceiling coving and centre roses are present and correct in the hall, drawingroom and diningroom. French doors lead out from the diningroom to a rear courtyard, which runs alongside the kitchen and is perfectly positioned for al-fresco dining on a summer’s evening.
Off the hallway is a guest WC, with a lovely arched window and fitted bookshelves filled with antique books; off the lobby at the end of the entrance hall is a fully tiled wet room with a heated towel rail.
The country-style kitchen is laid with original quarry tile floors and fitted with bespoke cabinetry painted in a Farrow & Ball Hardwicke White. It’s a little slab of Provence in Dún Laoghaire, and it’s clear that this is the social hub of the house. Mansfield brews up a coffee while I ask her about her career in broadcasting. When she was called in for an interview with RTÉ in 1965, she was just 16, she tells me. “I didn’t even know what a continuity announcer was,” she says. She became a household name in the 1980s and 1990s as the co-host of Live at 3, with the late Derek Davis.
These days, painting has become her full-time job, and the rooms in her Glenageary home display many of her paintings, along with the photographic work of her late husband, and the antique box cameras he collected. Mansfield has exhibited her vibrant paintings in several galleries, and finds inspiration in the views over Dublin Bay from Dún Laoghaire and the views over Galway Bay from Spiddal, where she spends a lot of time.
At the back of the kitchen is a bright garden room with Velux roof lights and French doors out to the rear garden. A utility room to the side houses the gas boiler and is plumbed for a washing machine.
The back garden is beautifully landscaped with feature topiary, including a yew tree trimmed into a spiral. There’s a raised goldfish pond with a water feature and several relaxation areas to maximise the sunlight coming in from the south and west. On this lovely May day, it feels like we’ve been whisked to the south of France.
Upstairs the gallery landing gives an impressive view over the entrance hall. Overlooking the front garden is the large main bedroom, with two picture windows with working shutters, ceiling coving and a centre rose. It has a large en suite with a stained-glass window and slipper bath. Also overlooking the front is a smaller bedroom, with sash window with working shutters, ceiling coving and a centre rose. A third bedroom has a picture window with working shutters overlooking the back garden.
Towards the back of the house, overlooking the courtyard, are two more bedrooms, plus a bathroom with step-in bath with a tiled surround. The upstairs layout could work well for a small family, with the parents and the kids in the front section, and the back section reserved for guests.
Mansfield can tell when a painting looks right “when my eye approves”, and her visual instinct is plain to see in this fine family home. Your eye will definitely approve.
