€470,000 Georgian now for €2.5 million

A landmark Georgian building at the corner of Merrion Square and Clare Street in Dublin 2, sold at the depths of the property crash three years ago at a knockdown price and since largely restored to its original condition, is set to recover much of its original value when it goes on sale this week at over €2.5 million.

The four-storey over basement building with a unique conservatory at first floor level directly opposite the Mont Clare Hotel made headlines when it was sold in November, 2011, for a mere €470,000 – about one-tenth of what the main Georgian houses on the square had been making during the boom. In June, 2007, businessman Lochlann Quinn, one of the owners of the Merrion Hotel opposite Government Buildings, set a record when he paid just under €9 million for the former FAI office building at 80 Merrion Square.

Taken a dive

By the time the market had taken a dive, the value of some of the smallest Georgians in the south inner city generally ranged about €1 million and quite a few of them were bought with the intention of converting them into prestigious family homes. Evan OReilly of Ganly Walters, who is handling the forthcoming sale, says anyone viewing the newly restored building will be impressed by the high standard of the fit out. Known over the years as the Apothecary’s Building, 95 Merrion Square West –a few doors from the National Gallery and Leinster House – had been allowed to fall into poor condition since the early 2000s and had a noticeable crack down the front elevation.

The purchaser, Irish-born David Murphy, head of China Micro Economic Research with CLSA in Hong Kong, did not skimp on the refurbishment work, spending about €1.2 million on upgrading it internally and externally and faithfully restoring most of the Georgian features including the handsome joinery-shouldered door cases, stairs, robust turned balusters and sash windows – as well as ornate plaster cornicing, marble fireplaces and some notable stained glass windows. The exterior brick work was also repointed and cleaned and a separate entrance to the basement was reopened and fitted with new flagstones.

Even the former coal bunker under was restored to accommodate diners if the next owners decide to use the basement and first floors as a restaurant or cafe. The internal layout does not follow the typical pattern of most of Dublin's Georgian houses. The location on a corner site allowed for the building of a deeper house than usual with an overall floor area of 435.5sq m (4,881sq ft). It was built in the 1750s by Michael Kearney, a prominent Dublin wig-maker, whose family was a direct ancestor of American president Barack Obama. Michael's son, John, was a provost of Trinity College and later became bishop of Ossory.

Dublin Apothecaries

The building was owned for many years by the Dublin Apothecaries who, under the 1858 Medical Act, operated an examining and licensing system for the medical profession. In 1971 the apothecaries lost the right to issue licences to practise medicine and their records were later transferred to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

When the exhaustive restoration work was completed earlier this year, a chocolate museum and cafe were opened on the ground floor but after only six days the promoters decided it was the wrong location.

The chocolate experience is now to be transferred to the former Northern Ireland Bank building near the GPO on O'Connell Street where pedestrian traffic is noticeably stronger. The highly distinctive building, bought for about €1 million, has a classical facade including six fluted Corinthian columns and a carving of The Ten Virgins. The building will shortly be dispensing chocolates rather than lessons in morality or elusive loans.