Classic Monkstown Victorian with home working option

A period house within reasonable walking distance of Monkstown Crescent in south county Dublin was a good house to be in during lockdown, says one of its owners. They had turned one of the bedrooms into a study shortly before Covid-19 struck, and still had plenty of room. “It’s spacious and well proportioned,” she says of the bay-windowed Victorian she and her husband bought at auction 30 years ago.

Their family grown, they're now selling their two-storey over-garden level four-bed through Sherry FitzGerald for €2.195 million.

Number 4, built about 1895, sits in the middle of a terrace of eight houses on a slight curve on Knapton Road, a quiet street not far from the junction of Tivoli Road and York Road in Dún Laoghaire. A protected structure, it has been upgraded over the years and well maintained but not radically modernised: “We’re very conscious that we’re minding the house, caretaking it to pass it on,” says the owner.

With 274sq m (2,960sq ft), it has a straightforward layout, rich decor and intact period details: a virtual tour of the house shows marble surround fireplaces in many rooms, sash windows and ornate plasterwork in the hall and reception rooms.

The layout is simple: granite steps in the neat, railed front garden lead to the front door opening into a long entrance hall, on the right off which are interconnecting reception rooms. The kitchen and family room are below at garden level, and two of the four double bedrooms are on returns at the back of the house. From the front, it looks as if number 4 is an end-of-terrace house – but the narrow gate between it and its neighbour simply opens into a boiler house and a space used for storage.

The drawing room on the right of the front hall has a deep bay window overlooking the front garden and a wide arch opening to the dining room looking over the back. Both have centre roses and rich cornicing.

Steps at the end of the hall lead down to a bedroom and a guest toilet on the return and more steps lead to the garden level, which has separate understairs access from the front of the house. The smart kitchen at the front has granite countertops, an Amtico floor and a large cream Aga cooker. Double doors in a wide arch open into a family room. There’s a utility room at the end of the hall, a downstairs toilet, and a door into the back garden.

Stairs from the upstairs hall lead up to the double bedroom on a return that’s now fitted out as a study and a shower room. The main bedroom on the first floor stretches the width of the house, with two windows, one a deep bay like the drawing room window. There’s another double bedroom off the first floor, with a cast-iron fireplace and, at the very top of the house, on a return, a smart bathroom.

The 135ft-long back garden is laid out mainly in lawn, bordered by flowerbeds. It runs down to a shed which opens onto a wide lane at the rear off Knapton Road, a space that could be developed for parking. There is residents’ on-street parking on Knapton Road.