Built in 1854 and accessed via the tree-lined avenue Royal Terrace Lane, just off Tivoli Road, Lodge Park is an imposing detached residence that was a parochial house for the very Rev Bartholomew Sheridan, one-time parish priest of Dún Laoghaire. He left it to the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, and the nuns ran the orphanage at St Joseph’s as their residence.
The double-fronted residence has little of the convent feel about it – there’s not a stick of parquet flooring to be found, for example – but there are some lovely internal coloured glass windows and a child of Prague statue remains in one of the windows on the hall return.
The six-bedroom property has been a family home for more than 20 years and its sizeable layout, with gardens on almost all sides, means that there is space for every member to bring friends back without ever being on top of each other.
While much of the period property’s once sizeable gardens have all been built on, it still boasts 0.6 of an acre of grounds and looks on to an impressive lawn where a mature weeping willow tree holds court.
With lions guarding the tiled front porch, it opens to an inner hall where there is a fine dual-aspect room to the right. In the bay window is a baby grand piano and the open fireplace has a marble surround and tiled insert.
Across the hall is a smaller sitting room that is painted a soothing sage green. It is also dual aspect, for a glass-panelled door opens through to a large, terracotta-coloured sunroom, complete with vine which, given its south-facing aspect, bears fruit in season. This part of the property adjoins what was once its coach house and is here that many parties were held.
There’s another room to the rear of the sitting room which leads through to yet another room and shower room. These were where the family’s au pair lived when the children were young.
Most likely the next owner will consider weaving these spaces together and moving the kitchen from the back to this sunny front part of the house where it can open directly out to the large front lawn.
While a good size and opening out to a smartly planted convent-like courtyard, the kitchen, which has a guest toilet and separate pantry off it, isn’t big enough to accommodate the living area that a modern family demands and while dual aspect it doesn’t get the same amount of light as the front rooms.
By flipping the layout, these back rooms could become a great play room cum games station for older children.
Upstairs there are two good-sized bedrooms on the return where there is also a guest toilet. The main bedroom at the end of the corridor has a large en suite with separate bath and shower, and a walk-in wardrobe.
There are four more bedrooms on the first floor, the most dramatic of which is above the entrance porch and has arched windows on three sides. There’s also a large family bathroom.
At 480sq m (5,166sq ft), the Ber-exempt house is sizeable but it is also cold. A protected structure, it’s likely that its single-glaze timber sash windows – and the roof – are in need of extra insulation.
There is a large garden to the back where, subject to planning, you may be able to build a second house that could open on to St Joseph’s Lane, which runs to the rear of the house.
The house adjoins St Joseph’s National School and beyond the school is Eustace Court, the apartments and penthouses built by the Cosgrove Group.
Agent Bennetts Auctioneers is seeking €2.4 million.
