Having seen the photographs of 33 Victoria Road, a handsomely upgraded mid-terrace Rathgar redbrick in Dublin 6, viewers might expect furnishings and family trappings to fill the rooms.
However, the house has been rented for a few years and is empty at the moment, so potential buyers can instead picture their own sofas in the sitting rooms, their pictures on the walls above the decorative marble fireplaces, their belongings on the built-in bookcases.
The vendors converted it from flats when they bought it about 15 years ago, and the renovation they undertook at that time yields a very commendable C3 BER today. With an asking price of €1.695 million, the 239 sq m (2,572 sq ft) period home, in walk-in condition, is for sale through Mullery O’Gara.
Victoria Road runs roughly parallel to the much busier Terenure Road East and number 33 is at the Zion Road end, close to the buzz of Rathgar village and almost within earshot of the tennis club. The front garden is railed and gravelled for off-street car-parking; this, a relative rarity on the road, has been in place for more than 50 years. There is a neat hedge, and lollipop bay trees flank the front of the house.
Pretty tiles floor the round-headed porch, and the door has inset panels of decorative wrought iron. At the back of this are panes of starry glass that also appear, with red and blue details, in some of the interior doors.
The hall, like the two interconnected reception rooms on the left, is tall and wide and the ceiling plasterwork and roses are in fine repair. The front room is full of light from the deep south-facing bay window; there is weighty joinery in both rooms and the rear room leads through glass doors to a little study area that’s perfect for homework or for home-working. It’s effectively part of the kitchen, which is down a few steps and is also accessed from the hall.
The kitchen/dining room is in the original return which, like that of next door, is a little deeper than the other houses along the terrace. The quality fitout continues here, with lots of rooflights, a stone floor, marble worktops, a deep Belfast sink in the island and a gas-fired Rayburn. There’s a utility area behind the kitchen door, and lots of storage; one of the cupboards has a coat rail.
Beyond the kitchen is an extra room that can be closed off by pocket sliding doors or opened up for a big gang. It is lit by Veluxes and has an ornate cast-iron fireplace. There are French doors to the garden, which faces north-west but gets sun from early afternoon as there is almost nothing to block it. There’s artificial grass, softened by some creepers and container planting, but over the wall is the wide green ground of Stratford College, with an outdoor classroom under an awning and games areas marked out.
Under the main stairs is a guest bathroom, fitted out like the others with smart sanitaryware and creamy tiles. The painted panelling in the hall carries on up through the house and on the first return is a lovely bright bedroom with Veluxes as well as a sash window overlooking the school grounds. There is a shower room with hot press next door.
On the next landing are three bedrooms; a double and a single at the front, with sweet cast-iron, white-painted fireplaces, and a bigger double at the back whose en suite shower room has a slender window. There’s another bathroom on the return, and a Velux overhead.
The top stairs leads to a big bright attic bedroom with a teeny fireplace; spare a thought for the person who had to lug coals up the stairs and ashes back down. And there is one last, well-lit detail that shows how carefully the owners considered the renovation: the en suite draws natural light from the Velux on the stairs through a pretty oval window.
