RANELAGH €1.9m:Mafra O'Reilly 's large 1830s home in D6 needs renovation but has plenty of period charm and a large, sunny back garden, writes BERNICE HARRISON
IT’S A RARE thing for one of the Georgian houses on Ranelagh’s most secret terrace to come up for sale, so even in this market there should be interest in 41 Sandford Road. Lisney is asking €1.9 million for the three-storey semi detached house, the home of socialite Mafra O’Reilly.
New owners will almost certainly spend a significant amount, renovating and perhaps extending.
The terrace of large houses built in the 1830s is hidden from view from the main road by a linear park, filled with tall trees and dense greenery. Beyond that is a short cul-de-sac providing vehicular access to the handful of houses which all have good front gardens with off-street parking. It all adds up to a very private location.
The houses vary in size, most are detached, but number 41 is semi-detached and a look at next door, which has been sympathetically extended, gives an idea of how it could be enlarged.
At 297sq m (3,200sq ft), number 41 is spread over three levels and all the rooms are, as was the fashion in Georgian townhouses, of manageable size.
At hall level there are two main rooms – one to the front used as a formal diningroom and one to the back which is a beautiful livingroom looking out over the garden. The current owners have decorated it in period style, which suits these rooms perfectly, and the many period details are intact.
There is a coach-house to the side and sometime in the past, its upstairs area was converted into a family kitchen and access knocked through to the main house, so the back reception room opens directly into this kitchen.
There are four bedrooms – two doubles, one with an en suite, and two singles. There’s also a small family bathroom.
Down at basement level there are three large rooms as well as a small kitchen and bathroom. As new owners will probably begin an ambitious renovation programme, it’s likely they will once again put the family kitchen down into the basement and convert the current kitchen which is now dated into another living room.
The back garden is accessed both from hall level where there are steps down and at basement level and it is in full bloom, with a wisteria clinging to the house’s granite back wall.
It’s orientation which is south-west facing must be perfect for serious gardeners, as one of our foremost gardeners, Helen Dillon, lives further up the terrace and her extraordinary garden is periodically open to the public. There is off-street parking in the front garden and also in the coach-house.
41 Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6
€1.9m for 297sq m (3,200sq ft) semi-detached period home on terrace hidden by a linear park
Agent: Lisney
