Two mid-19th century houses, one refurbished, one not, one hidden away in a quiet cul-de-sac,one on a busy road, are both empty and both for sale for over €1million, writes FRANCES O'ROURKE,Property Editor
A LARGE, beautifully landscaped old-fashioned back garden is the standout feature of a house on one of Monkstown, Co Dublin’s, hidden terraces. Westbury is on Willow Bank, a cul-de-sac that looks down into tree-filled Vesey Gardens and up to Vesey Terrace on the other side of the park.
Westbury was the home of Noel Purcell, a man who represented two countries – Britain in 1920 and Ireland in 1924 – in water polo at the Olympics. (He also played rugby for Ireland in 1921.)
He bought it in 1943 and it is being sold by his son, retired solicitor and antiques collector Noel Purcell, who auctioned off its contents last autumn. It is for sale through Knight Frank for €1.9 million.
There are just four houses on Willow Bank, two pairs of semi-detached homes built on a grand scale. Westbury is large – at 350sq m (3,767sq ft) – and has the rich period details of its era. But some redecoration and gold-leaf detailing on ceiling moulds and a door don’t disguise the fact that the house would need serious hard work and money to renovate and modernise it.
As with many Victorian homes, it has lots of space, but not that many rooms. Two huge reception rooms open off the left of the large square front hall. The drawingroom at the front has a marble fireplace, wooden floors and tall sash windows with shutters overlooking the front garden. The room at the back has a large window overlooking the garden.
The kitchen is simply functional and there’s a small store room on the return at the end of the front hall; this is the spot where stairs to the garden level have been taken out. Upstairs is more obviously dilapidated: there are five bedrooms, two very large and two interconnecting, as well as a bathroom and a toilet.
There’s a three-bedroom flat at garden level, currently occupied although the house is being sold with vacant possession. New owners would likely want to reinstate the stairs and turn the ground floor into a kitchen living room opening into the garden.
Yes, the garden: it’s nearly half-an-acre and has had continued care and attention from a landscape gardener. A tall hedge bisects it, giving the lucky flat-dwellers access to one half of the space. Paths wind down past lawns and a 100-year-old revolving wooden sun house towards a two-storey coach-house, which could be converted subject to planning permission. It’s a classic Victorian garden serious gardeners would love. Even though it’s a short walk from Willow Bank to busy York Road – the cul-de-sac runs from here to Sloperton – it’s quiet, even on a Saturday afternoon.
PERIOD FEATURES WITH A MODERN TAKE
MALAKOFF Villa is a romantically named five-bedroom house at the busy Rathmines end of the Rathgar Road. The reasons for the property’s name are unclear: Malakoff takes its name from a fortress conquered during the Crimean War.
This double-fronted redbrick feels anything but fortress-like: it is an inviting and serious D6 trophy scalp. The 346sq m (3,714sq ft) 1870s semi-detached house – currently empty – was refurbished in 2006. It now has gas fired central heating, underfloor heating in the kitchen and bathrooms and a central vacuum system and is in walk-in condition. It has an asking price of €1.3 million through agent McNally Handy.
The villa has beautiful period features, starting with stained glass panels in the front door.
There are two large reception rooms: one to the right of the front hall has a gorgeous bow window.
Accommodation includes an enormous kitchen/breakfast room and upstairs, a main en suite bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe and a family bathroom with a shower big enough to be used as drive-through carwash plus four more double bedrooms.
There is off-street parking. - ALANNA GALLAGHER
