Even on a dark morning, light fills the front rooms of this large five-bedroom Victorian house in Rathgar. Scheduled for auction on March 15th through Lisney, 10 Orwell Park is guiding at £1.2 million. Although the house needs redecoration, the price reflects its mature, secluded location and the fact that the property includes a two-bedroom mews with separate access from the street. A classic two storey over garden house built in 1860, it retains many of its original features such as simple ceiling coving and centre roses, and, in the two reception rooms, matching slate fireplaces with period reeded mantelpieces. Picture windows in the front rooms admit plenty of natural light.
Opening off the hall, the drawingroom and diningroom, both 15 ft by 17 ft, are spacious, elegant rooms, which the present owners have decorated in a minimalist style. Given the scale of the rooms, there is scope for more adventurous colours and furnishings. Next to the drawingroom is a small room lined with bookshelves which serves as a study-cum-library. Towards the rear of the hall there is a guest bedroom with en suite bathroom. Above the drawingroom, the main bedroom is also a sunny space with a view to the Dublin mountains. Its tiny en suite bathroom intrudes awkwardly into a back bedroom, and new owners may prefer instead to adapt the bedroom at the front of the landing to a more generous en suite.
The fourth bedroom on this floor is a long narrow room, with a built-in wardrobe and small period cast-iron fireplace. Three of the bedrooms share a bathroom, which has its original free-standing bath and cast-iron framed basin. Adjacent to this is a utility room, housing a washing machine and drier. On the landing return between the first floor and the garden level is an alcove with two windows, ideal for a window seat or as a display area for plants. At garden level there is a family room facing the front garden which has a cast-iron fireplace. An archway leads to a morningroom.
The kitchen, located behind the family room, is somewhat dark, with pine cupboards and ceiling, and a quarry-tiled floor. Across the hall is a sizeable study or computer room. A small lavatory, and a pantry, with access to the oil tank, complete the accommodation on this floor. A back door leads to a stone-walled garden which, with the mews behind it, is slightly smaller than those of the neighbouring houses. Access to the coachhouse mews is through a gate in the garden wall, leading to a cobbled lane, also directly accessible from the front garden.
The ground floor of the mews comprises a large multi-purpose room with French windows and fireplace, and, across the hall, a galley kitchen fitted with presses and a gas hob. Central heating is gas-fired. A staircase with a rail adapted from the old stable partition opens into two bedrooms connected by a bathroom. The present owner uses this building as an office.
