Located in a quiet cul-de-sac just off Mount Merrion Avenue, Hyde Park Gardens has been a popular spot for families due to its proximity to Blackrock village and a number of schools which include St Andrew’s College, Blackrock College and Sion Hill.
Number 8, a semi-detached house that borders The Elms on Mount Merrion Avenue, has been home to its current owners since 1999. One of the reasons they purchased the house was the large tree in the back garden where they could build a tree house for their daughter. The pretty New England-style structure lies at the end of manicured gardens and is fully kitted out with carpets and a television for little ones to play in. “It cost the guts of €10,000 to put it there, and despite it being only used about 10 times it really adds to the place,” says the owner, who is downsizing.
The gardens themselves are one of the major selling points of this 201sq m (2,163sq ft) house.
With four bedrooms, three on the first floor and a room currently used as study on the ground floor listed as a fourth, there is also a large converted attic with views to the gardens, which could be used as a great home office. A formal drawing room lies to the front of the house, warmed by a gas fire.
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A large conservatory was constructed to the rear of the property and brings in lots of light. As the room faces northeast, an abundance of glazing was used to maximise the light and incorporate garden views. “It gets some sun, but not enough to overheat the room, so it keeps the place bright and cheerful; it’s a beautiful room to sit in,” says the owner.
Parts of this room are painted pink, which along with some oranges and yellows in the bedrooms may be a tad too much colour for some purchasers, but it is an easy cosmetic fix. It will be the views to the gardens – and the way they are structured – as they almost entice you to walk around that will have new owners swooning.
The owner admits to visiting the Chelsea Flower Show annually for the guts of four decades: “I had approached a landscape designer years ago, but she wanted three weeks to think about it and it was going to cost €3,000 just for the design.” Instead he used his own design skills to incorporate ideas collected over the years, and transformed the rear garden, which he describes as being “just a patch of grass” when the family purchased Number 8.
Today it is anything but; and despite being ornate, with a water feature, the New England-style tree house, and a Celtic-themed garden, the owner says the maintenance is not too high as the grass used in the main area around a large olive tree is actually artificial.
To be honest it is not very much grass and for all the creatures who keep our gardens ticking over and our earth tilled there is ample room in and around the many topiary trees and shrubs for the little mites to dig and toil.
A Zen garden sits to the rear of the conservatory, framed by a sandstone path. Here a water feature gurgles away adjacent to a host of finely clipped topiary and garden statuary, which the owner sourced from architectural salvage yards.
Besides the gardens, new conservatory and converted attic, the owners converted a former garage into what is now a study/bedroom on the ground floor.
Number 8 Hyde Park, which has a Ber of C1, is on the market through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, seeking €1.6 million.
