The late Georgian houses on Waltham Terrace, off Mount Merrion Avenue in Blackrock, Co Dublin, are well sought after. There are 34 of them, built in 1836, and about two or three of them come on the market every year. They are a mix of sizes, some have been extensively modernised, and in the last 10 years, only two of the 19 listed in the Property Price Register sold for under €1 million, with most selling for between €1.5 million to more than €2 million.
Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty is seeking €1.595 million for 15 Waltham Terrace, a 198 sq m (2,131 sq ft) single-storey over garden level semidetached four-bed that has been a family home for 50 years. The house is comfortable and in good condition, but new owners will likely want to modernise the property; a protected structure, it has oil-fired central heating and is Ber-exempt.
The current owner first lived in the house as a tenant: she, her husband and two small children lived upstairs and her landlady downstairs. When she was expecting her third child, the couple decided to buy a house and had put down a deposit in Rathfarnham, when her landlady decided to sell.
That was in 1974. Since then, it has been a happy family home where the owner raised five children. “We had lovely neighbours, there were a lot of young families, the kids went to school together.” It’s definitely a house for a family, she says, convenient as it is to southside schools such as Sion Hill, St Andrews College and Blackrock College as well as being close to Blackrock village.
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There are eight steps up to the front door of the double-fronted house on this quiet road, which opens into a parquet-floored hall. On one side is the grandest room in the house, a dual-aspect drawingroom with a white marble fireplace with cast-iron inset, ceiling coving and a centre rose. It’s furnished in comfortable period style; walls throughout the house are decorated with attractive artwork.
Number 15 is an upside-down house, where three of the four bedrooms are upstairs. A good-sized double bedroom looks over the front garden with a smaller bedroom behind it which was once the kitchen when the owner lived in it as a flat. New owners could remove the partition wall between the rooms to create a big reception room. There are five steps going up at the end of the front hall, past an arch with a fanlight, to another double overlooking the back garden. Next to it is a small, pretty bathroom with part timber panelled walls painted green.
Stairs at the end of the hall lead down to the garden level, where there’s a parquet-floored part timber panelled hall. There is another good-sized livingroom down here, with a high ceiling, ceiling coving and a large picture window looking over the back garden. Some of the other Waltham Road owners have put French doors in this space opening into the garden, says the owner.
There is a good-sized double bedroom at the front of the house and a smart modern tiled bathroom with an open shower off the hall. On the other side of the hall is the parquet-floored kitchen/diningroom. The kitchen has smart white units and timber-topped countertops. A door off the diningroom opens into a utility space plumbed for a washing machine and dryer; a door from here opens into the back garden.
A door at the end of the downstairs hall opens into a space under the front stairs used for storage, however, there is no access to the house from here.
The back garden is private, framed by cut-granite walls, and is mainly in lawn, with mature trees and flower beds. The grounds of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart on Mount Merrion Avenue are behind it. There is scope to extend at the back or side of the house, which has good side access. There is plenty of room to park in the front garden.
