When the six houses that make up Park Villas were built in the 1860s they must have been surrounded by parkland or maybe farms but now suburbia has grown up around them and the grand two-storey over-basement Victorians stand out as quite different from the other houses in and around Blackrock’s Grove Avenue.
Number 5 Park Villas last changed hands 16 years ago when the current family bought and upgraded the 280sq m/3,013sq ft house. It has four bedrooms, all doubles, two with en suites, and there is a good-sized family bathroom.
An early extension not long after it was built is the two-storey addition to the side which has been there so long, and was built in such a sympathetic style, it no longer appears like an addition. It is accessed at hall level through the reception rooms – two fine rooms with nice proportions and plenty of original features – and it houses a bedroom en suite as well as the guest toilet.
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The biggest changes made by the current owners to the original layout is down at basement level where there was a warren of small rooms and a back staircase. That’s gone now and the space was opened up so that it is now a family friendly open-plan area.
The kitchen is to the front opening to a sun patio – shielded by tall hedging while the seating area opens to the back garden where there is a timber deck and lawn. Also down at basement level is a full-size utility, a guest WC, as well as a room to the front used a gym but which could also be a fifth bedroom.
Curious feature
A curious original feature of the house, its origins long forgotten, is the door in the hall connecting number five to its neighbour, number 6. The interconnecting doors are not in use now obviously, though they do make an interesting talking point.
That neighbouring house sold in 2014 and has now been modernised. The most recent sale of the six houses in Park Villas was last year when number 2 changed hands for €1.075 million.
The gardens are to the front, side and rear – with off-street parking for several cars. While some of the bedrooms have been redecorated recently and the en suites updated, new owners will probably redecorate the main reception rooms as well as examining how to increase the energy efficiency – never easy in houses of this age – which stands at Ber F.
Number 5 Park Villas is on the market through DNG asking €1.495 million.
