“We’re at the centre of five villages,” say the owners of number 60 Garville Avenue Upper, in Dublin 6: “Rathgar [their favourite], Ranelagh [from which they moved 10 years ago], Rathmines [to which they plan to move], Terenure [with the Corner Bakery and Mayfield restaurant almost within sight], and Harold’s Cross [where they savour Craft restaurant, with its Michelin Bib Gourmand].”
Their home, a fine three-storey, four-bed red-brick (one bedroom is used as a study) is one of the four that comprise Vesey Terrace, which is at the corner of Rathgar Avenue and is on the 1870s Ordnance Survey map. As well as the five villages, with their many schools, shops, sports fields, parks and other amenities, Garville Avenue is within easy reach of the city centre by bike and on foot; of the many buses that pass both ends of it, the number 16 goes to the airport. There is paid parking on the road.
The previous owner of number 60 renovated it completely in 2005, and it was rented for a few years until the current owners bought it in 2012 for €755,000, according to the Property Price Register. The quality of that renovation and of the current owners’ careful cosmetic touches – including a neutral repaint, the addition of built-in shelving and wardrobes, and a bathroom refit – keep it crisply up to date. With a floor area of 243sq m (2,615sq ft), it is now for sale through Mullery O’Gara, asking €1.7 million.
The railed front garden was redone two years ago and combines hard landscaping with hedging that hides the bins and complements the old granite wall, and there’s a lovely sunny spot to sit outside the kitchen windows, beside the door that they use every day rather than climbing the steps to the pale green hall door.
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Through that main door, the hall is imposing, with a deep arch and beautifully preserved ceiling plasterwork. To the left are a pair of graceful reception rooms connected by folding doors, with decorative cornices and centre roses, matching pale grey marble fireplaces, and tall sash windows. One of the owners has their desk in the rear room; the other works in a book-lined study in the original return that could easily be a fourth bedroom. Beside this is a guest bathroom.
Upstairs, the top level of the return is a roomy yellow nursery with a cute cast-iron fireplace; from here, and from the bigger back bedroom above, the owners point out the Guinness Storehouse and the Gravity Bar, and they enjoy the view of city lights at night. The main bathroom is also at this level.
Off the top landing are the two biggest bedrooms with very high ceilings; there are shelves built cleverly into a void in the back room. The main bedroom is at the front, with a tiled fireplace, two big south-facing windows, and a skylit en suite shower room, recently redone by Elegant John. The Ber is C3.
At garden level, a utility and cloakroom is under the stairs. The space beneath the front steps is dry-lined and houses the boiler, and the inner door opens into the kitchen, with huge marble-topped island and space for a table and chairs; one of the two sinks is at the front window to keep an eye on passersby. “This is where we spend most of our time,” say the owners, understandably. The kitchen leads into the open-plan livingroom with a sandstone fireplace, and on to the bright dining area with a pitched roof light and more bookshelves; there is an understairs bathroom off this. Glass doors open to the patio, with the garden beyond mostly in lawn and bounded by refurbished walls. A wall topped with greenery screens the shed.
At some point in the past, the end of the garden was truncated and the cut-off part, fronting on to Garville Lane Upper, was latterly used as a yard by the Murphy & Gunn motor dealership. In addition to its landmark car showroom nearby, the company had warehouses and workshops on a 0.44-acre site farther along the lane at 27A Rathgar Avenue. This latter site is the subject of a planning application for an infill residential development of seven four-bed houses in two terraces, designed by DMVF Architects and with proposed access from Rathgar Villas.
