Uninterrupted sea views are one of the many attractions of an elegant house on one of south county Dublin‘s most handsome terraces. Hamilton House, a large three-storey over basement house built in the 1840s, has all the lovely period details of Victorian houses – ornate plasterwork, marble mantelpieces, sash windows – along with unfussy modern decor.
The front hall has a travertine marble floor, while reception rooms and staircases have half-panelled walls and are mostly painted a creamy shade, Farrow & Ball’s Matchstick. Curtains have been replaced by blinds in nearly all rooms, to maximise the views. It’s in meticulous walk-in condition – one of the owners is, she says, a ruthless declutterer.
There’s no need for the owners to look for one of the saunas proliferating along south county Dublin’s coastline after a swim at Seapoint beach just across the road – they’ve got one at home: upstairs, in the family bathroom, there’s both a sauna and a steam room.
The homes on Trafalgar Terrace were built between 1844 and 1855, and the terrace named to commemorate the 50th jubilee of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Number 13 is apparently named after Emma Hamilton, the mistress of the battle’s hero, Admiral Nelson, although it’s not clear why.
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The terrace is a cul-de-sac parallel to but above the Blackrock-to-Sandycove coast road, opposite a narrow strip of communally maintained lawn. The terrace looks clear over the roofs of houses opposite on Brighton Vale, next to Seapoint Martello tower, to wide views across Dublin Bay. The house, a protected structure, is Ber-exempt.
Two large interconnecting reception rooms open off the front hall, the diningroom at the front, drawingroom at the back. The house is high enough to offer clear sea views even from the tall ground-floor sash window. The couple say these rooms come into their own at Christmas, when they put up a large Christmas tree.
They spend more of their time in the kitchen/garden room at the back of the house, or downstairs in a basement family room. When the owners bought number 13, the basement was a two-bedroom apartment, now reconnected to the upstairs level and turned into a flexible space with an interconnecting family room/gym, utility room and downstairs toilet.
The kitchen is at the back of the main, ground floor – a sleek narrowish timber-floored space, with kitchen counters and cabinets on both sides, opening into a good-sized breakfastroom/garden room. It’s bright, with two Velux windows and glazed doors/windows opening on to the back garden and, unusually, a feature stone wall.
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Upstairs, off a landing lit by a tall part-stained glass window, there’s a good-sized study/office with fitted desk and bookshelves; it’s on the first return, looking over the back garden, and could be a fifth bedroom. There are four double bedrooms on the first and second floors, two on each. The main first floor bedroom stretches the width of the house, and has two tall sash windows overlooking the sea. This is the drawingroom in some Trafalgar houses, with ornate ceiling plasterwork, fine centre rose and fireplace with a marble mantelpiece. It has a wall of Bob Bushell wardrobes and an en suite with bath and shower.
There’s a second double bedroom on this floor at the back and two more bedrooms on the top, second floor. One of these, a double en suite bedroom stretching the width of the house at the front, is decorated in a contemporary style. Bright and airy, with the best sea views in the house, it could be an artist’s studio.
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The family bathroom is up a few more stairs at the very top of Hamilton House: the sauna is on the left, the steam room on the right as you enter, with a large clawfoot bath in the centre.
The basement is large, with lots of built-in storage in the wide hall, floored with tiles, and there’s underfloor heating throughout. The basement rooms – connected by frosted glass sliding doors hanging from a rail – have walnut floors and underfloor heating. The family room at the rear is smartly fitted out and has a “dancing flames” fireplace; the room at the front is fitted out as a gym but could be used as another bedroom or downstairs office.
A smart downstairs toilet has jazzy wallpaper; the large boot/utility room at the back has room for two double freezers as well as washer and dryer and the family’s bikes. There’s access to the basement from the door under the front stairs and a door at the side of the house at the back, where the owners have developed a pretty fern garden.
Shrubs and bushes line the stone walls at the sides of the back garden, where a good-sized patio opens on to lawn. A tall wicker fence at the end will be replaced by a new wall: the owners, downsizing after living there for 25 years because their children have moved out, are moving into a mews at the bottom of the garden.
The owners have residents’ permit parking on the cul-de-sac at the front. They both swim and cycle and say the road has been quieter and of course safer for cycling since the once-controversial change to the road layout, which is one way towards Blackrock in front of Trafalgar Terrace, with a cycle lane beside it.
Hamilton House, 13 Trafalgar Terrace, Monkstown, Co Dublin, a 432sq m (4,640sq ft) four/five-bedroom property, is for sale for €3.25 million through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty.
