Royal Terrace in Dún Laoghaire was built as two facing terraces on the opposite sides of a four-acre park in 1860. These east and west terraces were built as part of the expansion of the capital after the opening of the Dublin to Kingstown railway in 1834.
Well-heeled families acquired the houses along Royal Terrace as an escape from the city as they climbed the social ladder and took advantage of their ability to live by the sea.
The east and west terraces stood alone until 2017, when a terrace of five new houses was built on the north terrace with identical Victorian facades. The attention to detail of these new-builds is so impressive that it is hard to tell them apart from their original neighbours.
On the older west terrace, number 11 has just come on to the market with an asking price of €2.395 million with Sherry FitzGerald.
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The current owner bought the house in 2013 and has poured a lot of love and labour into it to create a home that pays homage to its Victorian past.
“I tried to do justice to the house by filling it with things from the correct period,” says the owner. “I enjoyed finding the right things for the right place. The fireplaces were gone from the main hall level, so the two fireplaces in situ now are white Carrara marble from France with carved caryatids holding up the mantel.”
Artwork, furnishings and exquisite antique pieces fill every room in the house, which is set out over four levels and has a floor area of 262sq m (2,825sq ft).
The garden level is brighter than expected thanks to the open-plan layout, where one room leads into the other while maintaining their own distinct purpose. The large kitchen has custom-made units painted in a sage green, with a marble-topped island at the centre. This runs into the diningroom, with an original fireplace and French doors out to the garden. Beyond this is a comfortable family room, which also has doors to the patio and rear garden.
Up at hall level is a fine entrance with an ornate archway and access into the formal reception rooms. The drawingroom and study are connected by the original double doors, each with the aforementioned marble fireplaces, large sash windows and polished timber floor. The ornate cornicing and centre roses are highlighted by the choice of classical damask wallpaper and long, lavish Victorian-style curtains. There is also a bathroom on this level.
On the first floor are three bedrooms, two of which have their own bathrooms. The theme continues through these rooms, which have been meticulously restored and styled.
The owner has gone to great lengths to recreate the characteristics of 19th-century bathrooms. Antique marble sinks have been sourced along with high-end rolltop cast-iron baths. On the top floor of the Ber-exempt house is a fourth bedroom with an en suite bathroom.
The garden was another feature that attracted the owner when he first viewed the house. The 30 metre deep and 7.3 metre wide area provided him with a challenge to create something different that would get plenty of use.
“The gardens along the road are very long, so if you don’t divide them up in some way you just end up with one long skinny strip that doesn’t do much,” he says.
Now set out as two separate areas, one is on two levels and is paved to allow for seating areas and is fully fenced for privacy, with extensive planting to each side. There is a gate into the other side of the garden, which has a lawn at the centre and a dinky little summer house with a lead roof and turned oak finials that was custom-made for this spot by Formality at the Cowshed in Glasthule.
To the front, number 11 overlooks the railed park that is managed by the council. Dún Laoghaire town centre is less than five minutes away on foot and Monkstown is 10 minutes away.
The owner will be sad to leave but has found another house that needs a restoration job, so he is looking forward to getting his hands dirty again and starting a new episode as a property owner.
