Located off Harold’s Cross Road, between Leinster Road and Kenilworth Square, Leinster Road West runs behind the Roman Catholic parish church of Harold’s Cross, following the line of the Swan river, which was culverted to make room for the road’s development in the mid-1800s.
Featuring a mix of architectural styles dating from the Victorian era, the road is noted for its religious buildings – such as the Celtic-Revival-influenced Church of Ireland at number 13 and what is now Century House, originally a parish hall designed by Alfred Gresham Jones, who designed the original Wesley College on St Stephen’s Green.
Number 4, an elegant Victorian villa, has just launched to the market though Sherry FitzGerald. It’s a lovely home retaining many period features such as detailed cornicing, with both egg-and-dart and Greek key pattern, the latter a symbol of eternal motion and infinity.
Inside the railed granite front steps lies a double-fronted red brick terraced house extending to a generous 222sq m (2,390sq ft). Set over two levels, it has a flexible layout which currently has three bedrooms at garden level, while the principal bedroom lies upstairs. Centred by a period fireplace, this bedroom opens into a large Jack and Jill bathroom, which is the same size as the bedroom and the two reception rooms opposite.
These two interconnecting reception rooms – currently laid out as drawing and family room – have lovely sash windows, intricate cornicing, ceiling roses, original floorboards and period fireplaces. With almost identical decor, the two rooms – like the rest of the house – have been staged for sale by Diana Molohan of My Kind of Design.
Downstairs, where the old coal hole is now used for storage, are the three remaining bedrooms and a simple streamlined kitchen which opens into an open plan living/dining extension added in 1999, the year when the house was last rewired and replumbed. Insulation was addressed in 2016, which now gives the property a C3 rating, which is good considering it retains open fires and original sash windows.
The home has lots of built-in storage throughout, but new owners might want to remove the line of shelving in the main hallway, as it distracts from an otherwise elegant space where all eyes should be on the detailed plasterwork overhead.
A bonus, besides its sought-after location and period details, is the generous garden to the rear, which is now cleared and ready for green-fingered enthusiasts to work a bit of magic. Beyond is a sizeable garage (70sq m) that has the benefit of opening out on to a laneway to the rear. As this is wired, it has the potential to become a gym, home office or more – subject to planning – or indeed used as is, as a place to store the family car.
Sherry FitzGerald is seeking €1.25 million for number 4, which equates to €5,631 per sq m. The Rathmines property appears on the Property Price Register as having achieved €1.35 million in 2020, which was an interfamily purchase as it has been in the same family since 1984, according to estate agent notes. Its location, where so many conveniences are on the doorstep, along with its flexible layout, large garden and garage, are what will attract well-heeled house-hunters to this lovely Dublin 6 Victorian villa.
