Houses on Temple Road, Dartry, come on the open market relatively rarely and the sale of one provides a useful barometer for house prices at the top end of the Dublin market.
It is a wide leafy road which improves as it goes towards Richmond Avenue South, with the best houses standing well back from the road in large gardens.
The last house to sell on this stretch was Atherstone, a detached two-storey over garden level renovated Victorian house that fetched £2.2 million at auction in 1998.
Now, a similar house, Thorndale, has come on the market and will be auctioned by Sherry FitzGerald on November 4th. Selling agent Louise O'Reilly expects a price in excess of £2 million for the two-storey over garden level house, which is in need of refurbishment. It is currently arranged as a five-bedroom house with a four-bedroom apartment on the ground floor. There is also a modern extension which houses a separate apartment. New owners will almost certainly rearrange the entire house to create a large kitchen and living area on the ground floor.
Some 40 years ago, Thorndale was owned by the Sisk building family who used the large basement for parties and called it the ballroom. In the 1960s, a later owner built the self-contained one bedroom apartment with car-port beside the house.
A short drive sweeps round to the front of the mellowed-brick house, where curved granite steps lead up to the front door. The large entrance hall has a polished timber floor, exquisite cornice-work and a feature ceiling centre-piece. The hall is large enough to take a piano and several side tables and still look spacious rather than cluttered.
To the left is the front-facing sitting-room which has a period white marble fireplace. This room is lit by two very large sash windows overlooking the front and side lawn. Double folding doors lead to an equally handsome dining-room with Victorian plasterwork and a period marble fireplace. A large front-facing family room catches the morning sunshine through its wide box bay window. The walls are part-panelled in mahogany and there is a polished timber floor. Antique-style mahogany bookcases are fitted on either side of the mahogany fireplace.
At the rear of the hall, a splendid ornate arch leads to a large kitchen-cum-breakfast-room, complete with an old oil-fired Rayburn cooker.
The staircase is lit by a striking, Gothic-style stained-glass window at the short return to the first floor. There are five bedrooms on the top floor including the main bedroom, with its striking marble fireplace, and a guest bedroom with a small en suite shower room. The family bathroom has a wonderful three-panelled Victorian sash window.
The garden level is accessible from the main house, and also has its own entrance at the side of the house. There are four double bedrooms, a living-room with a wonderful stone-cut corner fireplace, a small kitchen and a shower room. New owners will almost certainly renovate this entire floor. The one-bedroom apartment is in good order, and consists of a small entrance hall, pleasant sitting-room, small kitchen with wall and floor cupboards, bedroom with built-in wardrobe, and a fully-tiled modern bathroom. The gardens, which are mainly to the front and side of the house, are laid out in lawn fringed with mature trees and shrubs. There is parking for several cars in the front drive.
