The owners who are now downsizing from 8 Lower Prince Edward Terrace in Blackrock bought it in the early 1990s – and it’s a house that has served them and their family well.
Both architects, they were able to install their practice at garden level of the early Victorian terraced house where they could see clients in their two-roomed office which has its own entrance at the front.
They were also able to build a mews house at the end of the very long back garden, a separate property screened off by a tall granite wall and still leaving the house with a mature back garden of more than 35m long.
Prince Edward Terrace – both upper and lower – is made up of smart-looking period houses facing on to the Smurfit Business School. The land the terrace sits on was sold off in parcels so that while the houses look quite uniform, as construction took place roughly around the same time, a closer look reveals differences.
Boundaries
Number 8 and its neighbour were built as a pair around 1840 and they originally had common front gardens where the boundaries were marked by granite piers similar to the entrance gates at the former Carysfort Park.
Like other houses in the terrace that shared common gardens these have been divided off and there is parking in front of number 8 for three or four cars.
The owners bought the house for its period feel and any changes they have made have been sympathetic so for example the two airy and bright reception rooms – each with two tall sash windows – at hall level didn’t interconnect but they knocked through and commissioned doors with elaborate architraves that they look as if they were always there.
They rebuilt a small return at hall level and it is now a hallway giving access down a flight of granite steps with specially commissioned cast iron handrail down to the garden.
There are three bedrooms and a family bathroom – no en suites as the owners don’t believe in carving up the rooms, the doubles with particularly nice proportions. The is also another shower room down at garden level.
Atmospheric
The eat-in kitchen also at garden level opens out via double-glazed doors to the back garden. New units were installed in recent years and with its working fireplace and terracotta tiled floor it’s a cosy atmospheric room.
If new owners are interested in having a working home office the two rooms presently used as such – one has its original fireplace – would convert back easily to make one large family room.
Number 8 Lower Prince Edward Terrace, with 2,164sq ft, is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €1.425 million.
