It would take quite a family to fill 15 Ailesbury Park, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, as the period redbrick with 288sq m/3,100sq ft of space has seven bedrooms. The semi-detached house also has an outdoor swimming pool and a tennis court and sits on a third of an acre. These features will certainly concentrate the minds of buyers at the upper end of the market as they compare it with others in the price range – it is seeking €2.35 million through agent DNG.
Ailesbury Park is a cul-de-sac off the Sandymount side of Ailesbury Road. Years ago it was something of a rat run for commuter traffic on to Merrion Road, opening nearly opposite the Merrion Shopping Centre, but that has been sensibly closed off to all but pedestrians and cyclists, so in terms of traffic it is now a quiet road.
Built in 1910 and now called Lynwood it is a fine house with many classic Edwardian features starting with a pretty outer porch with timber detailing and an inner porch with stained glass in the entrance door which opens into a spacious hallway.
Throughout the house ceilings are high and the rooms pleasantly proportioned and as it’s laid out over three storeys it has an appealing rambling feel.
‘Good rooms’
The “good rooms” are the interconnecting reception rooms, both fine square spaces with a distinctive wide window in the room to the front looking down the length of Ailesbury Park. An additional window to the side of the bay brings extra light. The cornices in these rooms are unusually decorative for the period. Both have their original fireplaces, with timber chimneypieces and decorative tiling. There is another reception room to the front – originally an informal parlour it is where the family now selling spend most of their time.
Lynwood has been in the same family for 50 years – it’s now an executors’ sale – and throughout there is evidence of continual upgrading. In the 1970s the heated swimming pool was installed (just before the oil crisis which put paid to the “heated” feature for a while) and the original grass tennis court was repositioned and given a hard surface. There is also a long and wide strip of lawn fringed by mature shrubs and trees. A sun room was added in recent years, and the kitchen was fitted with new units while a new oak floor was laid in the main reception rooms. The house was rewired as recently as 2012.
Rethink
As few buyers will really want seven bedrooms – five doubles and two singles – a new owner will probably redo the two small and dated en suites and the family bathroom, while at the same time changing the bedroom configuration to four doubles. They will also rethink the eat-in kitchen, most likely building out to create a modern family-friendly space that better relates to the garden. As well as two bedrooms at the top of the house there is a vast attic with conversion potential.
Outside, the front garden has been paved over to make off-street parking for three cars.
