St Cabrini’s position, at the end of a pleasant landmark Victorian terrace on Mount Merrion Avenue, gives it some advantages on its neighbours. It is larger, for one thing, and, with Peafield Terrace running alongside, has a couple of useful side entrances to the rear garden. The front garden, a long sweep back from the road, has lawn and a pebbled walk, specimen trees, hedging and an altogether mature charm about it. The rear garden is 85ft long with, at the end, a garage/old coach house which could, with planning permission, become a decent-sized mews.
Inside, St Cabrini has the feel of a bright, lived-in and cared-for haven. Double-fronted, it has more than its share of long sash windows, strong pastel colours, high ceilings and a floor space of 262sq m (2,820sq ft).
Mount Merrion Avenue was built in the 1760s, St Cabrini and the terrace, then called Peafield Terrace, in the 1840s. The vendors bought in 1998, moved in in 2003 and have been upgrading and adding ever since – a new Aga and boiler went in last year. They have taken care to faithfully retain original features and have made “initial, positive approaches” about the conversion of the rear coach house to a mews. The garden faces west and, subject to planning permission, a mews of some 111sq m (1,200sq ft) could be developed.
The formal reception rooms, to one side of the entrance hallway on the ground floor, have all of the traditional Victorian features but none of that period’s sombre clutter. In the front drawingroom, polished floorboards work well with creamy-yellow walls and curtains and a black marble fireplace. Similar rooms on the other side of the hallway are in use as a bedroom and study.
The lower return has a utility/bootroom with door to the garden. Stairs lead down to the garden level kitchen/breakfastroom/family space where worktops are of oak, pine floorboards are honey coloured and a large black Aga fills a mosaic-tiled niche. What was once a fifth bedroom is now a family/playroom and a separate sittingroom has a solid fuel stove and bookshelves.
The large main bedroom is to the front of the house and has a shower en suite. There are treetop views through the sash windows and, between chimneys, a distant glimpse of Killiney hill. The remaining bedrooms have built-in wardrobes and good light. A decorative arch over the first floor return leads to a family bathroom where there is a large shower and two windows giving natural light.
A Donegal-paved patio runs close to the rear of the house and a granite wall surrounds the rear garden, ivy clad on one side, those access gates from Peafield Lane on the other, apple and silver birch in between. Peafield Lane itself is private to the residents of the terrace, each of whom has a key to open electric access gates.
