A photograph of the late Desmond FitzGerald, the Knight of Glin, with the inscription "Thanks to My Divine Slave", hangs on the bathroom wall of 54 Monkstown Road. Conservationist Helen O'Neill spent 20 years archiving FitzGerald's photographs, which were collated into his and James Peill's book, Irish Furniture.
Another photograph depicts a smiling FitzGerald on a sofa with Marianne Faithfull and a deadpan Mick Jagger.
“I remember that sofa well, as I restored every inch of it,” laughs O’Neill, who has also been involved in restoration projects at Castletown House and Farmleigh.
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Number 54 has been her home for 45 years and now she is selling it through estate agent Savills with an asking price of €1.3 million.
The property, at the end of a terrace of three Georgian houses, boasts 210sq m (2,260sq ft) of living space. It was designed in 1837 by architect George Papworth, who also designed the original Gresham Hotel on O'Connell Street.
Original features
The house retains its original features, including shuttered sash windows, and the Greek key-motif cornicing in the hallway is echoed in the Greek-style door architraves of the principal rooms.
Two spacious reception rooms lie on the ground floor, each of which overlooks the well-tended gardens and features original fireplaces and high ceilings. Original wooden floorboards are also just waiting to be revealed.
The kitchen to the rear is modest compared to the reception rooms, since in Georgian times only the humble cook would have laboured here.
The new owners will have scope to either extend the kitchen to the rear, as the next-door neighbour has done, or transform some of the garden-level rooms, which include an old wine cave, into a gracious kitchen space.
The property has three bedrooms, the smallest of which is at garden level. The spacious master bedroom upstairs has views overlooking Dublin bay and Howth peninsula, and is a reminder that the property is just two minutes’ walk from the sea.
The tranquil back garden has an entire wall of white climbing hydrangea on one side of the property with another wall covered with jasmine.
The house, which new owners will most likely want to update, is an elegant Georgian property in a popular residential location that could make a lovely family home.
