A semi-detached Georgian house, on a street hidden away off Tivoli Road in Dún Laoghaire, has been well cared for by the family who've lived there for more than 30 years.
New owners are likely to want to update some features, such as the white uPVC windows in all the rooms and the cosy but now dated country kitchen. But the house – a protected structure, built in 1804 – retains the elegance of its era, with high ceilings, intact ceiling roses and cornicing, a marble fireplace, and a fanlight over the front door. And it’s bright, with many of the rooms dual aspect.
Number 9 Eglinton Park – confusingly called White Lodge, like its semi-detached neighbour, number 10 – is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €1.695 million. The 334sq m (3,595sq ft) four-bed came to the market in 2016 for €1.485 million but failed to sell.
Up to the 1980s, both 9 and 10 Eglinton Park were home to the Turkish Consulate in Ireland, with one house used as offices before the property was restored as two houses. The legacy of this can be seen in the drawingroom to the right of the front hall: a door beside the fireplace that once led to the other house now opens to a very narrow drinks cabinet.
The drawingroom, like most of the house, is painted in rich colours and furnished in period style: the chimneybreast above the pale grey marble fireplace is a vivid red, the walls pale yellow. Tall windows framed by heavy red curtains look on to the front and rear of the house. The diningroom on the left of the front hall is painted eggshell blue.
The hall curves to the left, leading to a small sittingroom/TV room with a solid fuel stove, where the original servants’ bells remain over the door. A glazed door from here opens into the dual aspect country-style kitchen/breakfastroom. Another glazed door leads into a very big utility room, off which is a shower room and a wine store. A door from here opens into the paved side garden. A large conservatory at the side of the house has floor-to-ceiling windows and a patio door looking on to the lawn at the other side of the house.
Upstairs, the main bedroom is on the first return: a door opens first into a study, then through double doors into the bedroom, off which is a walk-in dressingroom and a large fully-tiled bathroom. There are three more bedrooms, all doubles, a separate toilet and a family bathroom.
Electric gates lead into White Lodge – number 9 has a very large gravelled front garden with lots of room for parking; the neighbours in number 10 have right-of-way across it to their property. The houses are right beside the newly-built Dún Laoghaire Bowling Club at the back of the Cualanor development, built on the site of the old Dún Laoghaire golf course.
