A decade ago, after 40 years there, Arup engineering moved from its headquarters on Wellington Road to new docklands premises. Over the years, the firm had expanded to take over three of the houses in a terrace on one of Ballsbridge’s finest, most sought-after residential roads.
When the offices came on the market in 2007, the three interconnecting houses were marketed as one lot – with a price tag of €30 million – although there was the assumption that three individual buyers would fetch up to turn the houses back into family homes. They didn’t. The market collapsed and the owners took the “for sale” signs down and brought the three houses back to family use – but as top-of-the-market rentals. There was an attempt to sell number 10 in 2008 for €7million, but that failed.
Now it is for sale again, coming to the market without a hint of its previous office use, or indeed its decade as a rental. Instead, it has been newly furnished and kitted out from top to bottom to show its splendid accommodation – spread over 381sq m/4,100sq ft – to its best advantage. Not that this house needs staging to prove how grand it is. And it has that most rare feature, its original coach house, a very pretty two-storey brick one with 65sq m (700sq ft) opening on to Raglan Lane.
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Substantial extension
Always a large two-storey over basement house – the three windows at upper level hint at its generous proportions – number 10 was greatly enlarged many years ago by the addition of a substantial three storey extension to the rear. This is so smartly designed that from the garden it looks as if it was always there.
So now, instead of having two grand interconnecting reception rooms off the hall as you might expect, there are three, all flowing into each other to create an ideal space for grand-scale entertaining. Upstairs that extension made space for a large master bedroom en-suite overlooking the back garden, while there are two more double bedrooms to the front, one with an en-suite. The family bathroom is on this level. On up again in the rear return is the fourth and smaller bedroom.
Down at garden level, again there are three rooms where other similar-style houses would have two – and the ceiling height is good so there is a great sense of airiness and space. The kitchen, with smart contemporary units, is to the rear (with an adjacent utility room), opening into two interconnecting family rooms.
The coach house at the end of the long garden is wider than it is deep, one room over another.
Cautious price
The price for 10 Wellington Road, at €3.25 million, may prove on the cautious side. Comparing Victorian houses even on the same road is always difficult because while they may look similar, they tended to be built in lots, by different builders, and so can be quite different, and anyway, renovation requirements vary so much.
But number 75 Wellington Road, a three-bed with mews that needed a major refurb, which was on the market last April for €2.25 million sold for €3.415 million in October. A less likely comparison is number 68, a smaller four-bed in ready-to-go condition but without its coach house, which sold last year for €2.5 million - €50,000 more than its €2.45 million price tag.
