Seaview Terrace in Donnybrook is proof that nearly 200 years ago the Georgians were as imaginative as modern-day builders when it came to naming their developments.
The six very tall houses built on a grand scale in 1830 don’t have a sea view – except maybe very distant glimpses of water if you clamber up on the roof – and they are not actually a terrace, instead the six three-storey-over-basement houses are semi-detached, with each pair on large sites.
Originally they looked out on a vast stretch of parkland that over time became Ailesbury Road and Seaview now runs from Ailesbury to Nutley roads. Number 3, a six-bedroom house with 464 sq m (5,000 sq ft) of floor space, on a third of an acre is now for sale, through Savills for €3.25 million.
The owners bought the property 25 years ago when number 3 was in four units – a large one-bedroom flat on each floor. The division left most key original features intact, including sash windows, the elaborate plasterwork in the principal rooms – including right up the house to the top landing, a sure sign of quality in Georgian times – and several fine fireplaces.
Single-family use
In bringing the house back to single-family use they were able to lay it out to suit their needs and with six children their priority was bedrooms – they also opted to leave the basement level as a self-contained flat to be used by the children as they became adults.
New owners will probably rethink the layout yet again – perhaps bringing the family kitchen down to basement level as part of a significant renovation programme that will include new bathrooms and redecoration.
When there were rates, number 3 had the highest rateable value of the six houses, a sign that it is largest in the terrace, leading to speculation that it was the home of its architect John Semple. The terrace’s claim to literary fame is that Anthony Trollope lived there in the 1850s although there is some dispute as to which of the six houses he actually lived in.
Part of that extra square footage is to the side where the front door opens into a long wide hall with a tall window with stained glass. It leads into an inner hall and off that are two fine interconnecting rooms – the front, originally a parlour to welcome guests, is now the family’s formal drawing room, interconnecting via the original folding doors into a rear room used as a dining room.
That layout is mirrored on the first floor where the front room is the largest bedroom with two tall sash windows and a fine fireplace. It opens into a library to the rear and there is a bathroom to the side for the main bedroom and a small sitting room that opens out to a pretty terrace at the rear. Moving on up again and to the side are more bedrooms and bathrooms.
Vast rear garden
The family kitchen is at hall level and it opens into a good-sized family room where the renovations 25 years ago included installing a large box bay window to look out on the back garden.
The basement with several rooms is self-contained – and has access to both the front and back gardens.
The vast rear garden – it backs on to RTÉ grounds – is clearly a labour of love for the owners. Even on these unseasonably chilly days it looks lovely with its formal box hedging – hundreds of individual plants had to be planted to make what is now a lush classic “knot hedge” garden.
Long before the present owners moved in, the stables to the side had been converted into mews and sold on, so that is not part of the sale.
Its owners have right-of-way access through the main gate – something that might put some prospective buyers off as at this end of the market moneyed buyers tend to want their privacy and don’t fancy sharing an extrance. There is parking to the front for seven or eight cars.
