An imposing Victorian redbrick house tucked away at the bottom of a suburban cul-de-sac in Shankill, Co Dublin, comes to the market needing complete renovation. But Thomond is a protected structure and has most of its original period features – centre roses, elaborate cornicing, sash windows, large marble fireplaces – intact.
Renovating Thomond would be a major project for someone who loves period houses and has deep pockets. Lisney is offering the 423sq m (4,553sq ft) two-storey over garden level detached house off Corbawn Lane for auction on June 14th with an AMV of €650,000. The agent expects that in the four weeks between now and then, prospective buyers will have enough time to do due diligence on the property.
Thomond is one those large period homes seen in quite a few Dublin suburbs, surrounded by much smaller homes built on land that once belonged to them: A large double-fronted house, it sits on over a third of an acre at the end of Holly Park, a quiet 1980s housing estate off Corbawn Lane. It is still pretty private, its large back lawn sheltered by tall trees.
Pedigree
It has an artistic pedigree: poet Katherine Tynan lived here from 1912-1914, when the house was called Clarabeg. Then, its two-acre garden ran down to the sea at the end of Corbawn Lane. Tynan described the house as "a square suburban house which had nothing to say for itself except that it had a fine, lofty, well-proportioned room at the back overlooking the garden".
In the early 1980s, Michael and Elizabeth Ozmin bought the house, now called Thomond. Michael was a professor of industrial design at the National College of Art and Design and Elizabeth a conservation architect, who ensured that period features were kept. They continued to collect Victorian iron and stone work abroad – a freestanding pillar in the garden is evidence of this.
Kasia Ozmin, a lecturer and one of the late couple's four children, currently lives in Thomond with her husband, photographer Rory Hanrahan, and their two children. She and her siblings are selling the house.
Accommodation includes two reception rooms and a dated kitchen on the first floor, four bedrooms on the second floor, one with an old-fashioned en suite and a family bathroom.
There is a lot of potential to redevelop a warren of dusty rooms at garden level.
There is a coach-house beside the house which could be converted to a studio or guest accommodation, subject to planning permission. Two of the Ozmin family are architects and plans exist for such a conversion.
