Like so many of Dún Laoghaire’s vast Victorian houses, Lisieux House at 5 Charlemont Terrace was for some decades divided into several flats.
When its current owner bought it, about 20 years ago, she embarked on a major restoration project bringing the mid-terrace property back to a spacious and grand four-bedroom family home where all the rooms including the halls and landings have high ceilings and terrific proportions; the work also included converting the garden level into a self-contained one-bedroom apartment as a rental.
The fine three-storey over garden level property is located in a short terrace on Crofton Road just opposite the Royal Irish Yacht Club and in front of St Michael’s hospital.
Early decisions included where to put the family’s new eat-in kitchen and it’s in an extension to the rear at hall level, a mostly glazed curved room with a very stylish and smart Michael Farrell designed kitchen that has stood the test of time with its stone-topped island unit mimicking the shape of the room.
At this level of the market kitchens are the first thing buyers change, though this is so well designed and contemporary it’s hard to see it being altered in any way. There is access here to the compact rear garden, which is south-facing and landscaped.
Also at hall level there are two interconnecting reception rooms but just as the owner was careful in restoring the period features of the house, the way it has been lived in is also faithful to the original in that the main living room is up on the first floor, an elegant drawing room with a fine chimneypiece, decorative ceiling cornice work and two tall sash windows.
The main bedroom en suite is above this, mirroring this grand drawing room in size, and with sea views. All four bedrooms are doubles. Another decision was where to put the family bathroom and it is in the first-floor return, a very large room with a claw-foot bath as well as a separate shower.
The planning permission for the property permits commercial use of the garden level – something new owners might want to explore – but at present it’s a spacious one bedroom apartment with a small private terrace to the rear.
There are many Victorian houses of this type in the seaside suburb, many renovated in recent years, and the more sought-after tend to be on the squares farther back from the sea.
Charlemont Terrace differs from those type properties in that the houses don’t have private front gardens and the terrace fronts on to busy Crofton Road, where it is still set behind the original cast iron railings with the strip to the front tarmacked over to provide car parking.
Number 5, which is between a house divided into offices, and another in apartments, has five parking spaces. With 367 sq m (3,950 sq ft) of space, including the garden level, it is for sale through Lisney for €2.3 million.
