Portobello's popularity has led some over-enthusiastic estate agents to describe houses anywhere even vaguely around the South Circular Road as having that desirable address – but there's no argument with number 8 Portobello Harbour. One block back from the canal and a few steps from Portobello Bridge, it is a mid-terrace house built in the mid-1800s. Along the road are several infills of townhouses and small apartment schemes, but this is one of the area's original houses. It has the appearance of a classic "three windows front door with fan light" two-storey period house but, inside, the 185sq m of accommodation stretches over four floors. There is a basement that opens to the rear, and at the top of the house up at attic level there is a bedroom and ensuite, again looking out on the rear garden.
The owners, both film-makers, bought nearly 20 years ago and laid out the house to suit their lifestyle. Down at basement level they wanted a home cinema, and that is to the front – a good use of a room whose limited natural light comes from a narrow light shaft – while to the rear is a good-sized room used as a home office, opening out via glazed doors to the back garden. New owners might use this room as a fourth bedroom or a livingroom. There’s also a utility down here.
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Open-plan space
At ground floor level, where there was once a narrow hall and two small interconnecting reception rooms, the wide front door now opens directly into an open-plan space: livingroom area to the front with open fire, eat-in kitchen to the rear with access down to the garden via a specially commissioned metal staircase. Upstairs there are three more double bedrooms (including that one in at the top) and a family bathroom.
The walled rear garden, paved and with a raised deck, is full of lush greenery. The location and the surprising amount of space in the house will be the twin appeal for buyers – that and the atmospheric rear courtyard garden. Parking is on-street. Number 8 Portobello Harbour is for sale through DNG asking €795,000.
