Buying off the plans in the early 1930s from developer John Kenny involved several choices – not least what type of house you wanted. On his nine-acre plot at the Churchtown end of Orwell Road, he offered a choice of eight house styles. His intention was to build more than 10 houses but the buyers who came along wanted very large gardens so several bought two plots.
Kenny’s development is mostly in a cul-de-sac but a few, including number 2 Green Park, are on the main road, opposite Milltown Golf Course. It is the first time it has come on the open market – the owner’s parents bought it in the 1930s – and the two-storey detached house is for sale through Beirne & Wise for €1.775 million.
Originally built with six bedrooms, the 230sq m (2,475sq ft) house now has five, with the upstairs unusually having higher ceiling heights than hall level. The kitchen is to the side at the front and the owners extended at the rear, adding a large sun room and knocking through all three reception rooms and installing double doors so that they can be opened up to create an L-shaped space that in turn opens into that extension.
Southwesterly garden
The southwesterly rear back garden, which also backs on to Milltown Golf Club, is 35.5m long and 17.5m wide so a large slice could be taken off it to extend the house without greatly impacting on it – if the new owners had such plans. There is also scope to the side to extend subject to planning of course.
A family buying will probably consider moving the kitchen to the rear as part of a general reorganisation of the space which might also include an extensive attic conversion. And if they are really pushing the boat out, they’ll reinstate more architecturally sympathetic windows to the front – the PVC replacement windows detract from the look of what is a very pretty granite-and-stucco finished 1930s house.
Electric gates at the front facilitate easy access and there is parking for several cars.
In his 1932 sales brochure, Kenny promised that “no effort will be spared to see that the houses are well-built, bright, homely and healthy”. Number 2 Green Park fits the bill.
