Dalkey artist Gerard Byrne has returned again and again to paint La Scala on the Vico Road.
He’s been particularly taken with the Victorian house’s picturesque and charming entrance – a tall wrought iron gate and the many winding steps leading up the house that has been perched high on the hill, enjoying spectacular sea views, since it was built in the 1850s. Indeed, there are sea views from nearly every room in La Scala. And the house, which has 2,411sq ft has four bedrooms, two living rooms and a very large kitchen. Lisney is selling La Scala for offers in the region of €990,000.
The present owners have lived here since the 1990s and they relocated the kitchen to the large room to the left of the front door. It is in a single storey extension which was added decades ago and was finished with a tongue-and-groove ceiling and French doors opening out on to a small terrace. There’s an Aga, some freestanding pine cupboards, a well-scrubbed dining table and a grand piano – a wonderfully bohemian arrangement that new owners who need the deep pockets to buy La Scala will almost certainly update.
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There is a small living room facing the front door – the only room in house without a sea view – and the rest of the rooms are in the three storey section to the right. All are bright, with good proportions and some have windows to the side and the front. The layout of the house means that the accommodation is flexible and new owners might opt for more living rooms and less bedrooms. The room at the top – the nicest in the house – has a balcony to really get the benefit of the 180 degree view and it could be either, though it would be a shame to waste it as a bedroom.
To the front is a good-sized garden. When the house was built, it probably had a second garden down at road level but another house was built there decades ago – it’s an indication of quite how high up La Scala is that the roof top of that house doesn’t affect it in any way.
For all its charm, space, amazing views and top address, this house will not be an option for many buyers looking in this price range for purely practical reasons. The steep steps will rule it out for anyone with mobility problems or those with buggy-bound small children, or anyone who couldn’t quite face lugging the shopping up all those steps.
Moreover, there’s no path outside that lovely gate, so you step out on to the road. And it has no parking. Residents must find parking around the corner on Sorrento Road; no problem for most of the year, but something of a challenge on a sunny summer day when day-trippers flock to the area.
