A very large Edwardian house, modernised and well-maintained by its owners since they bought it in 1993, sits on one of the largest sites on Kerrymount Avenue in Dublin’s Foxrock.
Its 1.14-acre grounds have space for an outdoor swimming pool, a huge tennis court, and behind a very tall hedge, another expanse of lawn with a disused stable in a corner at the very end. It’s a bright, warm and very well-maintained period house – but it’s very likely that the property will also be viewed with an eye on its development potential.
The 499sq m (5,369sq ft) seven-bed is on the market through Sherry FitzGerald for €3.5 million. The price reflects the fact that one or two large houses could possibly be built on the gardens behind the house says selling agent Rena O'Kelly, subject of course to planning permission.
There is enough room, she says, to provide access at the side of Belmont and to build on the tennis court and the lawn, which backs onto the grounds of C of I Tullow Church on Brighton Road.
O’Kelly believes that planners may be sympathetic to the idea on the basis of precedent: Adelaide, a house across the road, was built on a half-acre site that had been the orchard of neighbouring house Whitegates in 1985.
But in 2008, permission to demolish Belmont’s next door neighbour Innisfallen and build two six-bed houses on the grounds was refused – and Kerrymount falls within the Foxrock Architectural Conservation Area. (Innisfallen sold in 2010 for €2.25 million and has since been completely refurbished).
Like most of the houses on Kerrymount, Belmont is set well back from the road behind tall hedges and trees. The house itself is bright, warm and has very generous space that includes four large reception rooms (a dining room, drawing room, living room and family room as well as a big conservatory and kitchen/breakfastroom) that all flow easily into each other.
It also has – conveniently and unusually – a utility room downstairs and a laundry room upstairs.
The front door opens into a small entrance off which is a toilet-cum-cloakroom and then into a typically Edwardian front hall, a large square space with a fireplace to one side and curving up at the other, a handsome staircase. A door on the right opens into the dining room which has a large bay window and a second window in the gable wall – many of the rooms in the house are dual aspect.
It has a large marble fireplace with an open fire, as do the interconnecting drawing and sitting rooms, both bright, comfortably furnished spaces. A door in a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows opens from the sitting room into the conservatory, and another door from here opens to the kitchen/breakfast room.
The Dalkey Design kitchen has a modest-sized island unit with a butcher block top, ash units, a large blue La Cornue range and room for a good-sized table in a bay window with a door out to the rear garden. There’s a utility room (cum wine cellar) off the kitchen and a door from here into the large bright family room.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms on the first floor, one set out as a study, another with a full-size pool table. The main bedroom overlooks the rear garden and has a large fully-tiled en suite.
There are three more bedrooms, and a shower room in the attic. Two of the bedrooms are used for storage at the moment; one of them even has an unused kitchen, possibly dating from the days when the house had staff.
Outside, the outdoor pool in the middle of the lawn is currently fenced off, as the owners have a small granddaughter. Firs and a very high hedge separate this lawn from the huge tennis court behind, and another tall hedge separates this from the second lawn, with a narrow fox track running diagonally across it.
