Everything about this house is quiet. The road it sits on is serenely set back from the bustle of nearby Ballsbridge; the older, original part of the house has a subtly preserved hush and the bright, stylishly extended rear has a sense of peace and light. “It’s been great to rear the family in,” says the vendor, “but they’ve gone now so we’re downsizing for our third act.”
The elegant, Edwardian houses in Oaklands Park were built in 1907. The vendors paid £106,700 for number 36 in August 1989, a princely sum at the time. Twenty-nine years later agent Sherry FitzGerald is selling with an asking price of €1.375 million.
Number 36 has seen a lot of living and a lot of work since 1989. Back then it had a floor area of 151sq m (1630sq ft); this now measures 242sq m (2,607sq ft). A classy, innovative 2005 extension, designed by architect Michael Cullinan, added an open-plan rear, a great number of clever, oak-finished wall closets and a large, curving inner hall. An original bedroom was sacrificed to add to the main bedroom, which now has an ensuite and dressingroom.
‘Vertical living’
It’s a tall house – the vendor says they “got used to vertical living” – with ground and first floors, first and second floor returns and a top floor. The formal reception rooms make an eloquent style statement about the house’s Edwardian beginnings. Plasterwork and ceiling roses, original windows and an imposing marble fireplace contrast with the dark shine of an American walnut floor. Dado and picture rails in the hall also showcase Edwardian origins. The corbels are a convincing new addition, as is the leaded-glass front door.
A wide, curving, marble-floored and oak closet-lined inner hall is a surprise and gives a feeling of endless space. In the rear, open-plan area the floor and worktops are marble, the kitchen is fitted to the heart’s desire of any cook, and the family area has a wall of glass overlooking the garden. An inner courtyard forms a link between the old and new parts of the house.
Playing field
There is a bedroom and shower room on the first return, and the main bedroom faces front on the first floor. A bedroom and family bathroom occupy the second floor return, and the top floor has a bedroom and a study, with views of the YMCA playing field. The rear garden, wider and longer than most of its neighbours because of an allotment addition, overlooks and has access to the YMCA playing grounds.
Oakland Park houses are popular. Numbers 56 and 46 needed modernisation when they sold for €750,000 in 2017 and €805,100 in 2016. A refurbished number 14, smaller than number 36, sold for €900,000 in 2016.
