As it’s a cul-de-sac with just one entrance, Carlisle Avenue is one of Donnybrook’s lesser-known roads – and houses don’t come up for sale here too often. Developed in the mid-1800s, it has two-storey houses built in terraces on three sides of a good-sized, railed-in grassy square– the fourth side is to the rear of Marlborough Road.
Number 15 last came on the market in 1999, when it sold for the equivalent of €710,000 in punts. It is an end-of-terrace house with 125sq m (1,350sq ft) backing on to Donnybrook Hospital and it’s now on the market through Lisney for €975,000.
The owners have pulled out all the stops to get the three-bedroom house ready for sale. There are new carpets, the smell of fresh paint, and a new fitted kitchen. To the rear, the small town garden has been landscaped, while to the front the railings have been replaced. Even then, though, it will have limited appeal for some buyers in this price range because of its changed layout, which means families are unlikely to find it appealing.
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There are three bedrooms: two good doubles and one small single. What was once a large bedroom upstairs to the front has been divided into a good double, opening into a full-size en suite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe. And that’s the main bathroom in the house – although there is a wc in the return and a bath in a tiny room in the top return. There is a further double bedroom and a very small single.
Different levels
At hall level, the wall between the two reception rooms was taken down to create one large room – but the back reception room is on a different level from the front, so there are a couple of steps down between the two rooms, which isn’t ideal.
New owners might consider reinstating the wall, leaving them with a cosy front room, with a fine white marble fireplace, and a rear reception room opening out on to the garden. And while the kitchen has been given a makeover with smart new tiling and glossy cream units, there’s no getting around the fact that it is a galley kitchen with no space for a dining table – again ruling out many families.
However, it could be ideal for a couple trading down or a single person looking for a pretty townhouse with attractive period proportions and details such as sash windows and a fanlight topped front door, on a lovely quiet leafy square in a great location – Donnybrook village is a few minutes’ walk in one direction, Ranelagh village in the other.
