Dublin 6: €3.5mOak-panelled walls and doors, decoratively carved oak ceilings, polished floorboards and an oak staircase at the end of what is a large hallway are all elements that place 24 Rathdown Park, Terenure, Dublin 6, immediately and vividly in the late 1930s.
The all-over oak may make for a darkish decor but it's also dramatic and wonderfully of its time.
Stringer, a builder noted for high ceilings and a penchant for period features, built this and a number of other houses on the road in or around 1938.
Number 24 has something else you won't get with a house built in today's Terenure: ownership of a quite magical stretch of woodland by the River Dodder.
Running alongside the house and the 100ft long garden, this inclines, via bluebell pathways through high old trees, ivy and holly bushes, to the river's bank and fishing rights.
Many original features remain intact in this detached, six-bedroom, three reception room house on more than a half acre at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac.
It has an AMV of €3.5 million and will be auctioned by Douglas Newman Good on April 25th.
Windows have been replaced, with an eye to the original look of things, and the kitchen in particular needs modernising but, with its 297sq m (3,200sq ft) of floor space and lovely garden, this would make a fine family home.
One of four wide, bow windows (two to the side, two to the front) gives light and distinction to a front-facing drawingroom.
The fireplace is of beige tiles and cornicing, along a gentle curve between wall and ceiling, is intact.
A smaller sittingroom opposite has similar cornice work and would make a nice study.
The diningroom, which has an original, timber-surround fireplace and serving hatch, also benefits from the light and graceful curve of another of the bow windows, this one giving distant mountain views.
A large, leaded glass window on the turn of the oak staircase adds to the period mood and an oak panelled landing replicates the hallway.
Two of the bedrooms have bow windows, the main one is en suite. A garage and utility room to the side could be converted to considerably add to the living space.
The rear garden is mostly lawned, with a laurel hedge along the river side. To the front there is off-street parking, a rockery and shrubs.
