Directly across the road from Leinster Cricket Club, the sporting calls and thwacks of balls on bats is the backing track to the summer on Upper Mountpleasant Avenue, according to the owners of number six. Their home, now on the market through Young’s Estate Agents seeking €725,000, is an 1840s two-bed end-of-terrace house on a quiet road just up from Mount Pleasant Square, between the villages of Ranelagh and Rathmines.
The restored Georgian home was once owned by the Hackett family, who ran the Bretzel Bakery across the canal in Portobello, which still exists today. The pretty double-fronted house is set back from the street behind a low wall topped with iron railings. The owners sometimes sit out here on sunny evenings – as it is west-facing, it gets great evening light.
The front door opens into a dining area, with exposed brick columns and walls that instantly add character. The windows are period-style double-glazed sash windows, the floors are the original pitch pine, now sanded and stained, and the architraves and doors are also original, adding immense charm to the Ber-exempt property. A stove sits in the fireplace and a narrow wooden stairs twists upwards.
Double doors open into the sittingroom, which has an unusual slant to it, due to the angle of the exterior wall. This is a lovely room with a cast-iron fireplace, tiled surround and a red-tiled hearth. Floating bookshelves laden with literature flank both sides of the hearth. The owner bought the 90sq m (967sq ft) property in 2014 and did a lot of the heavy lifting required in properties of this era then, rewiring, replumbing and dry-lining the walls. It has been recently repainted throughout.
An arch topped with brick leads into the kitchen, which the owner installed when he moved in. A timber worktop and deep Belfast sink as well as old beams crossing overhead, now painted white, add to the traditional feel. A double-height ceiling and Velux window floods the kitchen with light and double doors open on to the small back garden that gets morning sun. There’s a covered side passage that has access to the front so bins and bikes could be stored here.
Upstairs, which has two double bedrooms and a bathroom, is just as charming as the ground floor. The first bedroom has a white painted floor and a wardrobe custom-built into an awkward corner to make the most of the space. The second bedroom has exposed timber beams, a stained wooden floor and an alcove off it that has been cleverly redone as a walk-in wardrobe.
There’s extra storage in the corridor with a press behind louvred doors, and crucially, in the first bedroom, a pull-down attic ladder that leads to the floored attic, giving an addition 40sq m (431sq ft) of storage space. The family bathroom is a delight, with a Velux window adding light, painted panelling, penny tiles on the floor, a large walk-in shower and recently updated sanitary ware. The star of the bathroom is the original bath, cast-iron and re-enamelled by the owners, it perches on an elevated step, like a small stage.
The location of the house is excellent, a five-minute walk from Ranelagh green-line Luas stop and the multidenominational school beside it, and another few minutes’ walk into Rathmines to St Mary’s junior and senior boys’ schools. The street is quiet and the house would make a charming home for downsizers who would like to stay in the area, young professionals or a young family.
