A large redbrick Victorian house in Glenageary, Co Dublin, 5 Arkendale Road is truly a family house: it’s where Nollaig Greene grew up, where she and her husband Ken raised their three children and where a daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter lived with them for three years until recently. Now, after nearly 60 years, this tall 348sq m (3,745sq ft) two-storey, over-ground-level five-bedroom house, is for sale: DNG is asking €2.85 million for the semidetached house halfway down this quiet cul-de-sac off Castlepark Road.
The house, built in 1884, has been well cared for, with rich original plasterwork in the hall and main reception rooms, and modernised over the years. But it is also somewhat dated, and new owners will likely want to revamp it again.
If Nollaig were staying in the house, she would concentrate on improving its E1 Ber rating with an energy upgrade. What she likes most about her home – which her parents bought when she was six – is the space, light (the house has many tall sash windows) and the location, a short walk to Glenageary Dart station, Killiney Hill and the sea, of which there are views from upstairs windows. And of course, the large back garden, where she has created a “white garden” filled with lilies, roses and peonies.
The Arkendale houses had generous back gardens and in 1998, Nollaig and Ken built a house at the bottom of their original garden, before swapping places with her parents and moving back into the main house. Number 5A Arkendale Road, sold in 2020 for €910,000, is tucked away behind tall walls down a long gravelled driveway.
Steep granite steps lead up to the front door of number 5, opening into a short front hall with ornate ceiling plasterwork. An original door with coloured glass opens into a hall, off which are four rooms: the diningroom, drawingroom, study and an upstairs kitchen. The diningroom and drawingroom are formal rooms, furnished in mainly period style. But they’re both rooms the family uses, “eating breakfast, lunch and dinner in the diningroom” when their daughter’s family shared the house. And during Covid, Nollaig moved her desk near to a window in the drawingroom to take advantage of light flooding in.
The diningroom at the front of the house has ornate ceiling plasterwork, centre rose, a black marble open fireplace and a deep bay with three windows looking over the front garden.
The drawingroom, at the back of the house, has two tall windows overlooking the back garden, slightly less ornate plasterwork, centre rose and a white marble fireplace.
The study, at the front of the house, is a good size. The upstairs kitchen is a legacy of earlier days when the main kitchen was located here and was useful when her daughter lived with them, says Nollaig.
Stairs beside an exposed brick wall lead down to garden level, where a large kitchen/breakfastroom and family room are linked by a very wide arch.
An Aga sits in the chimneybreast of the kitchen/breakfastroom opposite an island and a large dining table. There are window seats below two tall windows looking into the back garden.
The family room at the front of the house has a deep bay with three windows, like the diningroom on the floor above, an open fireplace and an exposed brick wall.
Other rooms at this level include a utility room, a room well equipped as a gym, a downstairs shower room and a storage room under the front steps – a space owners of some Victorian houses have turned into a wine cellar. There is a side entrance into the downstairs hall, and, at the end of the hall, sliding glass doors opening into the back garden.
Upstairs, past a landing with a tall arched window, there are five bedrooms on the top floor and a family bathroom. This is painted a vivid yellow and has a traditional clawfoot bath and a shower.
The large main bedroom has a deep three-window bay with views over trees and houses across the sea to Howth, and a tiled en suite shower room. A sixth bedroom could be created downstairs, perhaps in the garden-level gym or ground floor kitchen or study.
Number 5 stands on 0.2 acres and has a 25m (82ft) back garden. Steps lead up from a patio stretching across the back of the house to a glossy green lawn with a pear tree near its centre. The garden, where one of the daughters got married, is private, with trees and mature planting, including the white flowers, and a herb garden in a trug. There’s lots of room to park in the landscaped front garden.
Glenageary Dart station is a five- to 10-minute walk via a pedestrian lane at the end of the cul-de-sac leading to the Metals – the walkway that runs behind the Arkendale houses.
