Anna Villa in Ranelagh possesses an interesting historical mix of housing from the 19th and 20th centuries. Number 10, on the market with Young’s Estate Agents seeking €1.2 million, was built in the 1840s and carries elements of Georgian style, even though it was built in the Victorian era.
The owners thoroughly renovated the 153sq m (1,646sq ft) property that runs over three floors in 2002, with extensive work carried out including rewiring and replumbing, and the installation of new windows. They introduced many of the house’s features from London, where they had been living, giving this home a distinctive blend of traditional and more modern design.
Located at the village end of the road, which has McSorley’s pub on one corner and Birchall’s on the other, it would be hard to find a more convenient location. The owner says he barely uses his car.
A short flight of granite steps leads to the front door, and the entrance hall has elaborate coving that the owners had replicated, based on a fragment of what remained there when they purchased the property.
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A fine pair of interconnecting reception rooms lies to the right of the hallway, with lovely six-over-six paned windows, set deep with working shutters. The floors are original pitch-pine, and the large cast-iron fireplaces were brought over from London, with insert tiles sourced from Architectural Salvage on Townsend Street. The fires are both open. Beyond these rooms is a home office, well-shelved with enough room for a large desk and doors that open out on to a suntrap of a balcony that in turn leads to the garden.
A lovely arched window graces the stairs, and on the first floor the main bedroom spans the width of the house and overlooks the street. There’s another cast-iron fireplace here, warm floors of pitch-pine, working shutters on both windows and plenty of built-in wardrobes. A smaller room leads through to the bathroom, which was renovated by the owners a few years ago. It has a low-slung window typical of the Georgian era, fresh tiling, new sanitary ware and a heated towel rail.
The basement level has its own entrance and a charming lobby with very thick walls. A good-sized double bedroom lies to the front and beyond it is the kitchen, with maple units, a dark slate floor and a fern-green Dutch stove. A professional Viking stove takes pride of place, with six hobs, a stovetop grill, double ovens and a Viking extractor hood. The owners dug at least a foot down here to get more height at this level and installed underfloor heating. There’s another bathroom at the end of this level, with a shower. Heating throughout the house is gas-fired and the Ber rating is C2.
The garden faces southwest and has some lovely mature planting, including a vine that thrives during the summer months, hydrangeas and ferns. An arched door opens out into a laneway behind the house. Selling to downsize, the owner has enjoyed living in such a lively village with everything on the doorstep, including good schools that include Scoil Bhríde, Sandford National School and Gonzaga.
