Dating from the early 1920s, Northbrook Villas is a terrace of five houses located at the junction of Northbrook Road and Dartmouth Terrace. Smaller in stature than most of the surrounding grandes dames, it is the location of these properties coupled with original features that make them popular.
Number 4, a 113sq m (1,216sq ft) two-bedroom house with a converted attic has just been launched to the market by DNG.
It has been in the same family since the 1950s and was purchased by its owners from an elderly relative in 2017 – appearing on the Property Price Register as having achieved €495,000 at that time. An indication of the popularity of the location was the price paid for number 2, which sold at the height of the property bubble for the sum of €1.26 million, before it was extended and fully renovated.
Despite its modest facade draped in scented jasmine, 4 Northbrook Villas extends over three floors with an attic that has been converted with one area used by the current owners as a guest bedroom (although it does not meet regulations to be deemed a bedroom) alongside a separate home office.
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Owners addressed the usual works such as electrics, plumbing and insulation in 2017 when they also installed high end sash windows from Kells Window and Doors, who also supplied the front door. Then in 2021 they engaged architectural firm Bright Design to plan a rear extension and subsequently engaged AK Construction to build this design.
“We wanted a bright, large dining area and kitchen and wanted the kitchen itself to feel part of a living space,” say the owners, who are moving locally to a property with a larger garden.
This was achieved by the installation of three roof lights and taller than normal patio doors (by Rationel) to the garden to address its northwest-facing aspect. The fact that the Newcastle Design kitchen has no upper units, and where ovens are installed and hidden in a central island, means it all feels very streamlined. Newcastle Design also installed much of the storage solutions in the bedrooms and at attic level, while the taller than normal patio doors allow the rear garden to be an integral part of this home.
Two reception rooms lie to the front of the property. With a southeast-facing aspect, a drawingroom warmed by an open fire lies inside the front door, where period details such as old coving and stripped pine flooring are giveaways that this house is more than a century old. This room links into a second reception room, warmed by a stove, where the family who live here watch television. In an effort to retain and reuse period details, owners used an old granite sill as an internal step, while other sills have been repurposed in the rear garden.
Upstairs are two bedrooms alongside a large family bathroom. Considering 90 per cent of a family’s washing comes from the sleeping areas, a smart solution was to install a laundry room adjacent to the bathroom, and as it is on the return, the space allowed this.
The main bedroom is lovely and bright and flooded in light through two sash windows – as it occupies the entire width of the house. A second bedroom, also with an original fireplace, lies adjacent, with a third bedroom used overnight for guests, in the converted attic, which cleverly was split to accommodate a home office.
Outside to the rear is a small, smart rear garden laden with hydrangea, agapanthus, Chinese wisteria and jasmine, that gets great sunshine in summer months.
It’s a smartly converted home with lots of storage but its location will be a big factor for house-hunters looking to reside in Dublin 6. It is less than two minutes’ walk to the Luas stop at Charlemont – and with high end sash windows the tram only hums as it passes nearby. Twenty minutes’ walk will have you smack in the centre of St Stephen’s Green, while the villages of Ranelagh and Donnybrook are on the doorstep. Number 4 Northbrook Villas, which has a C2 Ber, is now on the market seeking €1.095m.
