After street upon street of early- to mid-20th century homes heading north from North Circular Road, along the side of Phoenix Park, there’s a row of 19th-century brick cottages with long front gardens, hidden behind a gate reminiscent of entries into fairytale worlds.
It is believed the cottages were linked to nearby McKee (formerly Marlborough) Barracks, built in 1888, and a former resident of number 18 – for sale at €370,000 through Young’s – served in the first World War. There still exists a photograph of his wife and four children left behind to worry, standing outside the house in 1914.
The cottages were essentially in the countryside then and still carry the accoutrements of rural life, with long gardens, suitable for vegetable and fruit growing to the front, with a stream at the end just before it hits the Navan Road (which apparently sliced the row of cottages, as the houses here begin at number five).
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There's a shed and garage – ripe for renovation – where a former owner, Mr Bracken, had his workshop creating inventive pieces for the house, including a fold-out stool in the wall opposite the front door and shelving in the sitting room at the centre of the house with a radiogram in it.
"Consideration has been given to every hook and hinge," says Lisa Farrelly, one of the owners.
The house has been damp-proofed, rewired and had its walls and attic insulated by the current owners, who have been here for about five years. They retained period features such as barn-doors and the built-in furniture and tongue-and-groove bedroom ceilings. They also had sash windows made.
The cottage is compact, but high ceilings and land on three sides give it an expansive feel. It is centred on a living room to the right of the front door, with period fireplace, wooden floor and lots of shelving.
Off this is the kitchen, with blue units, and, beyond this, a shower-room with slate floor.
Two of the bedrooms are off the central sitting room, one looking onto a tree in the side garden, where birds feast on food hanging from branches.
“The loudest thing about this cottage is the birds,” says Farrelly. “You hear the song of blackbirds, starlings, the tiniest of chaffinches, goldfinches and the boisterous robin.”
Extension
One of the children of the house contracted TB in the early 1900s which is said to account for an extension built overlooking the front garden. To the left of the front door, this now serves as a sitting room, but was used by previous occupants as a bedroom.
There’s a strong sense of neighbourliness on the row, says Farrelly, with bins taken in for each other, cars jump-started, paths cleared of snow and cakes left on window ledges.
“This cottage is steeped in history and is unique to a Dublin when all this was just fields,” she says. “When you live in Roosevelt you’re really just care-taking it for the next 100 years because this cottage will outlast us all. I’m just a blow-in but Roosevelt gets into your blood somehow.
“I’m immensely proud, and really lucky, to have lived here. It’s heart-breaking to let it go but I’m happy to do so because someone else will be happy here.”