Dartry’s Temple Road is something of a haven in the busy suburbs. It’s home to some of the grandest and most sought after Victorian properties on generous grounds in the capital, yet it seems to have been largely overlooked by the prevailing trend towards lavish overhauls and statement refurbs that have almost overtaken other prestigious Dublin roads.
No, in Dartry slow and steady wins the race. Houses here are very fine, but they don’t change hands too often. In the meantime they are quietly maintained by their owners as custodians for future generations. This area has always been the preserve of the professional classes – medics, legals and so forth .
Last year number 31, Thorndale, a fine property on half an acre, came on the market asking €4.95 million and sold for €4.75 million, making it the sixth biggest sale in Dublin last year. Now number 40, High Cross, has come up for sale through Knight Frank. It is on just under an acre with a €7.5 million price tag – probably the most expensive property to hit the market in the capital this year.
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Southerly aspect
The fact that this detached Victorian redbrick, on 603 sq m (6,491 sq ft) comes with extensive gardens and is adjacent to the Luas explains the price. Its exceptional southerly aspect makes the garden feel like you’re in the countryside. Mature planting and a high wall border the property, and the grounds of Temple Park (a residential housing scheme) back on to the rear tennis court meaning the property is not overlooked, nor is it likely to be.
Uninterrupted view
High Cross, unlike so many houses in this price bracket, has not been styled to within an inch of itself for sale. But what it might lack in soft furnishings and colour palettes it certainly makes up for in substance. It’s a much-loved family home that evolved over the years to accommodate four children who have since flown the coop.
Sunlight pours through the long parquet-floored entrance hall from a tall window with stained glass detail added by the owners when they moved here in 1983. The stairs is located through an arch to the left of the hall, so the view to the garden is uninterrupted. The classically styled dining- and drawingrooms are located on either side of the hall, and matching marble fireplaces and comfortable proportions make these welcoming spaces. To the rear is a lovely sunny sittingroom and opposite is a small office, again with those views out to the garden.
At ground level a refurb completed around 2000 created a substantial maple kitchen with travertine marble floors that retains its traditional heart around the Aga with its wooden clothes rail hanging above. Off it through double doors is a hexagonal conservatory designed by the owners to include a border of pretty stained glass panels, and a huge table topped in smooth slate from Valentia Island. Off the hallway on this level is another substantial and cosy livingroom with fireplace and a large double bedroom with en suite – ideal for visiting or more permanent house guests.
Original fireplace
The owner, who is downsizing, has taken a keen interest in the house’s upkeep and has made some additions along the way: an electric dumb waiter serves both the diningroom and upstairs sittingroom from the kitchen below; and a seamless looking “coach house” extension to the side of the house includes a double garage below; and a soundproofed games and gym/play room complete with a full-size snooker table and an original six-pendant brass overlamp. This room is accessed on the first floor through a narrow Alice in Wonderland-esque corridor and was designed as a place “where the kids could go and be as loud as they wanted to be and we wouldn’t hear a thing”.
Upstairs the master bedroom suite spans the front of the house, with a lovely original fireplace in the double bedroom leading to a modern en suite and through this again to a fully fitted dressingroom with wall-to-wall bespoke storage. This could be converted back to its original use as a bedroom. Also at this level are three further bedrooms with views to the garden. It’s likely buyers will want to reconfigure this layout to maximise space and include further en suites.
The garden has been a lifelong passion for the owner, and really is a highlight. The array of planting is dizzying, with a camellia bed, viburnum and an unusual hoheria tree at its heart. There’s a small woodland floor of bluebells, and sprinklings of daffodils and crocuses at the foot of acacia, eucalyptus, silver birch and evergreen oak. A substantial rose garden is primed to bloom. In the distance are the Dublin mountains.
Early summer here will be a riot of colour, and with a substantial suntrap patio off the conservatory and a lovely stone wall under the climbing wisteria doubling as seating against the sunwarmed granite, it’s no wonder the owner says they rarely left Dublin on bank holiday weekends when they could stay and enjoy all this.
