Houses on Palmerston Gardens don't come on the open market too often – families when they move in tend to stay, some for generations. The road was developed from 1908, long after the grander houses on nearby Palmerston Park and Cowper Road were built, and its two-storey redbrick Edwardians were designed with a nod to the Arts and Crafts movement.
Attractive period features in Number 20 include stained-glass windows, a staircase with decorative cutouts and the plain plasterwork favoured by housebuilders at the time in a reaction to the highly decorative cornices of the Victorians.
The house last sold in the 1980s. Originally these houses had five bedrooms, but in Number 20, as in many others on the road, one of those rooms has been converted into a good-sized family bathroom. There is also an adjacent showerroom.
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Downstairs, the hall features a walk-in cloakroom to the front, and two interconnecting reception rooms. The rear room opens in to a relatively recent addition, a small sunroom, which also opens into the kitchen and out to a patio.
The kitchen in the rear return is a fine high-ceilinged room with fitted units at one end and a dining area at the other. A woodburner has been installed in the chimney, which originally housed a large range.
There is a side entrance, and this has been covered in and used for storage and general coming and going.
Herb-lined walkway
The rear garden, a lovely private space, was landscaped about 10 years ago and is now coming into its own. To one side of the lawn a herb-lined walkway leads down to a second patio suntrap at the end of the garden. That work in the garden also included rebuilding the outdoor sheds in reclaimed brick, and they look smart as well as being useful.
The owner is now downsizing and new owners will need to do some updating – possibly extending into the attic. Unlike on other roads in the neighbourhood, these house are not protected structures.
To the front – pretty with its timber-trim Edwardian porch – is off-street parking for two cars.
Sherry FitzGerald is selling 20 Palmerston Gardens, seeking €1.75 million.