A tall house, and rather grand from the outside, number 8 Greenmount Road is warmly coloured and warmly welcoming inside. Vendors Eilis and Mick are selling after 30 well-lived years in number 8, a cause for “weeping and gnashing of teeth” on the part of adult offspring, Eilis says. “It’ll be a terrible wrench,” she admits, but with the family grown, selling to downsize makes sense.”
Built in 1902, builder Thomas Stringer sold number 8 for £800 to one William George Bothwell that same year. Bothwell, who came to Dublin from Ratona, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, was described as a "gentleman".
A great many of the features in Thomas Stringer’s original house are an integral, intact and decorative part of today’s home. Fireplaces of a stately marble in the formal reception rooms have survived 114 years, as have ceiling roses and cornicing (picked out against creamy-yellow ceilings), original windows (now insulated) wide plank floorboards polished to a honey colour, banisters, internal doors, glasswork and tiling.
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In a good-sized 250sq m (2700sq ft) there are five bedrooms (one en suite), two reception rooms, kitchen/ breakfast/familyroom, family shower room and, in the garage at the end of the garden, a fully-equipped gym. Agent Sherry FitzGerald is asking €1.2 million for the private treaty sale.
In a comment on changing times, Eilis says a Greenmount Road house “in flats and in rag order” sold for €2.1 million during the boom. She also says the dynamic on the road has changed: “Houses that were in flats have all been converted back to family homes.”
The one-time servant bedroom, pantry and old kitchen to the rear are part of a contemporary kitchen/dining/living space with Italian antiqued tile flooring, cast-iron fireplace, a great deal of light and garden views.
The formal reception rooms are something of a coup de grace in terms of fidelity to the original. Running from the front to rear of the house with sliding doors between, both have picture rails, large ceiling roses and fine cornicing. They also have working fireplaces; the one in the diningroom, of mottled red-brown marble, is particularly distinctive. The front-bay window allows for light and elegance.
The first floor return has a bedroom with cast-iron fireplace and a separate shower room. Three of the other bedrooms are off the main landing; all have picture rails and high ceilings.
The main, front-facing bedroom has another bay window and a rear bedroom has a small, en suite shower. The fifth bedroom and a bathroom are on an eyrie-like second return. The very large attic awaits opening up; most houses on the road have done so. The rear garden and patio are west facing.
