Anna Villa is a small road off Ranelagh’s main street, with the village end of the one-way street bookended by two popular pubs McSorley’s and Birchalls, while at the other end it is as quiet and suburban as any other Dublin 6 side road.
Number 17 is a light-filled Georgian property dating from 1830, and whose fanlight is noted by author Deirdre Kelly in her 1995 book Four Roads to Dublin: A History of Rathmines, Ranelagh and Leeson Street published by O'Brien Press.
Built at the end of the Georgian period, it boasts all of that era’s love of light and proportion, and feels like one of the architectural style’s bigger houses but in miniature.
Measuring 104sq metres /1,130sq ft, it opens into a hall off which is the main living room, a lovely square-shaped room with polished floorboards, working shutters, a ceiling height of 2.7m and a fine marble fireplace.
There is an open-plan kitchen-cum-breakfast room to the rear, and this is where work is needed. The units are dated, and while the walls have been picked back to bare brick and granite in the breakfast room not enough has been made of this space which opens out to a lovely west-facing garden where there is rear pedestrian access to a closed lane – a good place to store the bins.
The floor to ceiling heights here are lower but a little extra expenditure to enclose the patio area in a glass walled extension could certainly transform the rear. It would also give scope to add a guest bathroom and utility.
Upstairs on the return is the property’s only bathroom, a large, light-filled space. Adjacent to this is one of its two double bedrooms where the ceiling heights are 2.8m. The second bedroom is at the top of the stairs and is the brightest room in the house which might tempt the next owner to reconfigure the current layout.
Fireplace
Equally, the fine fireplace in the living room up could be moved up here to make this the living room, and create a study area adjacent on the landing. The bedroom on the return could be reworked as a main with en suite by connecting it to the bathroom. And the living room downstairs might become the second bedroom or a guest room with day bed.
The property is asking €795,000 through agent Quillsen.
Number 60, a double-fronted four-bed house of 112sq m, much nearer to the Ranelagh end of the road and on the opposite side, came to market through agent SherryFitzGerald asking €495,000 and has been sale agreed at just under the asking price. It needs a great deal of work, according to the selling agent. Number 15, a four-bedroom, two-bathroom double-fronted property sold in March for €827,0000. Number 40 is a building of three apartments, where each is registered as being sold in March 2016 for €270,000 according to the property price register.
Parking is on street.
