Light, high ceilings and a well-defined sense of itself are what make the initial impact in 50 Geraldine Street. Vendor Lorna Garety has lived there seven years, building all that time on the inspired structural work of the previous owner, a German architect for whom light was all.
“We’re moving to France, the realisation of a dream,” she says, “I would never leave this house otherwise.”
It’s easy to see how number 50 would take a hold on the affections.
0 of 4
There are classical proportions to every room and hallway, windows and height where least expected. Lorna’s imaginative flair and care with original features is everywhere.
All the ground level is oak-floored, a choice that works well in the elegantly contemporary and classically appealing front drawingroom.
The colours here are a pale mushroom and white, the cast-iron fireplace has a creamy hue, the cornicing is intact and the sash window has been recreated.
Rear patio
A second reception room is used as a library. Light spills from a deep curve of windows in the ceiling. The fireplace is original and there is a window on to the rear patio.
JF Lombard and E McMahon, developers of the day in the area, built the Geraldine Street houses between 1868 and 1890.
The location has something of a city sanctuary about it: the street quietly leafy with the Royal Canal Bank at the end and Blessington Basin nearby. O'Connell Street is a 10-minute walk.
The floor area covers 103sq m (1109sq ft) and has two bedrooms (the main is en suite), two reception rooms, a kitchen/diningroom.
The agent is DNG.
Laura agrees she has “put a lot of work” into number 50 over the last seven years, including “restructuring the roof, using Blue Bangor slate to give it a period look”.
Original features abound to the front of the house: deep skirting boards, dado rails, cornicing, and an ornamented arch over the hallway.
The rear is more contemporary. The kitchen/diningroom has a long, Lantern-style window in the ceiling, French doors to the patio and, in the German designed Eske kitchen, fittings with innovative touches.
A bathroom on this level has mosaic tiling and tunnel velux.
Sandstone tiles
The Sandstone-tiled patio has a shed, any amount of healthy plant life and a glorious Wisteria that is shared with a neighbour.
A bedroom on this level has a door to the patio. In the first-floor, main, en suite bedroom, there is a velux window and original cast-iron fireplace. The en suite shower room is a lively, red-and-white space.
