Halfway up Adelaide Road in Glenageary, just before you get to the train tracks, is a charming triangle of private parkland attached to an impressive row of Victorian houses on Claremont Villas. The first house, number 1 Claremont Villas, looks out on to this lovely Toblerone-shaped tract, and also on to Adelaide Road. From here you can stroll down to trendy Glasthule village or down to the Forty Foot for a swim.
Number 1 boasts all the original features of a mid-19th-century house, with high ceilings, ornate cornices, centre roses and cast-iron fireplaces, with lots of marble in all the right places. Many period houses around Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule would have had their period features taken out — or damaged — as the landlords divided them into flats. The owner was lucky in that all of these features were intact when she bought it — all she had to do was give it a spruce up and voila — elegant Victorian living with year-round access to the private park, and its regular garden parties and events organised by the residents. As the four-bed house is just a straw boater’s throw from James Joyce’s tower in Sandycove, don’t be surprised to see Bloomsday celebrations taking place here come June.
The owner did some refurbishment in the kitchen area, and when the builders exposed part of the original wall in the course of their work, she told them to leave it like that, as it makes a nice, natural feature, and shows how thick the original walls really are. The stone for this and the other houses on the street would have been transported from Dalkey Quarry by atmospheric railway along the Metals, which runs behind the park.
The entrance is understated — no granite steps or big, imposing front door — but once you step inside, you’re greeted by a spectacular reception hall with polished timber floor, dado rail, cornice work and centre rose. To the right is the drawing room, also with polished timber floor, cornice and centre rose, along with a bay window to the front, a side window looking out to Adelaide Road, and an open fireplace with black marble mantel and surround.
There are no sliding doors leading to the diningroom to the rear, which suits the owner just fine as it provides a cosy space for the family to gather. From the reception hall, steps lead down to a guest toilet/cloakroom and on to the kitchen/breakfast/family area, which opens out to the back garden via double doors. The kitchen is bright and modern - but not too modern - with a country kitchen feel, lots of cupboards, a peninsula for casual dining, and a large built-in banquette unit that sits up to 10 people.
The first of the four bedrooms are on the hall return beside the main bathroom, and two on the first floor, including the huge main bedroom which runs the width of the house and commands a view of the park through two big bay windows, and a view out to Adelaide Road via a side window. There’s no issue with space here, and the large fitted wardrobes make hardly a dent in the square footage.
The fourth bedroom sits on the second-floor return, as does a large step-in shower room with monsoon head. From here you get lovely views out to Dublin Bay.
Although the back garden has a northeasterly aspect, it still gets a lot of sun, says the owner, helped by its end-of-terrace location, and a wide side-garden replete with mature flowers, trees and shrubbery beds. At the rear is a self-contained unit, plumbed, and with electricity and heating, which could make a perfect home office or separate accommodation for a student or au pair. There’s also paved off-street parking space behind the unit with a garage-type door opening to Adelaide Road.
With the children grown up and going out into the world, the owner feels it’s time to look for something smaller in the area, so number 1 Claremont Villas, at 221sq m (2,379sq ft), is for sale through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty asking €1.5 million.
