Zuma Terrace lies off Mount Drummond Avenue in Harold’s Cross. A terrace of three Victorian redbricks, it takes its name, according to a previous occupant of the terrace, from Zuma Beach in California, which was a popular location for Baywatch, the lifeguard drama series starring David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson.
Although how it got the name of Zuma remains up for debate, Mount Drummond Avenue, off which the terrace lies, used to be known as Hen and Chicken Lane, according to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, “indicating the rural nature of the area until the late 19th century”.
Today it is about as far removed from rural as you can get, as its city location is one of the selling points of the three houses on the terrace. It is literally two minutes to Emmet Bridge, traversing the Grand Canal at Harold’s Cross, so you’re within walking distance of the city centre and all the amenities the area has to offer.
Numbers 1 and 2 on the tiny terrace sold in the past few years: number 1 achieved €550,000 in 2019, while number 2 sold for €435,000 back in 2015 and now the last house, number 3, is up for sale through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €495,000.
The two-bedroom house has been owned by the vendor since 1995. “I was told that it used to be a four-bedroom house, and at one stage a family with 13 children had lived here,” she says of the 81sq m (861sq ft) property.
Upstairs, previous owners amalgamated what were two bedrooms into one larger one, and turned what was a bedroom into a bathroom. It now has your typical two-up-two-down layout with its kitchen to the rear and bathroom overhead.
Garden level is laid out with a livingroom to the front leading into a diningroom, which is served by a galley kitchen behind. Both the kitchen and diningroom benefit from lots of light from a private courtyard, accessed from a door in the kitchen.
Upstairs, the principal bedroom stretches the width of the house and both bedrooms retain their period fireplaces, as does the livingroom downstairs, which may go somewhat to explain its F Ber, which new owners will want to address. Despite the Ber, it is in good order and the all-white palette (apart from the principal bedroom in a Wedgwood blue) allows the place to have a lovely pared-back feel.
The owner installed a new boiler when she moved in and loves the fact that the area has a “real community feel, despite being so close to the city”.
