Belmont Avenue used to be called Coldblow Lane, a historical route that connected Coldblow Demesne to Donnybrook village and features on Rocque’s map of 1760. Also on the old map is a long-disappeared windmill, which provided a convenient landmark for the masses descending on the notorious Donnybrook Fair, closed by Dublin Corporation in 1855 after complaints by residents over the rowdy merry-making associated with it.
Things are a little calmer in this serene corner of Dublin 4 these days. Built in the 1890s, 51 Belmont Avenue, which backs on to the playing fields of Muckross Park College, is a five-bed redbrick over three levels that extends to 185sq m (1,991sq ft). With a D1 Ber, it is on the market through DNG, seeking €1.395 million.
A small front street garden is bordered by iron railings, leading to the front door under a brick arch with a tiled floor. The entrance hall is bright and airy with stairs leading up to the bedrooms on the upper two floors and also down to the ground floor. An impressive drawingroom lies to the right of the entrance hall, with a tall window, a black marble fireplace and a pink Italian Murano-glass chandelier.
There is still plenty of original stained-glass throughout the house, notably around the front door and above the door leading to the kitchen, but one of the previous owners replaced the original windows with UPVC which slightly detracts from the overall period feel.
Housing in Ireland is among the most expensive and most affordable in the EU. How does that happen?
One in five people expect to pay mortgage in retirement, survey finds
Irish architectural great Ronnie Tallon built a home far superior to Mies van der Rohe’s original. Time to protect it
Sherry FitzGerald CEO Steven McKenna to leave firm to ‘explore new opportunities’
Steps lead down to the main living area, which comprises a livingroom and a refurbished and extended kitchen. The livingroom is furnished with leather couches and another handsome marble fireplace with pretty tiled inset; doors open from this room into the kitchen which has a green marbled tiled floor and a large range cooker set into the original stove niche.
Light streams in from a glass apex roof with inset skylights and double glass doors lead out to the 23ft-long garden, bounded by an old brick wall, with access to the garden via a gated, secure lane at its rear. There is a second kitchen behind the main one with countertops and plenty of cabinets.
There is room for a guest loo under the stairs; this was a project the owners intended to do but never got around to. The house has two bathrooms, one on the first floor and another on the floor above and none of the bedrooms are en suite, so new owners may want to reconfigure the bedrooms and perhaps sacrifice one to a combined dressingroom and en suite.
The bedrooms are lovely, and the main, running across the front of the house, benefits from two tall windows, stripped pine floors, high ceilings, coving and a fireplace. The bedroom behind it has cream built-in wardrobes, a pretty fireplace and might be a candidate for a dressingroom or wardrobe area and en suite. To the back of the house is another bedroom that is set out as a study.
The final floor has two more bedrooms, with French-style cream wardrobes and small cast-iron fireplaces, and another bathroom. Although it has been used for storage here, some of the neighbours have created another floor of living space at the basement level, which a prospective new owner might look to emulate.
The current owners loved the house, describing it as cosy with lots of space, and with their children grown up they are downsizing in Dublin. It’s time for another family to enjoy the house, they say.
