Property

Regency terrace with Batman-style escape stairs for €1.4m

Three-bed townhouse on Leeson Street, Dublin 2, lacks a garden but does have a roof terrace

102 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4

Alanna Gallagher's face
Alanna Gallagher
Wed Oct 13 2021 - 06:00

When it launched in 2005, Elysium, a development within a Regency terrace comprising four townhouses and four apartments, demonstrated how to contemporarise period homes.

The project, to the south of what is now the Clayton Hotel on Upper Leeson Street, took four years to reach completion. Situated on the corner of Burlington Road, the row was acquired more than 40 years ago by the late hotelier PV Doyle when planning the Burlington Hotel next door. The four houses were sub-divided into several flats, rented out and slowly deteriorated.

It was Doyle hotel heir turned property developer Neil Monahan who, using architects O’Mahony Pike, achieved the balance between period and modernity.

Back then, asking prices for the 1100sq ft apartments started from €1.1 million, rising to €4 million for the four-bedroom townhouses.

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Back then, number 102, one of the two three-bedroom properties and the showhouse, was asking €3 million.

Entrance hall

Kitchen

Accessed at hall level via stone steps and extending to 228sq m / 2,454sq ft it didn’t sell and instead has been rented on a corporate basis since. It is now being brought to market by Owen Reilly asking €1.4 million, less than half of what it was looking for 16 years ago. It offers a lot of statement features and a stellar location for the price.

The end-terrace residence is set well back from the road, and all the attention to planting to the front has paid dividends for there is a great sense of privacy. The greenery also helps dial down the noise of traffic outside.

Dining room

Living room

The stucco-fronted property is Ber exempt and is accessed via a set of stone steps opening into a light-filled entrance hall, off which there are two fine interconnecting reception rooms where ceilings are 3.7m high.

The house has retained the rich cream colour palette selected for it by Helen Turkington.

Down a set of steps takes you to the first of its three double bedrooms. Secreted off it is a door leading to a solid walnut staircase that climbs through the back of the house, past the kitchen, on the first-floor return, and on up to a glazed home office that opens out to a sun terrace. The staircase was made in Co Mayo and transported on site step by step. Agent Owen Reilly calls this the “Batman” exit.

Work from home space

Roof terrace

It’s definitely a talking point feature and means you could head direct from bed to your office, without having to traipse through the rest of the house. The views of the city and the light up here are wonderful, but it is a small terrace.

While superheroes might like to use the back stairs, most other residents will access the kitchen via the front. It’s up on the hall return and is light-filled with solid walnut flooring and siltstone counters.

There are two doubles on the first floor. Both have en suite bathrooms. The main bedroom extends the width of the house and includes a boxed-in shower en suite bathroom that divides the room and forms the bedhead.

Bedroom

Bedroom

This is very much a townhouse in that it doesn’t have a back garden per se – it shares a communal, east-facing courtyard with the property next door. Parking is on-street in nearby Burlington Road, which is accessed via a right of way lane to the back of the house.