Sedate exterior hides interesting interior

MONKSTOWN: €1.85 MILLIONThis interior of this mid-Victorian house feels a little more rambling than first looks might suggest, while its grand reception rooms showcase the period detail

IN A SUBURB where the roads tend to be lined with similar looking houses, Alma Road in Monkstown, Co Dublin, boasts quite a variety of interesting, mostly 19th-century and early 20th-century architectural styles.

Number 16 Alma Road is one of a pair of classically formal, mid-Victorian houses, built at a time when the quiet wide road was just being developed.

Its present owners have lived here for 27 years and the large family home has five bedrooms, a good garden and three reception rooms. It’s for sale through McNally Handy for €1.85 million.

It’s a three-storey house, two over basement, and its half-landings and differing levels mean it feels a little more rambling than its sedate exterior might suggest.

At hall door-level there is a large entry hall with a tall window leading into an internal hall.

The house’s main reception room is to the front and it’s a grand, high ceilinged formal room with tall sash windows – one a deep bay – and plenty of period detail.

The only other room on this level is a guest toilet. Down a short flight of stairs is the kitchen – a bright eat-in kitchen which opens out to the walled back garden.

Off this is another short flight of stairs leading to the family room in the front basement which runs the width of the house.

This layout won’t suit prospective buyers who like an open plan basement area running from front to back and the differing levels make knocking through the kitchen and the family room an unlikely option. There is a small home office off the family room.

Up on the first floor return is the third reception room – used as a formal dining room by the present owners but it would make a lovely library or work studio or a cosy winter living room.

There’s a small single bedroom with en suite on this level. Up again is the master bedroom – a mirror of the grand living room downstairs, whose proportions haven’t been spoiled by carving out an en suite.

The family bathroom is on this floor as is another, though much smaller, double bedroom.

At the top of the house are two more bedrooms and a bathroom – the ceilings are lower up here.

The decoration suits the period of the house and clearly great effort was made to retain and restore the building’s period details.

There is off-street parking for two cars to the front.

Alma Road, Monkstown, Co Dublin

Description: Three-storey house with five bedrooms, a good garden and three reception rooms

Agent: McNally Handy