Dublin 4: Artist Jack B Yeats once lived in this beautifully proportioned, five bedroom house in Marlborough Road. Emma Cullinan reports
Number 61 Marlborough Road is a large, well-proportioned house. This five-bedroom residence, which is being sold at auction by HOK Residential on June 10th, guiding at €1.45 million, is on a grand scale. The ceilings are high, the archway inside the entrance - reached by granite steps - is lofty, the doorways are tall and the sash windows, on the upper floors, are deep.
The kitchen at ground floor level is a warm place with a flag floor, maple coloured units, Belfast sink and gas Aga. The kitchen joins a sittingroom which has access to the garden. This is reached past an extension that was added around six years ago. It probably wouldn't win any prizes for architecture but is perfectly functional.
The lawn is reached up stone steps, and the garden, like the house, has a confident but relaxed feel with mature planting including copious roses and overhanging trees - one of which accommodates a rope swing. As with the house, this is a family space. The rear of the garden has access to a back lane.
In the extension there's a utility area, small shower room, and another room - either an office or bedroom - which sits out in the garden.
At first floor level there are two substantial rooms which connect through a large opening with original doors. One of these is technically a diningroom but this would be for formal dinners - the room off the kitchen is far more suitable for dining in, assuming guests don't mind seeing the cook in action. There's another bedroom and small bathroom in the extension at first floor level. On the second floor are three bedrooms, all of a substantial size, with a walk-in storage area sandwiched between two of them.
Up a small flight of stairs is a bathroom with roll-top bath and charming original sink embossed with the maker's mark: John Bolding and Son, Grosvenor Works, London.
This period detail permeates the house, which has original fireplaces, floorboards, plasterwork. The decor is in a period style with dusky coloured wallpaper, with floral and oriental patterns, and natural coloured paints. Some would argue that the house could do with updating but it does have lots of charm in its current state. It links back to the time when artist Jack Butler Yeats moved here in 1917. As Vivien Igoe wrote of Jack and his wife in her Literary Guide to Dublin: "In the autumn of 1917, the couple moved to 61 Marlborough Road, in Donnybrook, Dublin, which was in a less lonely area (than their previous house in Greystones) and more convenient for meeting friends."
