Dublin 1: €430,000A large apartment in a restored North Great George's Street house offers gracious city living, says Kevin O'Connor
A large one-bedroom apartment on the second floor of 12 North Great George's Street is one of six in this historical and gracious building. Number 5 covers the entire floor and has 91 sq m (980 sq ft) with 12ft high ceilings.
It has a large drawingroom to the front of the house, a kitchen / diningroom and a double bedroom. For sale by private treaty through Sherry FitzGerald, the asking price is €430,000. The owner has lived here for 20 years and was involved in restoring the entire house.
Proportion and light seem to hold sway as you enter the large hall door of number 12 and ascend the period staircase to the upper floors. Apartment 5 has been refurbished in the past year with a new gas central heating system and some fine six-over-six sash windows with working shutters in the drawingroom.
As you enter through a glass panelled door, the small hallway has a door on either side, one leading to the drawingroom, and the other to the bedroom.
The drawingroom is a gracious room, with simple cornicing, a plain period Kilkenny limestone fireplace with coal-effect fire, adorned on both sides by tall mirrors which reflect lots of light, and two sash windows looking down on the street.
A wonderful flourish is the faux Piedmont bookcase that is ingeniously designed incorporating a drinks cabinet, an entertainment centre and also forms part of the architrave for the double doors to the kitchen/diningroom.
The kitchen is well equipped with polished granite worktops, high quality units, plenty of storage and some superb glass cupboards. The dining space, which also overlooks the street, is painted in a muted dark green and has a period fireplace. Good use of plate glass mirror gives the illusion of space and light.
Off the drawingroom, through a short hallway lined with books, you enter the substantial bedroom with its tall ceiling and some wonderful details. Two tall sash windows have great views with the silhouette of spires and rooftops of the Dublin skyline in the autumn sunshine.
There are some well-designed and copious built-in wardrobes, plus a customised work area for computer, books and files and many other uses.
A feature that gives the bedroom a certain zing, is the tiny dressingroom secreted behind a tall mirror with recessed lighting and walls lined in luxurious mahogany. The bathroom is somewhat small in proportion to the rest of the apartment but still has elements of design and taste with its clawfoot cast-iron bath and Travertine marble floor.
The management of the building is run on a co-operative basis with the current service charge at €800 for each apartment.
