Aylesbury is one of several fine, big, detached family homes on Adelaide road in Glenageary. It was built in 1870, a boom time for development in an area that during the previous century was deemed suitable only for grazing sheep.
The Irish name, Gleann na gCaorach (glen of the sheep), bears testament to this. "The scrub of Glanegiry", as it was described in a late 18th century map, was covered in gorse, briars, blackthorn and rushes, which grew among treacherous rocks and water-filled holes.
Aylesbury was built for a prominent member of the Freemasons. As you would expect, it is a solid building, and most of its Victorian features - ornamental plasterwork, window shutters, panelled doors and original chimney-pieces - are intact. The six-bedroom house goes to auction on October 4th, and Charles Broadhead of Lisney is suggesting a guide price of £1.75 million (€2.22m).
The property includes an acre of gardens, which are mainly laid out in lawns, enclosed by neat hedging. Part of the front drive and an area at the rear of the house are paved with impressive granite slabs.
The stone, which was quarried from Dalkey Hill, was surplus material left over from the building of D·n Laoghaire Harbour. Inside the west-facing house the accommodation runs to 3,500 sq ft: spacious, airy rooms, many of which enjoy a dual aspect.
The Freemason connection is celebrated in the reception hall, where the newel post at the bottom of the pitch-pine staircase is elaborately carved with Masonic symbols. The all-seeing eye (representing God's omnipresence), the hammer and chisel (the stonemason's traditional tools) and the Star of David are some of the carefully-executed motifs. High up on the cornicing, small shields were originally painted with coats of arms.
There are three reception rooms, all with classic Victorian high ceilings, decorative plaster cornices and marble mantels. All have access directly to the garden, while the drawingroom also has an elegant, west-facing bay window.
The diningroom, behind, faces south and east. The smallest of the three rooms (still a generous size, at 16 ft by 14 ft) is a family room, with a service hatch into the kitchen, convenient for the passage of cups of tea, and other refreshments.
The kitchen is a large but cosy room, warmed by a decades-old, four-oven, white Aga, which the current owners have refurbished and re-enamelled.
There are plenty of pine cupboards, which lend the room a friendly, country-kitchen air. A large utility room adjoins. A toilet with a charming Gothic leaded window is also on the ground floor.
The three principal bedrooms are on the first floor. The main bedroom has a wall of fitted wardrobes and an en suite shower room. The two windows face east and south, and overlook the gardens. Another bedroom, at the front, has an en suite bathroom and a dressingroom. The third is at the rear of the house.
There is a return at the side of the house, with a family bathroom and a fourth bedroom on one level. The final two bedrooms are above this, and are reached by a narrow, winding stair. This arrangement (three bedrooms and a bathroom in a separate return) will appeal both to teenagers and their parents, keeping the two generations at a gratifying, but harmonious distance. The house is set well back from the road, and there is plenty of room for car-parking in the drive.
There are also two garages in the rear.
