A luxurious main bedroom suite is the pièce de résistance of an elegant D4 home, says Rose Doyle

Everything about 52 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4, tells you this is a house which has enjoyed family life.

Part of a Georgian terrace built in 1832 and set well back from its busy city street, there's vibrancy in the well-trod shine of the original floorboards in the main reception rooms, warmth in the burgundy coloured walls.

There's a reassuring welcome too in the ground floor kitchen/ breakfastroom, refurbished seven years ago, where a quarry-tiled floor meets white-painted brick and stone walls. A green and peaceful study overlooks the landscaped garden and a magnolia tree in the rear. The main bedroom suite elaborately occupies the width of the house.

With three storeys over garden level and original features intact, number 52's innate elegance has more than survived the years. With a floor area of 400sq m (4,300sq ft), accommodation includes six bedrooms, four reception rooms and the kitchen-cum-breakfastroom.

Colliers Jackson-Stops will sell it at auction on April 18th; it has an AMV of €4.8 million.

The original occupants of number 52 were four sisters and their brother, most likely members of a local property-owning family, the Courtneys.

The present owners have lived here for some 20 years and have used the front ground floor reception room for dining; their drawingroom is at the rear. There are original - and working - marble fireplaces in both rooms, sash windows give light and the interconnecting doors are double hinged to allow them to be completely folded back.

Arches are a feature of the house:one towards the end of the entrance hallway frames the stairs and another arch leads to the first return, where there is an en suite guest bedroom.

The main bedroom suite - arguably the house's pièce de résistance - has a pair of windows overlooking Leeson Street and double doors leading to a large and luxurious en suite dressingroom where a sunken bath is surrounded by pergola-style columns.

A second return, reached via a charming landing with skylight, also has an en suite bedroom and two of the third floor bedrooms have rooftop views over Dublin 4. Views from a small bathroom on the top, attic return are impeded by the buildings of the nearby Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis club.

The study, on the entrance hall return, has a cast-iron period fireplace. A family room, off the kitchen on the ground floor, has another such fireplace. There is off-street parking to the front for several cars.