It’s likely that many potential buyers of Ashton on Upper Churchtown Road won’t be put off in the least by not being able to wander around the house in an open viewing. If they are developers looking for a possible in-fill site in a prime location, they’ll get the measure of the place by walking around the back and looking over the wall into the property’s very large rear garden, noting how it backs – and sides – on to Finsbury Park.
The fine detached two-storey four-bed family home of 255sq m (2,745sq ft) was built in 1983 by the current owners who bought the site which was originally the side garden of the house next door. In what has turned out to be a canny purchase, they also bought a substantial part of that neighbour’s back garden so that their home now sits on half an acre (including the substantial front garden) which at its rear is the width of the two substantial houses.
Keen gardeners, they and their family have enjoyed the south-facing garden, not considering its development potential.
Indeed, the last time they had the builders in was in recent years and that was to improve the house, adding a striking looking, modern sun room opening in to the kitchen and out to a patio.
These detached houses along this stretch of Upper Churchtown Road in Dublin 14, a few minutes walk from the Luas green line, typically change every time they are sold – which isn’t often. Either new owners greatly modernise and extend – they are all on large plots, all well back from the road – or they demolish entirely and start again, building even larger homes.
At €2.5 million, it’s hard to see anyone demolishing the Ashton house which has been well maintained and modernised over the years with well-proportioned reception rooms. What happens in at least part of the garden is another matter.
Agent Joe Beirne doesn’t rule out the buyer being a family looking for a large house with a football-friendly garden, noting there is a shortage of such properties in the area. However, if someone has a mind to develop he says, then a terrace of four to six houses could possibly – subject to planning of course – be built to the rear facing out on to Finsbury Park, a small relatively recent development, or one very large family home while still leaving the original house with a decent-sized garden.
