Number 23 is the third redbrick Edwardian on Monkstown’s popular Eaton Square to come up for sale in the past two months. It wouldn’t be remarkable, except the houses that surround the leafy jointly owned square come up rarely. People generally move in here and spend the next 30-40 years rearing families. Such is the case with the sellers of number 23, who raised three children here .
Younger families have started relocating to the square in recent times, bringing new life to the area. And this five-bed semi-detached house is very much a family home.
Every bit of its 212sq m (2,281sq ft) is put to good use. The formal reception rooms – which in many period houses remain preserved in aspic for state occasions – are clearly central to daily life here. The grand rooms retain their original features, including plasterwork, floorboards and fireplaces, but are also unfussy practical spaces. The box bay to the front has secondary glazing.
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Though it shares an identical façade, tiled entrance and hall door with its adjoining neighbour, a previous owner bought a strip of land to the left of the house, creating space for a garage. This gives number 23 a wider garden than most and a long narrow wooden conservatory that was added to the side in later years. Accessed off the dining room and opening onto the west facing garden it throws light into the rear country style kitchen. New owners will probably modernise it but will hopefully retain the ruby stained-glass kitchen door.
The utility space is in a lean-to outside the kitchen but could easily be incorporated if the kitchen were extended. The walled garden is a riot of colour and summer growth with two boxed vegetable patches at its centre. Upkeep wouldn’t be onerous, while lazy summer days could be easily whiled away.
Upstairs, over three returns, are five bedrooms – four doubles and a nursery in pink wainscoting – and two bathrooms which look to have been recently upgraded.
The asking price of €1.2 million through Beirne & Wise is in the same ball park as neighbouring houses. The sizeable rear garden and off street parking give it an edge, while there’s scope there to rework some of the space for anyone with the appetite, or wallet.
