The Tenters is one of Dublin 8’s great central locations. Situated just off Clanbrassil Street, it was once considered the far side of the tracks for those priced out of redbrick Portobello.
It’s an old name for the area that comes from the earlier practice of drying linen stretched across wooden frames known as tenters.
The estate was the first tenant-purchase scheme in the new State, and Clarence Mangan Road, named after the poet, is considered one of its best streets.
Back then the corporation stipulated that houses should have a parlour, for many of those moving here in the early 1920s had been living in one- and two-roomed tenements. Number 45 had a parlour to the front but it was opened up by its current owners to create a larger living space.
The family bought the house in 2016 when they paid €525,000 for it, according to the Property Price Register.
Two bathrooms
The extension work had already been done, which left them to enjoy the more decorative side of home improvements. They redid its two bathrooms – a guest toilet under the stairs and a light-filled family one upstairs with smart smoke-coloured glass metro tiles – laid new carpets, insulated the attic and stained the floors a dark ebony.
They also installed a new kitchen, a white design by Lynne Astrid Baillie for which Noel Dempsey did the cabinetry.
Its island has ribbed timber detailing and storage on both sides. This is a fantastic space for a family to gather and is full of light thanks to clerestory windows on its eastern elevation helping to bring in morning light, glass doors that open out to the private back garden and Velux widows overhead.
Cast-iron fire
More glass doors link it through to the living room where the focal point is a cast-iron open fire.
The parlour is now a home office and they’ve reinstated a glass door partition between it and the living room so you can work in relative peace. The dividing glass doors also bring light into the internal living room from both the front and the back of the house.
Upstairs there are three bedrooms, two good doubles and a single.
Both front and back gardens have been beautifully laid out to a design by Sarah Jordan and landscaped by Lotus. The front garden faces due south and is a real sun trap.
It is in walk-in condition, extending to 103sq m (1,108sq m) and agent Sherry FitzGerald is seeking €650,000 for the property, which has a D2 Ber.
