Address cachets don’t come much better than being able to say, as is the case with 20
Synge Street, that you live opposite the house in which George Bernard Shaw was born. (The great man first saw the light of day in 33 Synge Street.) Number 20 has been around since the 1840s and, after a recent two-year overhaul which saw it gutted, refurbished and redesigned, is now a light-filled, relaxed example of how a 19th-century house can become a 21st-century home without losing its original, and essential, character.
The vendors, attracted by such original features as flooring, fireplaces, sash windows, shutters, cornicing, doors and banisters, bought number 20 in 2013 “as a project”. They paid €381,000 in September of that year and the fact of its return to the market with an asking price of €850,000 is both a measure of a rising market and the care and work put into bringing it back to life.
Over a 176 sq m (1,900 sq ft) floor space there are three en suite bedrooms (one on the ground floor), one reception room and an open-plan kitchen/dining/living area. Sale, through agent Felicity Fox, is by private treaty.
Shades of cream; from off-white to a mellow yellow; cover walls, doors and paintwork throughout. The open-plan garden level, lowered by seven inches to create higher ceilings and with under-floor heating, even has a creamy, polished stone fireplace.
There are panelled walls in the kitchen/dining area, polished granite worktops and a cleverly designed centre isle. The living/family space has a wall of windows (which fold right back) overlooking the patio and the freshly landscaped beds of the rear garden.
The front-facing drawingroom has an original cast-iron fireplace and, as elsewhere throughout the house, original wide-plank timber floorboards. An elaborate, original cornicing and centre rose in the entrance hallway has been refurbished, as has the tall, vaulted window on the stair return and cast-iron fireplaces in all bedrooms. All of the en suite facilities have velux windows; the en suite off the main bedroom is particularly large and has a long, deep bath.
