St Helens is a six-bedroom early Victorian house that has remained in the same family since 1948 when Nicholas Stassen, a Belgian from Flanders, moved to Ireland after the war.
While not a household name, he has played a cameo role in the mealtimes of generations of Irish children as he first imported Liga rusks into Ireland.
His five children grew up enjoying these sylvan surrounds, and daughter Ria recalls sliding down the banisters and playing tennis on the lawn with kids from nearby Finnstown House.
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The property, which is one and a half miles from Lucan village, remains very much as it was when she was a child. It is almost surrounded by green fields. All the surrounding lands are earmarked for development, but for now it remains blissfully peaceful.
Period features
Measuring 422sq m (4541sq ft) the house has many period features, starting with a fanlight over the decoratively ornate front door, whose motifs are carried throughout the interior, in the architraving, interior doors and the shutters of the hall floor windows.
This floor has three principal rooms, all of which have fine fireplaces and huge dual aspect windows that let light flood in. To the front is a morning room that gets the sun early in the day. On the opposite side of the hall is a sizeable formal dining room with matching windows at both ends. The bay window in the sittingroom to the rear has a westerly aspect that overlooks the lawn, surrounded by mature trees.
The galley-style kitchen is situated in a fourth room and the layout works but doesn’t allow for contemporary living, where people like to cook, eat and linger in the same space. An easy fix would be to install the kitchen in the diningroom, perhaps putting an island in front of the central wall niche and adding some comfy sofas and a dining table. The old kitchen could be turned into a very sizeable utility cum pantry.
On the first floor there are six bedrooms arranged around a galleried landing. Two of the six interconnect and could very easily become a master with a dressing room and en suite. All of the rooms have working shutters dispensing with the need for curtains or blinds.
At garden level there is a vast amount of space concealed in a series of unused rooms and amounting to more than 150sq m of floor space that needs serious work. Subject to planning permission this could become a separate space, perhaps even medical or dental consulting rooms.
The grounds include a small piggery, now disused, an orchard and a spring water well, a handy asset that could eliminate water bills.
The property is asking €950,000 through agent Janet Carroll, formerly of Savills and now operating independently.
From the front door of the house you can see The Paddocks, a scheme constructed by Maplewood Developments. Green fields seem to be all there is between it and the period property’s boundary walls. A four hectare linear park, which had been called Tandy’s Lane Park and was designed to abut St Helen’s and the rest of the green field site is still earmarked for development. The remaining lands adjacent to St Helens had belonged to Maplewood which is now in receivership.
