Houses on Wellington Road, Ballsbridge, don't often come on the market, but now two, almost directly facing each other, are for sale.

Number 40 Wellington Road is in walk-in condition, with off-street parking and a small back garden. It is expected to make over £1.4 million through Lisney on October 5th.

There is parking for two cars in the front garden. Granite steps lead up to a period front door, with wrought-iron railings covered in clematis. The light terracotta hall is lit by a fanlight and has fine original plasterwork.

An original door with panelling leads into an inner hall. From here a door leads into the olive green drawingroom, with its wide sash window, marble fireplace and fine ceiling work.

Interconnecting doors lead into a second reception room, again with a marble fireplace. An unusually wide mahogany staircase leads upstairs from the inner hall to the return.

Here is the first bedroom, a bright single, which could also be used as a study.

Further upstairs is the main landing, off which are three bedrooms, all doubles. A staircase leads to the attic level, where there is a compact family bathroom, and the fifth bedroom. This is lit by two Velux windows and has an exposed pine ceiling and rafters. It is a double with fitted units and bookshelves.

The kitchen is to the front of the house at basement level. It is an impressive country-style room with a dining area and an oil-fired Aga.

The floor is partly tiled but mostly covered with hardwood oak. A centre-island unit in beech has a fitted cooker and a Belfast sink.

French doors lead from the kitchen out to a front patio and there is a door to the porch, which has storage beneath the front steps.

The kitchen leads into a family room to the rear of the house, with an open fireplace. The garden to the rear of the house is disappointingly small but is private and easily managed.

Number 55, a larger house with 3,300 sq ft, needs complete renovation but has a long back garden with a sunny orientation. There is no off-street parking.

The guide price is £1.25 million prior to auction through Jackson-Stops on October 4th.

The gardens of Number 55 are among its more appealing factors. The house is set well back from the road and has a wrought-iron pedestrian entrance gate with a white pillar and granite slab.

Granite steps lead up to the period front door, with fanlight overhead, and into the hall. The house has nearly all its original period features but it is in poor decorative order.

Two reception rooms lead off the hall, both with marble fireplaces and some excellent plasterwork, as well as original sash windows.

To the rear of the hall is the kitchen, a narrow galley-style area leading into a utility area, where there is a lavatory in the middle of the room.

A mahogany staircase leads from the hall upstairs to a spacious half-landing. On the return is a bathroom with an old clawfoot roll-top bath as well as the original Shanks lavatory.

Another flight of stairs leads to the top floor, where there are three double bedrooms, all with period sash windows. Again, new owners could attempt to convert attic space into another gallery-style room. A box room could be used as an en suite.

A door leads from the kitchen on to a raised terrace overlooking the walled 86 ft-long back garden, which is mostly in grass. A self-contained apartment is at garden level, overlooking a slabbed patio area to the front. The basement has a sittingroom stretching the width of the house, with a fireplace. Original pantries behind it are used as a large storeroom. Beyond these is a bedroom.

There is another galley-style kitchen with some fitted units. A long arched corridor leads out to a bathroom and sliding doors lead to a small courtyard area, off which there is a large storage area. New owners are likely to completely redesign the basement in this house.