Dublin 18/€4.75m: A large and listed Victorian era house on 0.8 acres comes with many extras, writes Bernice Harrison
Hillside, one of Foxrock's oldest houses, is an an imposing mid-Victorian home on 0.8 of an acre of beautifully maintained mature gardens. Set on the corner of Westminister Road and the N11, the house has been lived in by the same family for over 25 years and they are now downsizing - understandably so, as this is a five-bedroom house with 348sq m (3,750sq ft), a large swimming pool, plus a substantial and very smart looking mews.
Lisney will be auctioning Hillside on June 14th with an AMV of €4.75 million.
It's a lovely family home with the ideal combination of gracious and very elegant reception rooms, well-proportioned large bedrooms and a homely eat-in kitchen complete with oil-fired Aga.
The entrance is through a limestone portico, framing a fanlight-topped front door. On either side of the hall are the formal reception rooms, two interconnecting ones on one side and a diningroom on the other. All have original decorative cornice work and there are matching white marble fireplaces.
Off the diningroom is the kitchen which is fitted with pine presses and panelling and this in turn opens into a family room. There's also a study and a bathroom at this level.
Everywhere there are signs that this bright, airy house has been very well maintained and sympathetically decorated down through the years.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms, four large square-shaped ones and one much smaller single, currently used as a home office. One of the rooms has an en suite and there is also a shower room, as well as a large family bathroom.
The new mews - across a courtyard from the main house - was constructed from some outbuildings and it incorporates a three-car garage.
The outdoor areas are lovely. A sweeping driveway to the front is surrounded by mature trees and shrubs. The gardens wrap around the house and the kidney-shaped swimming pool is at the back - and there is also a charming sun room.
In recent years several Foxrock houses have been bought only to be demolished for development soon after. Despite its large site and location close to the main road, this shouldn't happen to Hillside, as it is a protected structure.