Four minutes walk from the Dart at Barrow Street, eight minutes’ cycle to College Green, a quick canter around the corner to the new Tesco for a litre of milk, or across the road for a pint in the Gasworks bar or Slattery’s: number 26 Grand Canal Street Upper epitomises the convenience of the south city. A mid-terrace four-bed home built in 1870, it retains many period features that fit well with a modern extension and some remodelling inside. It is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €1.275 million.
Set behind a brown-brick boundary wall, sharing a path with the house next door and fringed by trees, the facade of number 26 is lifted by the redbrick surround on the modern sash windows, and by a pretty fanlight with hand-painted blue details. Inside, the hall has well-preserved ceiling plasterwork and decorative corbels. The dark-stained wood floor continues into the two reception rooms on the right, which have matching white marble fireplaces and are connected by wooden doors. The rear reception room has glass double doors out to stone steps that lead down to a patio. There is a guest toilet under the stairs.
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When the current owners bought the house at auction in 2005, according to the agent, all of the big jobs had been done by their predecessors so the wiring, plumbing and sash windows are relatively new; the Ber is C2. Those previous owners had also extended the return to create a long, well-fitted kitchen/dining room with two big windows over the workspace and high-quality fittings such as a Smeg gas range and integrated Miele washing machine. The Shaker-style doors could be replaced for a swift update; the house has been let for a short time and could do with a decorative refresh.
There are two sets of glass doors from here to the garden which has more low trees, a small lawn and a variety of hard landscaping including a second patio of quarry tiles, possibly from the old kitchen.
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On the first-floor return are the family bathroom with a cast-iron bath, and single room fitted with nursery furniture that looks to have been hand-built with care. A wider fourth bedroom at the end is used as a study.
At the top, past a red and blue stained-glass window, a double bedroom with built-in wardrobes looks east towards the Dart line; the passing trains are barely audible inside. The large main bedroom is at the front, with two tall windows overlooking the street and a clever wardrobe and en suite, with iridescent mosaic tiles, built around the chimney breast.
With such a central location, there is hardly a need for a car, but it might be possible to replace the back garden gate with a roller-shutter, as the neighbours have done, and bring one in; there is disc parking on the road outside. At present, a pedestrian gate opens to the lane at Emerald Cottages, where last summer developer Michael Blaney brought five sleek townhouses, designed by architect David Smith, to the market with asking prices of €980,000 to €1.05 million. Four are listed on the Property Price Register as having sold for between €863,436 and €925,110 between November 2021 and May 2022.
As well as Ballsbridge village, the house, which encompasses 172sq m (1,851sq ft), is close to such outposts of deliciousness as Lotts food store and its close relations, Junior’s restaurant and The Old Spot gastropub on Bath Avenue. There’s a choice of venues in the docklands, as well as the quirky Press cafe in the National Print Museum at Beggars Bush. There is tennis nearby at Lansdowne, you can see the Aviva stadium from the front gate, and it’s close to Sean Moore Park at the start of Sandymount Strand. There are primary and secondary schools in the locality.
