Erin McCafferty talks to a Dublin couple who grow grapes and figs outdoors in Inchicore
Asking Price: €550,000
Contact: Owen Reilly (01) 677 7100
Some parts of Ireland were more affected by the Famine than others, to the degree that in 1847, when a million people all around rural Ireland were starving to death for lack of food, the building industry in Dublin was thriving with a big push for new infrastructure, while city workers could grow their own nutrition in back gardens provided.
Driven by an increase in the city’s population due to an influx of people from impoverished rural areas, it was also influenced by efforts to provide social infrastructure like workhouses and hospitals, and a rise in industries such as the railways.
“The speculative boom in railways in the 1840s created the need for housing for railway workers and their families,” explains Danny Golden, a structural engineer from Cratloe in Co Clare and the owner of 7 West Terrace – a now three-bedroom, mid-terrace house in Inchicore – whose enthusiasm for growing food led to him purchase another garden nearby in addition to his own.
Built in 1847 by the Great Southern and Western Railways, the 948 sq ft home was one of many which housed the families of workers from Inchicore Railway Works, which became the centre of railway engineering here.
Not surprisingly, labour was in short supply and the company therefore struggled to find brick layers. “It’s something I thought about while renovating the house,” says Golden. “It’s crazy to think that these same bricks were laid during famine times, and that homes with three metre high walls like this were being built.”
The exterior of No7 West Terrace in Inchicore
Golden bought the property as a project in 2016, after he moved back to Ireland from the UK. “It was the second house I’ve refurbished, and I had worked on a number of conservation projects, so I knew I had the skills to do it,” he says. “But when the wallpaper started to peel off after just a month of living here, I quickly realised just how big a project it was.”
There had previously been a family living there who bought the house in the 1980s, after the rules changed to allow dwellers to purchase their home. The building was, however, in bad repair, so the inside was gutted and all the internal walls taken down.
“I’ve effectively built a new house inside of an old house,” he says. “All the internal walls are new and I extended the back of the house, which faces south-east, on two floors.”
One of the three bedrooms
Given his knowledge of restoration, Golden paid attention to detail. “For example, I brought structural timber in from Latvia for the internal walls as it’s more stable than Irish timber,” he says. “I also used German wood fibre insulation on the internal walls because in an old house such as this, it’s common to get mould.”
As the house is built on top of an old coal yard, so he fully insulated the floors throughout. He also added a mechanical heat recovery system in the attic, unusual in an old house such as this.
The electrics were updated and the house re-plumbed. New windows and doors throughout and new floors – a mix of hard wood and laminate flooring, and tiles in the kitchen and the bathrooms – were laid.
The kitchen at No7 West Terrace
The interior, with its mostly white walls offset by pops of blue and beige, provides a feeling of space. The kitchen units are cream, and there are white tiles underfoot.
This flows into the open-plan dining area, which has a wood-burning stove with an external air supply. A big frosted window and door, and a light box in the ceiling were added, to bring in as much light as possible.
In the dining room, parts of the original wall add to the aesthetic. “You can actually see the line of the old house there. I spent a week with a sand blaster getting the texture exactly right.”
The open-plan living space, with a frosted window and door to the communal laneway
Upstairs, a double bedroom was added. “In the winter, when there are no leaves on the trees, you can see the Poolbeg chimneys,” he says.
It took five years for the work to be completed, and Golden and his wife Akila lived in the house during that time. Like some old terrace houses of the time, gardens were provided to allow residents to grow their own food. In this case, No7 has a communal lane at the rear, and its originally assigned rear garden is located on the other side of this passage. The other garden, further down the laneway, was purchased by the couple at a later point.
Both garden areas have large garages
The one closest to the house was a wasteland when they first moved in, but it has been transformed and now has a section with gravel underfoot and an outdoor couch, over-hung with a trellis and a three grapevines.
“We get buckets of red and white grapes every year in August and September,” Golden says. “We’ve been struggling as to what to do with them as we’ve harvested so many. We give them away to friends and eat as many as we can, but one half of our freezer was full of grapes.”
Aerial photo shows the location of the house and two garden areas, on either side of a communal laneway
The other garden has a lawn, trees and flower beds. “I used the old red bricks from the original walls of the house to make raised flower beds, and planted fruit. We grow kiwis, figs, apples, damsons, goji berries, cherries and plums there.”
Both gardens lend themselves well to entertaining, and the couple often have friends over for barbecues or parties. “Both are surrounded by other vegetable plots and are very peaceful,” says Golden. “It’s like being in the middle of the countryside because you can’t hear the traffic.”
Inchicore is a 20 minute-walk from Dublin city centre, and has a plethora of trendy coffee shops and eateries. There’s also a strong sense of community in the area. “There’s a cinema club and social nights, and the neighbours are generally very friendly and helpful here,” he says.
Although they originally planned to stay in the house long-term, he and his wife now have a 14-month-old baby boy, and have decided to move back to Clare to be closer to his parents.
“Babies change plans in ways you don’t expect,” he says. “It’s taken us a while to decide to move, but we’re excited about it now. We’ll miss this house. It’s an oasis of calm in the middle of the city and there’s nowhere quite like it.”
Agent Owen Reilly seeks €550,000.
Comments are closed.