Address: 29 Waltham Terrace, Blackrock, Co Dublin
Price: €1,975,000
Agent: Janet Caroll Estate Agent
View this property on MyHome.ie
When the owner of 29 Waltham Terrace, an elegant street of 34 detached and semidetached Regency-style villas in Blackrock, Co Dublin, bought his home in 2009, he was “keen that it shouldn’t be destroyed by modern features”. He wanted a home for the collection of period furniture he’d been assembling all his life, and authentic period fittings as well as modern comforts in the house, built around 1850. Heating, wiring and plumbing were upgraded (a new boiler was installed two years ago), and he brought in architect Tom de Paor to execute his vision for his new home.
The result is a handsome house with an individual style arranged over several levels: de Paor’s design includes subtly curved barrel ceilings on landings, a panelled downstairs hall in the art-nouveau style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and a streamlined kitchen, floored with Liscannor slate. There are unusual and attractive light fittings everywhere.
The owner’s interest in his period house is more than matched by his passion for gardening: the 100ft-long back garden, planned by Veronica Adams Garden Design in the UK, is a colourful space, rich with a variety of flowering plants, shrubs and trees. The owner – who will retire soon – created it over the past 15 years and now wants a bigger garden, and intends to restore or build a new home.
Number 20 Waltham Terrace, Blackrock, Co Dublin, a 170sq m (1,830sq ft) three-bed semidetached house, is for sale for €1.975 million through Blackrock estate agents Janet Carroll. It is Ber exempt as a protected structure.
The front door of the house opens into an inner hall with original floorboards, simple ceiling coving and a fanlight over an arch matching that in the front door. The drawingroom on the right has what’s thought to be the original white marble fireplace, original floorboards stripped and painted black and two large bay windows with original shutters. The owner’s attention to detail can be seen in the period curtain pole supports, which he found in Wilson’s Yard salvage in Dromore, Co Down.
Front entrance hall 
Drawingroom 
Diningroom
A short flight of stairs leads up to two double bedrooms looking over the back garden and the smooth green of Blackrock Bowling and Tennis Club, on to which the house backs. Both bedrooms have original floorboards painted white and are furnished completely in period style. The bathroom, with its Tom de Paor vaulted ceiling, has not just a roll-top bath but an antique Doulton & Co ceramic toilet with overhead pull-chain cistern.
Stairs lead down from the front hall to the diningroom and kitchen. De Paor created wide double doors into the diningroom: “Close the doors and the room envelops you,” says the owner. It has a stone-tiled floor, William Morris design wallpaper, an antique rise-and-fall lamp over the circular dining table and a cast-iron fireplace by English arts and crafts designer CR Ashbee. A door opens from here into the kitchen, floored with Liscannor slate. Green subway tiles run the length of the counter and go up to the ceiling; the island and counters are timber-topped.
On the next level down is a hallway – lit by hanging Vaseline glass lamps – with white floor-to-ceiling panelled walls and doors concealing a cloakroom, a bathroom and a separate shower. The main bedroom – or bed sittingroom, the owner says – is at this level. A large room, it has an arts and crafts period fireplace with a timber mantel surround and hand-painted tile inset. Mirrors set into the sides of bay windows in this garden-level room enhance the light.
[ Parked cars are clogging up the narrow roads in our new estate. What can we do?Opens in new window ]
The owner is immensely proud of the garden he has created over the past 15 years: arranged in four spaces, divided by well-trimmed and topiarised yew hedges, the garden is made up of a lawn, colourful herbaceous borders (planted with a horticulturally diverse range of plants and shrubs), a sunken garden and a woodland garden. An irrigation system, fed by rainwater collected from the roof and stored beneath the patio, feeds sprinklers sunk into the ground.
On the right of the garden, in a space that doesn’t get much sun, is a woodland; a pebble path leads past it to a circular stone pond. There is a garden summerhouse with a leaded roof and two garden sheds, also with leaded roofs. “The great trick is to garden at three levels because the eye is drawn to different levels,” he says. The front garden is also filled with colourful plants and shrubs, and there is parking for up to three cars. There is side access to the back garden.
There is potential to expand subject to planning permission – although a buyer with an interest in gardens may not want to disturb the existing space.
Kitchen 
Main bedroom 
Bathroom 
Pond and summerhouse 
Back garden 
The garden is divided into four discrete areas
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