Niche place to move in

HALF of Cork has watched them being built, in defiance of the economic and housing downturn, tucked into a tight site on Cork’s Rochestown Road.

Now, the first four Edwardian-style houses at Ashley are launched, priced at €1.3 million and even better than glimpses might have suggested.

For those peering in over the fence by the Rochestown roundabout in the past year and reckoning the sites are just too tiny, the news is that from the inside (looking out and up), the sites seem fine and handy, a bit of a conjuring trick in effect.

The first of four houses is now finished and ready for furnishing with the next three following along in stages. Within the next month or two, two more will be built on an adjoining site, acquired subsequently. When finished out, all six will face each other around a central sloping and landscaped avenue.

Ashley is the personal vision of architect Cathal O’Connor, who worked with Wilson Architecture. Fiona McDonald of that office did the interiors detailing. The result is a sublime mix of well-chosen materials and quality workmanship, overseen by Cathal O’Connor, now of BOC Architects/Corbel Developments.

Cathal O’Connor and his father Pat were also involved in the 1990s Lindville development of more than 60 Victorian-style upmarket homes on Cork’s Blackrock Road.

The O’Connors do reproduction extremely well and have now moved up half a century or so in housing design to the Edwardian and arts and crafts style and era.

The Ashley houses (named after a demolished house on the site) are large, but not overly big, clocking in at 2,700 sq ft of space over three floors. The house nearest the road is slightly bigger than the rest. though all have four to five bedrooms, five bathrooms with a formal lounge, library/office and large kitchen/dining/family rooms. The floor plans alone are models of good domestic design.

Selling agent is Catherine McAuliffe of Savills, who says that there has been pent-up interest in the houses given their location and she expects that to pick up even further with a finished product to show off.

The specification list runs to a full page of closely-typed details and shows there’s a lot going on behind the attentively-specified finishes.

Those materials making for the external authenticity include hand-made bricks and brick mason’s ornamental detailing in the chimneys, small French clay roof tiles and ‘bonnet’ hips on the roof, along with ornate finials, projecting bay or oriel windows with lead covers, granite sills and string courses around the site’s perimeter with cast iron railings and entrance pillars. Windows are low-e pvc double glazed sash.

New owners can look forward to low energy bills, thanks to an ‘A’ BER energy rating and there are solar panels, pressurised hot water systems, steam showers in the master suites, multi-zone gas heating, CAT 5 data cabling and Future Home automation wiring, as well as alarm, central vacuum and a whole host more features and extras. What recession?