With a tower and turret this hidden villa is a step up

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Rose Martin unearths a gem in the heart of Cork city

THERE are houses that twinkle, houses that glower, houses that dance and houses that are utterly enchanting.

Trabeg House is one of the last, a deeply private, Edwardian property hidden behind a dense forest of trees, (it even has a turret from which to view its enchanted kingdom).

Heaving with brightly painted canvasses, ribbons of linked glass, various artwork and the ordinary items of family life, it’s a new, hushed market entrant at €1.5m through Malcolm Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing.

A detached, quirky, Edwardian villa, it comes with original features and because of location, size, privacy and over an acre of grounds, it could truthfully be described as a once-in-a-lifetime buy.

The house — all 4,000 square feet of it —is utterly unpredictable with one room leading to another and a ground floor layout that includes at least three formal receptions, (if you count the kitchen as one, but more of that later) and excluding the piece de resistance, a large ballroom with vaulted ceiling.

Trabeg House is grounded in the Irish Arts and Crafts movement and was designed by James Finbarre McMullen, who designed the Honan Chapel, amongst other well known buildigns. His work is highly regarded, but for his home, Trabeg, if feels that built what he liked, and didn’t apply the rule book.

So Trabeg has a tower, with leaded turret, elaborate inner frames in the major bedrooms and delightul, stained glass and tiling in Art Nouveau style. Windows are high, wide casements and there’s a modern, sun room addition to one side that replaces an earlier, Victorian orangery — not part of the original plan, however.

And while there may be a snooty grandeur in other elegant Georgian country seats, or urban four-storey terraces, the urban villa of Trabeg House’s style is rare — many inner city dwellings like this were ravaged for their garden and it’s location is very close to town.

But the Goths were kept from the gate by a couple whose value system runs to more than money — or flash. That outlook is reflected in the property for sale.

Sheltered by ancient trees and bounded by open green space — in the heart of the city, but utterly anonymous, you get to Trabeg House by a public road through a green area off the main Douglas road.

Coming to a house through a park may seem unusual but then, there’s Buckingham Palace, accessed through St James’ Park, (a wild comparsion, certainly) or the former Guinness residence, now the state B&B, at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park or even, the Áras. And with Trabeg House, albeit on a much smaller scale, it has the same feel — a vice-regal lodge vibe.

Not your average house in your average estate, then and it’s a rarity on another level too, because despite it’s thickets of hedgerows and richness of fabric and footing, this is no try-hard acquisition.

There is no eye-watering renovation here, no attempt to use the property as an objectifier of status, no guile. An honest, family home, it’s loved and lived in but the occupants are all too busy to worry about ‘the look’. But don’t be fooled, the luxury is there, it’s just not seen: plumbing and heating are top notch, the grounds are professionally maintained and the house is sealed and warm and laid back. Modest. Time here is spent in the life-enhancing arts

If stuff works well, it remains, so the kitchen is third hand, but cosy and littered with the bric a brac of family life. The house doubles as a gallery for its artist owner, whose work is apparent on every wall and every surface of the house. The big, Edwardian house provides the perfect backdrop for this creative tsunami.

And it’s superbly bright — most of the living rooms have two if not three windows, (rounded bays flow across entire walls) and ceiling heights are very high. The sheer scale has to be felt to be appreciated.

An individualist’s property — not a glossy doppelganger, prospective buyers need to envisage the amount of house on offer — this is a ‘go large’ property, and is ready to facilitate any number of grand schemes, if required.

Right now, it’s been reduced from six bedrooms to five— (one’s an incredibly bright bathroom/ dressing room) and one of the large rooms incorporates that beautiful turret which gives only country views out over the garden, quite surprisingly. The trees block out the suburban element on the house’s doorstop and the view goes straight to country — a contemplative extra.

The ground floor has one unsung and undeveloped room — yes, it’s been used for parties and has an extraordinary table at its centre, (seats at least 20), but is under utilised, not surprisingly considering it was a full size snooker room in its day and designed as such. Today, it has the makings of a wonderful, private ballroom, or recital room and would be further enhanced if the retrofitted panelling were removed to reveal the original vaulted ceiling. New owners might host christenings, Christmas parties and even weddings here and extended families would all fit for Sunday lunch.

But that’s just one in a number of interesting elements at Trabeg House — for instance, there’s also the former kitchen at the rear, where, along with a number of smaller rooms, it has been used as a home office for a number of years.

The main kitchen is now in one of the formal living rooms and accessed off the main hallway, but there is the option of returning the room to the rear, with a big Aga in the original hearth, perhaps?

Right now, two of three south-facing rooms are in living space: the first is off the main entrance hallway and the second, westerly room gives access to the conservatory, which, with its glass roof works as a studio.

Both rooms come with original fireplaces, with bronze and brass hoods, (you almost become inured to the period detail, there’s so much), but the most unusual of the lot is in the ballroom/snooker room.

Considering Trabeg House’s size, there is no space that’s not lived in and used continually, there’s no ‘good room’, no formal furniture, no stuffiness. It’s a big, family home that’s now a bit too large as the birdies fly the nest. And while loathe to leave, the owners are considering a sale. But they’re not pushed — it’s that kind of attitude that makes this a little statelet, rather than just an address.

Trabeg House is on offer with 1.2 acres of desirable grounds including pedestrian access onto the Ballinlough road.

The house was built by architect/ engineer James Finbarre McMullen, in 1908 and he’s probably best remembered for the Honan Chapel, (a copy of Cormac’s Chapel on the Rock of Cashel) and for his work on the South Infirmary.

This was his own, private project and he lavished lots of attention on the villa, including all those flourishes, (like the window panelling inside the upper floor dormers) that a more parsimonious or less ambitious clients might dismiss. The son of a builder, McMullen didn’t stint on the fit-out or the style and the house is original and autobiographical — an entirely personal creation that’s cleverly bright and sun-filled. It shows all the signs of an architect given free rein, and while it’s full of trills and soaring notes, it was built in tune with the emerging century.

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