Be the talk of the terrace in area of special character

THE babies, and children, are back with a bang in regentrified Wellington Road and St Luke’s Cross in Cork. The vendors of 6 York Terrace have been 17 years in situ, and remark on the changes of the last few years.

“When we bought here in 1988, there hadn’t been a baby born on the terrace in 40 years. Now, not only have there been births, but there are 14 children living here,” says the owner of no 6, a well-kept three/four storey home with five bedrooms, dating to 1833.

The largely-intact terrace of 11 houses, between Summerhill north and Wellington Road, recalls an era of empire and armies, with Wellesley, Adelaide, York and Wellington among the figures commemorated: Cork City Council has designated it as “an area of special character” because of its distinctive, largely 19th century identity, and singles out architectural features worth conserving.

No 5 was renovated in the late 1980s, extended subsequently to the rear, and has been smartly kept since.

Just a few minutes’ walk from the city centre, it comes with a €550,000 price quoted by Peter Skuse of Cahalane Skuse, and has a garden on the southern flank of the terrace, with off-street car-parking, and a rear yard with the high sandstone walls along Wellington Road as a secure boundary to the back.

It has working shutters, cornice work, very old and wide polished floors, some original fireplaces, and sturdy pitch pine roof beams exposed in the large attic bedrooms, complete with wooden pegs in place of bolts.

Windows to the front were replaced in the 1980s with PVC while the house next door now has replacement wood sashes being fitted at a cost of €15,000 - so a purist who buys here may decide to follow suit.

With 2,500 sq ft of space, there are two ground floor interconnecting reception rooms, rear hall and deep galley kitchen with utility and guest WC beyond.

There’s a fine wide first floor drawing room, with tall windows for city views, and a main bathroom on the first floor return, plus bedroom, two more second floor bedrooms and two attic rooms - and every level has capacious storage options, shelving and presses. Central heating is oil-fuelled.

Views improve on each level gained, and the terraces here on Cork’s south-facing hills and ridges “were built to see and be seen from afar”, notes Cork City Council’s Area of Special Character booklet on the area.