Period terraced home on the Old Blackrock Road with a hint of Italy

WITH the coming launch of townhouses, duplexes and apartments at the old Rochelle school site in Cork, expect there to be lots of “property market vibe” about the benefits of the Old Blackrock Road as a location.

There are just a few more weeks to go for the upper-end of the market scheme by O’Callaghan Properties’ scheme to come on stream.

For those who can no longer wait, or who value older properties and original character, Number 2 Sorrento Villas offers an alternative. Built around 1902, the house is mid-terraced, three-storeyed and pitched at the €435,000-plus price bracket.

There are 11 houses in the terrace (spelled on Cork City Council’s road plaques as Sorrenta, as opposed to the Italianate Sorrento favoured by Dublin’s Dalkey residents), with an unusual numbering sequence and building order, so that house numbers 1 and 2 are more or less in the middle of the bunch.

There have been several improving occupants at No 2 in the last decade or so, and the current vendors did an amount of serious work in the past three years, including roofing, replastering, windows etc.

The attic level has one large light-soaked room, reached via steep stairs, measuring 18 x 18ft with Velux windows and en suite bathroom.

The middle level has three bedrooms, two doubles and a single. The main bedroom has a deep bay window as a special feature, with old wood floors. The other two bedrooms have their original fireplaces.

The bathroom is on the stair return, and the ground floor has two separate reception rooms. Knocking through would brighten up the back room even more.

The hall and galley-style kitchen behind have chinese slate floors, and the kitchen units are creamy-white, with a highly functional pull-out larder press.

No 2 is a house that can stretch to accommodate a family, but at about 1,500 sq ft isn’t so large that a single or couple would be rattling around in it.

It has off-street parking in front for one car, and space could be cleared for a second small motor, though the city centre is less than a mile’s walk away.

The back garden has space for all the essentials and is easily kept with small lawn and patio, and is surprisingly private. Windows in front are double-glazed PVC, heating is by gas and an alarm has been fitted.