Tall Victorian beauty

IT’S the original of the species, is Greenways, a tall and attractive Victorian semi on the Blackrock Road, in front of the Lindville estate, whose houses could be described as a buttery variation on the same theme.

The location speaks for itself — one of the low-key, high-end areas of Cork city with fast accessibility to town and shopping at Douglas/Mahon.

The house, however, stands on its own above all the other elements — it’s a turnkey buy, with an elegant style that follows the ‘less is more’ dictum.

On the market with Brian Olden of Cohalan Downing, the three-storey, four-bed has a guide of € 695,000, which is very fair considering it made close on €430,000 last time round, and that was in 2002 when sold by auctioneer, Noelle Morrison.

The vendors haven’t tinkered round too much with the original layout, but they have added a maple kitchen at the rear and it’s a well-designed and fairly luxurious build, with slabs of granite and a fine range in the middle of the room.

Apart from that there are no folderols, rather the style runs to cool colours, good art and a sumptuous, modern bathroom that lifts the old house to new levels. Likewise with the living rooms and bedrooms, there’s just good, stand alone furniture, low-key drapes and wooden floors. The odd highlight is provided by lighting, paintings or sculpture and for the visitor it gives you a good view of the bones of the house.

The layout is predictably Victorian, but then, you don’t get too many of them on the south side of the city and houses of this kind come up rarely on the Blackrock Road.

Anyone thinking of moving now, should go, as the opportunity mightn’t arise again here for a while.

With 1,800 square feet Greenways has interconnecting reception rooms with high ceilings, perfect fireplaces and a big bay to the front.

Windows are replacement PVC sash, all ease of cleaning and maintenance, but with the right look for a house of this age.

The kitchen is to the rear, but opens onto a lovely, sun-filled patio, (this end of the house is north facing, but morning sun reaches the garden), and there are lots of storage nooks and crannies. Floors in the main hall are terrazzo, with a handsome front door in black with plain glass panels and a clever mat well, and the staircase is simply painted white.

There’s almost a Quaker sensibility to the house’s treatment, clean lines, soft colours and good fittings.

Bedrooms one and two are on floor one, with bathroom and separate WC on the return and overhead, under the sloping roof are two more double rooms.

The space is excellent and it’s a fine house for a family, with safe gardens to the rear (and a real, old fashioned shed, with clipped hedging along one side), as well as a long, south-facing garden to the front.

Greenways has the address, the appointments and, most of all, the ambience of a quality, family home.