All shipshape and Bristol fashion at Sydenham Terrace

Tommy Barker says elegant harbour house has views to die for.

ALL “shipshape and Bristol fashion” is this Cork harbour home, neatly trimmed for sale.

The owners of 5, Sydenham Terrace in Monkstown are sea-faring types, you can surmise, not only from the decor with its marine prints, paintings and tomes, but also from its many polished brasses and fine-fettle timbers: it is in rude health, for a home which dates to the 1830s, built for British naval officers.

The term ‘Bristol fashion’ is thought to refer to boats which berthed at Bristol harbour, several miles inland and subject to 30’ tidal rising and falls. Boats using it had to be stoutly constructed, with everything well secured for bottoming out on low tides.

And, that serves as a handy enough metaphor for the sale price of No 5, arriving on the beached, low-tide 2009 market with an eminently achievable AMV of €795,000, via agent Catherine McAuliffe of Savills

The last Sydenham Terrace sale in 2007 was in the order of €1.1 million, and before that it was 2003 when the last sale went through, in the €750,000 price bracket: the market generally is now back to 2003 price levels according to recent surveys, and No 5 fits the readjusted expectations well — it may even get a bit of bidding when people realise just how good it is.

After all, houses in this premium, Monkstown Grand Circle row of six don’t come along very often.

Savills’ Catherine McAuliffe reckons that Sydenham Terrace has the very best views in period-chic Monkstown, and No 5’s views are close to peerless: they look past a large Monkey Puzzle tree, over the silhouetted spire of the modest local Church of Ireland church, out to Verolme, survey the harbour basin, Haulbowline, and over that island and Spike to Carlisle Fort, and out further again to the mouth of the harbour and to Roches Point. Plant a telescope here, and boredom will not be an option.

Sydenham Terrace houses are two-faced, seemingly modestly two-storey at the rear where they have their cul de sac lane entrance, and jump up to three storeys when seen from the water side.

No 5, with its own garage for off-street parking, has 2,600 sq ft of space, and in effect there’s a full four-bed two-storey house on the upper levels, with a lower ground level as an added bonus.

That bright lower level, easily adapted as a self-contained unit if needed, has a large living room, smaller room, shower room/WC and laundry/utility, with direct access to the almost 100’ run of immaculate tiered and landscaped gardens. A solid, thick-plank pine summer house has been placed near the end at the garden’s pedestrian access, an ideal ‘withdrawing’ space with views.

Three of the house’s four bedrooms (there’s an optional fifth at garden level) lower are to the front, and so have the same views, only from higher up, and all are in spotless condition, with a top floor WC, and a larger main bathroom on the return, with both bath and impressive separate shower with teak foot boards.

The main entry level has a gracious hall with all the period trimmings, and opens to the main 19’ by 15’ drawing room with three arched sash windows; next to it is a family room, with lofty beveled glass double doors to the kitchen, fitted with oak units. The kitchen looks out on the rear, private patio garden. Painted externally in pale shades of restful blue, No 5 is a walk-in job, and has well preserved and presented sash windows, many with working shutters, slate roof, high and corniced ceilings, good fireplaces, polished hardwood banister rail on slender spindles, with stained glass window on the stairwell. All the bathrooms are up to modern spec, and if anyone wanted to make changes, the kitchen might be one of the very few areas: Aga, anyone?