This little piggery went to market

IT’S being offered as a package, albeit a fairly tightly wrapped string of things.

An unusual offering and definitely more than meets the eye, is No 4 Tower Street in the historic southside area of Cork city around Evergreen Street.

More than history lies behind No 4 — to the rear is No 4a, an unseen dwelling, and derelict. Then, there’s nearly three-quarters of an acre of ground on its 105mX30m site, plus a row of sheds and outbuildings, piggeries of old.

This was, indeed, a city piggery, owned by the late Pat Jones, with animals fed and fattened up in the back gardens behind its terraced city neighbours and then herded around the corner to the bacon factory, Murphy’s Evergreen, just 50 yards away. The bacon factory — which at peak processed 1,200 pigs a week — closed in 1991.

Michael O’Donoghue of O’Donoghue Clarke calls the mix “a superbly-located portfolio of properties,” adding: “you stand in the middle of the grounds and you wonder how it missed people’s radar during the boom.”

Getting enough access to the largely landlocked plot is the key to development on the long, rectangular-ish site and some demolition will be needed. Also available in the mix is the adjacent No 2 Tower Street, but the intervening No 3 is in separate ownership. The site backs towards Deerpark CBS school at the rear.

Currently, No 4 is a three-bed end of terrace house, with side access lane to the derelict two-storey No 4a behind.

It may take one to several more new dwellings on the rear grounds, subject to satisfactory access, and density will dictate the selling eventual price, with no AMV quoted.