Perfect Tivoli perch

With large suburban gardens and site potential, this Cork property has options aplenty, writes Tommy Barker

Just about 50 years old now, and ready for a mid-century revamp is Tivoli House — a curved house on a rare amount of city suburban land. Set towards the top of the Tivoli Estate on Cork city’s northern hills, it’s got the largest site of all of the several dozen detached Tivoli houses, with the most commanding of valley and harbour views. Most Cork people won’t be too familiar with the location, off Lovers Walk — but they’ll know many of the houses by sight, as they’re in full view from the Marina and hinterland across the Lee.

Tivoli House is new to market with joint agents, Dominic Daly, and Sheila O’Flynn and Michael O’Donovan of Sherry FitzGerald, who seek offers around the €950,000 mark, clearly putting a lot of that value on the 3.1 acres it’s on.

On this sort of generous scale it’s possible some will look at the entire and see some extra site potential as well; to suit this sort of buyer, there’s now services (gas, water, sewer) to hand at the site’s corners, as adjacent serviced sites got sold off alongside back in the boom, and are now home to some quite spectacular contemporary homes.

Dating to 1961, Tivoli House was built as a family home by city solicitor and former Youghal Carpets chairman Brian O’Brien, to a high standard, as befitted the demands of the day, with quality materials, high ceilings and the firm imprint of an architect, in this case Jim Buchan, while builder was the well-regarded Barry Burke.

O’Brien family members who grew up here recall cattle grazing in adjoining meadows, and say this Tivoli House was built in the market garden behind the original mid-1700s Palladian-style Tivoli House, now demolished.Back in its heyday, the Tivoli gardens ran down to the river and had wharfage rights on what’s now reclaimed land at the Lower Glanmire/Tivoli Road by the Skew Bridge.

Today’s Tivoli House is built in a sort of wedge or fan shape, with the south-facing aspect the broadest, giving east, south and west views from its formal and main rooms, and the narrower, approach end of the wedge is an ivy-wreathed narrower section, sheltering the stout and leaded glass front door.

Inside, there’s a splayed and quite grand hall, with curved staircase, three reception rooms (the middle one is 28’ by 14’) kitchen/dining room on the east end, with utility/WC off the hall at the other end.

Overhead, there are five bedrooms, four to the front and two have access to a wide, mid-section balcony.

When originally designed, the full plan included a further wing to the right/west: though it was never built, it would be the making of the house’s aspect, while the garage on the eastern side has scope for integration into the kitchen end for a great, sweeping, family living/dining/hanging out space.

In fact, what Tivoli House now needs is no more than a competent architect or designer; it’s obvious enough what would lift it to another level — extension with lots of glass, simple as that.

VERDICT: At or around its 50th birthday, Tivoli House is just a bit tired, but a vitamin shot of imagination will fire it up again. And, then there’s site potential, now or in the future. Buy it now, fill it with a family, and plan retirement to a bungalow in the grounds in a few decades time.