Villa living coming of age

Three-bed semi offers buyers the chance to experience gentrified social housing from a different era, reports Tommy Barker

Many of Cork city’s ‘villa’ houses are approaching 100 years of age, standing as expressions of respect for social housing at the founding of the State.

Several areas of Cork’s older suburbs became home in the 1920s and 1930s to developments of council-backed houses for working families, such as French’s Villas, McSwiney Villas and McCurtain Villas.