A Victorian oasis of subtle luxury
THIS Blackrock Road house, in Cork City’s Ballintemple suburbs, will be coveted, setting hearts beating, hopes rising, and Lottery tickets selling.
New to market is the 1902-built, Victorian-style semi-d Toorak. It has the warmest of feeling, rather than a ‘wow factor’ — it’s all understated luxury and quality and sheer aesthetic appeal, rather than a shouty place that announces itself to the world.
Thanks to its sublime back garden, it’s a wee oasis, within a walk or short cycle of the city centre, schools and services, and is a walk-in job for new owners.
Its occupants, here since the 1990s, bought from owners who had been here for decades, spent well and wisely, and upgraded it carefully, without following the usual pattern book: as a result, it has huge authenticity, originality, plus personality.
Its selling agent is Timothy Sullivan, whose stomping ground is Blackrock, and he says “Toorak’s one of the finest residences to appear on the city market in some time.”
He’s right. Toorak is impressive, and immediately impressing on viewings.
Toorak’s original builder was Australian, the vendors say, hence the name, which recalls the Melbourne suburb of Toorak, by the Yarra river, one of that Antipodean city’s most affluent suburbs — a parallel, then, to Cork’s leafy Blackrock.
This Toorak’s an extended, three-storey semi-d in a row of similar-era homes by Chiplee and Lindville, on the city side of Ballintemple.
Recent quality house sales in the vicinity have been priced from 500,000 to over 800,000, and Toorak has a 675,000 guide, which possibly reflects the fact it’s not detached — not that it matters when the dividing walls are so thick, and gardens so mature and private. Toorak has been extended to the rear, to pretty much the full width of the house at ground level, as well as to the side, where there’s secondary access to a useful back hall or back kitchen, with well-finished and extensively tiled shower room (this side wing has the slight, unfortunate effect of blocking off external access to the back garden, but provides a screening area for recycle bins, etc).
Toorak was a large house before its back and side add-ons, and not only is it three-storey, but it has rear-annex returns on each of its two upper levels, with a bedroom and bathroom in each back section. It all makes for great privacy and separation, and lovely, open staircases and turns.
Thanks to easy-on-the-eye decor, and some colourful, quirky or just captivating artwork, every room has spark and character, and bathrooms are similarly above standard, with clever touches, including mirrors integrated into existing window frames with part sand-blasted sections, as vanity splash-backs. It means full privacy and functionality, and it works as a design touch, too.
In a welcome break from the norm, the owners opted, during their building overhauls, not to go with en-suite bathrooms, so each of the six bedrooms has original proportions and feel. The best bedroom is the front, bay-windowed master, a spacious 20’ across and 15’ wide, with polished, old pine floorboards, and high, corniced ceilings: shoe-horning an en suite into it would have spoiled the serenity of the space.
The two attic rooms are a remove to themselves, each with simple charm, and there’s a small WC for midnight calls of nature.
Back, far, far away at ground level, Toorak has a great deal of floor space off the side-set, period-appropriate entry porch, with a touch of contemporary style added by replacement/new stained glass windows by Cork artist, Mary Mackey. Her panels, a fresh take on a venerable art, are alive with light and life, featuring in the main door, as well as in very narrow sections around side panels of sandblasted glass for privacy.
The hall is floored with small, repeat-pattern tiles, and to the front is a semi-formal sitting room, the same size as the overhead bedroom, at 20’ by 15’.
Again, it has polished old-pine floors, deep, bay window, Valentia slate fireplace, and cornice work and ceiling rose, with plaster detail background picked out in dark, almost ox-blood colours.
This front room has double doors to a rear reception room/dining room, which also has its own hall access by the kitchen, and so the kitchen’s effectively book-ended by the hall/dining room and the new, modern, light filled extension which, although nominally north-facing, gets light in at all other sort of angles.
This great, airy, open family space or garden room is 32’ wide, and 12’ deep, with one south-facing window to an enclosed courtyard between the extension and the dining room. Its back wall is all glass and/or sliding doors, glorying in views of the garden beyond, as well as giving access to a stainless steel pergola, and paths leading to end-of-garden summerhouse/shed. The view couldn’t be prettier, or more chocolate boxy.
The room’s central section is mildly pitched, with four big Veluxes for early-morning and late-afternoon east/west sun-catching, and, for evening times, there’s an oversized fireplace.
Yet further evidence of bespoke joinery or outside-the-box thinking (design is by the vendors themselves) is the detail in the ceiling’s panelled timber-work here, and in the kitchen and utility, where wood sheeting is used to angular effect, with inset recessed lighting.
The same, lush Italian marble floor is used in the extension and into the kitchen, where solid, cream-painted timber Neptune units are topped with Venetian, gold-fleck granite counter tops, with an inset small sink under an upcycled or repurposed, old, mirror-backed sideboard top.
This pedimented piece of dark-timbered furniture (see pic p10) has glass side cupboards, slender shelves and is, well, a great idea to copy if you see a similar piece in an antique auction.
Despite the quality marble floor and granite tops, there’s no bling or showing-off here in this practical, walk-through kitchen, which has lots of storage in situ, and is further backed up by a pantry and a bright, capacious, east-facing side lobby measuring 16’ by 8’ wide.
Toorak’s got the air of being a supremely comfortable family home, with rear gardens to match the quality of the interiors, along with off-street parking for several cars in the graveled front garden, bounded by mature shrubs. Close the gates (the main road entrance, opposite Crab Lane, is quite narrow) and even the front garden is very private.
Overall site size is around one-fifth of an acre, so there’s plenty of back garden to be had and enjoyed, but not as much as in the neighbouring, adjoining house.
The back has slate-finished patios and steps to a terrace with one-off, stainless steel pergola, and old-brick, well-like water-feature pond, all lushly planted.
Further setting the scene is the garden summer house, or dollied-up ornamental shed, with pitched slate roof, and carved, Victorian-styled timber window frames. This is set behind cast-iron railing or fencing, again done with an artistic eye or sensibility, with arched trellis. Add in weather like there was when the Irish Examiner visited and photographed, and it’s suburban-garden nirvana.
Despite all its creature comforts, Toorak has an F BER rating, because of its fundamentals and age, open fireplaces, and because the main rooms have kept faith with the original, timber-sash windows and ingle glazing (though several have pvc double glazing).
Nearby, Toorak’s agent Tim Sullivan had a detached house in need of modernisation, on good gardens, recently sold in the high 600,000s.
Agents Cohalan Downing also have a modern, extended semi at Cleve Hill, sold for close to 600,000, and both agents have other strong Blackrock deals going through, showing strong price stability or recovery in the salubrious suburb.
Blackrock Road, Cork
€675,000
280 sq m (3,000 sq ft)
6
F
4
The real deal
For those who value period-home integrity, location, character and sensitive intervention and upgrades, Toorak will be hard to beat.
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