Answer to prayers? Cork landmark Christ the King church next to blessed city development site

Half acre at Turner's Cross "is as good an infill site as you'll ever get in the city"

Thu, 10 Mar, 2022 - 00:05

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports

THERE’S going to be no keeping up with the neighbours, no matter what gets built behind 1 Percyville – it’s right next door to an architecturally-acclaimed Art Deco church, the striking Christ the King.

Percyville (painted cream) is next to the 1931-completed Christ the King church and the former Kiely's shop (red brick, centre) at Cork's Turner's Cross

Just up for sale in Cork city’s southern suburbs is a semi-detached house with a back/side garden stretching to c half an acre. The 1931-completed Christ the King church looms alongside, designed by US architect Barry Byrne, who was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.

It created a number of ‘firsts’ in Irish church design, including being the first built all in concrete, and having an international calibre modernist designer. It features in a number of architecture/guide books as a recommended church to visit, along with the like of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral and the Honan Chapel at UCC.

Christ the King Church, Turner's Cross, designed by US-based Barry Byrne a student of master architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Picture: Denis Minihane.

So, no pressure on any builder or architect who makes moves on the half acre at the very heart of Turners Cross.

Up for sale is 1 Percyville, a period era semi-detached five-bed home of 1,600 sq ft, with adjoining garage, and a plot of ripe ground to the rear.

“It’s as good an infill site as you’ll ever get in the city,” says estate agent Brian Olden of Cohalan Downing, acting jointly here with Catherine McAuliffe of Savills Cork, and they guide the entire property at 1 Percyvilkle at €750,000.

There’s 50’ of road frontage to the junction of Evergreen Road, the South Douglas Road and Curragh Road, with access to the garden/site via what’s now the low-slung garage by the junction’s traffic lights, facing Curragh Road. Next to the site is a detached red-brick property, once a local shop called Kiely's, and a private family home for the last 20 years or so.

The location is ace, surrounded by houses, schools, local services and more, within a ten-minute walk of the city centre.

Most likely to be bought for residential development, it’s being sold as-is, as an entire, and the house itself may be extended, or new-builds may roll in behind.

Manna from heaven for infill residential development

There’s going to be an appeal to private developers and perhaps housing associations/AHBs, with density and design being judged by City Council Planners …who are not likely to take the church steeple alongside and the 19’ high statute of Christ as a height guideline or precedent.

Percyville is likely to predate the Christ the King Church, commissioned in 1927 by then Bishop of Cork Dr Daniel Cohalan (coincidentally a relation to founder of auctioneering firm Cohalan Downing, Maurice Cohalan who quips "all business is personal") as Cork's South Parish expanded and Truner Cross was subsequently made an independent parish.

Seating 1,200, it was built by contractor John Buckley, who was given a budget of £20,000, with a further £10,000 set aside for interior finishes and furniture. Total build cost overran to £27,000, and local architect FR Boyd Barrett oversaw the work, from 1929 to 1931.

The decision to construct the church and its large span of suspended ceilings entirely in concrete and as a base material, as a budget measure aroused strong opposition from the Society of Stone Cutters and Marble Masons who ruled that the foundation stone "shall not be worked, as the building of the said Church is detrimental to our trade.”