House of the Week: Spacious five-bed on Cork's Blackrock Road for €850,000

Thu, 27 Aug, 2020 - 16:30

Catherine Shanahan

If Hasbro created a Cork version of Monopoly, Menloe Gardens would be its most expensive piece of real estate.

So says Brian Olden, selling agent with Cohalan Downing.

“It is the best address in Cork,” he says, “it’s Cork’s Shrewsbury Road”.

Mr Olden says the proof of the pudding is in previous sales.

Cohalan Downing did, after all, oversee three of the most recent sales in this upmarket, leafy estate: Scarteen, re-named Sonoma, which sold in June 2019 for €740,000; Kinsley, the largest and possibly youngest house of about 40 in the estate, which sold for €1.24m in July 2019 and Elmford, a house on a fine site but in need of modernising, which fetched €637,000 in March last year.

Mr Olden is now guiding at €840,000 for “Moselle”, a fine family home that extends to over 2,000 sq ft, with a delightful, private, west-facing garden.

Built by Murphy Builders in 1929/1930, it has been in the ownership of the same family since about 1933.

The current owner is the son of the man who made a wonderful job of the garden, planting enough vegetables to feed his family. A gorgeous and ancient apple tree forms the centrepiece and a hammock is comfortably strung between it and a neighbouring tree.

Like his father, the son is also passionate about the great outdoors, albeit camping adventures took precedence over heavy duty planting.

Rally-driving was another great interest until “it all got a bit crazy” and now all that remains of his old Lancia 1.3, an iconic car in motorsport, is its number plate, tacked to the door of a charming white-washed shed at the bottom of the garden.

There’s room for extending without taking too much from the garden, albeit the house was already extended twice, first in 1944 by the father of the owner.

“He was asked at the time if he was building an Anderson (air raid) Shelter because they were putting them in down the road,” he says. One such shelter, built during “The Emergency”, lies buried beneath the grass in a small park at the bottom of nearby Temple Hill.

The house was again extended in ‘97/’98 when the current owner moved in from Frankfield, following the passing of his mother. He increased the size of the kitchen and installed a sizeable bathroom upstairs over what was the single-storey pantry.

He also had the house re-wired, re-plumbed, re-roofed, under-pinned and dry lined.

Mr Olden says it is “rare that a house this age in Menloe Gardens” would have had such extensive work done in the past 20 years.

Mozelle, a five-bedroom, bright, airy, detached house, which may require some modernising, is a home of “real quality” Mr Olden says.

Among some lovely features is a set of original French doors with bevelled glass between the dining room and the living room. The doors had originally opened onto the garden until the father added the living room in the course of his 1940s extension.

There’s a gorgeous tiled hallway and the original, elegant 1930s staircase, as well as a bay window in the dining room.

Living accommodation is plentiful and there are lots of options to create a home office, either adapting one of the five bedrooms, two of which are ensuite, or converting an adjoining garage. Or both.

Mr Olden says Blackrock is a location “second to none with a wealth of amenities on its doorstep”

The owner, who is downsizing and heading for the coast and a seaview, says he has mixed feelings about leaving peaceful Menloe Gardens, with its large green area and magnificent mature trees.

“I’m looking forward to the move, but also sorry to be leaving,” he says.