Welcome return as Blackrock Road's Toorak is back, with €1.25m price tag

One of the most attractive Victorian homes in Cork is back on the market, and even better, since last selling in 2013 for €770,000, writes Tommy Barker

Fri, 25 Sep, 2020 - 13:00

Pictures: John Roche

Blackrock Road, Cork City
€1.25 million
Size	281 sq m (3.,034 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	C3
Verdict: No expense spared charmer

HOORAY! Toorak’s back. Seven years after it last came to the market for sale, it‘s even better again, yet has retained its aesthetic and charm through yet another set of owners’ hands.

Might an underbidder from 2013 resurface to snatch it away again…even at the 2020 AMV now of €1.25 million? And if they’ve found more cash available to them at the back of the sofa?

They may have lived with regrets of ‘loss’ in the intervening period? It’s almost possible, seeing as how there were six disappointed other bidders keen on it back then when it topped out sales-wise at €770,000.

One of the most attractive Victorian homes to come up for sale along Cork’s Blackrock Road in the past decade and now priced at €1.25 million by Sherry FitzGerald, the tall three-storey semi-detached home was last bought back in 2013, almost surprisingly as a ‘trade-down’ home for a couple who had sold an even larger, finer period home close to Blackrock village.

Front view of Toorak and its gravelled entrance Blackrock Road, Cork.

Now, they are trading down one more step, to something a little bit smaller, and low-slung.

Back in ’13, on their last step down, they lots of furniture to find a new home for, and they had money in hand to spend. And, they had wanted the location of their next home to be on a par with what they were leaving, switching along the Blackrock Road from one side of Ballintemple, by the village, to the city side, by Crab Lane.

So, as enriched cash buyers, they confidently outbid all others for Toorak, part of the competitive drive which saw it sail past its then €675,000 AMV to sell for €770,000. Then, after they had successfully bought here, they spent further…pretty lavishly, as it turns out, and the work is reflected in a BER turnaround from a reported ‘F’ back in ’13 to C3 now….sort of “an Honours maths grade,” as the owner's quip.

Drawing room linking to dining room/study

The couple didn’t so much extend as alter some internal layouts, such as making for a bigger and more luxurious main bedroom suite to the front, facing the Blackrock Road, described as ‘boutique hotel-like’ by selling agent Sheila O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald.

They also made for a more practical kitchen, now full-width at the back of this pristine period property, instead of sticking with the narrower ‘galley’ affair which was here when they came.

They pretty much kept one side of the kitchen as it was, and then added as much again on the other side, with a large kitchen island in between complete with circular seating area, all done by House of Coolmore, and it’s now gently warmed by a new gas Aga oven for good measure, while units either side of the now-enlarged space are granite-topped.

There are also lots of new integrated appliances, and Ms O’Flynn says the island with its circular end is now the hub of this hospitable home.

Today, the 1902-built Toorak comes to market with a €1.25 million price guide: confidence in its sale prospects are boosted by several factors, first of course ‘the address,’ on the main Blackrock Road, just on the city side of Lindville, where the 1990s-built Lindville estate houses have picked up architectural detailing and proportion from the likes of Toorak, with its height, three-storey status, bay window carved fascias or bargeboards, slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, plus terracotta finials.

Toorak’s €1.25m guide price is the same as that pinned to another large Blackrock Road home, Ashton Park House, just sold for €1.8m, which had come to market via agents Cohalan Downing just as lockdown lifted in June of this year, in a jittery pandemic times market.

The quality of that house, and the Blackrock Road location, carried the day, however, and the place just took off price-wise for one of the strongest prices paid for a Cork city home in recent years.

As separately reported this weekend, Ashton Park House ended up selling for 50% over its guide price, making an unconfirmed c €1.8 million after a brief and intense bidding war and was picked up by a low-key Cork buyer.

The kitchen in Toorak Blackrock Road, on the market with Sherry FitzGerald

The exact selling sum won’t emerge until it appears on the Price Register in coming months, and its selling agent Brian Olden declined to comment other than to say it had done exceptionally well given the nervousness of the time of its launch. The c 4,000 sq ft Ashton Park House was built in 1918, just after WWl ended, and was on a half-acre at the city end of the Blackrock Road.

Ashton Park House’s vendors had bought it in 1997, for Ir£350,000/€440,000, also from Mr Olden and it was back then a price record for a Cork home, just before prices took off on an eight-year bull. Since then, they sold a site off the original grounds (now built on,) and kept another site for a new-build for themselves.

A bedroom in Toorak Blackrock Road on the market now with Sherry FitzGerald

Might some of the early viewers and even underbidders on Ashton Park House who’d been left trailing in the wake of its bidding trajectory come around to look over the utterly pristine, period property Toorak?

South-facing, and lofty, it now presents prettily to the road outside graced as it is by its two-storey window bay, side porch entrance with carved fascias, its upgraded sash windows and, especially thanks to the plantation shutters across all of the lower panes of the front windows.

It’s entered to the side, with its ‘back’ door almost directly behind in a previously-added utility room extension off the kitchen. Between the two doors is space for bins, nicely out of sight, while the ‘new’ utility allows thru’ access on its other side to the garden….it’s a clever design/layout compromise which allows for a wider extension to the back on homes on relatively width-restricted sites.

The grounds at Toorak are, however, long, and lovely. There’s lots of greenery to the front, either side of the gravelled drive, which has room for three or four cars past its relatively slender entrance pillars.

Having launched another Blackrock Road detached home, Shamrock Place, to the market just three weeks ago with a €1.5m guide and reporting good inquiries this week, agents Sheila O’Flynn and Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald say Toorak’s a picture-perfect, ready to move into home ideal for families in the hunt in the Blackrock/Ballintemple vicinity, and also is ideal for anyone returning to Cork from overseas in a lifestyle shift in Covid-19 times.

Part of the picturesque garden at Toorak on the Blackrock Road, Cork city.

They say “it offers a great blend of the property’s original features, with a contemporary and modern twist spread over all of its internal levels, with wall panelling, ceiling plasterwork and panelling, 9’ high ceilings, plus original and upgraded sash windows.” It has up to five upstairs bedrooms, in an occupant-friendly layout which sees two bedrooms, each on half returns between the house’s three front levels, facing the long back garden, each next to a good quality bathroom, comfortably decorated and each ideal as a semi-private room.

The top floor also has a bedroom next to an attractive bathroom, plus there’s a storeroom/bed five.

Piece de resistance is the front, first floor main or master suite, with two south-facing windows, one into the deep bay, both with shutters to match those in the sitting room underneath. The current owners adapted what had been a bedroom alongside, and used it instead to create a walk-through, spacious dressing room, which links then to a private en-suite, four-piece bathroom.

While the home is tall, it’s also deep, about 55’ from front to back, taking in the front sitting room, and leading then via glazed double doors to a home office/dining room, next on through the kitchen/breakfast room and then out to the 30’ wide back living/family space by the terraced patio.

Part of the quirk of the layout is the creation of a small side garden, between study/dining, and back living room, and flanked on one side by the kitchen, and on the other ‘long’ side by a neighbouring party wall. It’s a pretty space, enhanced by woven willow panels on the party wall, and can be accessed from the back family room, or via a lovely, original glazed door by the study/dining room, topped by ornate external fascia boards.

While the interconnected front rooms tend towards the ‘formal,’ the 30’ by 14’ back living/family/dining is more relaxed, open to the kitchen on one side, and to the very long back garden on the other, where there's a lot of glazing, and sliding doors for terrace access.

The north-facing room is bright, thanks to four Velux windows in the roof ceiling’s pitches, and there’s a fireplace with stove, plus an eight-pane internal window shared between here and the luxurious kitchen.

Meanwhile, the terrace or patio is full width and ringed by lavender which has just lost its summer best for this year: it’s is a quality job, finished in stone flags, with a few steps down to the garden level proper, where there’s an outdoor dining table set up.

Further out the garden is another garden seat, on a circular stone base and a wrought iron garden divide creates a visual point of reference, and an arch serves to hold seasonal climbing and rambling roses.

Most attractive of all, though, is the picturesque garden room at the far end, basic within but winsome without, with carved fretwork timbers framing the south-facing windows.

The perfect way to end up walking yourself up the garden path, it’s just the sort of cabin and retreat that house-bound workers might have dreamed or, or delivered, during Covid-19 lockdown times.

Today, it might well be upgraded to home office use, Sherry Fitz’s Sheila O’Flynn suggests and, if so, it’s about the only thing left to do at the utterly charming, and immaculately-turned out Toork.