Riverview Terrace was built in Passage West's heyday - one handsome house on the terrace is now up for sale for €520,000

Understated elegance is the order of the day at Riverview Lodge, where period features have been carefully retained writes Catherine Shanahan

Sun, 16 May, 2021 - 15:04

Passage West, Cork
€520,000
Size	209 sq m (2250 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	F

MIGRATING to family seaside homes in Brighton and Margate was all the rage back in the day among Britain’s Victorian middle classes, but the more prosperous of Cork were dab hands at it too.

So it was that houses such as Riverview Lodge sprang up in areas like Passage West, Monkstown, and Cobh, at achievable distances from the city at a time when rail lines had yet to supplant horse-car services and Henry Ford and his motorcar were still some distance away.

Riverview Lodge in Glenbrooke, Passage West, is specifically identified as just such a dwelling in our national architectural heritage database, which describes it as “part of a group of handsome nineteenth century homes...built outside the town centre for both temporary and permanent residents who were drawn by the sea bathing and healthy air to this fashionable area”.

Passage West was riding high at the time, with holidaymakers flocking to its Turkish Bath-House in Glenbrook and plenty of employment at The Royal Victoria Dockyard.

It was in these boomy times that Riverview Lodge, in Riverview Terrace, was built, in 1845, according to the current owner Gail Kelly née McGrath, whose parents, Terri and Pat McGrath, own another historic home, St Aubyns on Strand Road, in nearby Monkstown.

Gail has researched the history of Riverview Lodge and says it was part of the Parker Estate, belonging to one William Parker Esq, a sugar merchant with grand plans to transport the destitute from the boglands of Ireland to a better life in South Africa, although history shows it didn’t pan out as planned and he returned home, disillusioned. At any rate, he made his fortune as all six houses on Riverview Terrace were built by the Parkers to house their six children (it began life as Parker Terrace), while William and his wife lived in Maryville Cottage in Passage West, now known as Lee Carrow, which, coincidentally, featured in these pages last week on sale, for €850,000.

The terrace, Gail says, was originally private and gated, although residents allowed locals to pass through, just closing the gates on New Year’s Day each year to prevent it from becoming a “right of way”. Ultimately though, it was made a right of way.

Gail is selling because she has relocated to Florida and while she and her colorectal surgeon husband, Justin Kelly, had planned to return, they are, for now, more drawn to the sunshine and less restricted lifestyle stateside. She had rented it out to a family friend for the past two years — who kept the house shipshape — but is now selling.

The terrace has longstanding links with the medical profession, Gail says, as it was once home to a Dr Corr, a GP who ran his practice from the house. At one point, five of the half dozen homes on the terrace were all occupied by doctors.

Gail purchased the property from the Casey family, of Caseys Furniture, in 2008, for just above the €625,000 asking price, right before the property market collapsed. She lived there for a few years with her daughter, before she met her partner and they moved to Florida.

The former fashion retailer is selling via Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald, guiding at €520,000.

“It's a gorgeous, bright, period home, terrific for family and with fabulous attention to detail,” Ms O’Mahony says.

It's a home where period features have been carefully retained, from the sash windows at ground level (upper levels have PVC replacements), to the corniced ceilings, picture rails, open fireplaces, and Victorian tiling in the kitchen.

In fact, understated elegance is the order of the day once you get past the fluted Doric columns flanking the front door, with its beautiful spoked fanlight.

The hallway has a high ceiling, fresh white walls, and a solid wood floor, and off the hallway on one side, and running the depth of the house, is an open plan kitchen/dining room, with simple, traditional style units in the kitchen, upcycled in pale cobalt, in warm contrast to the white washed stone walls.

Across the hallway, a spacious living room has lovely tall windows and a harbour panorama. A door leads to a smaller family room to the rear, which could be the perfect playroom, or, in this remote working era, an ideal home office.

At the back of the hall, there’s a guest WC and on the half landing, a utility and a shower room.

Three of the five bedrooms are on the first floor and the main bedroom is a knockout, with three tall windows to soak in those views — Gail says it would have been the main drawing room in Victorian times. The main bathroom is also on this floor and overhead are two more bedrooms, under the eaves.

Outside to the front is a gravel area for off-street parking, and to the side, there's wide, gated access to a large private courtyard and west facing tiered rear garden that catches the sun all day.

Ms O’Mahony believes Riverview Lodge will attract a family: “It has everything going for it: space, lifestyle, beautiful skyline, close to the water, near the city. You can even cycle to the city along the Greenway.”

VERDICT: Gorgeous house, conveniently located, with plenty of lifestyle options. Just what the doctor ordered.