Where we sported and played: €495k Beaumont Cork semi has famous Bowles and Meyler family sports links

From soccer to swimming, hurling  to football and childhood garden goalposts, La Reine has seen all the glory days

Pitch-sized back garden (well, sort of) at La Reine 37 Lower Beaumont Drive, for sale for €495,000 via agents  Jeremy Murphy Associates

Lower Beaumont Drive, Ballintemple, Cork

€495,000

Size: 129 sq m (1,380 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 4

Bathrooms: 2

BER: D1

CALLING all sporting families: this suburban Cork home, with its 160’ long back garden, is calling out to those with energy to burn: fit for any family, it  has Bowles clan  links to a range of competitive sports, from swimming at an international level, to GAA greatness, and Irish soccer stardom too with the 'married-in' Meyler surname familiar to many.

Let it reign: La Reine is set to attract  competitive bids

Fresh to market is La Reine, on Beaumont Drive, a 1950s four-bed semi-detached, owned by the Bowles family since the early 1960s, headed by sports-mad patriarch Michael Bowles (Man U back in the day) and his wife Mary.

The couple raised four sports-engaged children here, two boys and two girls, with lots of games, goals and ball-kicking in this generous suburban garden.

All four of the Bowles clan were competitive swimmers, training with Sundays Well Swimming Club, familiar early morning pre-schoolclass habitues of the old Eglinton Street baths. 

Two, Declan and Stella went on to swim for Ireland at international level, and the internal walls, cabinets  and sideboard and tables of La Reine/37 Lower Beaumont Lawn, began to swell with medals, trophies, cups, awards and photographs.

That collection stepped up a gear as the family got older, marriages and grandchildren came and La Reine’s walls kept pace with sporting achievements, at very high levels, through the next two generations.

It was in part thanks to the prowess and profile of the likes of the GAA’s John Meyler, a high-ranking player, manager, selector, coach and trainer who’s worked with  Cork, Carlow, Kerry and Wexford counties at the highest levels, and who married Stella Bowles in 1983.

The Meylers, John and Stella, have two children, daughter Sarah, a competitive CrossFit athlete, and son David, who played professional soccer for Cork City, Hull, Sunderland and the Republic of Ireland, before retiring in 2019, capped 26 times (see 2010 file pic  of David Meyler, during his Sunderland days playing, with father John Meyler, at Cork's Turners Cross).

A file shot of a younger David Meyler with his father John Meyler at Turners Cross /Picture: Eddie O'Hare

It was proudly-displayed images of such familiar faces, among a wider family photographic array including grandchildren, that triggered the realization for Cork estate agent Jeremy Murphy that there was a ‘game on’ when he was interviewed for the possible sale of the Bowles family’s La Reine. It's an estate sale, after Mary Bowles’ recent passing, and after her life partner Michael died in 2004.

Set just on the fringe of Ballintemple, off the Blackrock Road,  this Lower Beaumont Drive family home is close to the GAA’s Páirc Ui Chaoimh and Páirc Ui Rinn, as well as rugby's Cork Constitution, Avondale Soccer Club’s pitch in Beaumont Park, and rowing clubs on the Marina and Blackrock Village.

Thus, it is exceptionally well-placed for any future owners hoping to follow on in the shoes (and flippers) of the previous family of occupants…..not to mention the 160’ of long back garden, with a south-west aspect, pitch-perfect for ball games, a trampoline, paddling pools, and house extensions.

The four-bed home was extended to the back, but that was back in 1972, and now has about 1,400 sq ft, and has been very well kept, says selling agent Mr Murphy.

Kitchen/diner at 37 Lower Beaumont Drive

He guides the semi-d at €495,000 (it comes just a few weeks after he listed a marginally smaller 125 sq m  three-bed semi-d, Ardmore at 26 Beaumont Lawn at €409,000) and No 37  has two reception rooms, one to the front with cast iron fireplace, rear lounge/dining room, kitchen/diner with oak units, and a guest WC.

Above are three double bedrooms, a single fourth bedroom and a recently upgraded main family bathroom.

No 37/aka La Reine has oil central heating, a D1 BER, and an attached garage.

There have been several similar market arrivals with very long back gardens (the like of which will never be included in new home offers!) on this stretch in the past several years, and lots of upgrades post-sales,

The Price Register shows 32 resales in the past 11 years with a Beaumont Drive address, several over €500,000, including an A-rated new build, 1a Beaumont Drive, built on a former local shop site by the public park, at €811,000.

VERDICT: You can expect competitive bidding.