No iffs, no Butts: well-pitched €545,000 period Cork house is picture pretty

Views to match much-loved 1750 Cork artwork John Butts' A View of Cork City from Audley Place are arrayed beyond this fine, period city home, writes Tommy Barker

Sun, 10 Apr, 2022 - 00:07

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports Pictures Declan Casey

St Patrick's Hill, Cork City
€545,000
Size	177 sq m (1,915 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4/5
Bathrooms	2
BER	Exempt

Pure Cork — that’s Audley Place, where a late Georgian era home, No 2, has come up for sale, steeped in original features, and with an unmistakable view of the city’s valleys and iconic church steeples from its front.

2 Audley Place is priced at €545,000 by estate agent Patricia Stokes

Audley Place is the plateau on top of St Patrick’s Hill, a steep hike up from the city centre, above Bell’s Field and Richmond Hill, with that classic vista to the west over the Blackpool valley, to St Anne’s Shandon, the Goldie Fish up top, and the North Cathedral, with all of the busyness of urban life beneath.

The landscape view was painted 270 years ago, by artist John Butts in the much-loved View of Cork City from Audley Place, now in the care of the Crawford Art Gallery since 2005. It’s one of the most-loved works in the entire collection, and the romanticised topography hasn’t changed much in the interim.

The same Bell’s Field setting had a starring role in The Young Offenders on more than one occasion and was the scene for a particularly awkward teenage shifting/kissing scene between Conor and Linda (Alex Murphy and Demi Isaac Oviawe in real life). Fans go to visit, and locals and visitors alike chill, sit and even shift with the panoply of Cork before them from this elevated perch.

Mists of time ...well, 2016. Young Offenders actors Alex Murphy and Chris Walley at Audley Place/Bell's field. Pic Larry Cummins

The views get even more concentrated and framed through the windows of the Georgian homes on Audley Place, were built in the first half of the 1800s for the
officer class at the nearby Cork Barracks, renamed Victoria Barracks in 1849 after a visit to Cork by Queen Victoria. It was renamed again after the War of Independence and the Civil War as Collins Barracks, with the Department of Defence still controlling a sizeable landbank due east of Audley Place, along and on both sides of the Old Youghal Road by CBC’s sports grounds.

No 2 Audley Place comes to market this April, with a €545,000 AMV quoted by estate agent Patricia Stokes, and is sort of a period piece in its own right, mid-terrace with — importantly — private gardens to the rear, with gated access for the terrace’s residents on Old Youghal Road.

Ms Stokes says she’s getting immediate interest in it, due to the location, aspect and views, size, further scope, and grounds to the back, all combining to make it ideal for urban family living, in a period property with garden.

The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes Audley Place as “a fine terrace of elegant mid-nineteenth-century houses, designed with a classical symmetry that is emphasised by the fine Doric doorcases,” noting it was built as a terrace of nine: perhaps it was extended? , as there are 11 in all, with Nos 10 and 11, the largest and double fronted. They share similar characteristics, such as square-headed doorcases, moulded render window surrounds, stone sills, and six-over-six timber sliding sash windows.

Some now are more original than others, but most have timber windows, top-hung ones painted a cheery red in the case of No 2, and several others have lovely beards of Virginia creeper or Boston Ivy.

Resales here seem pretty rare, and the Price Register shows just one in more than a decade, in the case of No 2 itself, which went to market in 2018 with a €420,000 AMV. It shows on the Price Register in 2019 as having made €432,000 after bidding among competing home-hunters.

Back to the past: kitchen with slate floor and Belfst sink

The previous owner had been here several decades and she had a background as an artist, and its buyers, now its vendors, also have a background in the wider arts and antiques sphere. They’ve continued the gentle minding and moving along of No 2 and didn’t upend it and risk losing the essential charm and architectural detailing — it still has the elusive patina of age.

Trish Stokes name-checks the period trim details such as skirting boards, doors, architraves, fireplaces, cornices, and picture rails, as well as high ceilings, and says the layout is adaptable, with scope for four or five bedrooms, and accommodation over three floors, with Veluxes up top.

As it has an east-west aspect, bedrooms have the choice of sunrises or sunsets from the upper floors, and “the hidden treasure of an extensive, walled-in lawned garden to the rear is one that will appeal especially when coupled with the private rear vehicular access,” Ms Stokes adds.

There’s a front reception room with two west-facing windows with small panes and a stone fireplace

Double doors lead to a kitchen with slate-flagged floor, done by the current owners with oversize hefty slate plus freestanding antique units, ceramic Belfast sink, and large old cast-iron range, with old meat hooks in the ceiling.

A side, long hall/corridor, part timber and part terracotta tile, runs front to back, from the sturdy old front door to a glazed rear door opening to an enclosed, whitewashed courtyard for morning sun. The lawn/garden is up a small further level beyond, with its back lane access.

There are three first-floor rooms, and two/three more in the attic (one’s simply partitioned), as well as two bathrooms with baths, one off one of the bedrooms, and, again, several bedrooms, have original fireplaces, including in the main front one with the updated ‘ View of Cork from Audley Place’.

No 2 has gas central heating, and a number of antique-style cast iron Victorian radiators; as the terrace’s houses are protected structures, there’s no BER needed.

For intending buyers, they’ll be drawn by the originality and feel, but it’s likely to need further spending at some stage too. What amount of further work, and when, can be discretionary for those on the hunt for an older city home, with very strong price results currently seen in similar highly-accessible locations such as at St Luke’s, Mardyke, North Mall, Victoria Road, and Sunday’s Well.