Architect and doctor's €440k family home at St Luke's Cross has good bones

Windsor Framework, Cork-style? Period-era mid-terraced No 3 Windsor Place is knot to be missed

Warmth inside 3 Windsor Place, Lisney's Trevor O'Sullivan guides at €440,000

St Luke's Cross, Cork City
€440,000
Size	135 sq m (1,450 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	1
BER	C2

A LOT can change in three short years – No 3 Windsor Place can bear testimony to that.

Windsor Framework?

First up? The word ‘Windsor’ has gained a new currency on the island of Ireland, thanks the ingeniously-titled Windsor Framework agreement to bring more harmony back to EU and UK relations in the case of Northern Ireland woes, post-Brexit: tying the framework’s title to the reigning royal house of the UK and Commonwealth was a canny stroke, even if the DUP still will wiggle a way to a Windsor knot of Rishi Sunak’s whole shebang.

Thankfully, the young family selling 3 Windsor Place will recall it for simpler, better and more personal reasons. They only bought the charming period era city home by St Luke’s Cross three years ago, during covid times and lockdowns, have loved living here, but are already moving on, with some regrets, but lots of happy memories and good friends made and neighbourhood life embraced.

Does my rear look big in this?

The couple – an architect and a doctor – used their time well, doing what they call ‘cosmetic’ work to their purchase, a mid-terraced home in a run of five opposite Ard na Gréine and which was already in walk-in order when they fell heavily for it, its location, space, privacy and for its gardens in particular.

It’s set about 200 metres up the Ballyhooley Road from the junction and old toll booth at St Luke’s Cross, with life at the ‘cross’ getting more and more cultural, engaging and social all the time, from night music venue at the old church, to wine bars, coffee shops (Cork Coffee Roasters are among the latest arrivals) and delicatessen/shops, butchers and more.

Old character retained

They did mild updates and upgrades, painted it inside and outside, improved windows and garden/patio access behind with a new sliding door, added to the garden’s mature planting front and back, put in a new kitchen, and redid floors, some with new carpets.

Elsewhere there’s an oak herringbone floor in the kitchen/dining room, while also appreciating and keeping period details and features, including the feature, rough stone internal wall which was quarried not more than 100 metres from their (new) back door.

Oh and they also had two children arrive over the last three, topsy-turvy years, a son who now is aged two and a half and a daughter, born earlier this year and who’s got a devoted ‘big’ brother who smothers her with kisses.

New kitchen

They got the house painting done by themselves, and much of the alterations they wanted, all done before their first child arrived, with his own ‘schedule of works.’ But, in any case, it seem they reckon they can do further housework even with smallies to care for.....

The duo, from the south-east, with quite portable jobs and an ability to work remotely part-time at least, are making a lifestyle move to West Waterford, and are prepared to embark on renovations at an older era cottage in a rural county setting close to the sea and, as importantly, near grandparents.

Private rear garden: there's off-street parking behind the terrace too with gate/rear access

“That will be our third house, we love older homes. Our first was in Needham Place in the city centre, and we did lots of work on that. This is more cosmetic, and the next is long-term, we’ve plans in progress for it, but are moving anyway. The cottage has been in family hands for years and should be our forever home,” say the woman architect who’s left a light ‘stamp’ on the early 1900s-built No 3 and who says it was always their longer term intention to move at some stage “back to the south east.” 

Hall with sisal-shod stairs 

So with a move ‘for the right reasons’ in the offing, No 3 Windsor Place is fresh to market this week, carrying a €440,000 AMV with estate agent Trevor O’Sullivan of Lisney Sothebys International Realty (SIR). It comes on the back of a recent strong result he had across the road at 5 Ard Álainn, another mid-terraced buy which sold for €525,000, up from its €465k asking price, bought by a couple living locally.

No 3’s buyers of 2020, and now vendors already, had to bid above this property’s asking price at the time to secure it: it had been put for sale with a €320,000 AMV and the Price Register shows they paid €365,000 to secure it.

Might an underbidder or a viewer from its last market outing in 2020 come back for a second look? It’s a possibility, and even a change in borrowing multiples will put it within a reach of a range of buyers, including dual income first-time buyers.

Given it’s got c 1,450 sq ft inside, thanks to a layout on three floors, and four bedrooms, it too is well able to be a ‘home for life,’ and the vendors stress they are moving to be near family roots and the sea, not because a second child is imposing on their space.

Blooming lovely (pic from three years ago when last on the market).The tree is a almond blossom variety 

As well as having that good deal of space, other elements making this a home for the long haul are the great location, so close to the city centre and all the hub of humming life now at a reinvented St Luke’s Cross, the privacy screening of a front garden with magnificent blossoming almond blossom tree which is a feature along the road when in glorious bloom (see small pic on right): passers-by stop to photograph it on a regular basis, say No 3’s occupants.

In their own time, they’ve added to the planting, fruit trees and bushes and say there’s an array of spring plants which surface for months’ long colour and interest.

The mid-terrace house dates to the late Victorian/Edwardian era, c 1900 and has the hoped-for period detail features inside, while improvements along the way since have seen double glazing and gas central heating installed, resulting in a C2 BER.

The area’s vibrancy has recently been added to by the arrival of the St Luke’s Community Garden, about a sod of earth’s throw from No 3, and older neighbours say of Windsor Place, Windsor Terrace, and Windsor Cottages that they came in a spread along Ballyhooley Road and from its Victorian military barracks (now Collins Barracks, and were known as the ‘penny houses’, the ‘shilling houses’, and the ‘pound houses’: social stratification, Cork or ‘Reggie’- style is clearly nothing new.

One of the four bedrooms

Lisney SIR’s Mr O’Sullivan says No 3 “offers all the charm and character of a property expected from this era; bought in 2020 by its current owners, significant cosmetic modernisation has been done to the property.” Paints inside and outside are from Irish Colourtrend range, and also all-Ireland are the sisal stairs runner/carpet and the Ulster wool carpets, sourced from Christies in Douglas, while the new glazing is from Munster Joinery.

Rooms include a front reception with cast iron original ornate fireplace with slate surround and glazed, green insert tiles, with original polished pine floor boards. A room behind with painted white stone wall and retained old chimney breast (likely to have held a range cooker in days of yore?) has a more modern pine floor, with a small window and open doorway by a tiled divide to a rear dining room, and refitted, sleek-looking kitchen, with oak chevron flooring and tall, apex window above glazed, double doors to the rear grounds.

Dine in at No 3

Up the sisal-shod stairs are two first floor bedrooms, both doubles, with a redone bathroom on the return/half landing.

Dip a toe in market at 3 Windsor Place

Then, the top floor has a tall box dormer to the front, with two bedrooms, the larger or main one going front-to-back, or double aspect, with a smaller one alongside, whilst the landing is a useful workspace too.

Overall condition is tip-top, and for family buyers it’s within a walk of both primary and secondary schools, as well as an easy walk to the city centre and the increasingly buzzy Victorian Quarter/MacCurtain Street. Office buildings – including one hosting Apple workers - have cropped up on the north quays and by the reorientated Kent Railway Station, and there’s lost more riverside development set to come down the tracks, including apartments.

VERDICT: City living made so easy and, as the owners say, “when you’re inside, it’s like living in the country, but in town.”