Very old meets very new at rebuilt €1.3m Cork home of the late auctioneer and antiques specialist Joe Woodward

Set your sails for Chartwell, a B2-rated Douglas home on private grounds fully rebuilt after a fire. 

Chartwell was extensively rebuilt after a fire in 2019. Picture Dan Linehan

Douglas,  Cork
€1.3 million
Size	240 sq m (2,560 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3/4
Bathrooms	Bathrooms: 3
BER	B2

IT’S appropriate that the front door of Chartwell is solid, dark hardwood, as it’s the entrance to the private home of the late, specialist antiques auctioneer Joe Woodward, who sold mahogany furniture, art, silver  and other ‘good stuff’ by the boatload, over a very long sales career.

Silver service: The late Joe Woodward pictured here in 2003

Fourth generation in the family business Joseph Woodward & Sons - which was founded 140 years ago this anniversary year - Joe Woodward died in April 2022, having moved to this home not once, but twice, first around 1986, then the second time after it was fully rebuilt, following a fire in 2019.

Although set on Cork’s Douglas Road, Chartwell’s existence will be unknown to just about everyone, as it’s utterly out of sight and very  private, on a screened and mature 0.6 acre.

It’s reached down a long approach avenue which it shares with one other, older, detached house called Craigend: the only clue to their existence really are the houses’ discrete nameplates on the main road.

The setting is across the road from Woolhara Park: just on the city side is the sleek contemporary home, Mosman, sold in 2015 for €900,000, while on the Douglas side are the highly unusual over-basement duo built in the early 2000s, marked out by scimitar-looking spikes in their roofs and which otherwise have enjoyed low-profile since being unsuccessfully offered for sale as the Celtic Tiger’s tail drooped.

Right on Chartwell’s Douglas Road doorstep there have been some strong recent resales.

The do-er up Coolfadda, owned by blues guitar maestro Rory Gallagher’s mother Monica at one stage, sold for €955,000 in early 2022 on an equally private site.

Rory Gallagher at Coolfadda

The period Knockrea House sold last year too, for €1.485m, on a large site and needs to be converted back to private home after serving as a HQ for IBEC/FUE, for several decades.

And, topping them all was Knockrea Lodge, a rebuild beside Knockrea House, making €1.8 million in an off-market deal last year, bought by an individual who sold up a super-sized home Muir Wood in Maryborough Orchard for €2.45m, also in an off-market deal.

Vendors then were a family called Thompsons, who were keen sailors and Tom Woodward thinks the name came from ‘Chart’ and ‘well’ as a reflection of that interest – one coincidentally shared by his father Joe, who kept a yacht near Galicia in Spain for many years.

Chartwell is also the name of an English country pile, in Kent, owned for over 40 years by Sir Winston Churchill: Cork's Chartwell's next owners can decide for themselves which version of the name they want to align with.

It’s in as-new condition as it was considerably  rebuilt after the '19 fire. It broke out during a heatwave in 2019 when the house thankfully was unoccupied, after days of intense sunlight hitting a mirror on a bedroom vanity table reflected on an internal wall, kicking off a blaze. “We never heard of anything like that before; since then, we heard of lots of cases of similar events with mirrors and sunlight,” says Tom.

Predeceased by his wife Mary who died in 2015, Joe Woodward moved back into the house just before covid lockdowns came about, proving a safe sanctuary throughout the period, with the gardens a real boon.

The property has a perfect aspect, facing south in all the main rooms, where there’s a deep, bay window in the large main drawing room, while there’s also a good-sized sunroom/conservatory wrapping around two sides of the house at the other end.

The adaptable layout also sees a L-shaped kitchen/diner/family area, with formal dining area appropriately furnished, a long hall for display of art, a utility and two ground floor bedrooms, one with dressing room and they can connect via a shared bathroom.

Upstairs is a main bedroom suite, with great garden views, built-ins and dressing room, plus en suite bathroom and access for a dormer-style art studio/nursery/optional bedroom no four.

Chartwell is on 0.6 of an acre, with lots of privacy

Under its new red tile roof, dormer Chartwell has just over 2,500 sq ft, with a good B2 BER, has gas heating, monitored alarm and is in walk-in condition, within a walk of Douglas, or of the city centre, with a plethora of local amenities right on its doorstep.

A family buying now for the long haul might make some internal layout changes, or a trade-down couple might just find it’s a perfect ‘fit’ as it is.

In any case, the placing on the large site allows for lots of variations, and there are also garage/storage buildings by the house, in a useful cluster.

VERDICT: You’d be hard pressed to get an ‘as-new’ house on such a site in this suburban setting.