In-spired living over Cork harbour from reborn Park Villa

Victorian Cobh town home got major makeover since last selling only three years ago

Fri, 25 Aug, 2023 - 00:00

Property Editor Tommy Barker reports Picture H-Pix

Cobh, Cork Harbour
€695,000
Size	232 sq m (2,500 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	Exempt

‘WE knew it, and we loved it, ever before it came up for sale,” say Kevin and Karen O’Brien of their Cobh, Cork harbour home, Park Villa.

They love it still. But, now, having bought it only three years ago, they are leaving it. No, not because they’ve found an even better period Cobh home to lavish care on but, because a lifestyle move to France and the Dordogne region beckons and, really, Park Villa is a happily-done job.

Ex Navy IT specialist Kevin is already on the case for the move to La Belle France, learning French, and retailer Karen will follow suit once there and, if the job they’ve done here is anything to go by, they’ll do très bien, merci, over yonder.

The couple came to the fore after the Victorian timepiece residence Park Villa came to market in summer 2020, having been in the same Irish family’s hands since 1944 — coincidentally the year the Liberation of France made its biggest strides during the Second World War.

A long time back, so and in 2020 Cobh’s Park Villa had been several generations in Barry family hands, and had reared a family of five children before coming to market in June of that year with estate agent Lawrence Sweeney of Savills.

Solid then, but dated, the detached Victorian house on over 0.4 of an acre had carried a price tag of €475,000 and the Price Register shows it had changed hands by early 2021, for a recorded €435,000, with all who viewed knowing it needed additional spending, whilst still respecting its property pedigree and local heritage.

Kitchen with range and Sheila Maid clothes airer over

Back then, Mr Sweeney noted its exceptional good value at the €475k guide and observed that some Cork families yearning for a period home would have been priced out of the market for such quality in the likes of the city’s St Lukes, Montenotte, or Blackrock where, he reckoned, a similar home could have been in the €1m-€1.5m price league.

He rightly said they could buy in Cobh for fraction of that.

Rear garden : there's a tiered garden with possible extra site behind

In the heel of the (home) hunt, Park Villa went to local Great Island/Cobh buyers, Kevin and Karen O’Brien who say they’d often have stood by the entrance gates and admired this house secreted inside the quite narrow entrance; appreciated the secure grounds next to the Convent of Mercy on Spy Hill/Bishop Road, by the turn to Park Lane/Park View; and, they also loved the view past it to St Colman’s Cathedral and its sole, lofty spire, the tallest of any Irish church at 300’, or over 90 metres high.

In its early 19th century days, Park Villa would have seen the iconic church structure of St Colman’s which commands the town and Cork harbour rise stone by stone from its first years of construction from the late 1860s over slow decades, right up to 1919.

That’s when the spire was finally completed, and the cathedral consecrated, making it the country’s most expensive construction project due to constant design changes and upgrades.

The cathedral cost? A mere £235,000, in very old money terms: talk about construction and property price inflation?

Today, the couple comfortably in situ can see the cathedral tower from their (four poster) bed in one of the house’s best rooms, and which they’ve jokingly christened “the bedroom clock”, as they know from a glance out the bay windows when it’s time to get ready for road.

They’ve made this already feature-filled room with its deep bay window even better than originally might have been the case by extending it and annexing an adjacent room first floor room and further window, so that now there’s a very fine dressing room as part of their overall main bedroom suite.

This meant reducing the bedrooms tally from the four of heretofore, to three today as they didn’t need a fourth one and they thought the house deserved a suite of 21st century comforts and conveniences.

At the time they decided to take the plunge and to buy Park Villa, and apart from aspiring relocaters, local interest had come for trade-up families and even traders down and the O’Briens might well have been in the latter camp?

They’d previously renovated another Cobh property, but it was smaller they say. Yet, as their family was grown and largely flown, it’s a moot point: did they trade up size-wise, or trade down bedrooms-wise?

What they bought was 232 sq metres, or a quite even 2,500 sq ft of some exceptional period home grandeur: the entry point from the porch with its hefty solid pitch pine panelled door with glazing on the top, door furniture, and the main large wood-panelled hallway is thing of beauty and craftsmanship, rich in pitch pine, but now with its ecclesiastical overtone of previous decades softened by having the majority of it painted a pale cream/off white shade (main pic).

While it’s a pity in one way to lose the beauty of the grain, it certainly lightens the mood and gives a fresher feel, and the many antique pieces decorating get to show their own beauty in more stark contrast.

Might next owners take some or all of it back to the original varnished wood look? A purist might, but it takes some living up to. And, in some ways, that’s the beauty of home ownership, being able to make such decorative decisions.

This well-set Victorian home gets a mention in the Buildings of Ireland National Inventory after a detailed architectural description whose appraisal describes it as a “well-composed house displaying characteristic Victorian features such as the bay windows, irregular roofline and asymmetrical plan. The porch is of artistic distinction and displays high quality craftsmanship in its execution.” All that is still there.

Elsewhere, there is so much natural hued timber in any case, in select sections of the hall, in the beautifully curving, sinuous staircase’s polished mahogany handrail, in a featured carved fireplace and elaborate Victorian mirrored over-mantle.

It’s there in spades in the quite exceptionally ornate bay window dressing in the drawing room, with its carved columns and arched pelmets, and the 18’ by 13’ room (with large Henley wood-burning 8kw stove in an original, broad white marble and corbeled chimneypiece) links via an equally superbly worked arch in dark hardwood to a neat-sized dining room.

Rooms have corniced ceilings and some ceiling roses too, windows are still original one-over-one sliding sash windows in good overall condition, done pretty much all around inside with expensive plantation shutters which work both decoratively. Then, apart from the three reception rooms with c 12’ high ceilings there’s a utility/pantry, redone kitchen with capacious country style units in a sage green by Celtic Interiors, with cream Rangemaster stove, deep ceramic sink, and white stone worktops.

Topping it is a classic Sheila Maid clothes airer hanging over the stove, used now to display a range of antique copper pots and pans: little wonder the owner Karen admits to a love of Instagram for home décor styling inspiration as well as being a long time subscriber to interiors magazines such as the stalwart 25 Beautiful Homes … who could well do a with a visit to Park Villa?

“Oh, did I mention there’s a basement,” exclaims Park Villa’s selling agent Lawrence Sweeney as he wraps up (or, thought he’d wrapped up) a tour with the Irish Examiner on a sunny Friday after

noon when Cobh, like Park Villa, looked resplendent in its Victorian finery, up hill, and down dale and along the quays dwarfed on this particular day by an enormous cruise liner, keeping faith with Cobh/Queenstown’s centuries long links to the sea and sizeable visiting vessels.

Park Villa’s basement is an engine or plant room of sorts, down a tight-enough staircase to a series of three store rooms, home to some of the plumbing, heating and electrical brains and brawn of the 2,500 sq ft home above, now rewired and replumbed with all new heating, done by the O’Briens and local Cobh/east Cork builder Edward Browne doing the careful work to update, yet keep character, with Toddy Stafford doing electrics, whilst Kevin himself did much of the high-standard tiling in bathrooms, etc, though the encaustic hall tiled floor is still as was over 150 years ago when first laid: jobs well done, all around.

The couple put time and effort into finishes and furnishings, sourcing many of the free-standing decorative pieces nationwide and over in France, and there’s nary a thing to do in any room: it’s likely some viewers will want to buy close to fully furnished?

Those that want to have some input themselves might at some future time think of a suitable extension if they need more than the existing 2,500 sq ft over-basement Park Villa already has, or perhaps add a ground floor en suite bedroom to the side, near the adjacent convent’s grounds for lifelong adaptability or guest use?

Some may seek to upgrade windows to suitable conservation-standard or more energy efficient sashes, or recondition them, but in any case they’ve served well and have years left in them with a bit of maintenance, and it’s not like doing them at some stage will improve any energy rating, as Park Villa is a protected structure and thus BER-exempt.

Site may have scope for more at the top corner by Lake Road

On the bigger scale, there’s also possible scope for a second dwelling at the top, northern corner of Park Villa’s triangular site where it touches the Lake Road and where there’s an old, existing gate which could allow future access, even if restricted to pedestrian access given a corner setting.

The overall site in any case, sloping down and broadening out from the north/top to the mid-level entry point and lawns, will appeal to gardeners and families, with sit-out viewing perches, sun-traps and space aplenty, even if the top site section is just used for a bespoke garden room (contrasting crisp contemporary design inside the boundary walls, anyone?) at a slight removed from this much-loved 1870s original.

VERDICT: Some of Cobh’s period properties are almost too big for many of today’s families: that’s not so here at picture perfect Park Villa where a broad enough selection of house-hunters will love the mix of impressive reception rooms, architectural detailing and having two of its now-three bedrooms above with very good quality en suite bathrooms (plus main family bathroom) and not having ‘spares’ lying idle.

And, at a time of construction stresses and spiralled costs, the ability to buy a Victorian Cobh home that’s so well-situated, with in-spired cathedral and harbour views, all so well done, in a short space of time, well ... like its previous family owners’ professional background... it’s a proper banker.

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