€550k Edwardian home in Cork City is full of architectural detailing

Mid-terrace Lee Road period era home is full of architectural detailing, with river views from the front

Good-to-go and to work on/gently buff up is Glenbeigh. on Cork's Lee Road near Wellington Bridge

Lee Road, Sunday's Well, Cork City
€550,000
Size	170 sq m (1,820 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	E2

 THE trio of Edwardian era homes called Riverslee, Glenbeingh and Rathfern could be describe as siblings, and though all three date to 1907, they are far from being identical triplets.

Step up and in

Bookending duo Riverslee on the left/west, and Rathfern on the Sunday’s Well side of this Lee Road trio, are taller, three storeys with top flloor lunette windows and have double height bays, while the mid-set Glenbeigh is double-fronted with a single bay window, possibly squatter but nonetheless with its own striking façade, topped off with an Arts and Crafts like flourish with the date 1907 proudly displayed above its middle front bedroom window, under a terracotta tiled apex in the roof.

Graceful Glenbeigh and its taller 'siblings'

Back for sale after a slight internal refresh, Glenbeigh first came for sale in late 2024 and featured in these pages with a then €550,000 AMV, later likely to have been reduced.

Now, it’s had a change of agents and the price is back to €550,000, quoted by an impressed Katie Fennessy of Sherry FitzGerald.

She says it’s full of internal architectural detailing, from fireplaces to doors, architraves high ceilings, plasterwork, panelling, stained glass partition doors, floors and tiling, and with a lovely slight kink at the ground level’s start to the feature staircase with impressively solid mahogany rails, newels and posts.

Set near Wellington Bridge/Davis Bridge at the city end of Cork’s Lee Road, the joined up trio with broad shoulder ends are part of a run of Edwardian beauties with a southerly aspect over the River Lee, right by the weirs past the Lee Fields and where Cork’s much-loved Lee separates into its two channels wrapping around the city core before reuniting by the Port of Cork site near City Hall.

It's a pure Cork setting, with views to County Hall and with impressive older neighbours to its west, from the Lifetime Lab in the former 1850s waterworks (now a visitor attraction) to the former Our Lady’s Asylum of the same mid-19th century period, now largely converted to apartments.

Weir here because weir here

 In between, the Land Development Agency is progressing on the delivery of over 200 new homes at the former St Kevin’s institutional/medical building campus, with work on the fire damaged red-brick structure to be a later phase of development.

Coming up to its 120 birthday in 2027,

Glenbeigh seems confident of its roots, both Cork and architectural, with a current 170 sq metre, or 1,820 sq ft inside, up steps above the road, with a mature front garden and its name in cast metal on the wrought iron railings.

Notably, it’s one of the very few homes on this stretch with off-street parking, as a portion of its garden was at some stage excavated to provide a standard width garage with up and over door.

 The road left and right in from of Riverslee and Rathfern is pay and display parking, but faded yellow lines defensively mark out the access to Glenbeigh’s garage entrance, handy for a comp[act bar or other modes of transport safe storage.

Behind, this mid-section house is a cascade of overgrown gardens, rising up to Rose Hill Upper to the back.

VERDICT: Architects, medics and other professionals keen on easy city commutes by green spaces f have been among those buying homes in this quintessentially Cork location, how lovely is the Lee?