A gem in Blackrock's Menloe Gardens for €750,000

A charming 5-bed semi-detached 1930s home in Blackrock's sought-after Menloe Gardens

5 Menloe Gardens, Blackrock, Cork. Pictures Ryan Lynch

Menloe Gardens, Blackrock, Cork City
€750,000
Size	187 sq m (2,010 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	E2

People will want to get their teeth into this property, says estate agent Michael Downey of Burdon, a semi-detached 1930s era home in Blackrock’s Menloe Gardens — where, to certain Cork families, the location speaks for itself, doing so in dulcet tones.

We’re talking a charming and properly ‘green’ cul de sac within a few minutes’ walk of Blackrock village, its pier, parks and a raft of amenities, and near a clutch of late 18th and early 19th century grand houses like Rockcliffe, Drumcora House (now extended and converted to luxury apartments, expected to come to market soon) and the original Menloe House, with roots to 1800.

Menloe House was rebuilt after a fire in 1937, around the same time in the 1930s and into the 1940s/war years that individual, detached and semi-detached homes in Menloe Gardens were being rolled out in the ‘English garden’ and domestic revival style and manner.

Today, a distinguishing feature is the maturity of the greenery and individual gardens throughout, crowned by century-plus old chestnut trees in Menloe Gardens’ central green.

No 5, aka Burdon is a spring ’26 listing, guided at €750,000 by Michael Downey of ERA Downey McCarthy, who describes the price point as “attractive, but reflecting the extra spending new owners will want to consider.”

On the straight leg approach into Menloe Gardens off the Blackrock Road, Burdon is on the left side, facing west and is a marginally extended five-bed semi-d which was clearly a valued family home: it’s now an executor sale and ready to do domestic service once more, most likely in a significantly upgraded new incarnation.

Right now, it has lots of architectural integrity, internal arches, some original fireplaces, interlinked main reception rooms, kitchen/dining room and with a curved sunroom off the kitchen.

It’s been added to at the side/back, behind the attached garage and has been built overhead on this side, possibly in the 1980s: the garage holds scope for integration into the main accommodation, ERA’s Mr Downey suggests.

The BER report suggests ways to get No 5 up to a A2 BER, and it’s likely next owners will follow much of this advice and possibly make other more significant alterations/upgrades and extension from the current cited 2,010 sq ft level which includes the garage.

The adjoining semi-d or ‘other half,’ called Nirvana, featured in these pages two years ago as a c 1,575 sq ft five/six bed, G-rated home with a €720,000 AMV. The Price Register shows Nirvana made €750,000, with builders now on site doing work.

Upgraded Menloe Gardens houses are in the €1m+ category once taken up the energy efficiency/extension scale, when they typically top 2,000 sq ft.

Several have been very considerable projects; three have already made €1m+ sums, such as detached The Limes getting €1.65m last year (also in these pages when it carried a €1.5m AMV).

A modern detached, Kingslee, on a corner site made €1.24m in 2019; in 2011 a detached called Bruidheanbarra sold for €730,000 and was demolished and replaced with a house at least twice the size of the original.

Then, phew, there’s Glendhu, a semi-d of standard c 1,375 sq ft size, with a 2022 planning grant for a 790 sq ft extension, which featured here last summer, C1 rated with a €845 AMV. Glendhu shows on the Price Register as having soared to sell for €1.08 million….

VERDICT

: Burdon may not be too much of a burden for the right buyers with reasonably deep pockets, who’ll have a total budget in excess of €1m for sure. They’ll be , buying for the long haul, and for the kudos of the lovely mature grounds, the Blackrock location, and putting down roots in leafy Menloe Gardens.