Neighbourly relations in D7

This Edwardian terrace has been extended and restored to former glory

The back reception room with a slate fireplace

The south-facing back garden can be reached from the extended kitchen and living room

28 Ellesmere Avenue is a two-storey red-brick terrace

A skylight above the first floor landing

The back reception room with a slate fireplace

One of the three bedrooms

The south-facing back garden can be reached from the extended kitchen and living room

The front reception room

28 Ellesmere Avenue is a two-storey red-brick terrace

The kitchen in the modern extension

A skylight above the first floor landing

The back reception room with a slate fireplace

Eithne Tynan

March 30 2018 02:30 AM

Within about a decade of being built, Ellesmere Avenue off the North Circular Road in Dublin 7 is likely to have become the scene of a certain amount of neighbourly unpleasantness.

The 1916 Roll of Honour includes the name of one James Higgins, who gave his address as 33 Ellesmere Avenue and who was interned at Frongoch after the Rising. As a consequence of his actions in the rebellion, he must have fallen out with several of his neighbours because the Property Losses (Ireland) Committee entertained claims from no less than four residents of Ellesmere Avenue, all of whom sought compensation for property damaged during the Rising.

Hugh Charles McCullagh, of Number 4, claimed £4 eight shillings and sixpence because both his bicycle and his hat were destroyed by a fire at the GPO. Elizabeth Henry of Number 6 had left her black silk poplin coat in to be repaired at a premises in Sackville Street, and claimed £2 for its destruction, while Gregory Gethings of Number 8 claimed £5 for his wife's gold wristwatch lost under similar circumstances. The highest claim was from the musician William S Boyne of Number 18, who wanted £14 for the loss of both his silver-plated trombone and his leather trombone case in a fire at the Coliseum Theatre at Henry Street.

With the exception of Gethings, who perhaps overestimated the value of his wife's watch, all four had their claims paid in full by the committee, which might have helped bring an end to hostilities between the claimants and the insurgent in nearby Number 33.

The front reception room

These days Ellesmere Avenue seems a peaceful sort of place, lined for the most part with two-storey red-brick terraces, all identical and all well cared for. Number 28 is the last house in the terrace on the southern side, at the end of the original street before additional housing was built later in the 20th century.

It has been extended since it was built, to 1,507 sq ft, but not so much as to despoil the pleasant, south-facing back garden, where there are old walls covered in climbers, a circular patio, shrubs, and a cherry blossom.

You can reach the garden from the extended kitchen and living room on the ground floor, which now measures roughly 32ft by 10ft. The kitchen was fitted in the past three years and has integrated appliances and a tiled floor, and the room is dual-aspect, with a door to the garden at the living room end.

Elsewhere the two original ground floor reception rooms have been restored to their Edwardian glory - the front room painted a lush yellow and the back room partly papered in a floral print. Both rooms have Irish pine floors, high ceilings with coving and centre roses, and slate fireplaces.

Helpfully enough the first floor landing is lit by a skylight, so you get light streaming down the stairs and into the entrance hall.

There's one bedroom on the return level, where there's also a wet room with a rainwater shower. The other two bedrooms are on the first floor proper, including the master bedroom which runs the full width of the house at the front. Both of these bedrooms still have their original cast-iron fireplaces.

28 Ellesmere Avenue is a two-storey red-brick terrace

As well as having been extended and beautified, Number 28 has also had an energy upgrade with double-glazed sash windows and external insulation. It has gas-fired central heating and an energy rating of C2.

Out the front is a small railed town garden, while the back garden offers pedestrian access to a shared laneway beside the house, which means you don't have to drag the bins or bicycles through the house.

Ellesmere Avenue is just off the North Circular Road, across from where the sprawling Dublin cattle market, known as Cowtown, used to be back in the days when this part of town was more malodorous than it is now.

It's about a 15-minute walk from here to Phibsboro Luas stop, 20 minutes to Smithfield and 10 minutes to DIT Grangegorman via the campus playing fields. Phoenix Park is less than a kilometre away, so you can be mooching around the zoo within about a quarter of an hour, and when you need to get farther afield, it's about a 12-minute drive to Junction 6 of the M50.

28 Ellesmere Avenue

North Circular Road, Dublin 7