Georgian home fit for a king in Mitchelstown
In an area where resales are rare, this family property has been gently nurtured and considerably enhanced in its current ownership, writes
Rightly acknowledged as one of Ireland’s finest Georgian planned towns, and as having some acclaimed residential squares, Cork’s Mitchelstown has a retained architectural aesthetic that’s utterly rare, and quite unspoiled at its core.....bar the 1922 burning of the ashlar-built Mitchelstown Castle during the Civil War, which did sort of spoil things for the air of historic grandeur in the prosperous Munster town.
Mitchelstown Castle (a Gothic revival castle was rebuilt in the 1820s at a cost of £100,000 to a design by the Pain brothers) was the estate home of the Earls of Kingston and the King family (Kingsborough is also used) and in the 1770s, the original medieval town which they held some sway over was reoriented, with a new layout/organisation, in a grid pattern, to run east and south of Kings Square, a high point in the town and picked to open up views to the Galtees.
Visiting one of those integral, original builds, the 1780-constructed No 4 Kings Square, there’s still views of the serrated glories of the Galtee range, but now its peaks are discerned, framed and interrupted by mature hardwood trees, some as old as the square and Kingston College enclave of Georgian terraced homes itself.
Truly, this spot has long and deep roots, and on a visit to No 4, which is now up for sale, shows a family home which that has been gently nurtured, and considerably enhanced in its current ownership: it’s in full and fruitful bloom.
Generally speaking, houses here on Kings Square are homes for life, and resales are uncommon.
No 4 Kings Square was of sufficient character and worth to ease its owners’ passage back from life in London to their native Cork as they came to the early stages of family life, back in 2002, and with family backgrounds in Mitchelstown/West Waterford and Cork city’s Blackrock.
They weren’t afraid of the taking on a protected structure, and wanted to make the sort of changes that a good conservation architect would be encouraging, and in any case, No 4’s bones were good and the aspect perfect for a private family life to the rear, with a full southerly aspect to the back.
It’s mid terraced, one of five in a run on the square’s southern flank, with the road Georges Street running as a diagonal through one of the the square’s four green, with the 30 former Georgian almshouses and chapel at Kingston College and chapel visible to the north through urban trees and park-like pasture.
No 4 stretches to about 2,950 sq ft in all over two levels plus attic rooms.
Lifting it in to a different realm of accommodation, comfort and usefulness is the fact it’s on a long, very deep mature site which stretches back to Edward Street, where there’s rear access, plus a converted and lofted coach house, as old as the main residence, with a further 1,050 sq ft back here, fully restored, upgraded and converted with a Godin wood burning stove, and ideal for home office, surgery, Air bnb and more.
Oh, and there’s also a couple of stables, with stout new boxes made in ash, with attention to woodwork and detail almost on a par with the work done in the main house itself.
On the square, No 4’s second-next door to the corner, and is a five-bay home with square-headed six-over-six sash windows top and bottom, and its central entry point is is the roundheaded door with tracery fanlight, set past a limestone step and wrought iron railings.
Internally, it’s pretty as any of the many pictures, paintings and prints which adore its 240 years old walls, with formal reception rooms left and right of the hall, all with original long-plank wood floors and each room has an elegant chimney-piece for extra heating options.
These rooms each are 19’ by 17’, with twin sash windows, corniced ceilings and central roses. The decorative fire surround in the dining rooms is in white painted cast iron with polished brass shield and side flanks of green tiles, while the living room’s one is in white marble, with a granite hearth and has a fitted wood burning stove.
This room is a double aspect, with retained slender French doors (fitted with new brass locking mechanism), to the south-facing sun-trap garden, with the open framed externally in a wisteria that, of late, has stubbornly refused to flower.
Continuing down the hall’s length leads to a modern utility and guest WC (housing the gas boiler), and the owners got planning four years ago to take out the utility and to replace it with an orangerie-style sun room.
That planning’s still valid and the aspect and garden views might well push it back to the top of the wishlist for whoever gets to live here next.
The owners (one works locally the other works part-time from home and travels abroad extensively for work also) have left nothing else to do here, bar move in) and they are only selling now as there’s precious family rearing time ahead and a chance for another period home, with more land for horses and ponies, has come into their orbit and they’ve taken the decision to go ‘more country’ still, their London years receding all the more in lifestyle choices.
Estate agent given the sale is Jer Colbert of Michael Dorgan Auctioneers and Valuers, a local agency who know just how precious is the Kings Square setting to begin with, ever before seeing the quality of work carried out in this prime example of how they can be presented.
“Collectively, the couple has created something that’s normally the staple of Merrion Square or Wellington Road, and which would have asking prices of several million euro.
"This is a home where one can live and work, one of the finest Mitchelstown homes now available, the price equivalent of a modern five-bed Glanmire dormer......I cannot begin the smother my envy,” admits Mr Colbert.
The guide price is €600,000 for this ‘home for life’, where money wasn’t spared nor corners cut in its conservation and updates.
While the work done is respectful to period era past and authenticity in the ‘good’ rooms, there’s quite the modernising pick-up in the kitchen to the rear, which is super-bright thanks to a wall of glass facing south to the stone-paved patio, there’s underfloor heating running below a Carrera marble floor tile, and the units are white gloss, topped with pale quartz, appliances are largely inte
grated (Neff ovens and microwave, etc,) with an underset sink, and in pride of place is a reconditioned and re-enamelled Wellstood range cooker, which does a regular slow burn for all year round comfort, having been converted from solid fuel to oil, and a plate/warming rack was also sourced to stand above it.
This room’s feature chairs are Danish design classics, the Hans Wegner ‘wishbone’ seat, and other originals dotted about the choicely decorated home: also at home is an arching 1960’s Arco light, again an original, by the Castiglioni brothers, anchored in a block of rounded Carrera marble.
“The vendors here understand what not to do, matching, coordination and organisation are a ‘no-no’ in a property like this, an emphasis has been placed on quality, the ornate and the simple exist here side by side,” says Jer Colbert as he starts viewings of the immaculately presented home, with all of its best features on understated display.
An original staircase leads to the first floor where there are four bedrooms; the master is to the front, with twin sash windows and shutters, and behind it is a large en-suite bathroom with recessed shower, quality sanitary ware and a seating area by a low window, with sunny garden views, effectively, giving this main bedroom suite a double aspect.
Across the landing is a second large, double bedroom, with access to a wide, walk-in dressing room with two long walls of built-ins and shelving, in solid oak, done by joiner Roger Harty, from Loughaderra in East Cork, who also did radiator screens and other bespoke fixtures here and there.
Three of the four bedrooms are doubles, and this level also houses a calming family bathroom, with bath and oak floor, and thanks to what’s effectively a three-storey rear return, a stairs can continue on to a second/attic level, home to a shower room/WC, and to two more carpeted and comfortable rooms with Velux roof windows and exposed roof trusses.
The family’s children have well and truly colonised this top floor eyrie, both pretty in pink, and full of playthings, and the only downside is a bit of restricted head height just when crowning on this second-floor landing.
Work done include a standing seam zinc roof over a part of the ground’s floor rear extension, and all sash windows were done by Kilgarvan, Co Kerry-based Conserve-a-Sash, and not only did they do this home’s all-important ‘eyes’, front and back, they also did the diminutive widows for the coach-house’s upgrade.
The owners say that No 4 is very easy home to heat, and to stay cosy in, handily also so because it has neighbours on two sides to neutralise any potential heat loss through side walls, and the thickness of the front and back stone walls means once it gets heat, it holds it in.
But, as it is a protected structure and thus BER exempt, the spending on stoves, double glazing and other features doesn’t get fair recognition.
Not only is the house listed, so too is a nearby stand-along stone outbuilding, probably once fuel stores, and it helps frame a portion of stone-paved courtyard by the kitchen’s sliding door, a real heat trap and much used for al fresco dining, with rosemary and lavender beds on either side.
The long lawns, with tall stone boundary walls, include some fruit trees and a mature cherry blossom, and lead back on down to the fully reinstated coach-house and stables/stores.
There’s very secure, tall cedar and galvanised steel gates giving access back here for pedestrians, cars and bikes, and the c 1,050 sq ft coach-house is well finished out, with broadband and a work office, and overhead is a 33’ by 16’ multi-use play room with new wood floor, vintage radiators and exposed, roof beams.
The rear access point is to Edward Street, one of the several neighbouring streets roads called after sons of one of the Earls of Kingston, Edward, Thomas, George and James, and there’s also a King Street.
VERDICT: Fit for another 200 years or so.
