Sunday's City Cork Well, |
|
---|---|
€1 25m |
|
Size |
Sq 294 (3,165 Sq Ft) M |
Bedrooms |
5 |
Bathrooms |
4 |
Ber |
D1 |
Set behind a high screening wall just west of St Vincent’s Church, on a sort of topographical shelf, among the tiers of ground set on the city’s south-facing hill’s slopes, Weir View is a three-storey, five-bed home with private gardens, off-street parking in a garage, has a hidden garden room in its mature side grounds, and has unmistakable Cork city views and vista from its imperious height.
Dating back a century or more, Weir View fits in a surprising 3,100 sq ft and more thanks to being three-storey, and its main, southern facade has an irregular scattering of windows, 10 in all, or 11 including double doors down at ground level, for patio access off a drawing room, with electric awning.
After more than a few decades owned and cared for by a family with offspring now flown the coop, Weir View comes to market with a €1.25m price guide cited by Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald, who have a track record at and above this sort of price level locally, especially for Sunday’s Well homes on the river side of the road.... the more monied side, let it be said.
The location is naturally enough pretty ace, within a 10-15 minute walk of the city centre, and of hospitals like the Mercy and Bon Secours. Then, piling positives on top of that is the privacy, the parking, the aspect to the back — pure sunshine when the clouds part — and the panorama of views, near and far.
It looks out over the cast-iron crested ridge of the classic Victorian Lee Villa, aka 21 Sunday’s Well Road on its city side/slightly under it, a prized period property and a private home to a city architect for decades.
That gallery — one of Cork’s best 21st century buildings, nominated after its 2005 completion for the prestigious Stirling Prize, is one of several works done for UCC by O’Donnell + Tuomey (ODT), and they also did the Student Hub, and the pedestrian, Cavanagh Bridge through its lower campus grounds. (ODT also did the award-wining St Angela’s girls’ secondary school, like a base camp half way up the vertiginous St Patrick’s Hill.)
Looking over the ODT architecture collection at UCC is Weir View, and its next-door neighbour, a pairing of two very box-like ODT-designed private houses, built for several generation of the one family, with the larger of the linked pairing reimagining the ancient Irish ‘tower house,’ in a four-storey tower-like wing.
Even if the market had dipped (dived, really) and largely recovered since, the location is — like the views — evergreen…has been now for two centuries, and rightly so.
The setting has always been favoured by UCC academics and staff, but now many are priced out from buying at the upper echelons, while medics are the reliable stand-by, and have been strong players in the city’s €1m to €1.5m bracket in locations like College Road/Orchard Road, the Model Farm Road, greater Bishopstown, and the more niche Sunday’s Well.
There’s lots of attractive architectural details, coved ceilings, floors, doors, fireplaces, and each level has a central hall or landing, while the entry point at ground level is on the east/city side with overhead angular roof lantern.
This property’s name, Weir View, is outlined in angled metal against a red brick background on the boundary with the public road; near neighbour UCC’s music department at St Vincent’s Retreat House has capacious off-street parking, previously developed by the Vincentian order who built the striking church structure in the early 1850s.
Seen from the city centre in evening time silhouette form, the church structure is an iconic Cork image: seen from the Mardyke, St Vincent’s forms part of a fascinating collage that continues with Lee Villa, the ODT glazed and concrete mismatched twin tower 21st century pairing and, in their midst, Weir View.