€650k Victorian style house an amazing time capsule in Cobh

THE Hollies is a blast from the past: it dates to 1864 and it’s a repository of the kind of necessary and important objects great grannies had in sculleries and great grandads used in the world of commerce.

But it’s not just a house packed to the rafters with items from a bygone era.

 It’s an amazing time capsule that’s been kept in a state faithful to its Victorian origins: Reception rooms are impressively generous, ceilings are impressively high, and central ceiling roses, window shutters and original fireplaces remain in place. 

Inside the porch, original double doors with coloured glass panes open into a long and spacious hallway and, at the first return of the sweeping stairs, a big, round-arched, coloured-glass window adds light and drama. 

The Hollies even has the original Butler’s Bell either side of one fireplace, as well as an original gas light fitting in the hallway.

 To step inside is to step back in time and there’s some merit to the suggestion that maybe The Hollies should be kept as is and used as a museum where schoolchildren - or perhaps curious US tourists that step ashore during liner season - could learn a thing or two about how the world worked before immense technological developments rendered so many useful things useless, like the traditional cast iron manual meat mincer that your granny clamped to the table top or the banana-shaped easy-to-clean double-ended glass baby bottles or the pre-digital ancient cash registers with noisy, ch-ching drawers.

 There are more recent items too, like bits of crockery commemorating various events in the life of the royal family, primarily Princess Diana, and there are lots of salutes to a former pope. There’s even a Papal hat, worn during a tour of the Philippines, by a now-deceased pontiff. Truly, The Hollies is a monument to the past, but also a fine example of Gothic Revival Victorian architecture. You will find it in the desirable Rushbrooke end of Cobh’s Great Island, where it sits atop a steep drive with enviable harbour views.

The first chap to live there, a Bernard Jonas Alcock, leased it from Frederica Harriet Rushbrooke, daughter of Colonel Robert Rushbrooke and Frances Davers, whose family seat was Rushbrooke Hall, in the UK County of Surrey. Frederica was granted lands in Cobh (then Queenstown) after the suicide of the 5th Viscount of Midleton. At one point, she held 1,261 acres in Queenstown Park Estate. Her name remains in the area (Rushbrooke) and she is associated with a string of its grand homes, including The Hollies and its conjoined sibling, The Gables. She drove a hard bargain when she leased the house for 99 years to Mr Alcock, tasking him with completing any outstanding work at both houses “within three calendar months” and making it mandatory that he paint inside and outside The Hollies at regular intervals. While the deeds show the agreement was signed in 1864, the lease was backdated to 1862. Exactly 99 years later, when the lease ended, the house was sold, by retired vice-admiral Edmund Garard Noel Rushbrooke, to Matthew J and Mary J Vaughan.

It was bought in 1973 by the current owners, who paid IR£5,500 at a public auction held in Cork city, at the Metropole Hotel on MacCurtain St. The owner’s family still has the newspaper clipping, from the then Cork Examiner, advertising where the auction was taking place. The owner’s son says the house hasn’t changed much since his parents bought it, but his dad did do a good deal of work in the tiered gardens – including the layout and some impressive stonework -all built into a steep hill, above Cobh’s High Road. There’s a small ornamental pond at a lower level, and a patio area at a higher level and higher again, some lawn, with plenty of nice planting scattered about, and doing well in the sub-tropical climate that seems to favour Great Island.

 Outbuildings include a large separate garage halfway up the sloping drive and a rear outhouse used for storage that is directly over a well of spring water.

A steep bank rises up behind the house, so all of the garden and views are to the front and side, or from The Hollies harbour-facing rooms, which include two ground-floor interlinked reception rooms of goodly proportions, with double doors between them and each with hefty, original fireplaces. 

The main room, double-aspect, has a glorious bay window. 

These rooms are currently used for living and dining. There’s a pantry off the latter and a second pantry accessed from the hallway that’s packed with museum-worthy items.

 To the rear is the original kitchen where a Stanley heats the water and behind it is a long, narrow kitchen add-on. New owners will probably re-rig this layout and install a new kitchen.

Past the first return of the stairs is a bathroom, and on the first floor, four bedrooms, all with original fireplaces and two with magnificent harbour views. 

The stairs narrows as you head to the top floor, which suggests it may have been where the servants stayed in this three-storey home. There are three large rooms on the upper floor which haven’t been lived in and will require investment - including the removal of a water tank - but they’re a fine size, and offer additional bedroom or home office potential.

The Hollies guide price is €650,000 -not exorbitant for a three-storey Victorian home with harbour views and a reasonably new roof (10 years old) - but robust finances will be required for the top floor fix-up and fit-out and for either replacement or restoration of a dilapidated sun room, which could be magnificent (sunroom/orangery?).

 That’s before you ever get to the basics of redecorating/ retrofitting (the original sash windows remain throughout the house).

Selling The Hollies, is Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy & Sons and she says good value period homes in Cobh typically attract ex-pats (Dubai, Australia, the UK) but also a lot of Americans.

“The house faces south over the harbour and the location is great – near Rushbrooke tennis club and near schools and a 10 minute walk from the train station, with regular rail links to Cork city,” Ms Murphy says.

“I expect lots of overseas interest, as well as interest from relocators up the country who see Cobh as good value for money,” the agent adds.

VERDICT: The Hollies could be the berries with the right level of investment and TLC. Fine Victorian home with a guide price that reflects the need for substantial upgrades.