Re: Re: pearse street developments

Aren’t they just – most unusual. Apparently they date from 1848, which is just about possible. They look a bit earlier, but it’s probable an older design continued to be used in the by-then unfashionable city centre.

To shed a bit of light on the current state of these properties, they went up for auction way back in 2002 with guide prices nothing short of a song: No. 133 was offered for the grand total of €400,000, while No. 134 was put up for €450,000. The larger double-fronted property to the right was offered for a meagre €700,000.

The former pair in particular were in an appalling condition, hence the exceptionally low prices. Here you can see one of the stairwells, with ravishing 1960s wallpaper, hard-boarded balustrade, and salmon-painted lower walls.

© The Sunday Times

And sure what better way to bring a cable in than through a smashed window pane?

Most original features appear to have survived intact, if you wish to include Bakelite light switches and door knobs 🙂

At the time of their auction in 2002, the houses were offered for sale as separate entities, but it was thought likely that a developer would snap up all three given the attractive economies of restoring them as a group. I don’t know if this happened, or indeed if the houses sold at all. Presumably they did. Perhaps they were snapped up as a nice little speculative investment, with the intention of flogging them later on much-inflated? Goodness knows they’re worth a fortune now. Though I see in one of your pictures Devin that one of the doors is/was under restoration – a glimmer of life?

They contain a number of original fireplaces and early Victorian plaster ceilings. Some of the other original features comprised bits and bobs of religious paraphernalia 🙂