In 1972 the late hotel entrepreneur Pascal Vincent Doyle purchased
a small Victorian demesne on Upper Leeson Street Road, felled the house
and erected in its place the Burlington Hotel, the behemoth which
still holds the distinction of being Ireland's largest hotel.
Just south of the Burlington Hotel stands a terrace of four superb Regency
townhouses - two and three-storey red-bricks - which P.V. also acquired.
Recently restored as eight houses and apartments, most of these have been
sold in the past six months, as part of a joint venture between the Monahan
family and Frank Gormley of Howard Holdings Plc. One of these houses
is currently occupied by P.V.'s charismatic grandson, the 30-year-old property
developer, Neil Monahan.
Neil's mother Eileen is one of P.V. Doyle's three daughters and a board
director for the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group. As Ireland's largest hotel group,
Jurys Doyle is never far from the business pages. It owns over 20
hotels and nine Jurys Inns worldwide, including the Westbury, the Montrose
and - until very recently - the Berkley Court and the Tara Towers.
These latter properties were sold last year for a whopping €260 million
to Co. Carlow property tycoon Sean Dunne.
Neil concedes that holding an Empire together becomes increasingly difficult
as more generations arrive on the scene but most of his grandfather's territorial
acquisitions, including the Burlington, remain intact. The Elysium development
represents a new direction for the family. And judging by the high polish
of these townhouses, it shall be a fruitful course for them. They have certainly
done much to impress with their painstaking restoration - and modernisation
- of the terrace, delicately fusing the original architecture with contemporary,
innovative design. The result is both classically elegant and extremely
covetable.
Built in an age when Dublin was awash with leafy meadows and top hats, the
early occupants of these 160-year-old townhouses most likely consisted of
well-to-do merchants, retired soldiers or younger sons of the gentry. However,
like so many Leeson Street townhouses, the terrace's latter day incarnation
had been one of sub-divided flats. Now known by the Homeric appellate of
"Elysium", the set of four luxury terraced houses, complete
with superb garden apartments, has swiftly evolved into a millionaire's
row in the heart of Georgian Dublin. The name Elysium comes from Greek mythology
where the Elysian fields were a part of the Underworld reserved for the
souls of the heroic and the virtuous. All the Greek heroes end up here.
You can't do much better for a place to fetch up.
The acclaimed restoration was carried out under the careful supervision
of Eoin St. John Downes of O'Mahony Pike Architects. A number
of period features, such as ceiling mouldings and gable walls, had been
badly damaged or simply disappeared over the years. All original features
such as cornicing, plasterwork, railings, doors, windows and fanlight were
restored or replaced as necessary. The cornicing was faithfully recreated
with the help of the Irish Fine Plasterwork of Fairview, Co. Dublin.
Much of the timber restoration was carried out by Maclyn Carpentry
of Oak Court Grove, Palmerston, Dublin 20. The Regency fanlights were repaired
by the team at Rathmines Glass & Design.
When it comes to dressing up houses in contemporary classical attire, there's
not many who can hold a match to Helen Turkington. She and her colleague
Emma Hutton effectively sourced all soft furnishings from their stores
in Ranelagh and Northern Ireland. They opted for a look of serene luxury,
a cool palette of mushroom, cappuccino and cream that runs seamlessly throughout
Neil's house. "We wanted everything to be plain and simple",
explains Helen, "to reflect a calm and tranquil atmosphere".
A black gateway and a dozen granite steps brings one to the front door,
complete with restored fanlight. The door opens into a hallway tiled in
slate and Spanish sandstone. To the right are the inter-connected drawing
and living rooms, both generously proportioned and splendidly illuminated
by daylight pouring in through large sash windows. Sandstone chimney pieces
from Chesneys were installed by Robinson Fireplaces of Lower Dorset
Street, Dublin 2. The elaborate chandeliers overhead came via Hicken
Lighting from the Czech Republic where Bohemain craftsmen have been
specializing in the cutting of lead crystal for over a hundred years. Many
of the Turkington trademarks are found here - rich cushion-covered sofas,
equally enticing velvet armchairs, voluptuous silk curtains, polished black
mirrors, cutting edge ball glass lamps and classic botanical prints.
A staircase takes one up to the piece de resistance, the enormous kitchen.
"This is where it all happens", says Neil. "Somehow
you always migrate towards this end of the house. In summer or winter, it's
a fantastic room". This surprising and comfortable space was made
possible by the addition of an excellent extension to the rear of the building.
Wide plank walnut floorboards from Scott Flooring of Dublin lend
the room a very pleasant ambience while Kitchen Flair of Sandymount
have done what they do best with designing the kitchen itself with Spanish
sillstone worktops, state-of-the-art appliances from Miele and a handy digitally
controlled wine cooler for forty bottles. Radiators are cleverly disguised
behind elegant lattice panelling. Helen's American style shutters give the
room a distinctly secure feeling. She also designed the studded chairs which
encircle the dining table while a pair of lime green breakfast bar stools
stand out rather invitingly against the neutral hues. A solitary ripe tomato
on a sideboard has a similar hypnotic effect. A small balcony enables one
to step outside a while on sunny days.
A back stairwell of walnut, made in Co Mayo and brought over practically
step-by-step, further enhances the sense of space, wending up to a sun-garden
up top. Hessian armchairs inspire thoughts of moon-gazing, nightcaps or,
perhaps, one can hear the distant strains of the Doyle Irish Cabaret Show
which still apparently entertains over 60,000 visitors each year at the
Burlington Hotel next door.
The master bedroom has a particularly unique and innovative feature, known
as The Pod. This is not a 'place of dance', but rather 'a room
within a room'. In this case, the smaller room is a wonderful bathroom,
complete with Villeroy & Boch fittings by Bathroom 2000 of Drogheda,
camouflaged on the outside by full-length mirrors and frost-glass doors.
The concept was devised as a way around the conservation concept of "reversibility"
within Georgian houses. Downes suggests these Pods be regarded as pieces
of free-standing furniture.
Cawley's Furniture installed two ceiling to floor wardrobes which
have enough space to store a small brontosaurus, while the window leads
the eye towards the unexpected summits of the Dublin Mountains. Decagonal
wooden tables and white shaded bobble lamps stand astride the bed which
features golden velvet spreads, velvet cushions and a cappuccino hued bed-head.
Imperial shutters are framed by lush curtains; latticework again covers
the radiators. A striped armchair looks out on Leeson Street. A pair of
Czech chandeliers are suspended above. Botanical prints of cacti and spring
onions.
The house seems to go on forever, with a second bedroom upstairs and a third
brilliantly secreted the back of the house serving as a separate self-contained
entity with its own access to the back staircase.
Few restorations of this type come without 21st century perks. Hence, all
main rooms are pre-wired for plasma screens, a music system can be played
throughout the house and all bathrooms and hallways have under-floor heating.
The latter was vital for keeping the house warm.
Also of note here is the garden to the rear of the house, designed by Cunnane
Stratton Reynolds and finished by Sap Landscapes. Apassionata
Flowers installed bamboo and box plants to brighten up the north-facing
courtyard.
As for Neil, he is currently following up his true passion of sustainable
development. Together with his sister Ruth, he has begun work on 15 extra
large luxury apartments and 2 retail units in Cabinteely Village. Also in
the pipeline is the redevelopment of a 3-acre site in Palmerstown Town Centre.
These developments are designed to incorporate solar panels, wood chip boilers
and if geo-thermal heating. For more, see their website at Monti
This article appeared in The White Book in Spring 2006.