A Rosebank home by any other name would smell as sweet

THE neat and tidy three-bed semi-detached home with west-aspected back garden called Sidda Ville owes its name to its long-time, lifelong resident — it’s her Christian name, Addis, spelled backwards.

Not now a very common name at all (bar, in Ethiopia) Addis O’Connell lived here with her husband Charlie and three children, having moved day-one into the 1950s-built housing estate Rosebank as Douglas continued its 20th-century inexorable spread outwards from Cork City to the village of Douglas and now beyond: in fact the hills fringing the southside from Rochestown to Frankfield are today construed as ‘outer’ Douglas.

But, Rosebank, done by Lane Builders, is now older, or inner Douglas, half way between the city and Douglas village core and shopping centre, within a walk of each for those so inclined: it’s also got buses running on both the main and south Douglas roads, as well as bike and car commute options.

It’s kind of a location for life for families, even more so possibly now with commuter spread and ‘new’ locations coming to the fore, but few areas come as well serviced today with schools, shops, support, and sports as the ’burbs which bedded down 50 and more years ago.

It was certainly a location for life for Addis O’Connell, who died last autumn as one of the last, original Rosebank inhabitants, having been here through seven decades. The O’Connell family home Sidda Ville (aka No 40 Rosebank) is now an executor offer, listed with estate agent Timothy Sullivan with a €540,000 AMV.

That guide, in excess of €500k, reflects one of the last sales here, another semi-d called Wynton or No 38 which had been extended in the 1970s and which went past a €395,000 AMV to sell for €525,000 in 2022: the only other Rosebank semi to top €500k was a four-bed, back in 2008.

Other three-beds reselling here have been in the mid €400,000s in the past five years or so, but the bar has probably shifted upwards since, hence Mr Sullivan’s €540k launch level.

Dated, yes, but very well maintained, he says, and has a C1 BER, better than the average for the age, with oil central heating, alarm, and double glazing, while its original footprint is unchanged, coming in at about 1,100 sq ft, so not too large.

It has reception rooms front and back, each with tiled fireplaces, and the front one has a bay window which continues the bay to the main, first floor bedroom, with two doubles and a single overhead.

There’s a rear kitchen/breakfast room facing the good-sized back garden — there used to be market gardens over the back boundary in the heyday — and a guest WC, with understairs storage, whilst the west aspect to the back will prompt all sorts of opening up/extension plans for many families coming to view, prepared to root and roost for years to come.

VERDICT: Great aspect, great location, and schools and sports facilities galore with a walk, as is Douglas swimming pool in the Nursery Park across the Douglas Road from Rosebank.