Shrewsbury Road (, ; ''Bóthar Sriúsbaire'' in
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
) is a street in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, and was the sixth-most-expensive street in the world in 2007, ahead of more well-known streets such as the Via Suvretta in
St. Moritz and Carolwood Drive in
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...
. Located in
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4
Dublin 4, also rendered as D4 and D04, is a historic postal district of Dublin, Ireland including Baggot Street Upper, the southernmost fringes of the Dublin Docklands, and the suburbs of Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Irishtown, Merrion, Ringsend ...
, the street is bordered to the north by
Merrion Road and to the south by
Ailesbury Road.
History and naming
The street is named in honour of the 1874 marriage of
George Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke
George Robert Charles Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke, 10th Earl of Montgomery (6 July 1850 – 3 May 1895), known as The Lord Herbert of Lea from 1861 to 1862, was a British Conservative politician. He was Under-Secretary of State for War under ...
(owner of land around Ballsbridge), to Lady Gertrude Chetwynd-Talbot, a cousin of
Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 19th Earl of Shrewsbury
Charles John Chetwynd-Talbot, 19th Earl of Shrewsbury, 19th Earl of Waterford, 4th Earl Talbot, PC (13 April 1830 – 11 May 1877), styled Viscount of Ingestre between 1849 and 1868, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Captain o ...
. Traditionally, Shrewsbury Road has been home to Dublin's medical and legal professionals, but over the years the clientele shifted away from it and now the stretch houses both
dot-com millionaires and
property developers as well. The street has 26 residences; one of these, Walford, made headlines in 2005 for being the most expensive house ever sold in the country, for a reported €58 million. As a result of the
Irish financial crisis
The post-2008 Irish economic downturn in the Republic of Ireland, coincided with a series of banking scandals, followed the 1990s and 2000s Celtic Tiger period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment, a subsequent pr ...
in the late 2000s, the value of most properties on the street more than halved, but as of 2013, sales have been in excess of €4 million.
Among the residents of the street are telecommunications billionaire
Denis O'Brien
Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958) is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel. He was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and was Ireland's richest native-born citizen for a period of several ye ...
, property developer
Derek Quinlan, and businessman
Seán Dunne, who once owned 'Walford.' The street is also the location of the ambassadorial residences of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
and
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Walford
Built in 1902 during the
Edwardian era
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victor ...
, the red brick house was styled with the
Edwardian architectural fashion in mind, in keeping with the characteristics of the district. Although the house is only , the property was seen by many investors as having massive developmental potential due to the total area of . This potential was noticed in 2005 when the death of the former owner, Patrick A. Duggan, led to an executor sale. Despite having a guide price of €35 million, the house eventually reached €58 million due to a rumoured six potential buyers vying to purchase the property. In the end, it was purchased by a company named ''Matsack Nominees'', and it was widely reported in the media that the beneficiary of the sale was Gayle Killelea, wife of Sean Dunne. In 2008, the house went on the market with a guide price of €75 million, despite being valued around €40 million at the time due to the
Irish property crash, and in September 2011 the house went on the market again for a price of €15 million, down €43 million from its sale value in 2005, but was withdrawn presumably because it never met the guide price.
In late 2016, a Cyprus-registered company, Yesreb Ltd, of which John Dunne, a son of Seán Dunne's first marriage, was said to be a director, sold Walford for €14.25 million to Celtic Trustees Ltd. Celtic Trustees is the sole trustee of the Merdon Trust, whose settlor is billionaire financier
Dermot Desmond
Dermot Desmond (born 14 August 1950) is an Irish businessman and financier. He is estimated to be worth €2.04 billion and is ranked by the ''Sunday Independent'' as the ninth-richest person in Ireland.
Early life and education
Desmond was b ...
, and which was set up for the benefit of Mr Desmond's children. In 2018, Celtic Trustees Ltd secured planning permission to demolish Walford and replace it with 17,168 sq ft mansion, more than three times larger than Walford.
Popular culture
Reflecting the high real estate values in the area, Shrewsbury is the most expensive property on the Irish
Monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
board, and is part of the dark blue set with nearby
Ailesbury Road.
References
{{Streets in Dublin city, state=autocollapse
Streets in Dublin (city)