Striking Gold: this villa style Victorian red brick in D7 will play tricks with your perception

50 Goldsmith Street, Phibsborough, Dublin 7 Price: €545,000 Agent: Movingo (01) 5169999

If it looks tiny, with just a front door and a single window visible from the street, the villa style Victorian red brick at 50 Goldsmith Street is very deceptive indeed. At 1,130 sq ft inside, it's slightly bigger than the average three-bed family home. It needed that space back in 1901 when professional children's nurse Mary Jane Parks lived here and boarded seven children under the age of eight in addition to her own family and two paying lodgers. A dozen people are recorded as being present in the house in that year's census.

By 1911 Mary had taken her juvenile entourage to Portland Row and 50 Goldsmith Street had became home to the Dublin-based journalist James H Mulcahy and his wife Margaret Mulcahy, a writer. It seems they had the place to themselves. Back then the homes at Goldsmith backed onto the Broadstone spur of the Royal Canal, a busy waterway for freight barge traffic which was filled in during the 1930's to make a park.

Termed the 'villa' style, this type of home was designed for the emerging middle classes of the mid to late 1800s. With a main hall moving into split levels above and below, the idea was to channel the styling of a well-to-do town house, but on a smaller scale. Today's owners of No50 acquired the red-brick Victorian for €170,000 during the downturn in 2012, when period house prices were on the floor.

Two years later, places like Bang Bang cafe and The Back Page pub opened up and the hipsters arrived in their droves. Many of Phibsborough's flatland properties were turned back into family homes and buyers who were trading up from Stoneybatter looked to places like Goldsmith and Geraldine Street.

To top it all off, in 2018, Phibsborough was named one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world by Time Out magazine. Jumping in at No27, ahead of trendy neighbourhoods in Boston and San Francisco, the magazine praised young entrepreneurs in the village for opening "modern cafes and charming shops' in what were previously neglected buildings.

Long-term residents will say they knew this all along. The arrival of the Luas to the other side of Phibsborough Village is also part of the new appeal.

Goldsmith Street runs parallel to Berkeley Street, with the North Circular at one end and Blessington Street Basin at the other. The houses were built in pairs in the 1860s, with a variety of frontages and roof heights along the road.

No50 underwent a complete renovation in 2013 when the vendors stripped it bare and started over. At the time, the bathroom was outside and there was no access to the back garden, so walls were knocked and a new plan worked on to bring the property into the modern world.

The vendors worked closely with a local builder with a design they came up with themselves and the result is a house that is still true to its Victorian roots, but with a lot more swagger and style. The room that is perhaps the most surprising is the front reception to the left when you step into the house. With high ceilings and panelled walls, you question whether the exterior of the house was playing tricks on you. How a room with ceilings of this height could exist in such a small house is mind-boggling.

The thought behind the design and layout was to keep the front part of the house as authentic as possible and have the rooms at the back more modern and functional. The grey panelling on the walls in the living room is effective, as are the custom-made bookshelves complete with a ladder so you can reach the tomes at the very top of this tall room.

Back out to the hall and a few steps bring you down to the back extension that houses a more relaxed living area and the kitchen, with units and breakfast bar crafted by a local carpenter.

Underfloor heating and a wood-burning stove ensure that this part of the house stays toasty all-year-round. The hardwood floors throughout the house were chosen as best suited to underfloor heating. Colours have been kept neutral in each room, with art and furnishing bringing splashes of colour in here and there.

Behind the kitchen is the main bathroom and a guest bedroom. This bedroom has doors out to the patio and fitted wardrobes. Upstairs, there are two more bedrooms. Both are doubles with cast-iron fireplaces, and the master has an ensuite shower room.

For a house right in the city, a decent-sized garden is a complete luxury. The vendors say what surprises them most about having a house that's only 10 minutes' walk from O'Connell Street is the peace and quiet. They insist that the only noise they can hear every morning is the sound of birdsong.

Moovingo is seeking €545,000 for No50 Goldsmith Street with 3D plans and a virtual tour available online.