Our House

History

West Beach House was built in 1855, one of a terrace of houses on the Cobh waterfront.

Cobh has always been a town rich in maritime and naval history, and in the 1800s it was a main departure point for emigration to the New World. Residents of West Beach House would have had a birds eye view of the comings and goings.

The Queenstown Admiralty originally build this terrace of houses on Westbourne Place to house their officers. Queenstown was an important naval port and the houses were in the ideal situation overlooking the harbour and the ships arriving into and out of the port.

With Irish Independence in the 1920s the house became the main Garda station of Cobh. Our Garden Studio was the superintendent’s office. It was a busy station, policing the port and surrounding areas, including the traffic to and from Spike Island. The top two floors were used as overnight accommodation for the Garda and other guests, many of them having missed the last boat to Spike Island. The lower ground floor of the house (now a separate flat) was used as the local gaol.

The Garda station closed in the 1960s and the house was subsequently used by a number of businesses, the most recent being a well known architectural restoration practice.

The current owners bought West Beach House in 2015 and have spent the last few years painstakingly renovating it into the stylish, individual, private family home it is today.