The little house that grew up

Transcription

The
artisan
look
London
Design Week
Page 26
Homes&
Property
Wednesday 4 March 2015
LIVE NEAR A NEW THAMES CROSSING P4 HOMES BELOW £250K P6 SUPER STAIRS P10 SPOTLIGHT ON WEYBRIDGE P32
The little house
that grew up
ADRIAN LOURIE
Our home: Page 14
LAUNCHING 18TH MARCH 2015
THE PENTHOUSE COLLECTION
FETTER LANE EC4
REQUEST YOUR INVITATION TO
THE EVENT BY CALLING JLL ON
PRICES FROM
£2,200,000
0203 675 0677
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S E L L I N G AG E N TS
2
WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Online
homesandproperty.co.uk with
This week: homesandproperty.co.uk
news: wealthy buyers send
prices rocketing — in Newham
£1.85 million:
flats like this
three-bedroom
penthouse in
Royal Victoria
Dock have raised
Newham’s price
ranking
Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/alask for more details
A DECADE after London was selected to host the 2012
games, the Olympic borough of Newham is finally
flourishing — recording the capital’s top property price
rises of more than 23 per cent a year, according to new
Land Registry figures. The east London borough topped
the table largely through rich buyers snapping up new
high-end apartments in the former Olympic Village and at
Royal Victoria Dock. Price rises among average homes in
the capital have been strongest in south-east London,
while values in prime central London have stalled.
Property
search
Trophy buy of the week
your own slice of Downton
£1.85 million: Wyfold Court in Kingwood, Oxfordshire,
is very Downton Abbey, don’t you think? Set in glorious
parkland, the house has been divided into exceptional
apartments. This one has six bedrooms, a turret and spans
three floors. A private lift brings your guests directly to
your grand reception room with a 20ft high ceiling, while
your private terrace overlooks eight acres of landscaped
gardens, which include communal tennis courts. Through
Hamptons International.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/trophyking
London buy of the week converted
school passes its style exams
O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk
£425,000: top marks for this onebedroom, duplex flat at Priory Grove,
a school conversion close to Stockwell
Tube. The inside has been given a
strong dose of New York loft style,
showcasing double height ceilings,
exposed brick work, huge windows
and wooden floors. Dark grey walls
make a dramatic statement in the
hot London homes:
priced at less than £250,000
£109,375: buys
a quarter share
of this twobedroom flat at
The Waterfront
in Kew
Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/waterk for more details
FIRST-TIME buyers are finally getting their foot on the
housing ladder thanks to continued low interest rates,
stamp duty savings and cheaper mortgage deals. If you
are looking to buy your first home, don’t miss this
weekend’s First Time Buyer Show in Islington, where
experts will be on hand offering free advice (see page 6
for details). And join us online now for our pick of the
best London homes priced less than £250,000.
open-plan reception room with its
sleek kitchen and dining areas,
overlooked by a spacious mezzanine
incorporating a bedroom area fitted
with ample wardrobe space and a cool
en suite bathroom. Secure parking is
included. Through John D Wood.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/buystock
Life changer 17th century
cottage does the business
£550,000: get creative in Cornwall at this 17th century
cottage just outside the village of Chacewater and only five
miles from the cliff top walks of the north Cornish coast.
Plenty of earning potential comes from three acres of
paddocks, lots of office space — ideal for a home-run
business — and two kitchens in a large outbuilding, plus a
further outbuilding ripe for conversion into a holiday let.
Through Country & Waterside.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangertruro
By
Faye
Greenslade
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/250k
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@HomesProperty
The Ideal Home Show
We have 1,000 weekday tickets to give away
THE Ideal Home Show
has been transforming
Britain’s homes since
1908 and, in 2015, the
show (which runs from
March 20 to April 6)
returns to Olympia,
where it all began.
Whether you have
a substantial home
project or simply want
to add those finishing
touches that make a
house a home, you’ll
find all the help you
need under one roof —
from a host of experts
and your favourite
TV celebrties.
With seven dedicated
show areas, this is the
only place to visit when
creating your own ideal
home. And we have
1,000 weekday tickets
to the show, each worth
£12, to give away.
For your chance to
win a pair of tickets,
see details below.
TO CLAIM your free tickets, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/offers before March 6,
2015. First come, first served. Terms and conditions apply.
3
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 2015
News Homes & Property
This is the
headline that
É TRAFALGAR SQUARE,
Channing and Jenna head to the Hills
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Raise a glass to Foster’ssdakjfsdalkjf
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É CHANNING TATUM has bought a
Beverly Hills home for £3.8 million.
The 4,800sq ft space has five
bedrooms, six bathrooms and a
45ft living room with an impressive
double-height ceiling.
The Magic Mike star, who returns
with the movie sequel in July, bought
the house from filmmaker Roberto
ÉSTARCHITECT Norman Foster,
above, may be busy building towers
around the world (his latest project is
a 61-storey residential skyscraper in
New York), but you can buy one of
his more humble buildings — a
converted two-bedroom coach house
in Hampstead for £2.45 million. He
worked on the property with
Sneider. Tatum and his wife Jenna
Dewan, above, have chosen a good
neighbourhood — Demi Moore will
be their new neighbour.
And when the actor and his wife,
who have a 20-month-old daughter
Everly, fancy a change of scene they
can always visit their £1.6 million
home in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon.
architects Michael and Patty Hopkins
in 1969 and helped give it a showstopper glass-roofed dining area.
Past owners include the late Ron
Hall, who made his name as part of
the investigative team at the Sunday
Times during the Profumo affair.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/norm
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Python mansion
has star appeal
É SPAMALOT and Monty Python
star Eric Idle’s former mansion in
Carlton Hill, St John’s Wood, is for
sale through Savills at £8.95 million.
When Idle, below, was in Tunisia
filming The Life of Brian he let the
house to Carrie Fisher, who was
working on the first Star Wars sequel,
The Empire Strikes Back.
Other glizty guests have included
Harrison Ford, who lived there while
filming Indiana Jones and the Temple
of Doom at Elstree Studios. The
Rolling Stones have been spotted
there, too. The six-bedroom
Victorian villa is set over five floors
and has recently been refurbished.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/eric
By Amira Hashish
Tweet @amiranews
PICTURES: REX
Piper calls the tune
ÉBILLIE PIPER and Laurence Fox,
left, are selling Chestnut Cottage in
West Sussex.
The pair bought it for £725,000 in
2007 and put the listed four-bedroom
semi-detached on the market last
September when they moved back to
north London. The couple restored
their rural retreat — now with a price
tag of £825,000 with Gascoigne Pees.
Olivier Award nominee Piper is
thought to have missed London life
and splashed out £1.7 million on a
four-bedroom house in the capital.
1 Acre Woodland Homes in the Cotswolds,
90 minutes from London…
…luxury is standard
CONCIERGE SERVICE • AWARD WINNING SPA • 24HR SECURITY
DESIGN INNOVATION • FAMILY ACTIVITIES • KIDS CLUB
T +44 (0) 1367 250 066
E [email protected]
W www.thelakesbyyoo.com
Property not to be used as primary residence
4
Homes & Property New homes
BRIDGING
THE
DIVIDE
ALAMY
Planned new Thames crossings may unite
north and south but they are dividing
communities. David Spittles asks if they
will enliven dull districts — or cause chaos
£4.25 million: for a six-bedroom house in St George’s Square, Pimilico’s poshest
address, where prices have recently spiralled. Through Jackson-Stops & Staff
N
EW bridges — for cyclists
and pedestrians — across
the Thames in central
London are set to change
the character of the riverside districts they will serve. Transport
for London says the crossings will
amount to vital new infrastructure for
the capital — though many residents’
groups fear new bridges will disrupt
and distort their neighbourhoods.
Following initial planning approval
for the much-anticipated Garden
Bridge between Temple and Waterloo,
the next new crossing, between Nine
Elms and Pimlico, appears to have
moved a step closer. Dozens of rival
designs have been published ahead of
a shortlist to be unveiled in July. Construction could start at Nine Elms in
2018, subject to agreement over the
precise location of the bridge.
HIGH LINE INSPIRATION
The Garden Bridge, a mile or so to the
east, takes its inspiration from the
High Line, an aerial park planted on a
former railway track in New York. The
£170 million crossing will span the
Thames between Temple and the
Southbank Centre. Planners like the
idea because it will enliven the
relatively quiet zone by Temple and
dovetail with new residential developments, such as 190 Strand, with 206
apartments, the largest in the area for
more than a century. Prices from
£1.22 million. Call St Edward Homes on
020 3051 1022.
But the Nine Elms to Pimlico bridge
is not having such a smooth ride.
TfL’s preferred route, backed by
Wandsworth Council, is for a south-ofthe river landing point close to the new
United States Embassy at Nine Elms,
and a north bank landing point by
St George’s Square on the Pimlico
waterfront.
Up to 30,000 new homes are earmarked for the Nine Elms district,
dominated by Battersea Power Station,
and the bridge would provide a quick
and convenient link through Pimlico
to Sloane Square and Belgravia as well
as to Victoria train station. A projected
18,000 cyclists and pedestrians a day
would use the bridge, according to TfL,
turning a relatively quiet patch of
Pimlico into a bustling zone, though
possibly creating a rat-run.
BRIDGE ‘TO NOWHERE’
From 1.22 million: with views of the new Garden Bridge at Temple, 190 Strand
will be one of the largest residential projects in the area for more than a century
Edward Reeve, chairman of FREDA, an
umbrella group representing 25
Pimlico residents’ associations, says it
is a flawed proposal — a bridge from
“somewhere to nowhere” — and a
waste of public money.
“We don’t believe the case for the
bridge is proven,” he says. “Most of the
projected users would be diverted from
existing bridges. And where would
people be heading to anyway? St
George’s Square is not a destination in
the same sense as St Paul’s Cathedral
or Tate Modern, which are linked by
the Millennium Bridge. It’s been suggested that people will walk across the
bridge from Nine Elms to get to Pimlico
Tube station, yet two new stations are
being built on the south side.”
He adds that because the landing site
on the north side is a constrained space
and would require high steps or
long ramps, the bridge would cause
horrendous car congestion along the
Embankment and also ruin Pimlico
Gardens, the only green space along
this riverside strip.
Such objections may smack of nimbyism, but for the time being at least,
Westminster City Council is also oppos-
ing the bridge “on the grounds of its
visual and environmental impact”. But,
ultimately, the decision over whether
to build the bridge is likely to rest with
the London Mayor, and with TfL, which
will pay for it.
St George’s Square is Pimlico’s
poshest address, a long and narrow
rectangle of imposing cream-coloured
stucco townhouses facing the Thames
alongside sprawling Churchill Gardens
council estate, itself a conservation
area with 1,600 homes, many now
privately owned, and Dolphin Square,
the 1,250-apartment complex built in
the Thirties.
This part of Pimlico used to belong to
Grosvenor Estate (the land was sold off
in the Fifties), and though it bears a
superficial resemblance to neighbouring Belgravia, it has never been quite
as smart.
Grosvenor’s architect Thomas Cubitt
laid out the handsome terraces, wide
streets and imposing squares. For
much of the 20th century, it lost its
attraction, with houses clumsily split
into small flats and bedsits or converted to B&Bs.
The turnaround started in the Seventies, with the opening of Pimlico’s
Victoria line Tube station, and gathered pace during the next decades,
with many refurbished houses reverting to family occupancy or transformed
into luxury apartments, especially
those within the so-called Pimlico Grid,
an enclave of blocked-off streets and
cul-de-sacs that is remarkably peaceful
because of the absence of through
traffic.
PROPERTY PRICE BOOST
In recent years, Pimlico property
values have spiralled. A six-bedroom
house on St George’s Square is on the
market for £4.25 million, through
Jackson-Stops & Staff, while Douglas &
Gordon is selling a townhouse in
Charlwood Place for £3.15 million.
Swish, purpose-built developments
are also appearing. Riverwalk, at
Millbank, replaces a Sixties office
building and brings 116 apartments in
two undulating blocks, one 17 storeys
high, connected by a central podium.
The site includes Locking Piece, a
bronze sculpture by Henry Moore.
Two-bedroom flats cost from £1.75 million, while the largest penthouse is
priced at £25 million. Call Knight Frank
on 020 7861 5499.
CHELSEA BARRACKS IN
THE PIPELINE
On the horizon is high-profile Chelsea
Barracks, a prized 13-acre chunk of
land between Pimlico Road and the
river, where the first phase of 600
upmarket homes is under way.
Surprisingly, perhaps, Pimlico has a
wide social mix, with well-kept private,
council and charitable housing plus
there is a growing number of young
private renters living around the lively
hub at Warwick Way, just south of
5
New homes Homes & Property
Weekend escape: David and Linda Phillips bought a flat at Riverlight
‘New bridge will be a seamless
link to Pimlico and Hyde Park’
THE first new residents at Nine
Elms cannot wait for a new bridge to
be built.
Linda and David Phillips bought an
apartment at Riverlight, a scheme
that comprises six striking
waterfront pavilions with external
lifts encased in glass.
David, 44, an oil industry executive,
and his wife want the flat so they can
spend weekends and holidays in
central London.
The couple’s main home is in
Shenfield, Essex.
“We like to make the most of the
arts and entertainment options —
museums, the theatre, good
restaurants and shopping,” David
Victoria station. As well as a place to
live, Nine Elms is set to become a giant
recreational and retail hub, and is certain to attract many visitors from north
of the river, perhaps reinforcing the
case for another bridge. Since 2011, the
average value of a home has jumped
from about £800 a sq ft to £1,400 a
sq ft, while river-facing penthouses are
fetching more than £2,000 a sq ft.
Flats at Battersea Power Station
cost from £495,000 for a studio, rising
to £3.2 million for a four-bedroom
townhouse. Call 020 7501 0678.
Down by the riverside: dozens of
designs have been submitted for a
new Nine Elms to Pimlico bridge. All
of them struggle with the differing
elevations of the two sides. This one
deploys snaking ramps in an attempt
to overcome the problem
Nine Elms Point, a Barratt development of 737 homes, has two-bedroom
flats starting at £883,000 (call CBRE on
020 7182 2477), while One Nine Elms
has 436 flats priced from £795,000.
Call Strutt & Parker on 020 7629 7282.
Completion is in 2018. With many more
says. “Nine Elms is so well placed for
this and the new bridge will provide
a seamless link to Pimlico and on to
Chelsea and Hyde Park.
“We’ll be able to stroll to Sloane
Square and Kings Road in less than
20 minutes.
“The bridge just adds to the
convenience of living here.”
Riverlight itself has a new arts
venue, StudioRCA, a collaboration
with the Royal College of Art, plus a
spa, gym, library, club lounge and
café, and is the first of the new
developments to complete.
Only a few apartments remain for
sale, priced from £800,000. Call
020 7870 9620.
flats becoming available it is possible
that prices may plateau in the short
term at least — one reason to compare
resales with off-plan prices. Estate
agent Garton Jones has a number of
resales priced from £699,000 to
£2.9 million. Call 020 7735 1888.
PUTNEY
SW15
NOW OVER 60% SOLD
COSMOPOLITAN LIVING
IN VIBRANT PUTNEY
1, 2 & 3 BEDROOM APARTMENTS AND PENTHOUSES
FROM £595,000
Computer generated image depicts London Square Putney.
Details and price are correct at time of going to press.
The London Square Sales Suite, 113 Upper Richmond Road, SW15 2TL now open daily
0333 666 2838
www.londonsquare.co.uk
6
Homes & Property First-time buyers
F
IRST-TIME buyers have never
had it so bad — thanks to eyewatering property price rises
and tough restrictions on
lending — yet, at last, the
future looks much brighter.
Prices in London are steady for the
first time in five years; stamp duty has
been reduced, more lenders are offering 95 per cent mortgages, ever more
shared-ownership deals are around,
and interest rates look set to stay at
their record low for some time yet.
Right now in London buying is about
10 per cent cheaper than renting, with
typical costs of £1,275 a month when
buying, and £1,387 when renting,
according to Halifax, which has
trimmed two-year fixed mortgages for
first-time borrowers, including shared
ownership buyers, to 2.94 per cent.
SAVINGS PUSH
Research by Family Mosaic housing
assoc iation shows more young
Londoners are taking on second jobs,
working overtime, cancelling gym
memberships, foregoing holidays, and
cycling to work to save and build up a
deposit.
A good many inner city areas as well
as outer travel zones are within the
budget of first-time buyers, with many
properties in the £200,000-£300,000
price bracket, and part shares starting
at less than £70,000.
IT’S SHOWTIME
The First Time Buyer Show taking place
at Business Design Centre in Islington
on Saturday has new spring home
launches. London’s main housing
associations as well as private developers and estate agents are exhibiting.
Mortgage advisers and lawyers will also
be on hand, plus there are free
seminars explaining the ins and outs
of low-cost options such as shared
ownership and Help-to-Buy. Visit
ftbhomeshow.co.uk
BUYING DISCOUNTS
L&Q housing association is promoting
“PricedIn”, a campaign to bring affordable homes to young Londoners, and
some of the homes on offer are close
to the venue. Harrington Court at
Hornsey Rise has 28 flats priced from
£174,995 for a 35 per cent share. Call
0844 4069800.
First-time buyers working in west
London boroughs qualify for “discount
market” flats priced from £280,000 at
Barratt’s Great West Quarter in
Brentford. Call 0844 811 4321.
This low-cost initiative helps buyers
overcome the hurdle of having to put
down a big deposit. Buyers have full
ownership of the property and pay no
rent, only mortgage repayments. But
a deed of covenant gives the local
council the right to buy back the prop-
£76,876: for a quarter share of a flat at Spectra, Wandsworth,
the Octavia Living’s follow-on phase from Illumina House, above
From £240,000: Aura is a new development in Edgware
constructed around manicured gardens and a central pond
Cancel the gym and get on the ladder
The prospects for first-time
buyers are brighter than they
have been for years. But saving
for a deposit and finding the
right home still require sacrifices
— and doing your homework,
explains David Spittles
erty if the buyer chooses to sell. The
owner would receive 70 per cent of the
prevailing open market value.
CANALSIDE LIVING
Developers continue to unlock derelict
canalside sites still in need of cleaning
up. They’re cheaper, quiet, car-free
and have good transport links.
Royal Quay, overlooking Limehouse
Cut, has 90 flats set behind original
warehouse façades. Prices from
£250,000. Call Regal Homes on 020
7328 7171.
Southall, part of the Heathrow
Quarter in west London (therefore
suffering plane noise), is earmarked for
housing growth. Grand Union Canal
runs through the area and it will have
a new Crossrail station in 2018.
At Salisbury Gardens, a new scheme
of 103 homes, prices start at £205,000.
Call Barratt on 0844 8114321.
Edgware, in north-west London, has
also been designated a key regeneration zone and will benefit from fasttrack planning and development. Last
week, Boris Johnson announced that
the Northern line Tube service to
Edgware will operate 24 hours a day
by the end of this year. Aura, with 189
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homes, is one of the new schemes
rising. Prices from £240,000.
Call Weston Homes on 01279 873
300.
MALL GREEN LIGHT
Croydon is launching several key towncentre projects, including £1 billion
Westfield shopping mall — getting the
green light after a decade-long planning wrangle.
With the town’s commercial heart
getting sorted, housebuilders are
stepping forward. Morello Quarter
is the latest launch, 290 apartments
7
First time buyers Homes & Property
From £259,995:
Morello Quarter,
left, in Croydon is
well connected,
with 27 trains
an hour to the
centre of London
From £205,000:
Salisbury
Gardens, right,
a new Barratt
scheme in
Southall, will
feature 103
homes
Living the dream: Rachel Warren had
given up on buying her own home
adjacent to East Croydon train station,
one of the best-connected outer-London transport hubs, with 27 trains an
hour to the centre — London Bridge
and Victoria in 15 minutes — and a
through-the-night service to Gatwick.
Morello Quarter also has landscaped
gardens, an on-site gym, café and
concierge reception. Prices from
£259,995. Call Redrow on 020 3305
5057.
PINPOINT SEARCH
Much activity is being channelled
through the mayor’s First Steps
programme, which promotes shared
ownership. Visit sharetobuy.com. This
offers a simple registration and search
service, allowing people to pinpoint
affordable homes on a borough-byborough basis.
All first-time buyers earning between
£15,000 and £60,000 are eligible.
Typically, applicants must have at least
£4,000 in savings to cover the cost of
buying a home. This amount is in addition to the minimum five per cent
required by a lender. Some properties
are available “off-plan”, usually several
months before they are complete, allowing buyers to organise their move.
‘I thought I’d be
renting for life’
EVENTS and catering designer
Rachel Warren, 35, believed she
would be renting for life in order
to be able to afford and enjoy the
London lifestyle. “I had given up
the dream of buying a home in
Wandsworth, where I wanted to
live, and was quite content renting
a room in a shared property with
four other people.”
Then she discovered shared
ownership, and was able to
purchase a 45 per cent share of a
one-bedroom flat at a development
called Illumina House. That was in
2013. She paid £126,000 and has
since bought another 20 per cent
of equity. She hopes to “staircase”
to full ownership within the next
five years. In addition to mortgage
payments, she pays rent of £352
per month plus a service charge of
£110 per month.
Octavia Living, the housing
association, is also offering shared
ownership at Spectra, postcode
SW18. Prices from £76,876 for a 25
per cent share. Call 020 8354 5500.
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8
Homes & Property Homes abroad
Cathy Hawker
finds second-home
destinations that will
keep everyone in
the family happy
From £167,000:
apartments in
Valmorel
through the
French leaseback
scheme with
family-friendly
skiiing — and the
Pink family, left
T
‘EVEN THOUGH IT WAS DARK WE HAD TO HAVE IT’
HE perfect family holiday
home has to work hard for
its keep. A charmed location, plenty to do and multigenerational appeal can
seem a contradictory list of requirements. But here are three destinations
that seem to make the cut.
WHEN John Pink and his
wife Susi, from Richmond,
bought a three-bedroom
apartment in Valmorel
there were many reasons
for their choice. The view
from the balcony, the pool,
spa and the rental income
from the leaseback all
played a part.
“We first looked at the
MGM development in Ste
Foy and Tignes and were
1 THE SPORTING CHOICE:
FRENCH ALPS
Last year the attractive French alpine
resort of Valmorel won the World
Snow Award for Most Improved Family
Resort Worldwide, the culmination of
a two-year campaign to improve its
family-friendly credentials.
Valmorel has spent £96,500 improving its ski runs, £37,000 creating
dedicated family ski parks and introduced competitive pricing on lift
passes. The resort has testing black
runs, but 80 per cent of its 80 miles are
easy-rated green and blues.
Developer MGM is selling ski-in-andout one- to three-bedroom apartments
at La Grange aux Fées, close to the
village centre and with wide mountain
and valley views.
Prices start from £167,000 for a
457sq ft flat through the French leaseback scheme where owners are obliged
to rent for the majority of the year. Full
ownership apartments including VAT
start from £185,500.
Getting young children and all their
kit ready isn’t easy so the closer to the
slopes the better. New ski-in-and-out
two- to four-bedroom apartments at
Les Flambeaux in Chatel in the ever
popular, year-round Portes du Soleil
are selling fast, says agents Athena
Advisors.
Prices at Les Flambeaux start from
£310,000 through Athena Advisors.
impressed by the design,”
says IT specialist John, 45.
“When we moved on to
Valmorel, even though it
was dark, once we saw the
moonlit view we had to
have it.” The couple, who
paid £351,700 (plus VAT),
plan many holidays with
children Millie and Archie.
O MGM: mgmfrench properties.
com 020 7494 0706
At last, a squabble-free holiday
detached villa and pool in Binixica
close to Mahon. A two-bedroom
1,237sq ft villa and pool in quiet Trebaluger close to Es Castell is £241,000.
O Hamptons International:
hamptons.co.uk 020 7265 6595
3 FOR TRYING TEENAGERS:
MAURITIUS
£392,000:
near Binibeca,
Menorca, a
four-bedroom
villa with pool
and gardens.
Through
Hamptons
O MGM: mgmfrenchproperties.com
020 7494 0706
O Athena Advisors: athenaadvisors.
co.uk 020 7471 4500
2 IDEAL FOR PRE-TEENS:
MENORCA
The quiet Balearic island lacks the chic
of Ibiza and the buzz of Majorca, but
its child-friendly appeal is undisputed.
Safe, pretty and traditionally Spanish,
it has more beaches than those two
islands combined.
Hamptons has two-bedroom homes
on Son Parc golf course from £89,000.
The average British buyer spends
£297,000, which buys a four-bedroom
020 3411 2026
A 12-hour flight from London takes you
to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius,
a tropical mix of French, English,
Indian and Creole culture.
Financially successful through manufacturing and trade, the island is an
upmarket tourist destination and a
popular golfing one with 10 championship courses. Less than half the size of
Norfolk, it includes lagoons, densely
forested mountains and, of course,
tropical beaches edged with palm trees
and encircled by coral reefs.
Abercrombie & Kent is selling
detached homes at Villas Valriche, a
525-acre golf estate in the undeveloped
south-west. The elevated site with sea
views will eventually have 288 plantation-style two- to six-bedroom villas.
From £431,000:
plantation-style
family homes at
Villas Valriche,
Mauritius,
through
Abercrombie
& Kent
These are well-finished homes, half
already sold and occupied with prices
from £431,000. There is a beach club
there, too. “Mauritius has a reputation
for stability and racial harmony, and
with safe swimming, French-influenced
cuisine and sporting excellence, it is the
perfect family destination,” says Robert
Green of A&K International Estates.
O Abercrombie & Kent:
akinternationalestates.com
Join the lively new community at Camberwell Fields,
SE5. You’ll have a great location opposite Burgess Park,
one of the largest in South London.
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10
Homes & Property Interiors
Right: in a house in Mayfair a glass
cupola over the stairs drops light to
lower levels, while a 55-stone crystal
chandelier provides decoration
Centre right: in Winchester Street,
Pimlico, a living area wood, glass and
metal staircase provides a focal point
E
LEVATING the functional into
something beautiful is the
ultimate hallmark of good
design and few things in a
house are more functional
than its staircase.
The Georgians really knew how to
build staircases — dramatic cantilevered affairs with stone treads and
sweeping curves — but the space and
cost-conscious Victorians and Edwardians relegated them to the mundane.
Today, however, architects and
designers are turning the humble
staircase into a signature design item.
“The stair has a functional aspect, but
can also be very beautiful and act as a
stunning centrepiece to a space bringing in light,” says Nick Willson, director
of Nick Willson Architects.
“We can also play with the look — its
width, treads, risers and materials.
Storage can be included, with bookcases for example, but also the stair
can wrap around tight spaces or run
up a double height space.”
Architect Michael Crowley adds: “The
design of a staircase is not purely an
aesthetic decision. This is one of the
crucial elements of the house because
you don’t only see it and utilise it, but
daily you touch it. It’s the tactile centre
of the building.”
This means that materials have to be
chosen carefully and design should
take into account how it will be used
— the handrail should be the right size
to grip perfectly and the risers should
not be uncomfortably steep.
Another architect, Alex Haw, founder
of Atmos Studio (atmosstudio.com),
combined style with storage in a design
for an artist and a musician’s home in
Stoke Newington. Their central, open
staircase is built of oak, steel and MDF,
and the treads splay to create space for
cupboards, shelves and seating in the
understairs area.
“In duplex apartments staircases
should be flexible. This flat only measured about 650sq ft. Whatever we did
had to be very space-efficient and we
needed to use every pocket of space.”
Stairs are
the stars
The staircase is no longer hiding in the hall,
instead it has a new role as a home’s stunning
centrepiece, reports Ruth Bloomfield
The project cost about £6,000,
including labour, plus a design fee of
about 15 per cent and carried out as
part of a refurbishment.
Haw’s stairs are a mixture of form and
function though stairs can also be
simply extravagant.
Philip Watts, founder of Philip Watts
Design (philipwattsdesign.com), used
glass, wood and metal to create his
“spine staircase”, a statement piece
created for a home in Northampton,
where the curved maple treads are
supported by a sculptural piece resembling a thick, ropy spinal cord which
appears to melt into the wood floor. A
cast aluminium rib cage is curved
upward to form the balustrade (curved
glass panels set between each of the
ribs ensures the stairs are not only
beautiful, but safe to use).
Meanwhile Battersea Power Station
interior architects Michaelis Boyd
(michaelisboyd.com) injected a bit of
fun into a high-end home by creating
a hybrid staircase/children’s slide for
a family in Chelsea.
The practice designed a bespoke slide
made of Corian which fits over a
section of the stairs, transforming them
into a slide for children. The slide is
1.5ft wide and, at around 4ft, the stairs
are still wide enough for those who
prefer a more conventional method of
descent to walk down. It cost £9,000.
Property developers always tend to
go for more traditional designs than
architects. Fenton Whelan opted for a
grand spiral staircase running through
the heart of a remodelled listed house
in Reeves Mews, Mayfair. A bohemian
crystal chandelier — which weighs an
astonishing 55 stone — throws shards
of light around the stairwell.
“When you look at an old house it was
clearly all about ‘my staircase is bigger
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11
Interiors Homes & Property
Right: in Stoke
Newington, the
treads of the
staircase, by
architects Atmos
Studio, splay to
create space for
shelves and
seating
$$
$
than yours’,” says Peter Wetherell,
managing director of Wetherell, which
is marketing the house for £24 million.
“The Victorians stopped doing that,
which I think was a shame because it
gives you a real sense of arrival and
makes a house feel very special. They
do, however, take up a lot of space.”
Glass balustrades are fashionable,
and used with floating treads they give
rather stolid stairs an ethereal feel.
The owners of a three-bedroom townhouse on Winchester Street, Pimlico,
used wood, glass and metal for their
floating staircase, which is a fine focal
point to the open plan living room.
The property is on sale for £1.65 million with Douglas and Gordon.
The interior design team Oliver Burns
opted for glass balustrades when
designing a marble-clad staircase for
The Walpole lateral apartments beside
The Ritz Hotel.
Above: maple
treads, glass
panels and an
aluminium “rib
cage” create a
sculptural
staircase in
Northampton
Right: in Chelsea,
Michaelis Boyd
injected a bit of
fun into this
family home
with a slide
for the children
and a more
conventional
descent for the
adults
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Above: at The Walpole, a scheme of flats next to The Ritz Hotel in central London, kitchens are reached
by marble-clad staircases with glass balustrades. This one, however, is finished with stainless steel
14
Homes & Property Our home
Seeing the light:
covering the side
return increased
the space and
privacy, while
the statement
Crittall French
window brought
in more natural
sunlight
A raw B
beauty
Philippa Stockley discovers
how a grim Victorian terrace
become a much-loved home
EIBHINN GILLAN, 34, and
Matt Arnold, 40, were priced
out of buying in Hackney,
where they were renting, and
so found themselves in Peckham. Even though they weren’t in love
with the little Victorian terrace they had
found there, they knew it could be
changed into the sort of place they could
fall in love with, so they bought it.
Beibhinn (pronounced Bevan), an
Irish girl who trained as an accountant,
had met New Zealander Matt, who
works in banking, while they were on
holiday in Portugal in 2006.
Two years later she came over from
Dublin and moved in, and everything
was fine, until they were expecting Ellie
Rose (now two). Then it was time to
find a proper home with a garden.
They had previously met John and
Joanna, from Mustard Architects, at a
little stall in Victoria Park, E3.
“They were doing a bit of guerrilla
marketing, so I went and talked to
them,” Beibhinn says. “What they were
saying made sense, so we invited them
over to Peckham to see if their design
philosophy matched ours.”
A FIRM OFFER
The Peckham house needed work, and
had just been taken off the market, having languished there for ages. But they
put in a firm offer, which the owners
accepted just before Christmas.
What they’d bought was a classic,
two-storey, early Victorian terrace
house with an original dog-leg and side
return at the back. These narrow
outdoor spaces are the bane of many
Londoners’ lives — particularly since,
in this case, the extending leg of the
house held a small thin kitchen with a
poky window on to the garden, while
the gravelled, overgrown side return
just sat there, unloved.
Having already engaged their architects, the couple knew that they wanted
to absorb the side return into the house
to create a full-width kitchen-diner.
“It was a no-brainer,” says Beibhinn.
“Even though estate agents think there
is a better financial return from extending into the loft, that wasn’t what we
wanted.”
However, it would mean getting
planning permission — and their neighbours’ agreement to raise the existing,
chest-height garden wall in order
to spring a glazed roof from it to go
over the top. So they got cracking. Two
days after they moved in, in February
2013, John and Joanna from Mustard
came round.
The works the couple ended up doing
were more extensive and cost more
than they’d first anticipated. Though
their original budget was £100,000,
they ended up spending £170,000, but
they achieved a lot for it.
The side return’s wall came out, the
opening supported by a big beam. The
side return itself was roofed with triplelaminated glass, sprung from the gar-
Steps in the
right direction:
the walls were
painted in
tones that
complemented
the style of the
home, with
paints from
Colour Makes
People Happy at
sieclecolours.
com
Photographs:
Tim Crocker
and
Adrian Lourie
15
Our home Homes & Property
den wall that was raised to 2.3 metres.
At the end of the house they put in a
Crittall French window and a matching,
double window for a hefty £9,000.
IN FOR THE LONG TERM
“What we were doing was long term,”
Beibhinn says. The kitchen-diner has a
polished concrete floor, a central island
with a steel top, and exposed flues.
All this gives an attractive industrial
look, but it’s practical, too, with a gorgeous steel six-burner range for Matt,
who loves to cook, and an American-
style double fridge. But the architects,
who dubbed the property The Raw
House, didn’t stop here. They also took
out half the hall wall and widened the
opening between the original two
living rooms, effectively turning the
whole ground floor into one big,
comfortable living space — though
retaining a sensible length of hall,
and keeping zones.
The floors were repaired and stained,
and the walls painted in really delicious,
thoughtful colours hand-mixed by a
local paint wizard — a perfect French
Space to dine for: Beibhinn and Matt
absorbed the side return into the
house to create a kitchen-diner
Grey in the sitting room and a beautiful
soft, warm blue in Ellie Rose’s room.
Upstairs, the old bathroom was made
bigger by poaching space off the back
bedroom, then decked out with a double shower, a bath, and metro tiles.
Through careful thinking, a small
house has become a medium-sized
house that thinks it’s an even bigger
home.
LOAFINGLY LOVELY FURNITURE
Get the look
Architect: John Norman at
mustardarchitects.com
Crittall door and windows: from
Metwin Windows at metwin.co.uk
Steel range cooker: from
falconappliances.com
Pendant steel lamps in kitchen:
made in America, from
barnlightelectric.com
Metro bathroom tiles: firedearth.com
Paints: from sieclecolours.com
What it cost
House in spring 2013: £540,000
Total cost including architect: £170,000
Value now (estimated): £1,150,000
Finalist
For this project, which they dubbed
The Raw House, Mustard won third
place in the home extension category
of NLA’s Don’t Move, Improve Awards
2014. See newlondonarchitecture.org
20
Homes & Property Events
1
2
3
4
5
Five things
to see in
March
By Barbara Chandler
1 THE COUNTRY LIVING
SPRING FAIR
March 18-22, Business Design Centre,
Islington, N1; book at countrylivingfair.
com; 0844 848 0160
CELEBRATE spring at this muchloved annual fair, where around 400
companies will sell charming home
goodies not on any high street, from
furniture and furnishings to textiles
and fashion. Enjoy a lively
programme of talks, workshops and
demos. Tickets are £16.50 on the
door or £13 in advance. Readers
ticket offer: buy tickets for £12
quoting code CLS151.
2 DESIGNS OF THE YEAR
3 THE CLASSIC CAR BOOT SALE
March 25-August 23, Design Museum,
Shad Thames, SE1; designmuseum.org;
020 7940 8790
March 14-15, South Bank Centre,
Belvedere Road, SE1; classiccar
bootsale.co.uk
DESIGN junkies adore this annual
show, now in its eighth year,
presenting an eclectic mix of ideas
from around the world. Among the
75 ideas are big projects including
Google’s self-driving car, US
architect Frank Gehry’s Paris art
gallery, the Fondation Louis Vuitton,
with its 3,000 curved glass panels;
and Londoner Asif Kahn’s Sochi
Olympic Megafaces, a stadium
wall that scanned visitors’ faces
and then put them up in 3D lights,
hugely enlarged.
VINTAGE fans will have a ball, when
more than 100 classic vehicles
appear on the South Bank to trade in
vintage fashion, homewares and
collectibles. Find old-style textiles,
glassware and retro furniture. You
can even buy old American gas
pumps from the boot of a Chevy
Panel van. There will be live music,
vintage DJ sets and swing dancing
lessons. Rare show cars on view
include the DeLorean used in the
film Back to the Future and Niki
Lauda’s Ferrari team van from Rush.
4 DESIRE JEWELLERY &
SILVERSMITHING FAIR
5 THE BRANCOTT ESTATE GREAT
HOME HACK
March 6-8, Chelsea Old Town Hall,
Kings Road, Chelsea, SW3; desirefair.
com; 01622 747 325
March 13-15, noon to 9pm, Fulham
Palace, Bishop’s Avenue, SW6;
thegreathomehack.com
IN A charming period hall are around
90 carefully selected jewellers and
silversmiths selling their work, and
accepting commissions. Marvellous
materials include gold, silver,
palladium, copper, brass, glass and
bronze, which are teamed with
anything from pearls and gemstones
to buttons and beads. Shown here is
our city’s skyline captured in handpierced silver by Jen Ricketts. Robert
Ingham brings his coveted jewellery
boxes. Admission £6.
THE word “hack” has a lot of
meanings (mostly derogatory), but
here it means to make over/improve/
upcycle. This is a fun event in a
beautiful venue with medieval
origins. Your host is ace hacker, from
TV, Max McMurdo, above, the first
man to make a chair out of a
shopping trolley. Expect live demos
and workshops, plus stalls selling
made-over furniture, glassware,
jewellery and more. Tickets cost £10,
but children under 12 go free.
26
Homes & Property Interiors
homesandproperty
London Design Week
MARCH 8-13, DESIGN CENTRE CHELSEA HARBOUR
The
artisan
look
There are so many ways to create
this exquisite style, bringing luxury
and craftsmanship together,
discovers Barbara Chandler
F
ROM Sunday for six days,
Chelsea will be the world’s
interior design hub, as the
capital swings into London
Design Week (the public can
visit free from Wednesday).
This is the must-see event and it all
happens under the multi-floored glass
domes of the Design Centre Chelsea
Harbour, home to 500 global brands.
“Artisanal” is the buzzword. We’ve
seen it in cheese, bread and even
coffee, but now it’s in interiors. This is
sophisticated upmarket craft. Indeed,
a new collection at Royal Warrant
holder GP & J Baker uses the simple
name Artisan for its beautiful handblock-printed linens and cottons.
Labour of love: above, artwork for The Brook velvet
took two months to hand-paint by head designer
Alison Gee at Morris & Co; £110 a metre; right,
wallpaper from Anthology by Harlequin; £114 a roll
Many
properties
deliver
over 35
weeks!
Do you own a Holiday Home?
• High booking levels through £multi-million marketing
• Maximise your income through unique, in-house
pricing software
• Hassle-free service with 35 years’ experience in the industry
• Free additional listing on www.cottages4you.co.uk
Call 0345 268 8896
Email [email protected] or visit
www.welcomecottages.com/letting-your-property
BEAUTY IS IN THE DETAIL
William Lack, founder and director of
Altfield wallpaper studio, offers about
30 rare hand-made wall coverings,
including a new flexible “paper”
with a thin layer of real plaster
painstakingly decorated by a US artist
to create an instant painted wall.
Elsewhere, find hand-made
trimmings, for example pearls and
chains, at Nada Designs. At Tissus
d’Helene, Helen Cormack can show
you hand-screened/blocked fabrics
from more than 50 companies in
Europe and America. Also find
mouthblown glass (for example, lamp
bases at Bella Figura), hand-applied
lacquers and gilding (Porta
Romana), hand-tufted rugs
(Esti Barnes with exquisite
calligraphy), leather painting
(Edelman) and, hand-made tiles
(Ann Sacks). The Harbour shows
off not just fabrics and papers,
but the finest furniture, lighting
and flooring, too.
Archives are the secret weapon of
many top brands. Arts and Crafts
aficionados should head straight for
an updated William Morris collection.
Madeleine Castaing (1894–1992) was
a wildly chic French antiques dealer
and interior designer, whose
wallcoverings and fabrics — bang on
trend with rampant skins and verdant
Green appeal: fresh, leafy foliage is a
strong trend – Sanderson has Muguet,
a new cotton print; £47 a metre
■Twitter:
@sunnyholt
Glass act: it
takes a huge
amount of skill
to create these
mouthblown
Sasso lamp
bases, £1,050,
bella-figura.com
palms — are now at Turnell & Gigon.
Straight from the artist’s mouth come
the splashy fantasies of American
Hunt Slonem and he has even made
rabbits chic at Lee Jofa. As for colours,
well, take your pick. Find leafy greens
with ivy and trailing strawberries at
Sanderson, strong blues and pinks by
maestro Manuel Canovas, and a sweet
dusky pink at Lelievre.
CONTRASTING STYLES
Luxe means elegant and svelte in a
palette that’s warm and rich, but
mainly neutral, maybe with
flashes of mica, gold, copper
and/or bronze. Surfaces are
smooth and luminescent.
Satin cloth, matt lacquer and
polished metals contrast with the
texture of natural materials such
as ebonised woods and leathers.
Witness Zoffany’s new
Constantina collection updating
damask weaves and wallpaper. Or
browse Anthology at Harlequin,
inspired by the industrial finishes of a
fashionable loft. Also check out Mark
Alexander at Romo, a family-run firm
since 1902. Indeed, so many décor
brands from here and abroad play
27
Interiors Homes & Property
y.co.uk with
In full bloom: Tricia Guild used many inks for her Shanghai
Garden collection; Willow Flower wallpaper panel costs £248
longevity as a trump card. Rubelli,
with silks and exquisite weaves, is a
Venetian company dating back to 1889
and is now in its fifth generation.
Pierre Frey celebrates its 80th
anniversary this year, while Zimmer +
Rohde is now in its fifth generation.
In Kings Road, the big brands have
been travelling, with chic Turkish
geometry at Osborne & Little. Across
the road, Tricia Guild has grown her
very own Shanghai garden on papers
and fabrics, where bamboo, willow
trees, temples and blossom are
exquisitely hand-painted in the style
of Chinese landscape artists.
All week, London’s leading editors
will host chats on stage, with big
names on the interiors scene. Décor
doyenne Nina Campbell will discuss
30 years’ worth of domestic design
secrets drawing on her five homes.
Also on the platform are A-list
decorator Paolo Moschino and Joanna
Wood, and they will be joined by
wallpaper and furniture designers and
a leading florist.
Check out the programme for times
and tickets — it’s called Conversations
in Design. Call 020 7225 9166, or email
[email protected].
Dip into the running blog on dcch.co.
uk for regular updates, and follow the
news feed @Designcentrech using
hashtag #LDW15.
READER
OFFER
Eastern inspiration: Tulipan cotton print from the new Turkish-inspired Pasha
collection at Osborne & Little; £60 a metre. Visit osborneandlittle.com
Thursday,
March 12,
11.30am to
12.30pm,
Conversations
in Design,
hosted by
Homes &
Property at
Design Club,
Third Floor,
South Dome,
Design Centre
Chelsea
Harbour, SW10.
Meet three
leading interior
designers and
find out why
London is the
capital of cool
design. With
Staffan
Tollgård, Nicky
Dobree and
Scott Maddux.
Tickets £7.50
(usually £10).
Call 020 7352
1900 and quote
Homes &
Property
(dcch.co.uk)
) " #
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28
Homes & Property Outdoors
The drinks are
on the garden
Mixologist Lottie Muir says we should take
advantage of our outdoor cocktail cabinets
ARDENER by day and
Pattie
mixologist by night,
Lottie Muir shakes up
Barron
plant-powered
G
Garden bar fly: Lottie Muir shakes up
a storm with nature’s flavours
concoctions that have the
flavours of nature mingled with the
kick of a cocktail. On summer
evenings she sets up the bar in the
roof garden she created above
Rotherhithe’s Brunel Museum, and,
to the delight of The Midnight
Apothecary’s punters, serves up the
likes of Blackberry Martini, Wild
Cherry Manhattan and Grilled
Nectarine Smash, the fruits first
smoked over the firepit.
Now Muir has gathered her recipes
in a book, Wild Cocktails From The
Midnight Apothecary (CICO
Books), detailing the herbs and
flowers to grow so that this summer,
we can all pick ‘n’ mix from our own
outdoor cocktail cabinets.
“Just one window box of rosemary,
lavender and scented geraniums will
give you some great basics for
infusions, syrups and garnishes,”
says Muir. “Rosemary goes well with
gin. Stems of upright rosemary make
,
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great swizzle sticks and the deep blue
flowers of rosemary Feta Blue are a
beautiful garnish. You can infuse
lavender flowers — Munstead is
especially fragrant — in gin or vodka,
six teaspoons to a one-litre bottle.
Test it for taste, every hour up to five
hours. No longer, or it will get bitter.”
The leaves of scented geraniums,
both rose and lemon varieties, she
uses for liqueurs as well as infusing in
sugar to make a sweet rim around a
glass, and picks the velvety leaves of
variety Lemon Fancy to flavour
limoncello made from vodka, lemon
zest, sugar and lavender buds.
Botanical cocktails should be an
orgy for the senses, believes Muir,
with garnishes providing flavour,
aroma and texture. “Think shoots,
leaves, fronds and flowers, such as
peppery nasturtium blooms, which
we also infuse in golden rum,” she
says. “Add egg white to make a foamy
float for flowers. We weave the fronds
of bronze fennel into a tall glass of ice
cubes and when we add the drink
they look like seaweed in a rock pool.”
Lemon balm is worth growing
because you can use the vibrant green
leaves instead of mint in a mojito. And
the dainty foliage of lemon verbena
makes an exquisite syrup, adds Muir,
with raspberries, as well as a great rub
‘n’ sniff garnish. If you have paving
stones, Muir suggests growing
horseradish between them to contain
the root, and then you have, in an
infusion with black cardamom, a
va-va-voom base for the ultimate
Bloody Mary.
If you have a patch of shade, you
can grow tiny aromatic strawberries
for a Rose and Wild Strawberry
Daiquiri, and plant chocolate mint in
a bucket so you can sip chocolate
mint julep on the patio. Sorrel
spreads in the border, but that’s no
bad thing, because Muir says it adds a
great sour-lemon note. You just
smack a leaf between your palms — a
better technique for muddling, she
says, than bashing with a wooden
spoon, which makes leaves bitter —
and drop it into a G&T.
It’s a walk in the park to gather
beech leaves for a gin and brandy
noyau or elderflowers for an elegant
liqueur. Forage fruits of the forest
Botanical hits: flavours, herbs and
aromatic foliage give spirits a punch
as well as adding a decorative touch
from Waitrose or your garden for the
best Bellinis: “If you can create pulp
and juice from the fruit, you can use
it,” says Muir, who makes a mean Jam
Bellini from blackberry puree,
serving it in a jam jar.
What it’s really all about, says Muir,
is getting back to nature in the city,
sitting around a firepit outdoors,
surrounded by the plants that are
used to infuse and decorate the
cocktails. “Scatter the seeds, harvest
the bounty, stick it in a glass, light a
fire and invite the people. They will
come and they will love it!”
O For Midnight Apothecary recipes,
visit homesandproperty.co.uk/midnight
O Wild Cocktails From The Midnight
Apothecary costs £16.99, but readers can
buy it for £11.99, including p&p, by calling
01256 302699 (quote code CQ1)
O The Midnight Apothecary is open
Saturday evenings, 5.30pm-10.30pm
from Easter weekend to the end
September. For details, visit brunelmuseum.org/uk
Herbal treat: Bloody Rosemary is a
potent blend of blood orange liquer,
peach bitters and floral gin
O For outdoor events this month, visit
homesandproperty.co.uk/events
O Gardening queries? Email our RHS
expert at expertgardeningadvice@
gmail.com
32
Homes & Property Property searching
Spotlight
Weybridge
£1.295 MILLION
A four-bedroom house in Dorchester
Road, Weybridge town centre.
Through John D Wood.
O homesandpoperty.co.uk/dor
£4.95 MILLION
A “Tuscan-style” five-bedroom
house in sought-after St George’s
Hill, Weybridge (Gascoigne Pees).
O homesandproperty.co.uk/tusc
The little
town that
packs a big
punch
Billionaires love its private gated
estates but families head here
for larger homes and an easy
commute, says Anthea Masey
£900,000
A three-bedroom Victorian former
workman’s cottage in Old Avenue,
Weybridge (House Simple).
O homesandproperty.co.uk/ave
T
HE Surrey commuter town
of Weybridge is a small
outlying urban settlement
that punches above its
weight for gossip column
inches, having housed some famous
residents in the gated acres of its St
George’s Hill estate. Among them John
Lennon, Ringo Starr, Cliff Richard, and
currently Dragon’s Den panellist Theo
Paphitis and Bollywood star Shilpa
Shetty. The wooded estate, behind high
walls, houses many a secret billionaire
in its lofty mansions.
The quiet little town that sits close to
the confluence of the River Thames
and the River Wey, hence the name
Historical: bricks from Henry VIII’s Oatlands Palace
were used to build bridges along the Wey
Weybridge, is for families who do not
want to stray too far from London with
its bright lights and rich variety, and
want easy access to both Heathrow and
Gatwick airports.
In 1538, Henry VIII acquired a house
at Oatlands in Weybridge for Anne of
Cleves. It was rebuilt as a grand Tudor
palace and it was where he married
Catherine Howard in 1540.
Oatlands Palace was demolished in
1653, but the bricks were used to build
the locks and bridges along the River
Wey. It was one of the very first canals,
built a century before the great canal
building boom at the end of the
18th century. It was the first of many
firsts for Weybridge. At Brooklands,
Weybridge can claim to have the
world’s first purpose-built motor
racing circuit — and it is where most of
Britain’s most iconic aeroplanes,
everything from the Sopwith Camel to
the Wellington bomber to supersonic
Concorde, were first conceived.
Weybridge sits 20 miles south-west
of central London with three major
motorways — the M3, M25 and M4 — all
nearby and a commuter train journey
to Waterloo that t akes around
30 minutes.
Properties: Estate agent Simon Ashwell at the local branch of Savills says
there are two markets in Weybridge:
the mainstream market focusing on
Weybridge town centre, and the ultraprime market of St George’s Hill —
known locally as The Hill — and the
town’s other private gated roads.
Weybridge itself has a selection of
period homes ranging from quaint
cottages to Edwardian semis to interwar Arts and Crafts houses.
St George’s Hill features 420 houses
built around a golf course and tennis
club.
The original builder, Walter George
Tarrant, designed in an attractive Arts
and Crafts style. However, many of the
smaller houses have now been either
dramatically extended or more
£435,000
A modernised two-bedroom end-ofterrace house in Adelaide Place,
Oatlands Village (Urban.co.uk).
O homesandproperty.co.uk/oat
To find a home in Weybridge, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/weybridge
For more about Weybridge, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightweybridge
F
33
Property searching Homes & Property
CHECK THE STATS
■WHAT HOMES COST:
BUYING IN WEYBRIDGE
(Average prices)
One-bedroom flat £215,000
Two-bedroom flat £384,000
Two-bedroom house £597,000
Three-bedroom house £663,000
Four-bedroom house £927,000
Source: Zoopla
RENTING IN WEYBRIDGE
(Average rates)
One-bedroom flat £910 a month
Two-bedroom flat £1,403 a month
Three-bedroom house £2,523 a month
Four-bedroom house £3,145 a month
Source: Zoopla
GO ONLINE FOR MORE
O The best schools in and around
Weybridge
O The best shops and restaurants
O The latest housing developments
in the town
O Where to find open space and
art and leisure facilities in
Weybridge
O How this area compares with the
rest of the UK
O Smart maps to help you plot your
property search
Photographs Daniel Lynch
recently knocked down and rebuilt as
vast mansions by its famous former and
present residents.
The estate now attracts the super
wealthy who prefer newly-built homes
to the period houses.
“Many of the smaller houses adjacent
to each other are being torn down, with
a large mansion going up over two
plots,” explains Ashwell.
The area attracts: At Savills, 53 per
cent of buyers are up-sizing, 15 per cent
are down-sizing and the remainder are
either investors or developers.
Weybridge is attractive to Londoners
who move here for a larger house, the
easy commute to London, quick access
to airports and good state and private
schools.
In recent years St George’s Hill has
attracted mainly international buyers
from Russia, China and Nigeria.
HAVE YOUR SAY WEYBRIDGE
@ginanavarro9 La Casa in Weybridge
@CeciliaGad Best for foodie Weybs is
Osso Buco & second-hand shopping @
SSChospices shop on @
QueensRoadWey
@tonymoore01 The Jolly Farmer. V
good local pub. The Gaylord Indian.
@roffc River Wey Navigation at
Weybridge Lock
@Grotticia The Minnow, El Meson De
Los Hermanos & Queen’s Head are my
favourites, but we need more!
@clive_m_h The Queen’s Head, Bridge
Road — nice pub, good restaurant, &
for us, walking distance! :-)
@JCGStephenson #weybridge area
guide. I eat steak a lot — and the best
I’ve had for a LONG time was at Sosio’s
Restaurant, Weybridge.
@thedrycleaners ahem..... Can one
recommend oneself?
@HillHouseLondon Fabulous new
Indian restaurant called No.7 Temple
serving beautiful dishes! #Weybridge
NEXT WEEK: Acton. Do you
live there? Tell us what you
think @HomesProperty
Clockwise from above: the White
Orchid florist in York Road; Fiona and
Sabina serving at the Boho tea room
in Queens Road; Erik Laan knows his
wines at The Vineking; and a Concorde
welcomes visitors to the town’s
Brooklands Museum
Staying power: Many families put
down roots in Weybridge, which makes
for a good community spirit.
Travel: Weybridge is close to the M3,
M25 and M4 motorways. The fast trains
to Waterloo take around half an hour,
while the slower trains stop at Clapham
Junction for trains to Victoria and
Vauxhall for the Victoria line. An
annual season ticket costs £2,532.
Council: Elmbridge (Conservativecontrolled); Band D council tax for the
2014/2015 year £1,610.58.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
What is the link between Weybridge,
this famous album cover and a song
found on it?
Find the answer at
homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightweybridge
36
Homes & Property Inside story
MONDAY
gives me the chance to show off our
new office.
Tonight the directors of Marsh &
Parsons have organised a big dinner
for all the managers across the
company. It’s an annual event held in
Chelsea. Must not drink too much.
Today is the day. The newest addition
to Marsh & Parsons’ growing London
network opens its doors in Shoreditch,
and I’m the sales manager. Hoarding
down — check. Office looking the
business — check. Phones on — check.
Staff present and correct — check. And
we’re off.
We start the day with our meeting to
go through all the instructions. Our
zero per cent offer — a loss leader —
means we’ve got 13 properties to sell
before we even open the doors.
The team have got full diaries with
viewings and we are following up with
the buyers who were taken to see the
properties at the weekend.
Despite the rain, our daily and weekly
targets are set in stone.
FRIDAY
Doughnut day has a nice ring to it
TUESDAY
Two new instructions. The zero per cent
commission campaign has been through
people’s doors and is now sitting nicely
on a billboard on Commercial Road, and
we’re receiving lots of calls.
Some are met with cynicism, but when
I explain that there’s absolutely no
catch, and that the team and I are still
paid to sell their property, my clients
start to feel more comfortable. If they’re
thinking of selling, it’s a no-brainer.
We’re doing plenty of viewings, too,
so it’s only a matter of time before the
offers start coming in. I hope. And in
contrast to yesterday, there’s not a
Diary of an estate agent
cloud in the sky. I’ve also done some
interesting valuations again today, in
particular, a lady who has lived just off
Brick Lane for 20 years — and did she
have some stories. Shoreditch has such
a colourful and interesting past.
The owner of a terraced house in
Bethnal Green, which I’m valuing, has
just told me that the park where the
library stands is known locally as
‘Barmy Park’ because for two centuries
it was home to a madhouse.
WEDNESDAY
The day starts very early at a hotel in
Hammersmith (quite the trek from
Shoreditch), where the results of
our company-wide biannual customer
service satisfac tion results are
presented.
Some of the results are staggering. A
total of 77 per cent of our respondents
rated our likeability as excellent.
I’ve never worked at a company
where the people are so well-liked, but
then, I am an estate agent. I’m back
at the office at 11am and it’s great to
see that we’re registering more and
more buyers.
All our properties are on Rightmove
and Zoopla, so we’re getting some great
enquiries to follow up.
It’s only day three, and I’m feeling
very positive.
THURSDAY
Today starts at 8am, which is good
news for me, as I’m only around
the corner, so I won’t have to travel
across London at the time everyone
seems to be out to kill each other. It also
It’s doughnut day. As part of our marketing campaign to promote the new
office and the zero per cent commission offer we’re running, we’re giving
away 9,000 doughnuts (zero shaped
— get it?) over the next three days.
To say we had some interesting
characters approach us is an understatement. One lady we stumbled
across in Victoria Park particularly
made an impression.
Known simply as the Silver Surfer
(check out her Facebook page),
she proceeded to give us a skateboarding lesson after we’d given her a
doughnut.
In between handing out (and eating)
doughnuts, I am also organising a
sealed bid. Best and final offers are due
at 4pm for a two-bedroom flat in an old
converted perfume factory on Gowers
Walk. I already know that it will go for
more than the asking price.
All in all it’s been a great day and
week, so we’re now heading to Hoxton
Square for a well deserved drink.
But tomorrow there’s more doughnut
eating. I mean sharing.
O Mark Kempson is a sales manager
with Marsh & Parsons based in
Shoreditch (020 8128 0618)
38
Homes & Property Ask the expert
How do we snap up a place in France?
Q
Q
A
Fiona
McNulty
WHAT’S
YOUR
PROBLEM?
IF YOU have a
question for
Fiona McNulty,
please email
legalsolutions@
standard.co.uk
or write to Legal
Solutions, Homes
& Property,
London Evening
Standard, 2 Derry
Street, W8 5EE.
We regret that
questions cannot
be answered
individually, but
we will try to
feature them
here. Fiona
McNulty is a legal
director in the
Real Estate Team
at Foot Anstey LLP
(footanstey.com)
OUR LAWYER ANSWERS
YOUR QUESTIONS
WE WOULD love to buy a
property in France, but
have no idea where to
start or what the process
involves. Can you give any
guidance on how the French
system works?
A
CONVEYANCING in France
must, by law, be conducted
by a notaire who must act
impartially for the buyer and
the seller. Notary fees and taxes are
set by the government and calculated
on a sliding scale according to
property value.
A buyer can appoint a separate
notaire who is no more expensive,
as the notaires split the fee and
will often also instruct an English
lawyer to arrange translations of the
French documents and liaise with
the notaire.
Once a price is agreed, the first
stage is the compromis de vente (the
first contract), which contains the
terms of the agreement between the
buyer and seller. It must be signed by
the buyer and seller and, generally, a
10 per cent deposit is payable. After a
cooling off period of seven days, the
contract is binding, but the buyer can
withdraw if any of the conditions in
the compromis de vente are not met.
During the seven-day cooling off
period, the buyer can withdraw
without penalty, but the seller
cannot. Once the compromis de
vente is signed, the notaire carries
out searches and investigates the title
to the property. The purchase is
completed when the final or full
contract, known as the acte de vente
or acte authentique, is signed and the
purchase monies paid to the notaire.
More legal
Q&As
Visit: homesand
property.co.uk
I AM planning to extend my house by
adding a breakfast and utility room to the
kitchen at the rear and doing some of the
work myself. It will only be a very small
extension. My boyfriend says that I will probably not
need planning permission, as I will be able to do
it under “permitted development rights”. How do
these work?
IT IS possible in some circumstances to make
alterations to a property without applying for
planning permission, providing a development
right is in place. These are granted by parliament,
not by your council, and help cut out a lot of paperwork.
However, permitted development rights are subject to
limitations and restrictions.
Whether you can carry out the alterations to your
property depends on the extent of the works you are
planning, and also the area where you live and if your
property is listed.
Some areas of the country are known as designated
areas. In those areas, permitted development rights may
be removed or are more restricted.
If you live in an area of outstanding natural beauty or in
a conservation area, it is likely that your local planning
authority has issued an Article 4 direction to restrict or
remove permitted development rights.
Contact your local planning authority to discuss the
alterations you intend to do.
Remember to apply for building regulation consent and
also listed building consent if your house is listed.
O These answers can only be a very brief commentary on
the issues raised and should not be relied on as legal advice.
No liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar
issues, you should obtain advice from a solicitor
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40
Homes & Property New homes
By David Spittles
Sma
Smar
S
Sm
ma
mar
ar
Wharf
won’t cut
you off
No need to pay a Queen’s
ransom for trendy living
HOMEBUYERS priced out of
Notting Hill continue to trail
north to Queen’s Park,
where neat Victorian
red-brick cottages built
by the Artisans, Labourers
and General Dwelling Co —
part of the “five per cent
philanthropy” movement —
still cast a spell.
These delightful homes
were built for manual
workers to rent, but now
cost seven-figure sums.
Queen’s Park Place,
above, is a new-build
scheme of 116 apartments
aimed at the area’s
hipsters. Londonewcastle,
the developer, has a flair
for finding cool parts of
town and delivering
fashionable flats that raise
the design bar. The scheme
is part of the Salusbury
Road hub, a family-friendly
neighbourhood that boasts
a farmers’ market, bistros,
boutiques and delis. Prices
start at £500,000.
Call estate agent Aston
Chase on 020 7724 4724.
T
HE WIDE sweep of the
Thames forms Fulham’s
southern and western
boundaries. Here, at the
frontier with Chelsea,
is Imperial Wharf, a former gas
works-turned-housing complex.
Despite its position in a cut-off bend
of the river, it has proved a hit with
buyers and spurred developers to
unlock sites further west on the onceindustrial Fulham waterfront.
Former Kops Brewery has been
reincarnated as Fulham Riverside,
which has apartment blocks set at
right angles to the Thames and
between which will be lavishly
landscaped gardens.
In addition, the open area facing
the river has a central communal
podium garden with a three-metre
waterfall feature. The façade of the
old brewery, marked by a blue
plaque, has been retained. Amenities
include a fitness suite and badminton
court, 24-hour concierge and
underground parking, plus there is a
new Sainsbury’s superstore.
Prices from £685,000. Call Barratt
on 0844 811 4334.
Mansion house:
Hurlingham Walk
offers high-end
apartments, with
penthouses that
feature spacious
terraces
Hurlingham Walk, a Fulham
scheme of 68 apartments, reinvents a
traditional housing model — mansion
flat living, albeit with a modern twist.
The mid-rise, brick-façade blocks
are set around landscaped
courtyards and bring stylish and
functional apartments with fullheight windows and doors opening
41
New homes Homes & Property
Spitalfields flats
simply heavenly
PLACES of worship can make divine
conversions, as Wesley Court in
Spitalfields shows. The handsome
listed hall, built in 1719 as a French
Huguenot church, has been split
into seven apartments — some are
double-height spaces — and the
modern, minimalist interiors are
a delightful counterfoil to the
heritage architecture.
Prices from £575,000. Call estate
agent Fyfe McDade on 020 7613
4044.
For more luxury
homes, visit
HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury
AFFORDABLE LUXURY KENSINGTON & CHELSEA OFFERS GREEN RETREAT
on to large balconies with cast iron
balustrades. Porterage, 24-hour
security and gated underground
parking make up the package of
benefits. A collection of penthouses
with vaulted ceilings and large
terraces has been unveiled.
Prices from £1.45 million.
Call St James on 020 8246 4199.
THE boundary of the Royal Borough
of Kensington & Chelsea extends west
to the railway tracks of White City.
This is the cheapest pocket of the
cheapest part of the borough, but
don’t let that put you off.
The adjacent area is poised to get a
big boost, with transformation of
land swallowed up over the years by
distribution depots and industrial
estates, and pedestrian links will be
opened up to provide quick access to
the gleaming new community.
More West in Freston Road is a
Innovative: flats at More West have
been designed to reduce noise
new-build scheme of 57 apartments
(39 for shared ownership) in the
W10 postcode it shares with
Ladbroke Grove.
Solid-looking and sensitively
designed to reduce noise, the
architecture takes into account
the gritty urban streetscape and
the close proximity to Latimer Road
Tube station, yet has a tranquil
central courtyard — a green retreat
for residents.
Peabody, the developer, is offering
buyers stamp duty refunds of up to
three per cent.
Prices from £415,000. Call 020
7758 8431.
44
Homes & Property Letting on
A
LMOST half the enquiries
I’ve received about my
one-bedroom flat have
been from tenants with
dogs. It’s odd because
I’ve never been asked to house
pets before, but now three come
along at once.
So far I’ve turned away an English
springer spaniel, a whippet and a
Labrador.
Their owners were fine, they all
seemed like thoroughly nice people,
but I’m gobsmacked that any of them
thought my flat would provide
practical accommodation for their
pets. It would be fine for a goldfish or
maybe a hamster, but a large dog, I
ask you, what were they thinking?
I mean, apart from the fact that it’s
in a very built-up part of London, my
flat doesn’t have a garden. As the
nearest green space is a 10-minute
trot away, where on earth would
their dogs exercise and do “stuff”?
At first I thought the springer
spaniel might be okay, purely
because it was the smallest of the
bunch, but when I Googled the breed
I discovered that they are “very
playful and energetic and need lots
of exercise”.
Blimey. The last thing I wanted was
a demented dog scampering up and
down on the bare wooden floors in
my flat, irritating the tenants below.
I really liked the couple with the
Labrador, but when a friend showed
me how her own one-year-old
labradoodle had clawed its way
through her polished wooden floors
Best man
speech
I’d be barking
mad to take
on dog owners
Victoria Whitlock goes through the pros
and cons of renting a flat to canine-loving
tenants, and comes to a swift conclusion
The
accidental
landlord
I went off it. The last time I had the
floors re-sanded and varnished it cost
almost two grand.
However, I did feel sorry for the
Labrador owners because they were
getting quite desperate to find
somewhere to live as so many
landlords had already turned them
down. They offered to pay a higher
deposit “to put my mind at rest” and
they said they could get a reference
for the dog from their existing
landlord, though I thought there was
a danger that he might say the old
Lab was adorable just to get rid of it.
The couple also suggested I
inserted a “pet clause” in the lease
agreement, which would make them
responsible for any damage the dog
caused (including scratched floors),
plus they offered to pay for any
additional cleaning at the end of the
tenancy to get rid of all its hairs.
Even landlords who like pets are
often reluctant to accommodate
them, particularly in flats, because of
restrictions in their lease, or out of
respect for the neighbours. My lease
states that no pets are allowed on the
£600 a week: in Gloucester Terrace, Paddington, John D Wood has a smart twobedroom flat in a stucco terrace available to rent (homesandproperty.co.uk/padd)
property, but as I was aware that
some of the other occupants have
acquired cats, despite the ban, I
asked them if they’d mind me letting
to the couple with the Labrador.
Yes, they said, they did mind. “How
about a whippet?” I tried, when
approached by a couple with one and
swore it was so docile because it was
“almost always” asleep.
The other residents weren’t too
keen on that, either. The neighbours’
main concern was that it would
bark when left alone while the
owners were at work. “Oh no, he
never barks when we’re out,” said
the whippet owners. “How would
you know?” I asked.
In the end, I turned all the dog
owners away because I had to agree
with the other residents — taking in
dogs was too much of a risk.
However, if you know someone
with a goldfish, I’d happily
accommodate them.
Victoria Whitlock lets three properties
in south London. To contact Victoria
with your ideas and views, tweet @
vicwhitlock
Find many more homes to rent at
homesandproperty.co.uk/lettings
RINGS for wedding
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GETTING A DATEfor the
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Find out mor e at eastvillagelondon.co.uk

The little house that grew up

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