Wednesday 14 May 2014 Property

Transcription

Homes&
Property
Wednesday 14 May 2014
Clerkenwell
Design Week
Launches
Page 16
NEW HOMES P6 DOWN THE DISTRICT LINE P12 GLYNDEBOURNE’S NEW LOOK P30 SPOTLIGHT ON WEST KENSINGTON P36
A family
affair
ADRIAN LOURIE
Ruth Aram —
My Design
London:
Page 22
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OLDSTNEWRULES
RULE #58
Computer generated image of an Eagle Black terrace.
Image is indicative only. *Price correct at time of going to press.
4
WEDNESDAY 14 MAY 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Online
homesandproperty.co.uk with
This week: homesandproperty.co.uk
news:
Record numbers join the
‘Don’t move, improve’ brigade
Skip the move:
more Londoners
are opting for
short-term pain
and long-term
gain, upgrading
their homes
rather than
uprooting
THE number of Londoners choosing to improve their home
rather than move is at a record high, up a third in 12 months
according to an exclusive study for Homes & Property.
Increased spending confidence and shortage of housing
stock have combined to persuade many Londoners it is
cheaper and easier to extend rather than uproot. In the 12
months to March last year, 65,468 home owners applied
for planning permission to upgrade their space, with
basement and loft conversions among popular options.
In the 12 months to March this year, the figure leapt to
86,816, up 32.6 per cent according to research by Barbour
ABI, which tracks trends in the UK construction industry.
Property
search
London buy of the week
count your many blessings
£625,000: this chain-free split-level flat in an East Dulwich
church conversion covers 1,200sq ft, with beamed ceilings,
archways and stained-glass windows that cast a glow in
two en suite bedrooms, a bright kitchen/breakfast room,
dining room and reception room, all with wood floors and
white walls. There’s ample storage in the eaves and plenty
of green open spaces nearby, plus fab shops and delis in
Lordship Lane. Through Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/buyoftheweekchurch
Out of town buy of the week
comfort and style in the Cotswolds
O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk
£635,000: if Georgian grabs your
attention every time, Chapel House in
the pretty South Cotswold village of
Colerne is one to see. The Grade IIlisted home has bags of family space
and stylish design, from a bespoke
kitchen laid with slate tiles that flow
into a dining room, to a 27ft sitting
room with a marble fireplace at one
end and a seating area at the other, lit
hot homes: Cut commuting
down to 45 minutes or less
£220,000: a
two-bedroom flat
in Reading, with a
half-hour train trip
to Paddington
(see homesand
property.co.uk/
readingcommute)
LONDONERS are used to travelling daily for more than an
hour each way to and from work, and now soaring house
prices are driving savvy commuters to seek fresh out-oftown areas in their quest for affordable homes to buy or
rent. Join our tour of commuter hotspots 45 minutes or less
from the capital’s mainline stations, comparing property
prices, rents, new transport links, best streets, schools,
season ticket costs, local shops, bars and more.
by French windows to the garden. A
useful study can be found on the
lower-ground floor, while pale stone
walls and wood floors lead the way
to four bedrooms upstairs — the
master enjoying a luxurious en suite.
Through Hamptons.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/
outcolerne
Life changer run your own
B&B in deepest Dorset
£695,000: Smugglers Cottage in Ferndown, Dorset, has all
the ingredients of a gorgeous B&B. Beneath a deep thatched
roof, 16th-century charms include oak beams salvaged from
Spanish galleons, while there are three impressive reception
rooms with open fires, plus seven bedrooms, five en suite, in
the 3,000sq ft of versatile living space. Pretty gardens are
perfect for afternoon tea, while the New Forest and glorious
Solent beaches are a drive away. Through Palmer Snell.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangerferndown
By
Faye Greenslade
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/45mincommutes
busy...
UR
OF O
98% S WOULD
T
S
E
GU OK WITH
BO GAIN!*
US A
...as a bee to make your
holiday home work harder
for you!
•
The UK’s favourite holiday
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Personal support from a
specialist Regional Manager
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FREE photography and
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Call our Property Recruitment team on 0845 268 8517
Email [email protected]
or visit www.letmycottage.co.uk
*Reevoo percentage correct at 6th January 2014.
Editor:
Janice
Morley
VISIT homesandproperty.co.uk/
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Homes & Property, Northcliffe
House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington,
London W8 5TT.
Win this cantilever parasol
Or buy one for £69.99 plus £3.95 p&p from our online shop
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The height of the parasol, from tip to
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We have one cantilever parasol to
give away (see below). To buy, visit
homesandproperty.co.uk/shop
TO ENTER
For your chance to win a cantilever parasol, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/offers before the end of
Wednesday, June 4. Terms and conditions: usual rules apply, see standard.co.uk/rules
5
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 14 MAY 2014
News Homes & Property
Ex-Dragon sells her
Miami hot property
Go galloping off to
Gloucestershire and
live next door to Zara
ÉBRITISH entrepreneur Hilary Devey,
right, is house hunting in America. “I
am looking for a bigger home in Florida
with more land. I have a wonderful
dock and boat lift with sea access but I
am a committed landlubber,” she says.
“I want somewhere with a big garden
for my dogs and some stabling. I also
need more bedrooms to accommodate
our extended family.”
The Dragons’ Den personality has
listed her current Miami property with
One Sotheby’s Realty for £5.29 million.
Known for her flamboyant dress sense,
Devey’s choice of interiors are every
inch as extravagant. “I have completely
redecorated the whole house and
furnished it with beautiful Versace
homeware, antique furniture and topof-the-range fabrics,” she adds. The
É IF THE idea of living near royalty — and horses
— appeals, look no further than Hazelwood
Cottage. The two-bedroom retreat neighbours
Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire, the Cotswolds
private home of Princess Anne, where daughter
Zara Phillips, right, has recently relocated with
her husband Mike Tindall and their daughter Mia
Grace, five months. With the family’s love of
horses, Gatcombe Park plays host to the annual
Festival of British Eventing, which this year takes
place between August 1-3.
Rustic Hansel & Gretel-style Hazelwood Cottage,
on Hamptons International’s books at £850,000,
is thought to have been the former hunting lodge
for Gatcombe Park. Built of golden Cotswold
stone, the house sits in 123 acres of woodland.
O See homesandproperty.co.uk/zara
bathroom in the master suite is fitted
with tiles burnished with 24-carat gold.
The waterfront mansion in Royal
Palm Yacht and Country Club, a private
gated community, has eight bedrooms.
O For a full interview with Hilary Devey
visit homesandproperty.co.uk/Devey
By Amira Hashish
Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews
A perfect walk-to-work crashpad for Paxo
O Visit homesand
property.co.uk/clay
Ripe for a revamp, Kent barn that
starred with Darling Bud Zeta
ÉTO FANS of The Darling Buds of
May, 300-year-old Church Farm Barn
in Kent may look familiar. It featured
in episodes of the early Nineties TV
hit, which starred David Jason and
Catherine Zeta-Jones, right, when she
was just 20.
It is now for sale through BTF
Partnership along with two more rural
barns, with planning permission for
conversion into homes. The firm’s
Richard Thomas says: “Anyone seeking
a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ renovation
project should take a look.”
The barns are on the market at
£400,000-£600,000 each. Maybe the
actress could be tempted into creating
a nostalgic getaway... Visit
btfpartnership.co.uk for more
information.
O See homesandproperty.co.uk/zeta
GETTY
É HE’S quitting
Newsnight but
Jeremy Paxman will
still front University
Challenge. He might
like one of five new
townhouses in
Marylebone’s Clay
Street, a 15-minute
stroll from Portland
Place BBC studios,
for sale with Druce
and Knight Frank
from £4.15 million.
6
Homes & Property New homes
From £1.75 million:
apartments at
63 Compton, left, in
Clerkenwell. Each
one of four twobedroom homes
occupies an entire
floor. Call 020 7250
4950
I
T’S back to the future in Clerkenwell. The area’s first designer lofts
appeared 20 years ago, just as the
green shoots of economic recovery
were appearing after a damaging
recession. Today there is a sense of déjà
vu. Niche developers have returned,
sensing a new era for a creative district
that’s set for a major boost courtesy of
the new Crossrail superhub being built
at Farringdon.
Boutique apartment schemes are a
Clerkenwell staple and almost always
pack a design punch. Standards have
to be high — the area has more creativesector businesses per square mile than
anywhere else on the planet, with more
than 200 architect firms, 60 furniture
showrooms and homeware stores, a
horde of advertising companies, new
media agencies, graphic and interactive design studios.
A listed former Lyons teashop overlooking Smithfield Market and the
ancient Church of St Batholomew the
Great is one of several small-scale
projects under way in the area. The
handsome building is being converted
into 17 homes, including a duplex penthouse, above Michelin-starred restaurant Club Gascon. To register, call
estate agent Hamilton Brooks on 020
7606 8000.
Clerkenwell has recreated itself in spectacular
fashion. As this heartland of creative industries
launches Design Week, David Spittles looks
at fabulous homes and the impact of rail links
Clerkenwell and Crossrail
fire regulation doors. Sliding walls
allow for flexible space, and the homes
each have a private, south-facing terrace. The flats come with a 999-year
lease and a 25 per cent share of the
freehold, allowing for cost-efficient
management of the block. Prices from
£1.75 million. Call estate agent Hurford
Salvi Carr on 020 7250 4950.
At nearby 62-68 Rosebery Avenue,
duplex flats from £1.5 million are being
created in a rooftop extension to a classic
red-brick Victorian warehouse moments
from fashionable Exmouth Market.
Spread over two levels, the homes combine heritage architecture and contemporary design, with dramatic,
double-height spaces and roof terraces
with clear views of the Shard and St
Paul’s Cathedral. Call 020 7250 4950.
BUY TO WORK
With such a large catchment of creative
companies, there is always a pool of
locals looking to buy a show-off apartment. Being City-fringe, Clerkenwell
pulls in young bachelor bankers and
lawyers desperate to prove that men in
suits can be cool.
Clerkenwell is a unique neighbourhood partly because it is a live-work
village, with all the youthful energy and
networking opportunities that brings.
Many creatives have a home over the
shop or close to their workplace. “Buyto-work”, a new way of owning rather
than renting commercial space, has
made its UK debut in the Clerkenwell
heartland, and is proving a big hit with
local entrepreneurs. The deal involves
purchasing a unit at a courtyard complex of buildings that has become a
new “quarter”, by Peartree Street.
Units range in size from 1,400sq ft to
5,700sq ft and are bought on 250-year
leases. You can buy a shell, ready for
transformation into a studio or office,
or a finished unit. Prices start at
LIVING LATERALLY
Clerkenwell Design Week, from next
Tuesday to Thursday, celebrates design
and opens up this surprisingly quiet
and discreet area, giving visitors the
chance to experience an astonishing
regeneration of a neighbourhood that
30 years ago was crumbling as the old
print firms, watchmakers, bookbinders
and brewers closed.
Those warehouses were the currency
of the future. Many were converted and
other industrial buildings went under
the bulldozer. On the site of an electricity substation, 63 Compton is a newbuild scheme of four two-bedroom
apartments, each one occupying an
entire floor, in a block clad in imported
German Janinhoff glazed bricks.
Ranging from 1,000 to 1,300sq ft, the
flats have high, exposed-concrete ceilings and 39ft-long main kitchen and
living spaces framed at either end by
windows. The large, open-plan layout
is made possible because an embedded
sprinkler system avoids the need for
an internal corridor and the customary
Fashionable location: apartments are being created above a Victorian warehouse at 62-68 Rosebery Avenue, with views of St Paul’s and the Shard. Call 020 7250 4950
7
New homes Homes & Property
£1.45 million: for
a two-bedroom
home in Brewery
Square, left, EC1,
a development of
six mews houses
in a secluded,
cobbled location.
Through Hurford
Salvi Carr
ALAMY
Historic beauty:
St Bartholomew
the Great church,
right. A nearby
former Lyons
teashop is being
converted into
apartments. Call
020 7606 8000
are a formidable force in EC1
£390,000, approximately half the price
of same-size residential space. Call 020
7253 2878. JP Ledwidge, managing
director of developer Silvertown, calls
the accommodation a “commercial
pied-à-terre”, though he stresses planning regulations currently prevent
full-scale residential use. Units can be
purchased tax-efficiently through a
Sipp specialist pension vehicle, and
sold on, just like a flat. Already more
than two dozen units have been bought
by a mix of businesses that includes an
agency for opera singers, the charity
Catch 22, a Montessori nursery school
and the Contemporary Art Society. The
scheme revives the spirit of Clerkenwell’s 19th-century industrial heyday
when it was stuffed full of small craftworking businesses.
ACTION STATION
Clerkenwell is tipped to be a big Crossrail winner because of its close proxim-
ity to Farringdon station. Currently one
of London’s quieter mainline stations,
by 2018 it will be Britain’s busiest, with
a sevenfold increase in commuters and
140 trains per hour passing through.
Farringdon will be the single London
terminus with integrated north-south
(of the river) and east-west routes, and
the only one allowing passengers to
board Crossrail, Thameslink and Tube
trains. It will provide direct links to
Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton and London
City airports as well as Eurostar services at St Pancras, and to Brighton on
the south coast. The coming transport
bonus is triggering corporate relocations to Farringdon — among them
financial giant Merrill Lynch — and
spurring on the redevelopment of
Smithfield Market, where new station
entrances are planned. Communities
Secretary Eric Pickles has yet to make
a decision on developer Henderson’s
plans for a spectacular makeover of the
market that will bring a new artisan
food quarter, boutiques and offices.
At least eight big mixed-use schemes
are in the pipeline, including one above
Farringdon station. An influx of office
workers is likely to trigger demand for
homes in an area that has been starved
of new-build properties. So is that
about to change? The jury is out.
O For more on Clerkenwell Design
Week, see Page 16
8
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As Londoners join
Europe in renting for
life, Ruth Bloomfield
looks at how other
countries cope
M
ILLIONS of Londoners
rent the roofs over their
heads. Yet the private
rental sector faces
meltdown, with
unaffordable rents, some agents
charging huge fees, and rogue
landlords seemingly free to offer
substandard properties without
penalty. Lifelong renters are far more
common on the Continent. Our
series starting today examines how
other nations cope, and whether
their systems would work here.
GERMANY
Leases are usually signed for an
unlimited period of time, eliminating
the need for regular renewals. A
landlord needs concrete proof that a
tenant has seriously transgressed, by
subletting or damaging the property,
for example, to evict them.
A landlord can ask a tenant to leave
if they or their family require the
house, but must prove genuine need.
If a property is sold the tenant can
stay, and becomes the responsibility
of the new owner.But tenants need
give only a couple of months’ notice.
Could it work here? Antonia Bance,
head of campaigns at homeless
charity Shelter, backs compulsory
five-year tenancies, to give renters
more stability while not tying down
landlords permanently. She says this
could be achieved using legislation, or
by tax penalties for landlords who
offer only six- or 12-month leases.
Alexander Hilton, director of pressure
group Generation Rent, wants twoyear tenancies, with six months’
notice of a “no fault” eviction.
Chris Norris, head of policy at the
National Landlords Association, says
about 15 per cent of landlords offer
longer leases, but claims some letting
agents encourage 12-month leases so
they can charge annual renewal fees,
while some lenders won’t allow
landlords to offer long leases. He says
tenants should talk to their landlords,
who could be open to negotiation.
Will it happen? Longer leases are
unlikely to become compulsory, as no
party would want to lose landlord
votes. But government could easily
press banks to alter terms of buy-to-let
mortgages to allow for longer leases.
DENMARK
Tenants in homes built before 1991
benefit from regulated rents based on
the landlords’ running costs plus a
fixed profit. Once agreed, a landlord
cannot raise rents by more than the
inflation level unless specified in the
original, usually open-ended, lease.
Could it work here? Adam Challis,
head of residential research at Jones
Lang LaSalle, says rent controls would
need primary legislation plus all-party
support, and fears that if landlords’
profits were cut, they might stint on
maintenance. Shelter’s Bance feels
landlords should set initial rents but
annual rises should be limited to the
inflation rate. Generation Rent’s
Hilton would prefer rent caps linked
to cost of living in London. Norris says
rent control would drive investors out
of the sector, and insists landlords are
not greedy: “We do not see yields
much above five to six per cent.”
Will it happen? All political parties
agree house building must increase
to lessen rent and house price rises.
Labour wants to cap rents and rent
rises, while the Government is
encouraging big institutions to invest
in developments built specifically to
be rented, aiming to increase supply
of rental homes run by professional
landlords as long-term businesses.
FRANCE
One in five French people rent and
long leases are available, plus rent
caps in some areas. Landlords can
only evict those who fail to pay their
rent, damage the property, or commit
another major breach of contract.
Could it work here? Jonathan Pitt,
regional lettings director at
Hamptons International, said:
“Many tenants have been the victim
of ‘accidental landlords’ who
couldn’t sell their home when the
market was down and let it instead.
Many of these landlords now want to
sell in a strong market, forcing
tenants to move out.” Antonia Bance
wants landlords treated more like
employers, who can’t sack a staff
member without a legal process and
providing proof of breaches.
However, Chris Norris feels tenants’
current protection against being
asked to move on is strong enough, as
landlords can’t instigate a “no fault”
eviction within the period of the
contract without a court order.
Will it happen here? Labour says it
would increase notice periods to two
months and crack down on “no fault”
evictions. This still falls short of
providing secure long-term tenancies.
9
Affordable homes Homes & Property
Top-value flats
with a solution
for isolation in
the community
Shops, cafés, a crèche, a gym — you won’t be
lonely in Greenwich, says Ruth Bloomfield
T
HE trouble with many megasize housing developments
is that residents can feel
marooned, isolated in a new
district with no community.
L&Q @ Greenwich Square is one new
scheme that hopes to solve the
problem.
The development of 645 flats and
houses, designed by leading British
architects Make, will include a range
of shops and cafés, a leisure centre with
swimming pools and a gym, along with
a crèche and a medical centre.
There will be 144 shared-ownership
properties at the development, which
means there is plenty of opportunity
for first-time buyers in Greenwich.
Prices for the 88 first-phase homes start
from £73,750 for a 25 per cent share of
a one-bedroom flat with a full market
value of £295,000.
The flats are due to go on the market
at the end of this month, with prices
for two- and three-bedroom properties
set to be announced closer to the
launch day.
The first shared-ownership homes
will be move-in ready in July, although
the whole scheme will take five years
to complete. Visit lqgroup.org.uk/
greenwichsquare for more information.
The development is in East Greenwich, halfway between the Greenwich
Peninsula and Greenwich village.
Residents will be just over a mile from
the O2 centre and all its shops and
restaurants.
L&Q @ Greenwich Square is also a
mere 15 minutes’ walk from the more
traditional charms of Greenwich with
its market, independent shops and
cafés, not to mention the vast, verdant
expanses of Greenwich Park, scene
of the nail-biting equestrian events
during the 2012 Olympics.
The nearest train station is Maze Hill,
half a mile away. Services to London
Bridge take just 11 minutes, and those
to Cannon Street take from 15 minutes,
which means this is a great option for
City workers. An annual season ticket
costs £976.
Alternatively, Cutty Sark station on
the Docklands Light Railway is a mile’s
walk from the site and has services to
Canary Wharf in 11 minutes and Bond
Street in 28 minutes. From 2018 it will
be possible to pick up fast Crossrail
services from Canary Wharf to both the
West End and Heathrow.
Olivia Scrimshaw, assistant director
of marketing at L&Q, said almost 3,000
people have already registered their
interest in the new homes — a stark
illustration of the shocking imbalance
between demand for affordable homes
in London and their supply.
Preference will be given to those who
live or work within Greenwich, and
there will be minimum household
Because the apartments are so spacious –
great for having friends around.
The Bloom is a development of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom Shared
Ownership apartments now viewing in bustling Shepherd’s Bush.
To find out if an apartment at The Bloom is right for your life call
Scan
to register
020 3740 6031 or visit the-bloom.co.uk
From £73,750:
for a quarter
share of a onebedroom flat at
L&Q @ Greenwich
Square, above
Top-notch
facilities:
residents at
Greenwich
Square, left, can
make use of the
gym, crèche,
pools, cafés and
medical centre
earning restrictions imposed at around
£45,000, to make sure buyers can
afford their new homes.
For those buyers who get into L&Q @
Greenwich Square, Ms Scrimshaw says
that the development’s location, along
with the “incredible” transport links
and on-site facilities, are its key selling
points. She also feels that the whole area
is on the up. “East Greenwich has always
had a reputation of not having an awful
lot to offer, but there is such a lot going
on now. You can feel the spread of
excitement about the area.”
Major new schemes coming to East
Greenwich include Enderby Wharf, a
development of some 770 riverside
homes with views towards Canary
Wharf by Barratt London, which will
launch this summer.
10
Homes & Property Homes abroad
If you are an island virgin, buy on Tortola
You don’t have to be
a billionaire to buy in
the beautiful British
Virgin Islands, says
Cathy Hawker
£559,300: a twobedroom villa
with pool near
shops on the
main island of
Tortola, available
through Knight
Frank (020
7629 8171
S
occupancy in the first year of operation
says resort general manager Jonathan
Oakes. Prices start from £440 a night
for a wonderful one-bedroom cliff suite
perched above the beach where you can
spot whales from the private pool.
“From my own daughter I know that
on holiday families need things to do
and a good community,” says Johnson
who lives at Oil Nut Bay for six months
of the year. “I want owners to use the
islands but have somewhere special to
return to.” His commitment to the
islands includes creating the Yacht Club
Costa Smerelda, a world-class marina
adjacent to Oil Nut Bay with links to the
40-year old marina in Sardinia. There
are slips for 42 yachts up to 300ft on
modern floating docks, and a beautiful
new public clubhouse. Berths cost
from £8,880 a linear foot.
The BVI has few big developments,
and most homes are stand-alone properties. A two-bedroom townhouse at
Nanny Cay Marina on Tortola is
£503,670 while large, detached villas
start from £888,860. Knight Frank has
a two-bedroom house with beach
access on Jost Van Dyke island for
£352,500 and a three-bedroom beachfront house with mature gardens on
Tortola for £977,700.
AFE waters, steady trade
winds and a string of crescent
moon bays are the standout
features of the British Virgin
Islands. The 60 small islands
in the northern Caribbean, only 15 of
them inhabited, are perfect for messing
about in boats or just “liming” — the
local word for relaxing.
The islands are home to about 2,000
charter yachts, the Caribbean’s largest
fleet, and for most visitors sailing is the
draw. Casual waterfront restaurants
provide small docks for yachties to pull
up to, and every size of boat, from tiny
tenders to ocean-going superyachts,
bob gently on moorings in truly turquoise waters.
You don’t have to be a billionaire to
live there but several do, including Larry
Page, co-founder of Google, who has a
home on Eustatia Island an easy windsurf from Necker, one of two private
islands owned by Richard Branson.
The pirate Blackbeard was the most
notorious BVI resident 300 years ago,
but a million tourists a year visit this
nation today, one of the wealthiest in
the Caribbean, and celebrities from
Princess Diana to the Beckhams and
Daniel Craig have relished the understated yet classy lifestyle. Less American
than the Bahamas and less British than
Barbados, it is one of 14 British Overseas
Territories. The Queen is Head of State,
the legal system is based on English Law
and it’s a major offshore financial centre
with the US dollar as currency. Crime is
low and living standards are high.
AN ISLAND HOME
David Johnson is chairman of Victor
International. The US company has
completed 43 developments including
America’s largest reclamation project
£913,347: a house on Tortola. Call Savills (020 7016 3740)
at Bay Harbor in Michigan, an upmarket resort that won major international
awards. Johnson sailed the Caribbean
over eight years, seeking the perfect
location for a beachfront resort before
settling on the British Virgin Islands.
“They combine great physical beauty
with a strong infrastructure,” he
explains. “They have a 10-month season, a stable government, no corruption, clear property title and safe water.
The government has built a new hospital and plans to extend the runway
From £440 a night: cliff suites at Oil Nut Bay, Virgin Gorda
to improve direct access from Europe
and the US.” His search resulted in Oil
Nut Bay, a 300-acre resort on the quiet
eastern tip of Virgin Gorda, the third
largest island, where Victor International has invested £59 million in completed infrastructure. As well as
cabling, LED lighting, desalination
plants and utility generators, all internal roads are finished. There are two
tennis courts, a gym, kids club and a
beach club with three pools, a bar and
waterfront restaurant. A marina with
91 berths, a helipad and a small village
centre with shops and another restaurant will open within six months.
Large plots, some beachfront and
some high above the sea, with permission to build substantial detached
homes cost from £1,125,000 through
Knight Frank. There will be a maximum
of 88 homes and to date 28 have been
sold to buyers from Greece, the US, Italy,
Sweden and one London couple.
Seven homes are complete at Oil Nut
Bay with rentals running at 35 per cent
CONTACTS AND FACT FILE
O Oil Nut Bay: oilnutbay.com.
Property is freehold. Annual
maintenance and fees total £1,060
O Knight Frank: knightfrank.com
(020 7629 8171)
O Non-resident buyers require a land
holding licence costing £470. Stamp
duty is 12 per cent for non-residents
and four per cent for locals.
O BA flies to Antigua and Liat flies
from Antigua to Beef Island.
12
Homes & Property Commuter hotspots
From
£1.65 million:
apartments at
St Dunstan’s
Court, left, in
Fetter Lane, EC4.
Call 020 7355
8150
D
EMONSTRATING the
capital’s east-west
property price gap along
the way, the District line
runs from Upminster to
Ealing, with branches south of the
river to Richmond and Wimbledon.
With 60 stations along 40 miles of
track, the District line is the Tube
network’s only route to cross the
Thames on bridges rather than
through tunnels.
Western homes are typically two or
three times more expensive than
those on the eastern section of the
line. Yet areas such as Plaistow and
East Ham — in Zone 3 and among the
cheapest in the capital — are closer to
the Square Mile financial district than
either Chiswick or Acton.
This explains why younger, lowerbudget buyers continue to head for
the east where it may be gritty in
parts, but they can feel the beat of the
City. And a ripple of regeneration is
already spreading from Aldgate on the
City fringe to Stepney — walkable from
the nightlife and restaurants of
Shoreditch and Spitalfields — and on
to affordable Bow and beyond.
PERFECT FOR UPSIZERS
While fictitious Walford East Tube
station in BBC soap EastEnders is
supposed be on the District line, a
west London anomaly is West
Kensington, where the average house
price is less than £500,000.
Map out your
future
THE DISTRICT LINE
In part eight of our series finding hot homes
for Tube commuters, David Spittles goes
east to west spotting regeneration ripples
Sandwiched between Earl’s Court and
Barons Court, the district lacks charm
but is “ripe for regeneration gains”
according to Lucian Cook, Savills
director of residential research.
The area is sliced in two by Talgarth
Road, the traffic-choked A4 heading
to Heathrow. Flats prevail, mainly
conversions but purpose-built ones in
mansion blocks, too. For houses,
check out Gunterstone Road and the
grid bordered by Gledstanes Road
and Perham Road, the original Barons
Court Estate, where you will also find
a scattering of shops. Just south of the
tennis mecca that is The Queen’s
Club, a delightful attraction amid the
densely packed streets, lies Tasso
Road, where a new-build scheme of
eight townhouses is targeting couples
with children upsizing from flats.
Called Octavo Mews, the modern-
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design homes have three bedrooms
and are spread over four floors, with
open-plan living areas linked via
glazed walls to the garden and three
decked terraces. Prices from
£1,575,000. Call 020 7758 8488. (For
more on West Kensington, see
Spotlight, Pages 36-37).
Going north towards Olympia, a
giant apartment complex on Warwick
Road is bringing a sense of place to a
prominent corner once dominated by
ugly office buildings, and is dragging
this patch upmarket with more than
1,000 new homes across seven blocks
set around landscaped courtyards
and formal garden squares. Wolfe
House, the first completed phase,
includes duplexes and penthouses
with large terraces and panoramic
views. Classy interiors are a grade
above what might be expected, with
13
Commuter hotspots Homes & Property
From £2.65 million: houses in a private cul-de-sac, Marryat Place, Wimbledon
of independent schools and sporting
amenities. Yet both areas are virtually
“inner London” in terms of
convenience, thanks to the Tube, and
allow frazzled commuters to shake off
the city dust.
The Quadrant, in Richmond
centre, is a scheme of 10 apartments
in a refurbishment rather than a glitzy
new block. Prices from £450,000. Call
Savills on 020 8614 9100 for more
information.
Wimbledon Hill Park is a new
address, a 25-acre walled estate where
there was once a hospital. Developer
Berkeley is building 94 homes, a mix
of traditional and contemporary
architectural styles.
First up are eight family houses with
lavish entertaining space, games
room, cinema, library, sunroom and
roof terrace. Huge interiors range
from 3,350sq ft to 6,500sq ft. Prices
from £3.95 million. The original
hospital is being converted into 26
apartments, to be released later. Call
020 8226 2126.
Nearby Marryat Place is another
select scheme of imposing houses, set
in a private cul-de-sac and handy for
the All England Club and Wimbledon
Village. Prices from £2.65 million. Call
020 3697 9330.
DISTRICT LINE Source: Savills
Station
Upminster
Upminster Bridge
Hornchurch
Elm Park
Dagenham East
Dagenham Heathway
Becontree
Upney
Barking
East Ham
Upton Park
Plaistow
West Ham
Bromley-by-Bow
Bow Road
Mile End
Stepney Green
Whitechapel
Aldgate East
Tower Hill
Monument/Bank
Cannon Street
Mansion House
Blackfriars
Temple
Embankment
Westminster
St James’s Park
Victoria
Sloane Square
South Kensington
Gloucester Road
Earl’s Court
PADS FOR PROFESSIONALS
From £450,000: apartments at The Quadrant, central Richmond. Through Savills
From £1,575,000:
three-bedroom
townhouses at
Octavo Mews,
above, in Tasso
Road, West
Kensington. Call
020 7758 8488
high ceilings, oversize doors, bespoke
joinery, custom-made contemporarydesign staircases and marble-walled
bathrooms. An on-site primary school
is due to open in 2016, while residents
have access to a spa, business suites, a
private cinema and a Harrods-run
concierge service. Prices from
£930,000. Kensington Row, the next
phase, will launch later this year. Call
St Edward Homes on 020 7118 0375.
WIMBLEDON
H I L L PA RK
FAMILY-FRIENDLY HAVENS
The Victorians extended the District
line south of the river to serve the
prestigious Georgian town of
Richmond and the prosperous
settlement of Wimbledon.
Both of these neighbourhoods
remain highly covetable places to live
to this day, not least because of the
huge expanse of semi-rural open land
and the family-friendly infrastructure
Back in Zone 1, the Holborn
commercial district between Temple
and Blackfriars is becoming a place to
live as well as work. Experts expect
this area to take off during the next
five years as office-to-homes projects
accelerate.
Inner and Middle Temple, near the
Royal Courts of Justice, form London’s
oldest live/work estate. For centuries,
barristers and lawyers have lived over
the shop in chambers, but with the
arrival of global law and accountancy
firms, modern apartments are being
built for the area’s high-earning career
professionals.
St Dunstan’s Court in Fetter Lane
is a redevelopment of an outdated
office block and provides 76
apartments, a residents’ club and
access to private gardens.
Homes also have a rare view of listed
Maughan Library, part of King’s
College, and its cloistered courtyard.
Prices from £1.65 million. Call 020
7355 8150 for more information.
Average house price
£345,743
£243,618
£263,392
£218,953
£199,573
£174,965
£177,461
£260,102
£174,540
£204,447
£216,120
£216,120
£226,044
£286,951
£275,069
£344,242
£298,170
£298,170
£603,922
£604,525
£734,042
£734,042
£734,042
£734,042
£1,331,977
£1,331,977
£1,331,977
£1,331,977
£1,046,792
£1,874,235
£2,387,003
£1,567,887
£847,366
Zone
6
5
4
3
2
1
To Ealing Broadway
West Kensington
Barons Court
Hammersmith
Ravenscourt Park
Stamford Brook
Turnham Green
Chiswick Park
Acton Town
Ealing Common
Ealing Broadway
£498,496
£608,807
£795,803
£821,264
£911,132
£911,132
£775,164
£573,532
£551,683
£604,806
2
£1,345,071
£1,436,771
£1,046,303
£1,110,283
£567,730
£446,515
£702,374
£511,361
2
3
To Wimbledon
West Brompton
Fulham Broadway
Parsons Green
Putney Bridge
East Putney
Southfields
Wimbledon Park
Wimbledon
To Richmond
Gunnersbury
Kew Gardens
Richmond
£714,729
£778,802
£911,271
3
3
4
Luxury Apartments coming soon
to Wimbledon Hill Park
LONDON
Nestled within a beautiful green setting, yet still conveniently located
for Wimbledon Village, the apartments at Wimbledon Hill Park offer
a unique blend of spacious living with luxurious specification,
surrounded by open parkland.
To register your interest, please call our sales team
on 0203 581 5722 or email [email protected]
Copse Hill, Wimbledon, London, SW20 0NE
www.wimbledonhillpark.co.uk
Proud to be a member of the Berkeley Group of companies
Computer generated image depicts Wimbledon Hill Park and is indicative only
16
Homes & Property Design week
Celebrate design
with the creatives
of Clerkenwell
Homeware, art, crafts, gin tastings. . . check out
EC1’s Design Week, says Barbara Chandler
Miles of
style: the Tile
Mile at St
John’s Gate,
far left.
Textile artist
Ptolemy
Mann creates
a mural, left.
Terracotta
and copper
vessels,
above, by
Hend
Krichen.
Africandesign Toghal
cushions,
right
C
LERKENWELL Design
“Week” is actually three
days from next Tuesday to
Thursday, May 20-22, when
EC1, with the highest
density of creative individuals and
companies in Europe, celebrates its
considerable design cred with work
by hundreds of makers, homeware
launches and other events spilling on
to the streets.
Nip over in your lunch break or
after work to stroll around a happy
hotchpotch of design events. Check it
out on clerkenwelldesignweek.com,
and on Twitter @CDWfestival, using
hashtag #CDW2014.
At the Tile Mile, mirrors on the inner
arches of ancient St John’s Gate turn
Turkish floor tiles into a seemingly
endless vista. Another eye-catcher is
“Smith”, an angular, grey pavilion
celebrating the area’s historic craft
skills. There are group shows in four
historic buildings including the House
of Detention, where underground
cells harbour 35 designers showing off
their lighting, wallpapers, furniture
and more. More than 80 exhibitors
will be in the former offices and
warehouses of the Farmiloe Building.
St John’s Church will have 35 show
booths — don’t miss the crypt, or the
installation by the Campana Brothers
of Brazil — while St James’s Church on
the green will welcome 20 hopeful
design entrepreneurs into its crypt. In
showrooms lining Clerkenwell Road
and adjacent streets, special events
include Instagram and creative
writing coaching, plus furniture
restoration workshops, at Milliken
carpets in Berry Street. Launches
include chairs, lights, and ceramic
tiles by Barber Osgerby. Ron Arad and
Sir Peter Cook are among the design
stars giving talks. The Clerkenwell
Collection gallery has listed about 50
EC1 bars and restaurants on
clerkenwellcollection.com/blog,
while The Gin Garden (gingarden.
com) offers art... and tastings.
17
Kitchen gadgets Homes & Property
Design
Desig
ign trends
ig
tre
re
end
nds
s
By Caramel Quin
3
1 The Cha: the elegant Alessi Cha stovetop
kettle, £109, in mirror-polished stainless
steel, is suitable for induction hobs and
designer Naoto Fukasawa has added a
basket, so you can lower leaves into your
freshly boiled pot. Visit alessi.com.
2 Rok manual espresso maker: load the
solid aluminium Rok, £129, with ground
coffee, pour in water from the kettle and
then push down the two levers for a double
espresso within 20 seconds. It looks great
and you’ll save a fortune compared with the
coffee capsules for an electric espresso
maker. It comes with a manual milk frother
for cappuccinos and macchiatos. Visit
rokkitchentools.com.
3 The Handpresso Wild Hybrid: this is a
clever little £95 gadget for making great
coffee, anywhere. Pump it like a bicycle
pump to create a 16-bar pressure for the
perfect espresso, using either ground
coffee or easy-serving espresso pods. The
Handpresso is equally happy in the
kitchen or caravan, hotel or campsite. It’s
even good for picnics — the Handpresso
Wild Hybrid Outdoor Set, £149, pictured,
includes four unbreakable cups and a flask
1
2
with a built-in
thermometer. Visit
handpresso.co.uk.
4 Sage Tea
Maker: this
clever new
machine for
tea lovers comes
courtesy of
gastro-boffin Heston
Blumenthal. First
it boils the water,
4 then it
automatically
lowers the tea
leaves into the water to
infuse, then lifts them out again. You choose the
temperature and steeping time for a bespoke
brew. The Sage Tea Maker can be programmed to
start when you choose, and it keeps the brew
warm for up to an hour. It costs £199.99 from
sageappliances.co.uk.
5 Krups Milk Frother: like your coffee long and
frothy? The XL2000 Milk
Frother, £99, is ideal if
you only have an
espresso maker
because it creates
foam for long drinks
such as cappuccino,
café latte and hot
chocolate. It looks
like a mini kettle and
as it heats.
5 whisks
The milk never boils,
so there’s no skin and
no spills. The non-stick
aluminium jug can simply be
rinsed out after use. Visit krups.co.uk.
22
Homes & Property Design
My design London
By Katie Law
RUTH ARAM
OF THE ARAM STORE
R
Secret shop: Harrington & Squires woodtype samples
UTH ARAM runs the Aram
design store in Covent
Garden with her father,
Zeev, and brother, Daniel.
The mecca for the best in
modern European furniture, lighting
and accessories is spread over four
storeys including a top-floor
exhibition gallery. Now 82, Zeev
Aram introduced the British public to
modern design after coming to
London from Israel in 1957. He
graduated in design from Central
School of Arts, opening his first small
showroom in King’s Road 50 years
ago last month. Ruth, a trained
landscape architect, joined the
family firm in 2000. Here, she reveals
her secret piece of countryside in the
city, where to enjoy the finest
modern luxe surroundings, and who
makes the perfect poached eggs on
sourdough.
HOME
ADRIAN LOURIE
I live in Dartmouth Park right on the
edge of Hampstead Heath, with my
husband David Walker, our three
children and our dog, Eddie. We’ve
been here since 1996 and I wouldn’t
want to live anywhere else. Being an
architect, David transformed a large,
dilapidated Victorian terrace into a
clean, white, family home. The area
is so friendly. My daughter, 17 and my
twin son and daughter, 15, have been
through the local state system. I have
lots of friends here and it’s got great
transport. It’s not as stuffy or formal
as Hampstead — yet.
Treasured
memorabilia:
Ruth Aram,
above, with her
portrait from the
1890s of her
great-greatgrandmother
Tilly Tedesco
COLOURS FOR THE HOME
David insisted on all white walls, but
the next time we redecorated, I said
no more white, I want colour. So now
the house is in the same palette as the
one I like to wear — a mix of mustard,
ochre, sienna, rich red, aubergine
purple and grey. We got the paints
from Dulux.
FAVOURITE MEMORABILIA
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It’s a portrait of my great-greatgrandmother, Tilly Tedesco, from the
1890s in Vienna. My mother’s side of
the family lived there and came to
London in the war. My parents met
when my mother went to work on a
kibbutz. My father was in the Navy
looking dashing, escorting her boat
back. She was going to study textiles
at Central School of Arts and he
wanted to study design. Today he is
chairman of Aram. In the Sixties he
was designing schemes but couldn’t
find the furniture he wanted to reflect
his modern approach. He was
astounded by what he saw at the
Milan furniture fair, designers pushing
the boundaries with materials and
design. Then he thought, why don’t I
sell them in King’s Road?
COVETED OBJECT
I’d love Poul Kjaerholm’s PK91 folding
stool. It’s such a joy to look at and very
versatile. The steel has been
manipulated into a curve and all the
fixings are visible on purpose. He
designed it in 1961. Today it would
cost just over £2,000.
SECRET SHOP
Harrington & Squires is run by two
women who have set up a traditional
letterpress in a building near Tufnell
Park that’s so narrow it’s like a slither.
They make their own stationery and
run courses. It’s a lovely place to
shop (harringtonandsquires.co.uk).
Design and
dining: Poul
Kjaerholm’s PK91
folding stool,
above left. The
lovely old clock,
above right, at
The Delaunay
restaurant
FAVOURITE RESTAURANT
The Delaunay is in Aldwych, just next
door to our shop, so I go there often.
I love its comfort-meets-modern luxe
surroundings. It feels like a men’s
club. The food’s very good.
NEW DESIGNER
Paul Cocksedge, in his twenties, has
done amazing lighting installations.
Then he designed the Vamp. You
stick it by magnet on the side of any
speaker and it becomes a wireless
Bluetooth speaker. It’s beautifully
designed and very advanced.
BEST MARKET
The farmers’ market on the Heath
on Saturday mornings. It’s really
social and there’s even a dog crèche.
All the food has to have been grown
or made within a 30-mile radius and
most of it is organic. The quality,
especially of the meat and bread, is
excellent.
NEW DEVELOPMENT
The Granary Complex and Granary
Square in King’s Cross. The lofty
proportions and architectural
integrity of the original granary
buildings have been sympathetically
worked into the new complex which
houses the University of the Arts,
London. The sheer scale of the
complex and the square in front of it
are breathtaking.
SECRET ESCAPE
There’s a special spot on Hampstead
Heath where I walk my dog. It’s a
mown path through a meadow area
full of brambles and trees. I feel like
it’s this little secret space, created
just for me.
O The Aram
Exhibition,
showcasing early
designs by Zeev
Aram, and the
Aram 50th
anniversary
library are open
at the Aram store
LAZY SUNDAY
My ideal Sunday is to walk the dog
on the Heath, then meet my husband
at Kalendar café in Swain’s Lane for
brunch. I usually have poached eggs
on sourdough bread with roasted
tomatoes. Then I like to go to Brent
Cross. . . I’m a bit of a serial shopper.
23
Reader promotion Homes & Property
Chic in subtle
shades, Chloe’s
pretty and petite
Painterly floral prints to welcome summer
LIVEN UP your home with
this season’s seriously
on-trend floral prints. The
eye-catching Tricia cushion
from bluebellgray will
make the perfect addition
to a sofa or bed, and bring
summer flair to any room.
Featuring signature maxi
watercolour blooms in
popping pinks and reds,
the Tricia is handmade in
the UK using top-quality
linen and viscose,
complete with a luxurious
feather pad. It measures
45cm square.
Readers receive a 10 per
cent discount on the Tricia
cushion, reducing the price
from £70 to £63. To claim,
visit bluebellgray.com or
call 0141 221 0724 and use
the code TRICIA10 before
May 28.
INSPIRED by a classic baroque
design, the petite Chloe
occasional chair from Alison at
Home is effortlessly chic and
priced at just £195. This exquisite
scroll-topped, button-backed
piece is available in a choice of
grape (pictured), truffle or slatecoloured velvet upholstery, while
the ethically sourced hardwood
seat is serpentine sprung for
superior comfort. The beautifully
carved legs are finished with
brass castors.
To order, visit alisonathome.
com/chloe, call 0800 472 5533 or
head to the Alison at Home
concession in Oxford Street
House of Fraser, until May 26.
Measuring H75cm x W58cm
x D70cm, the Chloe is handmade
to order in eight to 10 weeks.
Bargain news
Alison
Cork
Adds a touch of
glass to any home
Relax and
save cash
WITH summer round the corner, let
the light into your home with a
stunning open glass room or
veranda from Eden Verandas.
Beautifully crafted and precision
engineered, each one is individually
designed to complement any home,
whatever its shape or size. There
are more than 50 frame colours to
choose from, and optional extras
such as heating and lighting. All
installations are carried out by
skilled craftsmen and come with a
10-year guarantee.
Readers receive up to 25 per cent
off in the company’s summer sale.
For more information or to claim
your offer visit edenverandas.co.uk
or call 0800 107 2727 and use code
AES/1405 before June 8.
THIS stunning
hardwood
Adirondack folding
chair, reduced from
£179.95 to just £99.95
plus p&p at Plant
Theatre, offers the
perfect excuse to
relax in your garden
and enjoy the
warmer weather.
Stained, oiled and
gently rubbed down
by hand, the
sustainably sourced
acacia chair has a
subtle finish. Recline
comfortably into its
deep, slatted fan
back and gently
One clean sleep
SLEEP soundly with the Nimbus
mattress protector. Cotton-rich
towelling and polyurethane
backing preserve the cleanliness
and lifespan of your mattress,
while the polyester skirt offers
practicality, easy fitting and an
extra layer of comfort. Save up to
71 per cent on a double size at just
£24.99, while king size is £29.99,
saving over £60. Visit oneregent
place.co.uk/nimbus before May 19.
O The companies
listed here
are wholly
independent of the
Evening Standard.
Care is taken to
establish that they
are bona fide but
we recommend
that you carry out
your own checks
prior to purchases
and use a credit
card where
possible. To offer
feedback on any of
these companies,
email homesand
property@
standard.co.uk
with “Bargain
News” in the
subject line.
For more
bargains, visit
alisonathome.com
or homesand
property.co.uk/
offers.
sloping seat, then perch drinks
or books on its wide, paddlestyle arms. The Adirondack
comes flat-packed and part
assembled with full instructions.
Adirondack matching folding
tables are on offer, too. To take
advantage of this offer visit
plant-theatre.com.
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28
Homes & Property Our home
homesandproperty
French dressing:
a sketch by Jean
Cocteau hangs
above the
mirrored
fireplace
Inside the
castle of
London’s
design kings
Top interiors duo Paolo Moschino and Philip
Vergeylen bring the Paris Ritz feeling to
regenerating Victoria, says Pattie Barron
A
N APARTMENT in a
mansion block behind
Victoria station is not a
likely location for London’s
leading interior design duo,
Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen.
However, the creative team of the
capital’s three Nicholas Haslam Ltd
showrooms saw potential when they
first wandered down the typically long,
thin corridor, covered in peach carpet,
to find five bedrooms and, bizarrely,
just one living room.
“I had an instant feeling of being in
Paris,” recalls Vergeylen. “There were
high ceilings, tall windows, a sense of
space. Victoria was no-man’s-land, we
were used to Kensington and Chelsea,
but we didn’t care.”
Now the flat, the couple’s pied-à-terre
for 15 years — a farmhouse in West
Sussex is their weekend bolt hole — has
a more sensible configuration for
Italian-born Moschino and Belgian
born Vergelyn, who both love to
entertain: two bedrooms with en suite
bathrooms, a dining room and a
magnificent double drawing room, as
well as a guest loo completely lined in
horizontal panels of French oak. And
that nasty peach carpet, laid right
through the flat, redeemed itself by
revealing beneath a perfect oak
parquet floor.
The double drawing room exudes
glamour. At one end, a sketch by
Cocteau hangs over the mirrored
fireplace and is flanked by tall brass
bookcases designed by the American
Billy Baldwin for Cole Porter. A Jeff
Koons resin balloon dog, bought for a
song in the East Village years ago,
holds court. At the other end, comfy
velvet sofas and a stag-at-bay bronze
above the fireplace strike a more
traditional note, and the handsome,
dark wood bookcases, seemingly
antique, have a very different
Creative couple:
Paolo Moschino,
right, and Philip
Vergeylen in the
kitchen at their
pied-à-terre
provenance — they were carved in
Poland from pine, then assembled in
situ. Two 19th-century black and gold
Coromandel screens, artfully placed,
divide the two spaces, while affording
a through view of two very different
rooms, one in the present, one in the
past, both full of treasures.
COLLECTING IS A PASSION
Moschino and Vergeylen are ruled not
by their pockets, but by their magpie
eyes that can spot something special at
a hundred paces. Their stock in trade
is, after all, creating sumptuous
interiors for their clientele. “We’re
always gathering, but it’s not about
investment, it’s about falling in love
with something,” says Vergeylen.
“Cocteau’s drawings are a passion and
that’s become a bit of a problem
because next I’ll be hanging them from
the ceiling.”
There are even collectables in the
29
Our home Homes & Property
y.co.uk with
Opulent living:
lacquer-black,
mirrored walls
reflect the crystal
and silver in the
intimate dining
room, right
Grand gesture: in
the main
bedroom, right,
an antique
Flemish tapestry
dictated the
colour scheme of
warm faded blues
and browns
kitchen, where an antique glass-fronted
cabinet is stuffed with ornate
silverware, mostly from the Milanese
company Buccellati. “Every time we go
to Italy, it’s a risk,” sighs Moschino, a
self-confessed shopaholic. “And when I
go with a client to the Silver Vaults and I
see an exquisite tray that the man says
was owned by the ex-king of Italy, what
can I do but take it home?”
The main bedroom used to be all
white, with a white four-poster bed,
until they bought a big 18th-century
wall tapestry in Paris. “Philip suggested
using it as a huge headboard,” says
Moschino. “We started from that and
the room just came.” So, exit cool, fresh
white, and enter warm, faded blues and
browns, including a wall of strawcoloured linen adorned with a gilded
18th-century barometer that looks like
it was pinched from Versailles.
“You can always dare a bit more in
the guest room because you don’t see
Above: a bronze
stag at bay
overlooks the
more traditional
seating area of
the double
drawing room
it every day,” believes Moschino, and
the guest bedroom lives up to those
words, with a pair of coffee silk
boudoir seats from the Clignancourt
flea market in Paris and an 18thcentury French cherrywood bed.
Moschino rustled up a gilded corona
from a length of vintage sheet metal
frieze cut from a roll. A small side door
leads to a big surprise: a sumptuous
chocolate-box bathroom kitted out in
carved-to-fit and curlicued marble,
redolent of old-school grand hotels.
The idea was, says Moschino, to
conjure up a Ritz Hotel bathroom.
“Because the few times I’ve stayed at
the Ritz in Paris it has been such a treat
that I wanted my guests to have that
treat as well.”
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
The pair are full of design tricks, none
better than the ones they employed to
turn a small and insignificant space
Photographs:
CLIVE NICHOLS
into an intimate dining room, with
lacquer-black and mirrored walls, that
they use frequently to entertain.
“Everything was off-balance,” says
Vergeylen. “There was one window
off-centre on the left wall, and one
door off-centre on the back wall. On
top of that, you had to enter the room
from the side, which had little impact.
“So in order to make the room
symmetrical, we put in a fake window
to balance the other one, giving both
Roman blinds that stay down, because
as it’s a dark room used at night, we
don’t need daylight.” Behind that
trompe l’oeil window, however, is a
useful space — a deep set of shelves
stacked with dinner plates.
“In order to balance the door on the
right at the back, we put in an identical
fake door, on the left. We got rid of the
side entrance door, and changed it for
central double doors. So wherever
you look, the room is perfectly
symmetrical.” A Murano chandelier
dripping with teardrop crystals hangs
low over the dining table, which is
extravagantly dressed with
monogrammed Porthault table linen,
crystal glasses and fine silver: “Very
simple, very understated,” says
Moschino, mischievously.
The glittering opulence doesn’t quite
tally with his philosophy, which
nonetheless is worth noting: “If you
appreciate the beauty of baskets, you
don’t need silver. People think, only
with silver can you make a beautiful
table, but it’s not true. We went to
dinner once in Marrakesh, and they
had these tiny baskets with primulas
all down the table, and they looked
divine. So of course the next morning
we went straight to the market, to look
for the baskets.
“Back in England, the first dinner we
gave, we had all the baskets, with the
primulas. And yes, they looked divine.”
30
Homes & Property Outdoors
Shout ‘Bravo’ for
the makeover of
Glyndebourne’s
glorious gardens
A riot of colour and scent awaits opera fans flocking to
the celebrated East Sussex festival, opening this weekend,
where the grounds are staging their own stunning show
Pattie
Barron
H
EARING great opera in
an Arcadian setting has
always been
Glyndebourne’s
strength, and this season
the gardens, revamped and
replenished, are primed to put on a
truly virtuoso performance.
The idyllic backdrop of the South
Downs has changed little from 80
years ago, when John Christie built
an opera theatre in the grounds of his
East Sussex mansion for his new
bride. However, the gardens
surrounding the lawns where the
public picnic during the performance
intervals have changed dramatically
of late, due to Glyndebourne’s
garden adviser, John Hoyland.
“John is particularly good at having
an eye for the past as well as an eye
for the future,” says John Christie’s
grandson, executive chairman Gus
Christie, who lives in the manor
house with his wife, soprano Danielle
de Niese, swims in the waterlilystudded lake and has had a zip wire
strung across it for his sons. A
committed environmentalist with an
eye for the future himself — he
controversially installed a sleek wind
turbine, nose designed by Norman
Foster, that powers every
Glyndebourne production with
renewable energy — Christie had the
bright idea of changing the location
of the car park last year. Now, instead
of an intrusive line of coaches at the
front of the house, there is a glorious
flowering meadow created by
Hoyland. Coaches park in the newly
cleared arboretum, at the western
end of the garden. “It’s nicer for
people to arrive directly into the
gardens, rather than round the back
door and past the dustbins,” says
Christie.
For over 30 years, the gardens were
planted by friend and neighbour at
nearby Great Dixter, the late, great
plantsman Christopher Lloyd, with
the help of Gus’s mother, the
enthusiastic Mary Christie, whose
husband Sir George, the guiding light
of Glyndebourne for over 40 years,
died last week aged 79 while listening
to Der Rosenkavalier with his family
Far left: a diver
stands forever
poised above the
lake, which was
dredged to thin
out the
waterlilies, now
contained in pots
to stop their
spread
Photographs:
CLIVE NICHOLS
Grand parade,
right: white
foxtail lilies soar
from one of the
double borders
of the long
terrace, which is
the popular
promenade
during the
interval
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31
Outdoors Homes & Property
Potted perfection: Cercis Forest Pansy and peach verbena
Scene setting: one of many idyllic views at Glyndebourne
Star performers: pink peonies and Allium christophii
around him. “By the time I was
called in four years ago, the garden
had stopped singing and it needed to
sing again,” says Hoyland. “When
you make changes you have to
respect what came before, but you
also have to acknowledge that they
might have become tired, and need
re-energising.” On a more practical
note, he adds: “I also needed to
create lots of intimate spaces for
people to picnic on the lawns,
otherwise it would be like the beach
at Marbella.”
The main event, though, has to
come from the 120-yard double
flower borders of the terrace that
runs along the back of the house. It is
the popular promenade at interval
time, where the views across the
lawns beneath can be admired, and
the new walk-in entrance from the
car park. It does not disappoint:
columns of Portuguese laurel and
semicircles of box balls make an
evergreen foil for the chorus of
groundcover rose Bonica, geranium
Rozanne and clouds of white Crambe
Cordifolia that support exuberant
main players of foxtail lilies,
achilleas, salvias, hemerocallis and
hollyhocks. Approached from a zizag
staircase and leading directly to the
opera house itself is the exotic
Bourne Garden, which, jam-packed
with angelicas, bananas and tree
ferns, has all the drama and fanfare
of Verdi’s Aida. Hoyland improved on
the original by ruthlessly pollarding
the catalpas and pawlonias, so there
is foliage from top to toe.
Evening scent is part of the
Glyndebourne experience, believes
Hoyland. Thus, huge terracotta pots
by the entrances to the opera house
foyer are filled with white regale
lilies, fragrant-leaved geraniums and
vanilla-scented heliotrope. “The
music is soaring inside the opera
house, you come out after this
extraordinary experience and you
also want your senses to be caressed
with fabulous perfumes,” he
explains.
Some areas of the gardens needed
no changes, such as the croquet lawn
— where orchestra and chorus while
away the 90-minute interval by
playing the game — and the Figaro
Room, a cool, green space housing a
Henry Moore reclining figure gazing
across to the Downs.
“The big challenge, aside from the
chalky soil and the high winds,” says
Hoyland, “is having 1,200 people
marching around the place every
night, which puts huge pressure on
the garden. They’re also picnicking
and popping their bottles of
champagne, which goes everywhere
and burns the grass. Champagne
makes the best weedkiller.”
The gardening team is devoted.
Head gardener Kevin Martin, who
has been working at Glyndebourne
for 30 years and grows most of the
perennials, shrubs and annuals
himself, also arranges the flowers for
the Organ Room — see his how-to
video online — and picks out orchid
seedlings in the mown grass paths of
the meadow by the kitchen gardens,
painstakingly transplanting them
into safe pasture. Volunteers are
rewarded with seats for the opera —
one diligently patrols the borders,
deadheading faded flowers so that
fresh ones can keep coming right
through the festival.
How can the gardens fail with
such dedication? Kevin Martin is
convinced that the dawn chorus sings
more loudly and more sweetly at
Glyndebourne than anywhere else,
and he is probably right.
GET THE LOOK
John Hoyland advises on how to bring
Glyndebourne glamour into your
garden:
O Group plants in pots closely
together. This creates a more
exuberant effect than dotting them
about. It also makes watering easier.
Moving pots around, or changing what
is in them, is a great way of bringing a
fresh, new look into the garden.
O Veg can be beautiful, too.
Artichokes, kale, cavalo nero, even
some lettuces are attractive as well as
productive.
O Bold colour combinations are much
more dramatic than soft pastels. “At
Glyndebourne we like the acid-yellow
flowers of euphorbias with the
magenta pink of Bergenia Overture or,
later in the year, pink cosmos with the
burnt-orange flowers of Dahlia David
Howard.”
O Use bedding plants and annuals —
they are long-flowering and bring in
lots of colour. As well as the more
usual cosmos and nicotiana, try
something more exotic. Persicaria
orientalis grows over 8ft tall in a single
season and is covered with dusky-pink
tassels. It is worth growing for its
common name alone: “Kiss me over the
garden gate.”
O Include scented plants that release
their perfume in the evening, when you
can come home from work and enjoy
your garden. Try night-scented stock
and perfumed lilies but also more
unusual plants, such as easy-to-grow
night phlox Zaluzianskya ovata. The
scent of honeysuckle is much stronger
in the evening.
THE annual Glyndebourne Festival
starts on Saturday and runs until
August 24. New operas this year are
Der Rosenkavalier, La Finta Giardiniera
and La Traviata. For tickets, see
glyndebourne.com.
36
Homes & Property Property searching
Spotlight
West Kensington
Handsome
homes and a
grand Victorian
heritage
Find mansion flats, cottages, family houses
and new build in the home of Olympia and
Queen’s Club tennis, says Anthea Masey
T
HREE great Victorian institutions are at the heart of
West Kensington in west
London — The Queen’s Club,
exclusive home of the preWimbledon tennis tournament,
Olympia Exhibition Centre, and Lamda,
the country’s oldest drama school.
Olympia’s art deco Empire Hall in
Hammersmith Road, now known as
Olympia Central, was designed by
architect Joseph Emberton in 1930 and
is the exhibition complex’s most visible
face. However, Henry Edward Coe’s
original exhibition hall, now called
Olympia Grand, remains Olympia’s
architectural gem. Home to the annual
Horse of the Year Show, its elegant
glass-and-steel barrel roof, 115ft high,
was built in just 12 weeks in 1885. It
carries over 85 tons of glass and covers
nearly an acre.
The Queen’s Club, which opened in
1886, the same year as Olympia, claims
to be the first multipurpose sports
complex built anywhere in the world.
Since 2007 it has been owned by its
members and over the years has hosted
football, rugby and cricket. Today its
facilities are restricted to lawn tennis,
real tennis, rackets and squash. This
year’s Aegon Championships tennis
tournament runs from June 9-15.
Lamda, one of Britain’s leading
drama schools, started life in 1861 as
the London Academy of Music. Former
pupils include Sherlock star Benedict
Cumberbatch, Rory Kinnear, Martin
Shaw and David Suchet. Its president,
acclaimed stage and screen actor
Timothy West, 79, who recently made
his EastEnders debut, is spearheading
an £18.4 million redevelopment of the
Talgarth Road campus.
WHAT THERE IS TO BUY
West Kensington is dominated by large
mansion flat blocks, with the most
impressive examples in the Fitzgeorge
& Fitzjames conservation area. Built in
1897 they were described at the time as
the “grandest of the West Kensington
mansion flats, with lifts and separate
servants’ quarters”. These spacious
homes now sell for as much as £1,000
a square foot. The most expensive apartment for sale in West Kensington now
is a four-bedroom, 2,820sq ft property
in Fitzgeorge Avenue, on the market for
£2.65 million (homesandproperty.
co.uk/westkenfitz).
There are large Victorian terrace
houses in the Gunter Estate conservation area north of Talgarth Road, developed by brothers James and Robert
Gunter, whose family built large
areas of South Kensington and Chelsea. Most have been divided into
flats, but there are a number of Dutch
gable houses in Gunterstone Road.
One of them, with seven bedrooms
and in need of refurbishment, is on
the market for £2.35 million (homes
andproperty.co.uk/westkengunt).
North of Hammersmith Road in the
Brook Green area there is a real mix.
You’ll find large Victorian terrace houses
— mostly converted into flats — along
Sinclair Road; large family houses on the
green and the surrounding roads; twoand three-bedroom cottages in the
Masbro Road area that sell for between
£800,000 and £1.73 million, and modern
flats in the Kensington West development
in Blythe Road. The most expensive
house for sale in West Kensington is a
large, unmodernised, 3,576sq ft property
To find a home in West Kensington, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/westkensington
For more about West Kensington, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightwestkensington
£415,000
£655,000
£750,000
£3.6 MILLION
A BRIGHT and modern one-bedroom first-floor
flat in Edith Road, one of West Kensington’s
most desirable locations. Through Dexters.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/edith
A TWO-BEDROOM flat is available in Mornington
Avenue Mansions, a handsome red-brick block in
a quiet cul-de-sac. Through Foxtons.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/morn
RECENTLY refurbished and interior-designed to a
very high spec, this two-bedroom Warwick Gardens
flat is in immaculate condition. Through Wilfords.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/gard
A FOUR-BEDROOM end-of-terrace home needing
full modernisation, opposite historic Leighton
House, Holland Park. Through Hamptons.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/holl
37
Property searching Homes & Property
Spying tonight:
film-makers used
the Victoria &
Albert Museum’s
archive and
library study
room, left, in
Blythe Road, to
depict MI6 HQ in
Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy (2011)
CHECK THE STATS
■WHAT HOMES COST
BUYING IN WEST KENSINGTON
(Average prices)
One-bedroom flat £741,000
Two-bedroom flat £1.24 million
Two-bedroom house £1.6 million
Three-bedroom house £2.05 million
Source: Zoopla.co.uk
RENTING IN WEST KENSINGTON
(Average rates)
One-bedroom flat £1,653 month
Two-bedroom flat £2,365 a month
Two-bedroom house
£2,760 a month
Three-bedroom house
£5,026 a month
Four-bedroom house
£5,715 a month
Call us oldfashioned: Betty
Blythe vintage
tea room, right, is
a local favourite
Source: Zoopla.co.ukl
GO ONLINE FOR MORE
O The best local schools
O The best shops and restaurants
O Latest housing developments
O How West Kensington compares
with the rest of the UK on
house prices
O Smart maps to plot your
property search
For all this and more, visit
Photographs by:
GRAHAM
HUSSEY
homesand
property.co.uk/
spotlight
westkensington
HAVE YOUR SAY
WEST KENSINGTON
Well-connected:
Barons Court,
right, is one of
three Tube
stations serving
West Kensington
in Sinclair Road with a pretty filigree
canopy above the impressive portico,
on the market for £4 million (homes
andproperty.co.uk/westkensinc).
The most expensive family house in
the Brook Green area currently for sale
is in Applegarth Road. The four-storey
Victorian home has five bedrooms, a
pretty conservatory and a paved back
garden, and is on the market at
£2.4 million (homesandproperty.co.
uk/westkenapple).
The area attracts: estate agent Justin
Holder from the local branch of Marsh
& Parsons says the West Kensington
mansion flats attract buyers who can’t
afford something similar in Kensington
or Chelsea. They are popular with
people from European countries who
prefer flat living, such as French and
Italian buyers, but there is also interest
from Russians and Chinese. The Brook
Green area, with its many schools, is
popular with young families.
Staying power: there is a lot of local
movement especially within Brook
Green, with people trading up from
flats and cottages to houses and vice
versa, although Holder admits there is
a drift to slightly cheaper areas such as
Shepherd’s Bush when families find
they can’t afford to trade up to a bigger
house.
OPEN SPACE
With the exception of Brook Green
itself where there is a popular children’s playground, West Kensington
has a shortage of green spaces. The
nearest parks of any size are Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith, and
Holland Park.
LEISURE AND THE ARTS:
The Barons Court Theatre is a fringe
venue in the basement of the Curtain’s
Up pub in Comeragh Road. The Lyric
Theatre and the Riverside Studios are
in nearby Hammersmith, and the Bush
Theatre is in Shepherd’s Bush. There
are cinemas in Kensington High Street,
Shepherd’s Bush and Hammersmith.
Local health facilities include a swimming pool at the 37 Degrees private
gym in Beaconsfield Terrace Road, and
the nearest council-owned pool is the
Fulham Pools in Normand Park.
Travel: the area’s Tube stations are
West Kensington, Kensington Olympia
and Barons Court. All three are on the
Fine fare: in
Masbro Road,
the recently
renovated
Havelock Tavern
is a popular
gastropub
District line, and the Piccadilly line
stops at Barons Court. In addition, West
Kensington is on the Overground service with trains between Willesden
Junction and Clapham Junction. All
stations are in Zone 2 and an annual
travelcard costs £1,472.
Council: Hammersmith & Fulham
council is Conservative-controlled, and
Band D council tax for the 2014/2015
year stands at £1,034.16.
Culture: sculpture at the V&A
archive and library study building
@SophieHaslettXX Best Mangal
does a mean kebab. My boyfriend has
one on a weekly basis...
@dwestldn Positive side: massive
redevelopment of the old West
Kensington and Gibbs Green estates
over next 10+ yrs !
@dwestldn West Ken best pubs
Cumberland Arms, Havelock Tavern
and Albion. Best breakfast Cafe
Continente
@W14london diverse
neighbourhood, three Underground
stations so excellent transport
facilities
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
What attracted racing driver James
Hunt to West Kensington?
Find the answer at homesandproperty.
co.uk/spotlightwestkensington
@W14london Marcus Garvey/Ghandi
lived in West Ken
NEXT WEEK: Bromley. Do you
live there? Tell us what you
think @HomesProperty
42
Homes & Property Inside story
Left, right, left
right, atten-shun!
Eyes right for a
lovely property
MONDAY
Our morning meeting in the Covent
Garden office starts promptly with the
entire sales team around the boardroom, just like the opening scene from
The Apprentice.
With the growth of CBRE Residential
we have recruited two new sales negotiators, who are introduced to the
team. We run through the top 10 buyers
for each negotiator — the list always
includes a range of interesting people,
from City bankers, football players and
celebrities to couples downsizing,
families looking for a pied-à-terre, MPs
and lawyers. I am sure we have got
something on our books to suit all of
them.
After the meeting I head over to view
our latest development opportunity,
which is a freehold office with planning
consent to become a family home in
Mayfair. At offers in excess of £8.95 million, viewings are booked in all day.
The developer likes the property and
will come back with their architect.
Garden and certainly worth the £4.5 million price tag. As a post-viewing treat
we head to Belgo in Seven Dials for
celebratory moules-frites and beer.
THURSDAY
It’s another packed day of viewings,
this time stretching from Soho, across
Covent Garden, and up into Fitzrovia.
I have to organise my diary meticulously to allow enough time to march
between appointments, but I’m used
to it. The buyers who have to walk with
me between properties are less used
to a military pace, and often say they
count a viewing with me as their day’s
exercise.
Diary of
an estate
agent
FRIDAY
TUESDAY
My first appointment of the day is a site
meeting to run through our latest
scheme, at Clarence Court in Strand.
Sixteen new apartments are to be
launched in the UK, and we are confident it will sell really well. Immediately
after the team leave, I show the building to an Asian investment fund based
in London. They are very interested in
taking all the studio and one-bedroom
apartments, which would be a great
way to kick-start the sales.
As a member of the Army Reserve,
which used to be known as the Territorial Army, I leave promptly at 6pm for
weekly training in Fulham — my week
is run with military precision.
WEDNESDAY
The day starts with meeting a lovely
lady from Belgium. She has a great
budget of £3 million to £5 million, and
needs something urgently as she is
moving to London in three weeks. We
view four options, and the third
property, a Dukelease development in
Bedford Street, takes her breath away.
It is my favourite apartment in Covent
We have a monthly team update on all
our new developments and resales. It
has been a great month for the Covent
Garden office, with 18 deals agreed.
While not a record, this is certainly a
strong figure for one office.
I then head back for a second viewing
of the Mayfair renovation. This time it
is with the developer’s architect who
seems to enjoy asking all sorts of questions, from lift mechanics options to the
depth of the swimming pool.
Luckily I’ve done my research. As my
Army Reserve training has taught me,
you can never be too prepared.
After a busy week I have the weekend
to look forward to. Time for the uniform
to come off and the shorts to go on.
O James Mashiter is a sales negotiator
at CBRE Midtown (020 7420 3050).
43
Ask the expert Homes & Property
Will car loan stop me getting a mortgage?
Q
Q
A
Fiona
McNulty
WHAT’S
YOUR
PROBLEM?
OUR LAWYER ANSWERS
YOUR QUESTIONS
I HAVE just had an offer
accepted on a flat but the
estate agent says it is
going to be more difficult
now for me to get a mortgage
because of some new rules, and
especially as I have just bought a
new car. Surely this isn’t correct?
A
THE agent is referring to the
Mortgage Market Review that
has taken place, resulting in
reform. On April 26 new rules
were introduced by the Financial
Conduct Authority, which regulates
the financial services industry, with
the aim of ensuring that borrowers
using their own homes for security for
their loan are actually able to afford
the repayments, and that the mortgage
arrangements suit their needs. The
new rules do not apply to buy-to-let
mortgages or to second mortgages.
Taking out a mortgage to buy a
property is generally the biggest
financial commitment most people
make. Under the new rules a mortgage
lender must ensure that a borrower
can truly afford the loan, and will be
able to do so in the future if interest
rates go up. You will have to prove your
income in the usual way but now you
must also inform the lender what you
need to spend to maintain a basic
living standard.
The lender will take into account
three categories of spending — firstly,
essential expenses such as food and
utility bills, council tax etc, and
secondly, basic quality of living costs
such as clothing, toiletries, child care
and leisure expenditure, such as gym
membership. Thirdly, they will look at
other repayments and commitments
such as credit card bills and car loans.
This is a more detailed examination
of your financial circumstances than
has previously been deemed necessary
by regulators, although in reality
many lenders have been looking at
borrowers’ finances in this sort of
detail for some time. Any new car loan
you have will, of course, be taken into
account, to establish whether paying
the mortgage could cause you financial
difficulties now, or in the event of a
future rates rise.
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
partner in the
residential
property, farms
and estates team
at Withy King LLP
(withyking.co.uk).
More legal
Q&As
Visit: homesand
property.co.uk
MY GRANDMOTHER died recently and my
father inherited her house. He is trying to sell
it and his estate agents say they have a buyer
who is prepared to pay a very good price.
This buyer wants a long completion date of six months
but says he could move in after exchange of contracts
as the property is empty, and pay my father rent until
completion. Is this acceptable?
IT WOULD be wise to establish why the buyer
needs six months. If it is to raise funds, there is a
risk he may fail to do so and be unable to
complete after six months. Your father could let
him occupy the house between exchange of contracts and
completion but if rent is paid, a tenancy will be created.
If the buyer failed to complete the purchase and also
refused to quit the property, your father would have to
get a court order for possession. While a tenancy can be
created for whatever period the parties want, court
proceedings for possession cannot start until six months
have passed. You father would also need to make sure the
necessary notices were served, properly and on time, to
make sure he could start the court claim.
Your father should consider how long the property has
been on the market, whether there has been much
interest in it, or any other offers, and if the price being
offered is worth the risk involved. He can then decide
whether he wants to exchange contracts with this buyer
so that he has some certainty — even if it means waiting
six months for the sale to be completed — or just leave the
house on the market to see what other offers appear.
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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'$#$##
!(% %
50
Homes & Property New homes
Rookies enlist for ex-Army homes
Annington, which owns and manages
the Army’s former married quarters
estate, is accelerating the release of
refurbished homes for sale.
These mostly terrace houses, semis
and purpose-built flats are, in the
main, plain and uninspiring to look
at but nevertheless can be spacious
and offer good value for money,
often coming with new kitchen and
bathroom, a garage and wellestablished garden. Normally the
properties are sold at a discount to
the local market, and there is an
opportunity for buyers to add value.
At Beaufort Green, Uxbridge, twobedroom apartments cost from
£274,950 and four-bedroom houses
start at £385,000. Call 01895 254922.
David Spittles
has the word from the street
Docklands’ new
urban village
City Road
stands tall
ROYAL WHARF is set to become
Docklands’ biggest new neighbourhood
since Canary Wharf was built more
than 20 years ago. Its 3,385 homes will
include family houses and developer
Ballymore’s “21st-century urban
village” will have a high street, school,
parks, squares and its own DLR station.
The first 811 homes will be ready in
2016. First-phase flats, from £235,000,
were snapped up but there’s another
release next month. Visit royalwharf.
com or call 0808 118 1987.
ITY ROAD, linking Angel to
Shoreditch, is getting a
£1 billion facelift, bringing
glamorous new homes for
techies and bankers. Drab
low-rise commercial premises have
been bulldozed, ready for a line of
skyscrapers along a Continental-style
boulevard with pavement cafés.
Already, a new public square forms
an entrance to a once closed-in canal
From £274,950: refurbished ex-Army
homes at Beaufort Green in Uxbridge
IF THE Government’s barracks
closure programme has an upside,
it’s that it will create homes for
first-time buyers. Property firm
C
New phase: more Royal Wharf homes
will come on to the market next month
basin, opening up water views. The
Eagle is the latest unveiling, with 276
apartments above a retained fivestorey art deco building. Prices from
£895,000. Lexicon, another City
Road high-rise, launches next month.
Prices from £595,000. Call developer
Mount Anvil on 0845 077 9550.
From £895,000: one- to four-bedroom
apartments at The Eagle, right, in EC1
020 3627 5379
www.henrywiltshire.com
Terms and conditions apply, call 020 3627 5379 for further details
1-2 Laybourne House, Admirals Way, Canary Wharf E14 9UH
SALES
LETTINGS
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
INVESTMENTS
51
New homes Homes & Property
Olympic Park leads the field as
arenas make way for homes
SPORTING arenas old and new are spawning thousands
of new homes in London. Foremost is the Olympic Park
in Stratford, where 6,800 homes are planned in four new
neighbourhoods. Chobham Manor is the first of these,
where 850 duplexes, family townhouses and maisonettes
launch next week, priced £299,995 to £849,995. Call
Taylor Wimpey on 020 3435 9269.
West Ham FC’s former Upton Park ground will be turned
into a 700-home “village”, while Queensland Terrace,
with 375 flats, is the final phase of homes linked to Arsenal’s
move from Highbury. Call Barratt on 0844 5566 166.
Aura is a scheme of 189 flats and townhouses with great
transport links on Edgware FC’s former ground. Prices
from £234,995. Call Weston Homes on 01279 873300.
From £299,995: new homes at Chobham Manor in Stratford
AND THEY’RE OFF LUXURIOUS LAUNCHES IN ASCOT
POISED for Royal Ascot next month,
the famous Berkshire racecourse is
set amid a rich man’s playground, with
golf, polo, and boating on the Thames.
It is also handy for Heathrow airport,
and though the town centre is
surprisingly bland, within a couple of
furlongs are some of England’s most
expensive homes.
South of the town is more desirable,
and the top address is Coronation
Road, where trophy mansions shelter
behind high hedges and electric gates,
and smaller homes in leafy lanes are
being bought by thirtysomething
professionals with a City career and a
toddler or two. Claremont is a gated
£1,995,995: Claremont townhouses in
a gated scheme. Call 0845 676 0254
#
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scheme of 17 large townhouses of
about 3,000sq ft, each with a
landscaped garden and integral
garage. Prices from £1,995,995. Call
Bellway Homes on 0845 676 0254.
At The Asters in Sunningdale, two
miles from the racecourse, Bellway is
selling White Heath, a fully furnished
detached show house and the last
home available there, for £2,499,995.
Call 0845 676 0264. Developer
Millgate, winner of several Evening
Standard New Homes Awards, has
unveiled Oakwood, a whopping
7,638sq ft house with staff quarters,
grounds and swimming pool, for
£4.6 million. Call 01344 622 688.

Wednesday 14 May 2014 Property

Transcription

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