A town full of character

Transcription

Homes&
Property
Wednesday 26 August 2015
Pop into
Memphis
The Eighties
design movement
Page 16
NEW HOMES: DISCOVER ZONE 4 P6 POPULAR POPLAR P9 TRANSFORM YOUR HOME: LOFTS P12 MY HOME IN COLOUR P24
A town full
of character
DANIEL LYNCH
Spotlight on Brentwood: Page 32
London’s best property search website: homesandproperty.co.uk
4
WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Online
homesandproperty.co.uk with
This week: homesandproperty.co.uk
news: Londoners get a new
way to build their own home
REX
Laying the
foundations:
expert guidance
awaits Londoners
who want to build
their own home,
through a new
self-build register
being set up by
the Mayor
MAYOR Boris Johnson wants to back London’s aspiring
Grand Designers by helping them to find plots of land and
get expert guidance with their building projects.
He is setting up a register of Londoners who want to
“custom build” a home.
The Build Your Own London Home Register launches
this week and will initially give City Hall a database
showing the level of demand for self-builds.
Property
search
Trophy buy of the week
five-floor beauty in Belgravia
£16.95 million: for a home that shouts wealth, but in the
most refined way, where better than Belgravia? This wide
stuccoed beauty commands a prime position between
Belgrave Square and Eaton Square in Lyall Street, and has
5,000sq ft of space across five floors. High ceilings add to
the grandeur of the reception rooms, while five über-plush
bedrooms, a media room, gym/sauna and roof terrace
are among the treats. Through Hamptons International.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/trophy
London buy of the week a new flat in
Canning Town’s booming centre
O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk
£460,000: a few years ago you
wouldn’t have touched E16, but there
is dramatic regeneration in progress
in east London’s Canning Town.
It includes the creation of the
multimillion-pound Hallsville Quarter,
a new town centre that will provide
homes, bars and restaurants. In its
DIY weekend: find help from
the experts and get on with it
REX
Room service:
a lick of paint
is the easy way
to transform
a room, but
wallpaper can
add a luxurious
on-trend touch
THIS Bank Holiday weekend could be your last chance to
get those DIY jobs done before autumn sets in.
A new coat of paint is perhaps the cheapest and easiest
way to transform a room. For the more adventurous, new
wallpaper can add a luxe touch, while upcycling a tired
piece of furniture is a rewarding way to create something
unique. However, to avoid a DIY disaster, you need good
planning and some expert advice. We show you how.
first phase, modern two-bedroom flats
feature high-spec detailing. They also
include bright and spacious open-plan
kitchen/reception rooms with private
balconies overlooking a leafy garden
square. Through Foxtons.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/botw
Life changer Elizabethan
mansion with a private river
£1.25 million: this magnificent, seven-bedroom, Elizabethan
hall in Worfield, Shropshire, comes with a two-bedroom
cottage to let, a further three-bedroom cottage (by separate
negotiation) and fishing rights on the River Worfe, which
runs through its three acres of gardens. There’s an outdoor
swimming pool and, indoors, wood-panelled reception
rooms, a tailor’s gallery and a powder room where guests
once powdered their wigs. Through John D Wood.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechanger
By
Faye
Greenslade
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/diytips
ESHomesAndProperty • Twitter:
@HomesProperty • Pinterest:
Editor:
Janice
Morley
VISIT homesandproperty.co.
uk/rules for details of our
usual promotion rules. When
you respond to promotions,
offers or competitions, the
London Evening Standard and
its sister companies may
contact you with relevant
offers and services that may
be of interest. Please give
your mobile number and/or
email address if you would
like to receive such offers by
text or email.
Editorial: 020 3615 2524
Advertisement manager:
Jamie McCabe
Advertising: 020 3615 0266
Homes & Property, Northcliffe
House, 2 Derry Street,
Kensington, London W8 5TT.
@HomesProperty
2,000-ticket giveaway
Don’t miss the 2015 London Homebuilding &
Renovating Show at ExCeL, September 25-27
WHETHER you’re planning to add an
extension to your house, create a
charming new kitchen overlooking a
landscaped garden or build an entire
new home from scratch, a visit to the
Homebuilding & Renovating Show,
proudly sponsored by Anglian Home
Improvements, is a must.
We have 1,000 pairs of tickets,
worth up to £18 per ticket, to give
away. At the show at ExCeL London
on September 25-27, you will find
everything you need for your next
project, large or small — from interior
design to garden landscaping,
roofing to flooring, restoration to
new-builds. Celebrity experts are on
hand to offer free advice, there will
SIMON MAXWELL
Facebook:
be free seminars and masterclasses
to attend, and there’s the chance
to meet 350 suppliers offering
thousands of exciting products.
TO ENTER
For a chance to win a pair of tickets on a first come, first served basis, register at
homebuildingshow.co.uk/showtickets by 3pm on September 24. Usual rules apply.
5
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST 2015
News Homes & Property
Homes
gossip
By Amira Hashish
O For more celebrity gossip, visit
homesandproperty.co.uk/gossip
Foster’s home gets
the star treatment
É SUPERMODEL Kate Moss,
right, rented a cottage when
she was visiting Spoleto
in Italy for her agent’s
wedding.
However, while the pretty
medieval Umbrian village
home, called Cisterna, was
reserved until recently for
celebrities seeking solitude,
it is now available through
holidaylettings.co.uk for a
budget-friendly price of
£72 a night during
off-peak times.
Tucked away in the tiny,
exclusive holiday village of
Borgo Di Baci, the onebedroom cottage makes a
perfect retreat.
It has a private terrace and
shares a pool and outdoor
fitness area with four nearby
luxury suites.
A housekeeper is also on
hand for those living or
staying in any of the five
properties.
Madge’s mansion back in vogue for £18m
É MADONNA’S stunning Beverly
Hills mansion is back on the market
for £17.8 million.
The Material Girl shared the ninebedroom home on Sunset Boulevard
with her then-husband, British film
director Guy Ritchie, from 2003.
They divorced in 2008. Madge
bought the French country-style
estate for £7.6 million and sold it nine
years later, in 2012, for £12.4 million.
In secluded grounds at the end of a
grand gated drive, the property
covers a whopping 5,800sq ft, with 15
bathrooms, a duplex dining room, a
cinema, two offices, a gym, two
guesthouses, a tennis court and a
resort-size swimming pool, above.
Scandal
at the
Sherlock
house
Got some gossip?
Tweet @amiranews
REX
REX
REX
É A GLASS pavilion, sun terraces,
a pergola and a swimming pool on
the roof... these are among the
wow-factor features you might
expect at a London penthouse that
was once home to Norman Foster.
Before he moved to Geneva, the
starchitect, below, lived “over the
office”, in the penthouse above the
Foster + Partners practice at his
Riverside One development in
Battersea.
It is now believed that the man who
brought the Gherkin to the London
skyline has plans to turn the dazzling
apartment into two separate flats.
A planning application for the
alterations has been submitted to
Wandsworth council.
Kate’s cut-price
Italian hideaway
É CALLING all Cumberbitches. Fans
of Harrow-educated actor Benedict
Cumberbatch can stay in Grade IIlisted Fields House, above, where he
filmed scenes for the TV series
Sherlock.
With Martin Freeman as Dr Watson,
Cumberbatch, inset — now playing
Hamlet at the Barbican — recorded
A Scandal in Belgravia at the grand
six-bedroom house in Newport,
South Wales. Built in 1860 as a
gentleman’s residence, the property
can sleep up to 10, while Doctor Who
followers may recognise the dining
room as Captain Latimer’s study
from the 2012 Christmas special.
Fields House is available to rent
from £365 a night on Airbnb — search
3501445.
6
Homes & Property New homes
Browse awhile: Katy Saphir of Flaming Nora, one of many vintage shops in Church Road, Crystal Palace
4 for all
Zone 4 is a marketplace full of choice. Ten of the
cheapest areas around its stations have average
house prices under £301,000. By David Spittles
A
S LONDONERS are pushed
further from the capital’s
centre in search of homes
they can afford, Zone 4
has become the budget
frontier. The average price of a home
there is £421,000. In Zone 2, the average is £723,000 while in Zone 3, it is
£488,000. Yet the typical train journey
to central London from Zone 4 is a
reasonable 33 minutes, with some
journeys taking only 15 minutes.
For example, the average price in
Morden, at the southern end of the
Northern line, is £368,726, while in
South Wimbledon, one stop earlier and
on the Zone 3/4 cusp, it is £641,164.
Zone 4 sits between the inner city and
the suburbs, a ring marked by Greenford in the west, Mill Hill in the north,
Upney in the east and Morden in the
south. Ten of the cheapest areas
around Zone 4 stations have average
prices less than £301,000.
“Some areas are significantly undervalued given the relatively quick commute times to the centre — they’re easy
to get to work from and have potential
for price growth,” says Jennet Siebrits,
head of residential research at property
consultant CBRE.
However, you have to choose carefully. Some Zone 4 areas have already
become pricey thanks to their speedy
commuting times. Bounds Green,
Wanstead and South Woodford, with
25-minute journey times, have prices
averaging £440,000 to £450,000.
AFFORDABLE OPTIONS
Photographs :
Adrian Lourie
Some people may dismiss Zone 4 as a
chunk of unpleasant urban sprawl, but
Richmond, at the southern end of the
District line, proves the contrary.
Surrounded by an enormous 2,500
acres of oak forest deer park, river
walks and great views from Richmond
Hill, a prospect protected by an Act of
Parliament, the area is perfect for commuting families.
Most new homes in the protected
town centre are as a result of regeneration. Wickham House is a conversion
of former publishing premises and has
a striking new mural in the entrance
foyer depicting printing presses.
Prices start at £569,000 — above the
average for Zone 4, but still lower
than homes near the closest Zone 3
station. Call Featherstone Leigh on
020 8940 1575.
Nearby Isleworth is a cheaper option.
Capital House, an office-to-residential
conversion, has yielded seven
apartments priced from £295,000. Call
020 8847 0488.
OVERGROUND BOOST
The newly integrated Overground network — an amalgam of lines connecting
areas outside central London, allowing
passengers to travel from any area
of the capital to another without changing trains — is also boosting Zone 4
districts.
Prices along the Northern line are
worth studying, too, because this route
uniquely links cheaper locations both
north and south of the river with the
main employment centres of the West
End and City without the need to
change trains.
East London, fuelled by a property
boom rippling through Shoreditch and
Docklands, continues as a growth area.
Demand for homes in East Ham, one
23 minutes
from the centre:
the “secret
food market”
at Haynes Lane
in Gipsy Hill, a
good-value south
London suburb
on the borders of
Zones 3 and 4
From £387,952:
for homes at
Truro Place, the
redevelopment
of a listed 19thcentury mansion
in Palmers Green
of the three “best value” Zone 4 commuting areas, has jumped by 26 per
cent since the start of the year. The
average house price is £248,407.
Wembley is a Zone 4 area with Zone 2
transport connections — you can get to
Baker Street in 13 minutes, according
to Paul Hogarth of developer Quintain,
which is building a 5,000-home neighbourhood wrapping around the famous
football stadium. A new open-air shopping mall has raised the bar and offers
well-known names, chain eateries and
a multiplex cinema.
Apartment blocks are being built in
clusters overlooking courtyards and
squares. Prices at Emerald Gardens,
the latest phase, start from £366,000.
Call 020 3151 8601.
WEMBLEY’S A WINNER
Elisabetta Barone, a lecturer at Brunel
Business School, was one of the first
people to buy at the development.
“I’d seen regeneration have a huge
impact on other parts of London and
was confident the same would happen
in Wembley. The public transport links
are good and it’s just £20 in a taxi to
Heathrow,” she says.
Barone also has a home in Milan.
After the birth of her daughter, she
decided to let her one-bedroom flat at
Wembley and buy a bigger apartment
at the development. On-site Brent
Library is another attraction.
“They have a children’s area and
playgroups during the week and at
weekends,” adds Barone.
UNCOVERING HIDDEN GEMS
Unsung Alperton in north-west London
has such a low profile that many people
living in the capital haven’t even heard
of it. But the area is emerging from the
shadows as developers hit upon its
hidden assets — the Grand Union Canal
and fast Tube links to the West End.
A B&Q superstore has made way for
441 homes as 243 Ealing Road, part
of a Brent council master plan to transform the neighbourhood into a residential haven, with a new school and
shops, health centre and business
premises. Prices from £299,250. Call
Network Living on 020 8997 3373. The
Piccadilly line station is a 200-yard
walk from the development.
Palmers Green and Southgate lie
beyond the traffic-choked North Circular Road and have neat, untroubled
streets of comfortable interwar houses
and a sprinkling of new developments.
Both are places where people put
down roots. Buyers aspire to the district on the way up the ladder and
downsizers on the way down.
Southgate’s Piccadilly line station is
arguably the area’s most surprising
7
New homes Homes & Property
From £366,000: flats at Emerald Gardens, Wembley, in landscaped grounds and in Zone 4 — but with Zone 2 transport links
THE 10 CHEAPEST
ZONE 4 STATIONS
TO LIVE NEAR
Station
Average
house price
Barking
Norwood Junction
East Ham
Hounslow Central
Hainault
Woolwich Arsenal
Upney
Wembley Central
Greenford
Alperton
£198,852
£247,556
£248,407
£257,557
£274,566
£276,411
£282,252
£292,509
£294,100
£300,836
Source: CBRE
landmark. A spirited Thirties design,
the listed circular building looks like a
spaceship heading for Mars rather than
leading down to the Underground.
Palmers Green was a bastion of
Edwardian respectability and is a good
place to look for larger homes.
Truro Place is a redevelopment of a
listed 19th-century mansion that had
been on the Heritage At Risk register
of Historic England — formerly English
Heritage. The house and its classical
French-influenced interiors have been
restored, along with a coach house,
while 25 new homes are being built in
the two-and-a-half-acre grounds. Prices
from £387,952 to £2.95 million. Call
Comer Homes on 0800 0121222.
Tumbling down from the heights
of Crystal Palace are the inner suburbs
o f We s t N o r w o o d a n d S o u t h
Norwood.
Ambitious plans in the early 19th
century to establish a Regency-style
From £569,000: new homes at
Wickham House in Richmond. At the
southern end of the District line, the
area is perfect for commuting families
spa town around a mineral water
spring in Beulah Hill never materialised, but the arrival of the illustrious
Crystal Palace, spectacularly destroyed
by fire in 1936, gave the area an enormous boost, and led to the building of
splendid Victorian villas, many now
converted into flats.
The East London line extension to
West Croydon has revitalised the area,
yet homes around Norwood Junction
are among the cheapest in the capital,
with an average price of £247,556.
Two-bedroom flats at new scheme
Beaumaris Gardens cost from
£265,000, with shared-ownership
options available. Call Hyde New
Homes on 0845 6061221.
NOW JOIN US ONLINE
USE our online interactive map of
Zone 4, which allows you easily to
identify areas within your budget.
Simply click on a station to get the
average property price and rental
rate for the area, plus the journey
time to the West End (Oxford Circus)
and the City (Liverpool Street).
Find the map at:
homesandproperty.co.uk/zone4
8
Homes & Property Commuting
The Cotswolds you don’t know
If you lust after a
Cotswold stone
cottage, here’s how
to find the best
investment closest
to London, says
Ruth Bloomfield
Kerb appeal:
Thame offers a
charming blend
of old and new
£2.5m: five-bedroom house, Shillingford
(see homesandproperty.co.uk/shilling)
WALLINGFORD: FOR
UNSPOILT CHARM
THAME: FOR STRONGEST
PRICE GROWTH
A study of eight key locations by estate
agents Knight Frank reveals the town of
Thame has enjoyed the strongest price
growth over the past year, with a 14.3
per cent rise to an average £310,665.
At least Thame has, by Oxfordshire
market town standards, a pain-free
journey to London. Trains take from
38 minutes to Marylebone from
Haddenham & Thame Parkway station,
which is two-and-a-half miles from the
town. An annual season ticket costs
£4,632. The M40 is also close by.
Oxfordshire’s schools are generally
good and Thame is no exception, led by
Lord Williams’s School, rated “outstanding” by Ofsted.
Thame is the traditional good-looker
with an annual show, a Tuesday market,
great cafés and restaurants, a cinema
and a theatre. Cuttle Brook nature
reserve is a perfect place to get away
from it all, and there is a leisure centre.
ALAMY
C
OTTAGES smothered in
wisteria and pretty rows of
townhouses with perfect
countryside on the doorstep
— these are among the
reasons so many people yearn to live in
the market towns of Oxfordshire.
However, if you are a serious daily
commuter, you need to choose a town
with good-value homes that is a bearable
travelling distance from London.
Here, we shine the spotlight on three
of the best.
“Thame is a wonderful place to live and
it has kerb appeal,” says Stephen
Rutledge, a partner at rural estate agents
Fisher German.
Thame’s property is mainly Victorian
and Georgian terraces. A two-bedroom
house would cost from about £300,000,
and you could pick up a four-bedroom
property for about £500,000. For an
edge-of-town manor house with an
acre or two, you could easily spend
£1.5 million.
£929,950: four-bed, near Wallingford
(homesandproperty.co.uk/walling)
WATLINGTON: BEST FOR
THE LONG-TERM
Beyond Chipping Norton, the market
town that has seen the strongest longterm growth according to the study —
and the best recovery since the
recession — is Watlington.
Prices rose just 0.5 per cent last year,
suggesting a slight plateau, to an average
£393,924. But this is a hefty 36 per cent
above 2008 values.
The nearest station is Henley-onThames, a 10-mile drive away, where
services to Paddington take from 65
minutes. An annual season ticket costs
from £4,356.
Another transport option is to take
the “Oxford Tube” coach service to
Victoria. An annual season ticket, from
Lewknor, costs just £1,193, although
the journey takes between an hour and
40 minutes and two hours.
If a town is to be judged by the quality
of its pubs, then Watlington is doing
well. The Fat Fox Inn gastropub, with
a modern British menu including such
dishes as eight-hour cider-braised pork
belly, is a favourite.
Education is also excellent, with an
“outstanding” rating for Watlington
Primary School, while for seniors,
Icknield Community College gets a
“good” report.
“Watlington is easy to sell because it
is very pretty and only a couple of miles
from the M40. It is also very close to
the beautiful Chilterns,” says Nick
Sherston, director of Robinson
Sherston estate agents.
“It is a small town with only about
3,500 people, so it also has a real
village-y feel.”
About 20 per cent of his buyers are
from London, often first- and secondtimers attracted by Watlington’s beauty
and affordability.
A two-bedroom terrace house would
cost about £250,000 and a five-bedroom house with a really good garden
is about £750,000.
Another market town that has put on a
good property recovery is Wallingford.
Prices fell 0.7 per cent last year, but are
still up 14 per cent on 2008, and stand
at an average £308,033. Commuter
trains from Cholsey, three miles away,
take from 54 minutes to Paddington. An
annual season ticket costs £4,976.
Wallingford School (seniors) is rated
“good”, and there is a clutch of primaries with similarly high standards.
Thames-side towns tend to be lovely
to look at and Wallingford is no exception, with its ancient stone bridge,
market square, lovely walks along the
Thames Path, outdoor lido, a cinema
and theatre, and a good range of independent shops and pubs.
“It is a beautiful location, with a nice
thriving shopping centre and lovely
villages nearby,” adds Guy Glover, a
director of Thomas Merrifield estate
agents.
A two-bedroom Victorian or Edwardian cottage in town would cost about
£350,000, while a five-bedroom house
would be priced at about £650,000 to
£700,000.
Glover suspects that this value-formoney versus the London suburbs and
commuter dormitory towns is one reason why buyers are willing to accept the
slightly longer commute.
“It is proper country out here, picturesque, with some lovely villages close
by,” he says. “It has a lot of charm — and
it hasn’t been spoiled.”
9
First-time buyers Homes & Property
It’s becoming
Poplar down
by the Wharf
If you are struggling
to afford a home in
sought-after Canary
Wharf, check out the
spot next door, says
Ruth Bloomfield
Mosaic (familymosaicsales.co.uk) has
a selection of shared-ownership
homes aimed at first-time buyers and
priced from £97,500.
New Festival Quarter is designed by
award-winning architects Stock
Woolstencroft, and most flats
feature private balconies or terraces,
plus rooftop gardens and small
residents’ parks.
One-bedroom flats start at £97,500
for a 30 per cent share, and buyers
must have a household income of
between £34,846 and £71,000. They
will need to pay £379.17 a month in
GETTY
On the
right lines: a
Docklands Light
Railway train
passes through
Poplar station,
which is set to
get busier
From £97,500: for a 30 per cent share of a one-bedroom flat at New Festival Quarter, where almost 500 homes are being built
rent, plus their mortgage and a
monthly service charge of £110.27.
Two-bedroom flats start at
£118,000 for a 30 per cent share.
Buyers must earn at least £42,304,
and will need to pay £460 a month in
rent plus a £132.71 service charge, as
well as a mortgage.
There are three-bedroom flats
available, priced from £455,000.
Buyers must have a minimum
household income of £49,516 so they
can afford mortgage payments, plus
rent at £530.83 a month and a
monthly service charge of £174.69.
The area is served by two
Docklands Light Railway stations —
Langdon Park and All Saints — and,
from 2018, locals will be able to pick
up Crossrail services to the West End
and Heathrow from Canary Wharf,
which is a mile away.
Poplar has yet to develop a
fashionable café culture of its own,
but the Olympic Park and Westfield
Stratford City shopping centre, plus
the expanses of Mile End Park, are
within walking distance.
THE KNOWLEDGE
Past: Poplar’s location close to
London’s docks meant it was ravaged
during the Blitz.
Future: Poplar Baths, built in 1933,
have been shut since the late
Eighties, but work is now under way
on their regeneration as a new
leisure centre plus 100 homes.
Trivial pursuit: BBC drama Call the
Midwife is set in Poplar in the Fifties.
What it costs: an average property
costs £519,659, up 4.6 per cent in the
past year. Renting a two-bedroom
flat costs an average £2,511 a month
(source: Zoopla).
First-time buy: a two doublebedroom flat on the 11th floor of the
Fusion Building, with great views
over Canary Wharf, is on the market
with Landmark Estates at a guide
price of £400,000.
Landmarks: the condemned
Seventies council block Robin Hood
Gardens, subject of an intense
preservation campaign backed by
Norman Foster. See it while you can
because it is due to be demolished
later this year.
Eat/drink: nothing great on the
doorstep, but it’s only a 10-minute
walk to Limehouse.
Buy: whatever you can haggle for at
old-school Chrisp Street Market.
Walk: local parks include Poplar
Recreation Ground and Bartlett Park.
ALMAY
W
ITH Canary Wharf
well established as a
prime property
market — more than
200 flats in its latest
skyscraper, Maine Tower, sold within
four hours of going on the market
this summer — it is only natural that
interest is now turning to Poplar, its
low-key neighbour.
Just a mile “inland” of the Wharf,
Poplar is one of the few undiscovered
corners of Zone 2 left to first-time
buyers. Although it is not nearly as
shiny as its high-rise neighbour, the
cranes on its skyline are evidence
that regeneration is beginning.
Bellway Homes’ New Festival
Quarter is one of the largest housing
schemes in the area, with almost 500
new homes being built on a site
opposite Bygrove Primary School,
which is rated “outstanding” by
Ofsted.
Full market prices at the scheme
are nudging towards the £500,000
mark, but housing association Family
Open for business: the Idea Store in
popular Chrisp Street Market
10
Homes & Property Holiday homes
Share the cost of having a good time
Holidays are precious. Read the
small print to see if fractional
ownership works for you, says
Cathy Hawker
-"#&.&-$0
W
+
HY shell out for a
holiday home with the
hassle of year-round
charges for service and
maintenance if you are
not free to enjoy it for more than a few
weeks a year?
One alternative is fractional ownership, which is quite different to the
discredited timeshare model of the past.
In fractional ownership, one home is
shared between several buyers. This is
a relatively new idea in the UK, but long
established in the United States.
Operating models vary, but generally
owners have an outright share of the
property.
Kim Goddard, who sells fractional
villas at Royal Westmoreland in Barbados, says: “Our clients want to control
their lives, but often aren’t ready to
commit to one location for a second
home. Shared access to luxuries such
as cars, private planes and staff is growing exponentially and our fractional
ownership fits in with these trends.”
Remember to look carefully at ongoing maintenance costs and investigate
fully any restrictions on selling the fraction. For buyers who proceed with care
there are interesting worldwide options
for this method of purchase.
BARBADOS
AN EIGHT-HOUR FLIGHT
"//!!!'!!!$/",0! %&!/"$&%!#!&%!(!&&0#&!
&!-!!
,,!!*0!
"!)!&!"%!%! !
Royal Westmoreland — an established,
well-maintained, 750-acre gated golf
and leisure resort two miles inland from
Barbados’s exclusive west coast — has
been selling property to holidaymakers,
including sports presenter Gary Lineker
and England football star Wayne
Rooney, since 1994. Starting prices for
full ownership of apartments and villas
are £253,700 and £738,500.
In December, Royal Westmoreland
launched its first fractional option, calling it a “stepping stone” to full ownership for its many repeat, time-poor
buyers who spend only a few weeks
there each year. Two- and four-week
fractions in five new four-bedroom,
sleekly contemporary villas, each with
private pool and garden, are priced
from £34,500. Maintenance charges,
which include all gardening, pool care,
internet and insurance, amount to
£1,500 per week. Sales have gone well
with 34 different buyers, the majority
from the UK.
Fractional villas at Royal Westmoreland are held freehold in a third party
trust and governed under UK Commonwealth property law, with the ownership share fully transferable.
O Royal Westmoreland
(royalwestmoreland.com)
ITALY
A TWO-HOUR FLIGHT AWAY
Deep in agricultural, unspoilt Tuscany
on the lower slopes of Monte Amiata,
two hours from Florence, Rome and
Pisa, Terre Gialle offers a lakeside view
for £19,000. That buys four weeks each
year in perpetuity in a fully kitted-out,
new one-bedroom apartment on a gated
20-acre holiday resort with pool, tennis
court and on-site management. Annual
maintenance charge is £900.
Terre Gialle has 42 older apartments
available to rent and 14 newly completed one-bedroom fractional apartments with plans for further two- and
three-bedroom units in a later phase.
“Timeshare has a bad image, but this
is so different,” says Simone Rossi of
Terre Gialle. “It is yours for four weeks
forever and we provide membership of
RCI and Hutchinson & Co, two leading
holiday exchange companies who
have inspected Terre Gialle thoroughly.
This allows you to swap your weeks in
Tuscany for hundreds of other
destinations.”
Future plans at Terre Gialle include
building a restaurant and indoor pool
and spa. Rossi points out that early buyers are protected because their money
goes into a secure escrow (third party)
From £105,000:
for a fractional
share of a flat at
Atlantic House,
above, in North
Cornwall. Right,
the courtyard
gardens of Terre
Gialle in Tuscany
From £34,500:
two weeks a year
in a Royal Palm
Villa, right and
top left, at
Barbados’s Royal
Westmoreland
account until 40 per cent of the fractions are sold. Then it will be released
to complete these facilities or otherwise
be returned to buyers.
Terre Gialle is five minutes from Castel
del Piano, a charming town with a
population of 4,750, seven churches, a
hospital, shops and schools. It has the
impressive distinction of being the only
Italian town besides Siena with an
annual Palio, a festive and exhilarating
horse race around the town square
dating back to 1402.
O Terre Gialle Residence & Resort
(terregialle.com; 020 3637 2215)
NORTH CORNWALL
FIVE HOURS BY CAR
From £19,000:
Terre Gialle in
Tuscany offers
four weeks a
year for life
Above the beach at New Polzeath, with
direct access to the sands, surf schools
and restaurants below, Atlantic House
is being built to replace a former familyfavourite hotel.
The new, modern Atlantic House is
due for completion next spring and will
have 14 hotel rooms and nine two- and
three-bedroom apartments for sale on
a fractional basis on a 999-year lease.
The apartments average 1,100sq ft, all
with balconies facing the beach, and
will be sold fully furnished, priced from
£105,000 to £145,000 for five weeks
spread throughout the year. Annual
service charges are £1,500 and owners
can rent any weeks they do not use.
Nearly half of the available fractions
have been snapped up, many by nostalgic families with an attachment to the
original hotel.
O Atlantic House
(theatlantichouse.co.uk)
12
Homes & Property Just one thing
Viewing point:
right, a glass
floor panel in the
veranda, created
when the flat was
taken up into the
loft, lets you look
down into the
living space
Photographs: :
Christian
Kraatz
Clever touch:
wallspace beside
the staircase to
the loft extension
has been turned
into bookshelves
On the way up, max out on sty.le
Philippa Stockley discovers actor Ben Forster is raising the roof with his latest production
B
REX
EN FORSTER knows a thing
or two about dramatic transformations. The actor, left,
played Jesus in the revival of
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock
opera Jesus Christ Superstar in its 2012
arena tour, and he’s taking the role of
Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show
at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre
from September 11.
So it was no surprise that Forster, 34,
and his partner, interior designer Paul
Longman, wanted to put their stamp
on their Rotherhithe flat by creating an
additional floor. When they bought the
sixth-floor home in a Nineties block in
2011 it was laid out on one floor, but had
a timbered loft space big enough to
make habitable. The flat as it stood was
dull, dingy, divided and dated. Forster
said it looked like a cheap rental.
“We got a few quotes, some were
ridiculously expensive, some wouldn’t
even look because it was so high up,”
says Forster. But the quote submitted
by surveyor Rob Woods won the
couple’s approval.
After lengthy discussions, Forster and
Longman added two bedrooms with
en suite bathrooms, plus a small
veranda with a glass floor, through
which you can see down into the flat.
By moving the bedrooms upstairs, the
floor below became one large livingdining room. Lots of skylights make the
whole space very bright.
“Planners will want you to leave the
existing roof,” advises Woods. “This
job took 12 weeks as it was a large loft,
and we had to use scaffolding and a
winch. A simple loft conversion might
take eight weeks.”
The verdict: “Rob and his team were
open to all our suggestions and from
day one it was so smooth,” says
Longman. “It has added a lot of light
and space. We’re so happy with it.”
What it cost:
Flat in 2011: £367,000
Total spent including decorating:
£130,000
Value now: £950,000
Loft conversion by Simply Loft at
simplyloft.co.uk
Simply Loft’s prices range from about
£30,000 plus VAT for a small loft
conversion to £90,000 plus VAT for a
large one.
Travel Times
Canning
Town Station
1 min
O2 Arena
Computer Generated Image for illustrative purposes only
6 mins
Westfield
Shopping
Centre
27 mins
Kings Cross
Eurostar
Suites, one, two and three bedroom apartments.
Register for updates at: www.lumire-london.co.uk
Please call for more information: 020 7476 2198
Computer Generated Image for illustrative purposes only
Journey times taken from tfl.gov.uk
4 mins
Canary
Wharf
13 mins
London Eye
Westminster
32 mins
Oxford
Street
13
Just one thing Homes & Property
Moving on up: one of the two bedrooms, this one opening out on to the veranda, which both feature en suite bathrooms
WILL YOU NEED PLANNING PERMISSION?
WHETHER you enlarge your home
upwards, out at the back, sideways
— or all three — above-ground
extensions are the best and
cheapest way to improve, bringing
light, space, plus the unquantifiable
aspect of joy into your life.
If you own a house that isn’t in a
conservation area, or listed, you
can do some of these things without
planning permission. Existing
permitted development rights
mean you can add a certain amount
of extra space without it. These
rights have been extended in the
past few years so that larger
extensions can be built without
planning consent.
As architect Neil Dusheiko says,
when you are building up to the
party walls of a neighbour’s
property, you will also need party
wall agreements. For this, you
appoint a party wall surveyor and
will likely have to pay for an
independent one for your
neighbour, too. “These surveyors
are impartial,” says Dusheiko.
“Their concern is looking after the
wall. It is a very sound system.”
In the case of lofts, if you own
your house — again not listed and
not in a conservation area — you
will likely be able to extend up into
the space, including putting
dormers of a certain size at the
back, without planning permission.
However, for a flat, you will need
those permissions.
You can’t put dormers at the front
without permission, and there are
rules about how much volume you
can add. Verandas and terraces
always need permission, wherever
they are.
This is a brief snapshot, but
there is a really useful guide at
planningportal.gov.uk/general/faq/
faqplanpermhome#Whatarepermit
teddevelopmentvolumelimits
Don’t forget, you can always have
a chat with local council planners,
who are happy to give advice at the
start of any project. Either ask them
yourself, or your architect can do it
for you.
Room to spare: the downstairs space has become one large living-dining room
16
Homes & Property Design
GIVE your room a stylish lift with
Verdon cushions, £20 each
(made.com; 03442 571 888).
►
Design
Desig
ig
gn trends
tre
ren
end
nds
s
Memphis
M
EMPHIS was a design
movement hatched in
the early Eighties by
Milanese rebels who
championed bold
colours and quirky patterns. The
name, inspired by a Bob Dylan track,
described furniture, fabrics and
lamps in playful geometric shapes
and clashing colours, decorated with
squiggles and dots.
It was intended as an antidote to the
conventional style of the Seventies,
but back then it never registered so
much as a blip on mainstream
furnishings. Today, however,
Memphis is back in town.
It was seen at the Milan Furniture
Fair in April, with renowned Italian
brands Kartell and Cappellini
exhibiting pieces from original
By Barbara Chandler
Memphis designers. Now London
has embraced the look. Habitat has
an autumn collection putting this
distinctive style on furniture, textiles
and ceramics, while Made.com is
doing cushions and furniture.
However, less could be more when
it comes to Memphis. “You won’t
want to do a whole room — keep it for
hints on small pieces of furniture,
cushions or ceramics,” says Habitat
creative director Polly Dickens.
Other brands to embrace the style
include Wrong for Hay, where
London entrepreneur Sebastian
Wrong has commissioned new
fabrics from Nathalie du Pasquier, an
original Memphis co-founder. “Now
that we have a new hybrid attitude to
design, Memphis seems the height of
style sophistication,” says Wrong.
◄
DAZZLECAM
wallpaper by
design duo
Quirk & Rescue
is digitally
printed and
comes in a
choice of four
colourways,
including red,
pictured. It costs
£140 for a 10m
roll (quirkand
rescue.com).
▲
THE late Italian architect and
designer Ettore Sottsass was a
founding member of Memphis
— and Darkroom pays tribute to
the visionary with its So Sottsass
collection. The range consists of
Studiopepe for Spotti Edizioni kora
vases, £350 each, pictured; three
ceramic plates, £80 each; wrapping
paper in an abstract pattern
described as “bacteria print”, £3 a
sheet, and fabric in the same style,
£60 a metre (darkroomlondon.com;
020 7831 7244).
SUMMER SALE
ENDS BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY
UP TO
AN EXTRA
50%FF + 20%FF
FULHAM | CHISWICK | EAST SHEEN
TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD | KINGSTON
HAMMERSMITH | CHINGFORD
BEDS, FURNITURE, MATTRESSES,
BEDDING, BED LINEN & ACCESSORIES
✳ Terms and conditions apply, please see in store or online for full details
www.featherandblack.com
✳
17
Design Homes & Property
▲
▲
▲
THE Drunken Side Table by Londoner
Lee Broom captures the playful spirit of
Memphis. Created with mixed materials
including polished stainless steel,
acrylic and Corian, get it for £5,850
(leebroom.com; 020 7820 0742).
MEMPHIS founding member Michele
De Lucchi offers a fun way for you to
get your caffeine hit with the Pulcina
coffee maker. Designed in collaboration
with Illy for Alessi, it is priced at £45
(alessi.com; 020 7518 9090).
CREATED by Casa Estudio, the striking
Poggio bedside table in oak is the
epitome of Memphis’s loud and proud
design and will make a fantastic
statement piece for any bedroom,
£179 (made.com; 03442 571 888).
►
ALSO channelling the movement is
award-winning Adam Nathaniel
Furman. Prices for his limited-edition
Identity Parade sculptures range
from £500 to £1,500 (adamnathaniel
furman.com; 07979 654 444).
##$$$ ""$!%!$'))!
$
$
$$
$$
$
$$$$$
$$
$
$$('"!
$
$
$
&$$
$$
20
Homes & Property Reader promotion
Alison
Cork
Handsome new
windows for old
Bargain candles lighten any home style
PRIMARK has launched a stunning
new range of candle holders as part
of its homeware range.
They come in an array of styles and
colours that include neutrals and
pastels — perfect for every look from
rustic country to contemporary chic.
Prices range from £1 for the pictured
star-shaped votive to £4 for the
cracked glass tea light holder, also
featured. To find your nearest
Primark, visit primark.com.
AS A specialist in replacing period
timber windows and doors, Ayrton
Bespoke tailors products to suit
your home.
Energy-efficient, sound-proof
double glazing and insuranceapproved multi-point locks come as
standard, while all of Ayrton’s
products are painted in a colour of
your choice. There’s also a guarantee
of up to 30 years included.
For 10 per cent off all windows and
doors, visit ayrtonbespoke.com,
call 020 8877 8920 or visit the
showroom at 406 Merton Road,
Wandsworth, SW18 5AD and use code
AYRES2608 before September 30.
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.
Bargain news
Find just the sofa
you were after
Dream mattress
Tables for your nest
THE Sareer Matrah cool blue pocket
memory mattress is perfect for anyone
looking for a medium-firm mattress.
Individually pocketed springs
provide a supportive structure that
allows bodyweight to be distributed
evenly and heat to be controlled,
helping you to keep cool throughout
the night.
Readers can currently purchase the
double, above, reduced from £279 to
£149, and the king from £329 to £179.
To order, visit oneregentplace.co.uk
or call 020 0787 2907 (Monday to
Friday) before August 31.
HAND-CARVED furniture from
Within is luxury homeware that
needn’t break the bank.
The Colette nest of tables, above,
features three pieces made from
mango wood and finished in a
delicate wash.
The largest table measures
H45 x W48 x D31cm. Normally £145,
the first 20 readers to place an order
receive a 35 per cent discount,
making the price £94.25.
To claim, visit withinhome.com/
colette or call 020 7087 2900 and
quote COLETTE50 by September 6.
WILLOW & HALL designs and sells
quality upholstered living room and
bedroom furniture, handmade by
craftsmen in Wiltshire.
Designs are available in a large
selection of fabrics and leathers and
sofa beds come with three 14cm-deep
mattress options. Visit the company’s
new showroom in Chiswick and
handpick your perfect finish.
For a further five per cent off current
discounts, leading to 35 per cent
lower prices than high street retailers,
go to willowandhall.co.uk/bnews,
call 0845 468 0577 or visit the new
showroom and quote BN16915 before
September 16. Free delivery takes four
weeks for most of mainland UK, with
14-day free returns on all items.
JUST FOUR CONTEMPORARY THREE BEDROOM
DETACHED HOUSES WITH PRIVATE GARDENS
FROM
£530,000 TO £550,000
+ $*2()&'(!"$3 *# ")(&#/&(
$5%# $,+)0+( $+&&$&$(0"&$
&(# ")") +0$&,$+(0&,!
($,(+(1! ## $ )$1-() "1/&() (1*4
by
. . . +0$&,$+(0&,!
24
Homes & Property My home
homesandproperty
Quick thinking:
left, Dominic
Richards acted
fast to snap up
and refurbish
his Georgian
townhouse near
Regent’s Canal
in Islington
Do you want to
know a secret?
From a soup kitchen
in Spitalfields to an
Islington townhouse,
this man has to save
it in style, says
Philippa Stockley
T
HE secret of gracious living is
lots of storage for towels and
Tupperware, says Dominic
Richards, standing in what
looks like a deep doorway,
but is actually a cleverly concealed
dressing room in his newly refurbished
Georgian house near Regent’s Canal in
Islington.
Richards, 49, is director of sustainable
development company Architekton,
adviser to the Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Building Community — of which
he is a former chief executive — and
creator of new venture Retreat East,
a glamorous private members club
in Suffolk.
This serial entrepreneur with an
admitted “addiction to building things”
got the money to fund his first construction project by making teddy bears.
He was born in England but the family
moved to Australia before he was two.
Richards came back to read theology at
King’s College, Cambridge.
Passionate about beautiful things, he
bought a fabulous Regency chest of
drawers-cum-wardrobe with an entire
term’s fees and then had to get a job to
pay for it. It still takes pride of place in
his bedroom today, second only to his
crimson-hung four-poster bed.
While at Cambridge, Richards set up
the English Teddy Bear Company. When
he sold it 10 years later with a dozen
shops in England and Japan, it gave him
time to rethink.
“I gave myself a year, and went to the
prince’s Institute of Architecture,” he
says. “It was all about architecture, art
and design. It was brilliant and changed
the way I looked at things. One day we
used green oak in Kent, another, traditional lime mortar somewhere else.”
FAST MOVER
When he finished the course, Richards
bought a factory in Brighton that faced
demolition and restored it to create livework homes.
Next, he bought a striking Jewish soup
kitchen in Spitalfields where, in 1902,
up to 8,000 people who had fled the
Russian pogroms were fed each day.
Under its monumental, soaring
beamed roof, Richards inserted a modern apartment that has featured in
many books. But his eye is always on the
next project, so when he saw dilapidated
Yaxley Hall in Suffolk in Architectural
Digest, he bought it and restored it back
to its former glory. And, while living in
Suffolk, he met his partner, show-jumper
Martin Harrison.
After a decade at Yaxley, which he still
owns, Richards missed London, so he
went house hunting.
“We’ve got a dog, Bertie the terrier, so
we needed a garden. We didn’t want to
go back to Spitalfields, so we looked at
Whitechapel, then Islington, and now
I’m having a love affair with Islington,”
he explains.
Assistant Richard Orton, who helps to
organise design projects, points out that
Richards both makes decisions and
works — fast. Buying and transforming
his Islington townhouse is a prime
example. Richards saw the 1830s property in March last year and exchanged
at the asking price in September. His
team of builders and traditional craftspeople — almost all from Suffolk — were
practically standing on the doorstep and
went straight in. Amazingly, all the
substantial works were completed by
November.
SMART SPACES
The house was stripped right back and
given new wiring, new plumbing, a new
roof and panelling throughout.
On the top floor, where there were two
tiny bedrooms and an even tinier bathroom, Richards created one master bedroom and an en suite. With its Italian
marble tiled floor and walk-in Lefroy
Brooks shower, the bathroom is stunning
but practical. “When you put in panelling, you can tuck in cupboards,” says
Richards, who demonstrates by going
into the deep opening between bedroom
and bathroom and springing open both
sides to reveal concealed wardrobes.
Throughout the house, such ideas blend
traditional and modern, with a look that
manages to be light yet formal. The staircase is painted as if it had a carpet runner
in soft blue, the drawing room has
parquet flooring — but there’s also a Bang
& Olufsen speaker. The sofa and chair are
covered with beautiful, mid-yellow, endof-line budget linen, but the sockets are
shiny polished steel.
In the basement kitchen, Richards has
created a lovely urban-country look,
with top-to-toe panelling in tones of
duck egg blue, and a central island
topped with Carrara marble.
Again, it isn’t a stuffy look, and the Aga
City 60, which is a pretty butter colour,
is efficient. A Smeg fridge flaunts a Union
Flag, and the window seat is dressed in
checked linen that Richards bought in
Shanghai a decade ago.
“The house will tell you what it wants,”
he explains. “Don’t try to do everything
at once.”
WHAT IT COST
Price of house last year: £1.15 million
Money spent: £350,000
Value now: £1.65 million
Treasured piece: the Regency chest of
drawers Richards bought with uni fees
Dominic Richards is founder of
Architekton (architekton.uk).
Retreat East is a new collection of six
beautifully refurbished barns in Suffolk,
where you can buy a debenture — a
share of the freehold. Visit suffolk.farm
25
My home Homes & Property
y.co.uk with
Blending
traditional with
contemporary:
left, light parquet
flooring and
yellow linen on
sofa and chair
complement
classic décor
Photographs::
Charles Hosea
Full of character:
below, the kitchen
offers an urbancountry style with
an Aga and Union
Flag fridge
Fooled you:
above, the stairs
are painted with a
“runner” in a
shade of soft blue
Sweet dreams:
left, the pink
four-poster bed
is the star of
the show in the
master suite
Get the
look
Page 26 ±
26
Homes & Property My home
Get the look
REVEAL YOUR
TRUE COLOURS
Dominic Richards says patience and a
dash of creative flair can make a home sing
W
Warm welcome:
the entrance
hallway is kitted
out in an elegant
combination of
teal and cream
% *" #&& */& ' & ! &"
"-& + HEN it comes to your
home, don’t let other
people tell you what’s
best for you. Trust
your own judgment.
My townhouse used to have small
bedrooms, but I transformed it into a
gorgeous one-bedroom home because
that’s what I wanted. Don’t worry
about what estate agents will say.
Don’t rush it, either. Do the basics,
yourself, such as the wiring and plumbing and basic painting. After that, think
about what you really want and who
you want to bring in.
With craftspeople — upholsterers,
curtain makers, carpenters — I don’t
overspecify. They are really skilled and
creative at what they do. If you want to
guide them, find a picture.
I also love colour. There isn’t enough
colour in interiors today. Everything is
bland — three shades of brown and
taupe. Not for me.
!
!!!! !!
!
! #&%/ */&
+)* "$+ */& &
"% " +
"& $"%
+$& '/ (
&"#%".&$-
Marble tiles in bathroom by Natural
Stone at naturalstonetileshop.co.uk
Taps and shower from Lefroy Brooks
at lefroybrooks.co.uk
All paint from Little Greene at
littlegreene.com
Linen for curtains and bed hangings
in bedroom from Volga Linen at
volgalinen.co.uk
Yellow linen in drawing room from
Romo designer fabrics at romo.com
Lighting by The Limehouse Lamp
Company at limehouselighting.com
Play speaker by Bang & Olufsen at
bang-olufson.com/en
Polished steel sockets by Jim
Lawrence at jim-lawrence.co.uk
Aga City 60 electric cooker from
agaliving.com
Union Flag fridge from Smeg at
smeguk.com
Timber mouldings copied
from originals by WRP at
wrp-timber-mouldings.co.uk
27
My home Homes & Property
Individual
styling: Richards
enjoys tea in his
drawing room,
left; the
bathroom,
above, with
black-and-white
marble tiles; the
luxurious fourposter in deep
pink, right
Photographs:
Charles Hosea
!
!!
! ( #&%/ */&
"&. + ! /+&
+$& '/ ! !
!
(
#&%/ */&
+$& '/ (
!
!
! #&%/ */&
"" *"' + ! /+
+$& '/ #&%/ */&
+$& '/ & +/& "& "-& '/ )).& /" &. + "
"+."#.& &.&$&% &+& /& )&&"&% +/")& "& +%+$"+
& . "% #,&$ $*")& +$& $&$ " +/& ' )+) &
28
Homes & Property Outdoors
Turn up
the heat
for a final
flourish
Hot colours and fiery chilli plants
bring summer to a scorching end
Cute and
compact:
Japanese
anemone Pretty
Lady Susan is a
smaller version
of the familiar
garden centre, ranging from frilly lettuces, red-flushed Little Gems and
curly kales to rainbow chard, rocket,
perpetual spinach and Chinese cabbage. If you don’t have bed space,
choose a dozen or so plants from an
edible that is decorative both in the pot
and on the plate, such as bronze, lacyleaved Mustard Red Frills, and settle
them into a zinc trough filled with
compost, or a wine crate lined with a
plastic bin liner, holes punctuated for
drainage. Placed in light shade, they
will be ready to harvest in a matter of
weeks — if you can bear to spoil the
display.
O For outdoor events this month, visit
homesandproperty.co.uk/events
Gardening
problems?
Email our RHS
expert at: expert
gardeningadvice
@gmail.com
Instant glamour:
buy a readygrown fruiting
aubergine plant
from garden
centre or florist
GRAHAM STRONG/GAP PHOTOS
Fiery partners:
chilli pepper
Prairie Fire,
below, and
succulent
Kalanchoe
thyrsiflora,
below right, are
great on patios
sedums, indispensable hardy succulents that flower from now until
autumn.
Sedum Thundercloud belies its name.
Hundreds of mint-green buds crowding
the grey-green stems open to starry,
pink-flushed white flowers that keep on
blooming until October. Just 30cm high
and half as wide again, it makes the prettiest front-of-border or centre-stage
container plant. Just cut back the old
growth in spring to keep it compact.
Sedum Jose Aubergine, with glaucous
foliage as dark as its name suggests, and
with deepest pink flowers, makes a
dynamic contrast.
Japanese anemones, with their finely
cut leaves and cupped daisy flowers on
tall stems, are an elegant choice for a
late summer border, but often need
staking and can be invasive. For small
gardens and even for containers, the
dwarf Pretty Lady quartet, just reaching 60cm or so, are shorter, betterbehaved and need no support to shine.
They’re also rather beautiful, especially deep pink Pretty Lady Susan.
This is also the moment to find the
next flourish of baby veg plants at the
CLIVE NICHOLS/GAP PHOTOS
found, like pepper plants, at garden
centres, florists and even market stalls.
With their smoky-green foliage and
lavender flowers, followed by glossy
purple fruits, they look even more
handsome in slate-grey pots than conventional terracotta.
Perk up a jaded container display by
checking out plants within the houseplant or conservatory section of the
garden centre, or the florist’s, with an
eye to seeing them on your patio
instead of in the living room.
Sansevieria, or mother-in-law’s
tongue, suddenly looks fresh and contemporary in an outside space, especially when the long, sculptural,
green-and-yellow-striped leaves
emerge from a crisp, square fibreglass
container. Kalanchoe thyrisflora, a
large and luscious succulent with a
rosette of outsize flat, rounded leaves,
positively benefits from a place in the
sun, where those paddle-like leaves
take on striking tones of tomato red. In
winter, just bring it indoors where it
will keep quietly ticking over.
Create a buffet for butterflies — and
boost your borders or containers — with
MARIANNE MAJERUS/RHS WISLEY
P
OTS of autumn chrysanthemums and winter-flowering
cyclamen are appearing on
garden centre shelves, but
why rush into the next season
when this one still has so much to
offer?
Get rid of the dead weight, the duds
and the shameful weeds that are cluttering up your garden — bindweed
flowers might be pretty, but they
belong on waste ground, not garden
ground — and make space for late summer stars that will carry your plot
through to autumn in grand style.
You could start by emptying has-been
hanging baskets, then give them fresh,
vibrant life by planting with a compact,
multi-headed chilli pepper such as
Prairie Fire, which has pretty, pointed
foliage and masses of small, upright
scarlet fruits that follow on from the
small white flowers.
Pick one at your peril: they’re tonguetinglingly hot. Masquerade is similar,
but has novel violet fruits. Aubergine
plants are in fine form now, and can be
RACHEL CHAPPELL/GAP PHOTOS
Pattie
Barron
32
Homes & Property Property searching
Spotlight
Brentwood
An Essex
town
full of
character
TV reality show Towie raised its
profile — now Crossrail is set to
boost Brentwood’s commuter
cred, says Anthea Masey
Stardust: TOWIE
has sprinkled a
little glamour
along
Brentwood’s
high street,
which now has
shops owned by
the show’s stars
Pretty homes:
left, Brentwood
offers reasonably
priced family
houses in leafy
areas of the town
Photographs::
Daniel Lynch
C
ITY workers put down roots
in Brentwood because of its
easy commute to Liverpool
Street. This Essex town has
two historic institutions —
Brentwood School, founded in 1557,
and the Catholic cathedral, which
began life as a parish church in 1861.
Both can be found in Ingrave Road, on
opposite sides.
In 2011, Brentwood School added a
new assembly hall and sixth form centre in a series of strikingly decorative
red-brick buildings with sharply gabled
roofs, designed by architects Cottrell
& Vermeulen.
At the cathedral, the Prince of Wales’s
favourite architect Quinlan Terry
grafted an entirely new church in the
Italian Renaissance style on to a smaller
Victorian Gothic church. It was paid
for by an anonymous donor and built
between 1989 and 1991. Brentwood’s
recent fame comes from the antics of
Quality and flavour: Charlie Sims shot
to fame in Towie and now runs a deli in
the High Street selling local produce
the stars of reality TV show The Only
Way Is Essex — Towie for short.
Launched in 2010 and now in its
15th series, Towie is filmed in the town,
where many of the cast members have
opened nightclubs and boutiques that
contribute to the area’s healthy offering
of independent shops. But Brentwood,
which historians believe means “burnt
wood”, also has a rich history that dates
back to the 12th century when it is
thought to have begun as a forest
clearing.
Situated on the old London to
Colchester road, about 25 miles northeast of central London, pilgrims on the
journey to Canterbury stopped here at
a chapel dedicated to St Thomas
Becket. The chapel ruins can still be
seen from the High Street. Brentwood
later became a busy coaching town and
by the end of the 17th century it had 11
WHAT’S ON THE MARKET?
£650,000
£2.15 MILLION
£850,000
£2.25 MILLION
A THREE-BEDROOM semi-detached house in a
converted coach house at a small gated scheme
in Trueloves Lane, Ingatestone (Walkers).
O homesandproperty.co.uk/trueloves
FIVE-BEDROOM Moat House Farm, Pilgrims
Hatch, Brentwood, has equestrian facilities, a
pool and croquet lawn (Hetheringtons).
O homesandproperty.co.uk/moathouse
THIS modernised, four-bedroom detached
family home in Doddinghurst, Brentwood,
comes with a woodland garden (John D Wood).
O homesandproperty.co.uk/dodding
A HANDSOME, six-bedroom detached house in
Mount Avenue, Hutton, Brentwood, close to
Shenfield railway station (Hetheringtons).
O homesandproperty.co.uk/mount
To find a home in Brentwood, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/brentwood
For more about Brentwood, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightbrentwood
F
33
Property searching Homes & Property
CHECK THE STATS
■WHAT HOMES COST
BUYING IN BRENTWOOD
(Average prices)
One-bedroom flat £179,000
Two-bedroom flat £376,000
Two-bedroom house £349,000
Three-bedroom house £464,000
Four-bedroom house £559,000
Source: Zoopla
RENTING IN BRENTWOOD
(Average rates)
One-bedroom flat £903 a month
Two-bedroom flat £1,075 a month
Two-bedroom house £1,141 a month
Three-bedroom house £1,471 a month
Four-bedroom house £2,124 a month
Source: Zoopla
Wear your heart on your sleeve: Ray Johnson, left, co-owner of Kings Road Tattoo
GO ONLINE FOR MORE
O The best schools in and around
Brentwood
O Latest housing developments
in the area
O Smart maps to help you with
your property search
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
What connects this little town in
Ontario, Canada, with Brentwood?
Find the answer at
homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightbrentwood
inns, 110 bedrooms for overnight stays
and stables for 183 horses.
Only one of the original medieval inns
remains — the White Hart. These days
it is better known as the Sugar Hut, a
nightclub owned by Towie star Mick
Norcross.
Trains from Shenfield station in
Brentwood take about 38 minutes to
Liverpool Street and, from May 2019,
Crossrail will cut the journey time to
central London to about 45 minutes.
This is expected to create demand for
new homes and offices in and around
Brentwood. Jason Young, manager of
the local branch of Hetheringtons estate
agents, says Crossrail has raised
awareness of Brentwood and Shenfield
and buy-to-let investors are snapping
up homes under £500,000, but it is
creating uncertainty among sellers who
are holding back in anticipation of
further price rises.
CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITIES
Brentwood has several areas and
outlying villages. In Warley, close to
Brentwood station, there is a mix of
densely populated streets of Twenties
houses — where semi-detached homes
sell for about £500,000 — and more
rural roads with bungalows.
In Shenfield, you will find flats selling
for about £200,000, to three-bedroom
modern semi-detached houses selling
for between £500,000 and £700,000,
and large detached houses in Hutton
Mount that sell for between £1 million
and £3.5 million.
The area attracts: Young says half of
his buyers are local, while the other
half come from outside the area looking
Wild for books: Jim and Natasha
Radford of children’s bookshop
Chicken and Frog in Ongar Road
SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS
repaved, has Waterstones, Monsoon,
Fat Face, Superdry, Next and a
smattering of charity shops. Upmarket
kitchen suppliers Mark Wilkinson and
Harvey Jones are in Ingrave Road, and
Chicken and Frog Bookshop, in Ongar
Road, is for children’s books.
T h e s t a r s o f To w i e l i g h t u p
Brentwood’s independent shopping
scene, especially along pretty Crown
Street, off the High Street. There you
will find Gemma Collins’s eponymous
boutique, Joey Essex’s Fusey clothing
shop and Peri Sinclair’s card store,
Bizara.
In Ropers Yard around the corner,
sisters Sam and Billie Faiers have
opened Minnies fashion boutique,
while in Ongar Road, Amy Childs and
Lucy Mecklenburgh have also launched
boutiques. In the High Street, Charlie
S i m s h a s o p e n e d C h a rl i e ’s
Delicatessen.
Argu ably the most successful
enterprise from the show, however, is
Mick Norcross’s Sugar Hut. The
nightclub has become a Towie
landmark, epitomising the Essex brand
of glamour.
Local cafés and chain eateries include
Zizzi, Starbucks, Slug and Lettuce,
Nando’s, Prezzo and Chimichanga.
Popular restaurants are Alec’s in
Navestock Side, which specialises
in seafood cuisine, and Lot 75, an all-day
brasserie in Hutton Road.
Brentwood has a large Sainsbury’s
tucked away behind the High Street,
while The Baytree Centre, a small
shopping centre, has branches of New
Look, The Body Shop, WH Smith and
Wilko. The High Street, currently being
Brentwood Theatre in Shenfield Road
puts on mainly amateur shows. The
Brentwood Museum in Lorne Road,
off Warley Hill, is housed in a tiny
for reasonably priced homes, an easy
commute, good schools and access to
open countryside. He adds: “We are
literally two minutes’ drive from open
countryside.”
S t a y i n g p o w e r : B r e n t w o o d ’s
boutique-town feel, with lots of popular
independent shops, keeps people in
the area.
Renting: there’s a supply of local
family houses to rent. The most
popular are close to either Shenfield
or Brentwood stations — so are good
for commuters — or are in the Hutton
area, which is good for parents who are
keen for their children to attend
sought-after St Mary’s CofE school.
P o s t c o d e s : C M 14 i s t h e m a i n
Brentwood postcode and also covers
Warley. CM13 covers Hutton and
Ingrave, while CM15 includes Shenfield,
Kelvedon Hatch, Mountnessing and
Pilgrims Hatch.
Best roads: anywhere in Hutton
Mount, particularly Heronway.
There are also popular roads in
“old” Shenfield close to Brentwood
School, where detached modern
houses sell for between £600,000 and
£800,000.
LEISURE AND THE ARTS
Hustle and bustle: shoppers have a
wide range of choice in Brentwood
High Street, from boutiques to chains
19th-century cemetery lodge and is run
by volunteers.
Brentwood Centre in Doddinghurst
Road has the local council-owned
swimming pool, while there’s a private
pool at LA Fitness in Chindits Lane,
Warley.
Golf fans are spoilt for choice — the
town’s surrounding countryside
includes a number of courses and
clubs. There are two courses in
Thorndon Country Park in Ingrave —
the public Hartswood Golf Course and
Thorndon Park Golf Club. South Essex
Golf Centre is another public course, in
Herongate.
Brentwood Golf Club is in Coxtie
Green Road, Bentley Golf Club is in
Ongar Road and the Warley Park club
is in Magpie Lane, Little Warley.
Travel: Brentwood is a few miles
outside the M25 close to the A12 London
to Chelmsford and Colchester road.
There are fast trains to Liverpool
Street from Shenfield station that take
about 28 minutes, while trains from
Brentwood to Liverpool Street take
about 38 minutes.
When Crossrail services begin during
i2019, commuters will have a direct
railway route to central London, with
journey times to Bond Street taking
only 48 minutes from Shenfield, the
last station on the line, and 44 minutes
from Brentwood.
Council: there is no overall control of
Brentwood council. Band D council tax
for this year is £1,468.46.
HAVE YOUR SAY
BRENTWOOD
@eMoovCEO Crown Street for
independent traders. The Crown
restaurant, Ongar Road for the best
food. Plus all the #Towie traders, of
course ;)
@StevenOakley1 The best place in
Brentwood bar none is The
Brentwood Kitchen @LoveFoodBK
fresh and tasty home-cooked food
and amazing cakes
@calcotthall Calcott Hall Farm in
Ongar Road. The best farm shop in
Essex. Home-grown fruit and veg, a
brilliant butcher and some fantastic
local goodies
@AdamGuernari The Bull pub, Alec’s
restaurant, Weald Country Park.
@PiccolaBrentwd Best food
@LoveFoodBK. Legendary ice cream
at Rossi. @chickenandfrog do
amazing things in the community.
@Mi_Neni is lovely.
@PiccolaBrentwd Stunning home
furnishings @tideshomegarden. Real
expertise @B_M_cycles and elite Essex
barbers @MitchellsCM15
@HomesProperty
36
Homes & Property Ask the expert
My neighbour wants to sell me her garden
Fiona
McNulty
WHAT’S
YOUR
PROBLEM?
OUR LAWYER ANSWERS
YOUR QUESTIONS
Q
MY NEIGHBOUR and I
have long gardens.
I love mine, but she finds
hers a burden and it is
now very overgrown.
Recently she said, jokingly, that I
could have it if I wanted it. Since
then we have agreed to a sale — and
I will insist on paying a sensible
price. But how do I go about
valuing it? Neither of us has a
mortgage and there is no question
of using her garden to build on.
What should my next move be? I
would be grateful for your advice.
A
OBTAIN a valuation from a
chartered surveyor to ensure
a fair price for the land. You
should each instruct
independent solicitors and a Land
Registry compliant plan will also be
required, which the surveyor can
prepare.
Your solicitor should check your
neighbour’s title and should ensure
there are no restrictive covenants
preventing part of the land being
sold. Your neighbour is likely to be
advised to impose covenants in the
transfer of the land to you, to prevent
the plot being used at any time for
anything other than a garden, so not
for building or a development.
Access to the land and ownership of
the boundary between your land and
your neighbour’s should be
considered and also whether any
rights should be reserved for services,
such as electricity.
As part of the deal your neighbour
may ask you to pay her legal costs,
as well as the agreed price for the
land.
Your title to the land must be
registered at the Land Registry after
your completion of the purchase.
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 legal
director in the
real estate
team of Foot
Anstey LLP
(footanstey.com)
More legal
Q&As
Visit: homesand
property.co.uk
Q
I OWN both the ground-floor flat and upperfloor flat of a semi-detached property,
including owning the freehold. The flats were
purpose-built and they share a common
entrance. I live in the upper flat with a residential
mortgage (£100,000 remaining), and I rent out the
ground floor which is on a buy-to-let mortgage
(£200,000). I would like to investigate turning them
into one large single property. Is this possible? What
costs and planning issues would I have to consider?
A
TO CONVERT the two flats into a single dwelling
you will need Building Regulations consent and
planning permission, and you may also need to
serve a Party Wall Act notice as the flats are in a
semi-detached property. See if there are any restrictive
covenants in the title that prevent the building being
converted into a single dwelling.
You have two mortgages currently, so you would need
to refinance to give you a single mortgage over the freehold.
I expect that there are two long leases at the moment of the
ground floor and the first floor, and these leasehold interests
would need to be extinguished.
Assuming that you still require about £300,000 of mortgage borrowing, the lender will need to be satisfied that the
value of the converted property will be adequate security.
Do remember that the building may be worth less as one
dwelling. You will incur surveyor’s/architect’s fees for drawing up appropriate plans. Notice to vacate should be served
on the tenant and you may incur additional cost if the tenant
has security of tenure.
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.
38
Homes & Property Letting on
A
S A landlord, I have dealt
with some odd situations,
but I never thought I
would end up in the
middle of a catfight
between two tenants, especially as
they had always seemed before to
be the best of friends.
I dropped by to make an end-oftenancy property inspection after
the girls requested to terminate their
lease three months early — and I
noticed immediately that there was a
frosty atmosphere between the pair.
One sat biting her nails in the living
room while the other stood in the
kitchen, cradling a cat. They had
Claws are out
over Mr Darcy
A destructive cat leaves tempers and curtains
frayed, proving it’s vital to include a pet clause
in rental contracts, says Victoria Whitlock
The
accidental
landlord
obviously fallen out, which explained
why they hadn’t seen their tenancy
through to the end of the term.
The flat was pretty much as it was
when they had moved in, which is
what I expected as they had lived
there less than a year, but the living
room curtains were badly frayed
along the bottom, which was odd.
“It’s her cat,” said the nail biter. “It
claws at them.”
The other girl shot into the living
room, still clutching said cat. “How
DARE you?” she snarled. “How DARE
you blame Mr Darcy?” Whereupon
£1,400 a month: In Darell Road, close to Kew Village in south-west London,
Dexters has a spacious and well-presented two-bedroom first-floor apartment
with a shared garden available to rent. Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/alrent
Mr Darcy jumped down and
sauntered out of the room. “I told
you he’d make a mess when you got
him,” said the nail biter, at which
point Mr Darcy’s owner followed her
cat back into the kitchen and
slammed the door.
I was about to point out that
Mr Darcy was an illegal occupant
as the lease stated no pets were
allowed, but decided it was more
important to get the girls out of the
flat without a punch-up.
Not wanting to get involved in their
blame game, I told them it would be
better for everyone if they left
straight away and I completed the
inspection after they had gone.
Fortunately for me, they had signed
a joint tenancy agreement, which
made them equally responsible for
the damage so I didn’t have to decide
who should pay for the frayed
curtains. I just deducted half the cost
from each of their deposits and left
them to sort it out.
I admit this was unfortunate for the
non-cat owner. I was certain Mr
Darcy was the culprit so it did seem
unfair deducting money from her
deposit when she had made it clear
she wasn’t responsible for the cat’s
actions. However, as I couldn’t be
100 per cent sure of the facts I didn’t
really have any choice but to take
money from both girls. This
illustrates why it is important for
landlords to have pet clauses in
contracts — to make tenants aware
that they will be responsible for any
damage animals cause, plus any
additional cleaning required at the
end of the tenancy — and why it’s
better to have sharers sign joint
tenancy agreements. That way, if
they can’t agree who is responsible
for any damage, they all have to pay.
These girls aren’t the first of my
tenants to fall out. I’ve let to two
young couples whose relationships
didn’t last as long as their tenancy
agreements, and I have let to several
groups of friends who discovered
they weren’t quite as close as they
thought they were once they were
forced to share a kitchen and a
bathroom.
Once, I had a group of mates who
were literally all over each other
when they came for the viewing,
hugging and kissing each other like
young people do nowadays, and yet
within months I was asked to
“get rid” of one of them who was
disturbing the others with what they
described as “random behaviour”.
Personally, I think it is best to avoid
the role of referee and leave tenants
to sort out their own spats.
O 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
4 bedrooms homes
Brook Valley Gardens is a fabulous new development in
Chipping Barnet, EN5, of 3 & 4 bedroom contemporary
homes, less than a mile† from High Barnet station.
www.brookvalleygardens.co.uk 020 8440 1872
†Distance from maps.google.com. Prices and information correct at time of going to print. August 2015.
*Selected plots only, please ask a Sales Consultant for more details.
40
Homes & Property Inside story
Hi-tech flat’s great for Inspector Gadget
MONDAY
For an agent, August can sometimes
be tough. The mass exodus of Londoners to glamorous holiday destinations
means the market can be a little quieter
than usual. But what’s not to love about
London in the summer? The sun is out
(sometimes), everyone is in a good
mood, the football season is beginning,
and it means that I can spend more
quality time with individual buyers.
I had a busy week of viewings last
week, so with the quality of West End
stock so high, I am expecting a lot of
offers to come through. Lunchtime
soon arrives and, with it, the first offer
— a charming one-bedroom apartment
in Seven Dials. It’s in need of a lick of
paint, but it’s a fantastic pied-à-terre.
The vendor agrees to the offer and I
give the buyer the good news.
TUESDAY
I am meeting a director of a multinational corporation. He is looking for
a base close to work in the Midtown
area, so I set up a tour.
It’s a great part of London that has
become incredibly popular with City
workers — little wonder, as it is only a
short stroll into the office.
He also informs me that he is a big
gadget buff, so I make sure he notices
the slick Gaggenau kitchen appliances,
state-of-the-art audiovisual system and
home cinema at a penthouse apart-
Diary of
an estate
agent
have a reservation form to send to the
vendor. In the afternoon, I block out a
couple of hours to deal with ongoing
sales and spend time catching up with
clients and solicitors.
A client exchanges contracts on their
sale in Bloomsbury to a lovely lady looking for her first home with her partner.
Both vendor and buyer are delighted.
It’s an afternoon well spent.
ment that takes his fancy. It’s a great
new-build scheme on the City fringes,
and he even arranges for his wife to
come and take a look at the end of
the week.
FRIDAY
WEDNESDAY
There is a good buzz in the office as
we have been instructed on an incredible development in Great Marlborough Street, near Liberty, just off
Regent Street.
It comprises four huge lateral apartments and is the kind of space everyone looks for. The team arranges a
preview and we are impressed with
what’s on offer. As it is currently offmarket there are no details to send out,
so we rush back to the office to personally call all our top buyers.
I book a couple of encouraging
appointments for the start of the
following week and reward myself
with a delicious pie for lunch from one
of the great Covent Garden delis. In
order to sell an area well, you have to
sample all their goods, surely.
THURSDAY
It’s back to the Midtown penthouse
today for the second viewing with the
family. Thankfully for “Inspector
Gadget”, his wife loves the place. They
start measuring up for furniture — and,
I imagine, for yet more hi-tech appliances. I get back to the office an hour
later with an offer for the apartment.
After a small amount of negotiating, I
In a typically busy end to the week, I
have viewings scheduled with a couple
and their two children. The parents are
looking for a flat each for their student
offspring and they have chosen Covent
Garden due to its proximity to both
King’s College and London School of
Economics.
The whole family is impressed with
two flats just off Covent Garden piazza.
Now there remains the dispute over
who will have which apartment.
It’s slightly different to my university
days, when you would be lucky if your
flat had hot water and our only disputes
were over the TV remote control.
I leave them to it and head to the
local tavern with my colleagues to
debate the opening day of the football
Premier League season.
O Samuel Aston is a senior sales
negotiator in the West End office
of CBRE (020 7420 3050).
TO MAIDA VALE W9
&!
&#&*#&#
&#
(% !&$
&&$#
$*+&$$&&$!$*
$#
&
&$&&
&
Register your interest today
'")"
&$
#
&!
&
Harrow Road, Maida Vale, W9 3RD
42
Homes & Property New homes
Escape stamp duty in Hammersmith
HAMMERSMITH is a good
location, easy for the West End
and Heathrow. Step beyond
the bustling town centre and
there are quiet conservation
areas with charming Victorian
villas, terraces and handsome
garden squares.
Parkside Place, left, on a
main road opposite
Ravenscourt Park, is a new
development of 40 flats priced
from £775,000 to £1,075,000
that come with a stamp
duty-paid incentive worth up
to £51,250. Call Linden Homes
on 020 8003 7976.
Sidcup campaigns for posh nosh
INNER-CITY hipsters may dismiss it
as the land of the living dead, but
suburbia is attracting a growing
number of home hunters priced out
of central London who are searching
for new-build property.
Sidcup is less than 12 miles from
Charing Cross, making for a quick
commute to the West End.
Sidcup High Street has recently had
a facelift, while spirited locals have
started a “We want a Waitrose”
campaign, born after the
supermarket chain abandoned
plans for a store in the town centre.
Park View, pictured, is a new
scheme of 25 homes. Two-bedroom
apartments cost from £335,000, and
three-bedroom houses are priced up
to £475,000. Call developer Hill on
0808 178 9063.
Smart mo
By David Spittles
New homes that
will get your vote
C
OVENT GARDEN piazza,
created by celebrated
architect Inigo Jones in
1630, was London’s first
public square. The design
of the open-air cobbled space and the
Italianate arcade alongside it had a
major influence on modern town
planning, and became a prototype
adopted by the builders of the new
estates.
The land had been given to the Earl
of Bedford by Henry VIII. Fine houses
were built to attract wealthy tenants
and, before long, there was a network
of prestigious new streets. One of
these was Bedford Street, built to
connect the Strand with the piazza.
Following the closure of the historic
fruit and vegetable market in 1974, the
piazza has regained its cachet as a
prime residential address, with key
buildings reverting back to homes.
Listed Bedford House dates from
1870. Built in the earlier Queen Anne
style, it has a fascinating history,
being a meeting point for the
Actresses Franchise League, a
suffragette society.
Later the building became an acting
academy and now it has been
transformed into five luxury flats,
including a triplex penthouse, right,
with a roof terrace and sun room.
Prices from £1.1 million. Call Douglas
& Gordon on 020 7037 4000.
%#%"#
!%
$
"
"#!
#"
###%
&
!#% #"! ("##
!#!#!#%''#$#"!#"#!!('#
43
New homes Homes & Property
BUY A BASE IN REGENERATED WALWORTH
ELEPHANT & CASTLE
fades into Walworth, an
uncelebrated district on
the cusp of Zone 1. Two of
the area’s sprawling council
estates — the former
Heygate and the Aylesbury
— are at last receiving some
well overdue attention in
an attempt to dig this area
out of the doldrums.
Along with a proposed
Bakerloo line extension,
the redevelopment and
regeneration are attracting
new home buyers to this
district, where colourful,
quirky East Street Market
and Sir John Soane’s
wonderful Church of
St Peter in Liverpool Grove
are among the attractions.
BASE17, above, named
after the area postcode, is
a scheme of 140 flats on a
former car park site that
will be ready next year.
Prices from £430,000. Call
KFH on 020 3486 2250.
Nearby Park View in
Brandon Street is a
boutique scheme of nine
apartments. Prices from
£625,000. Call Caddington
Blue on 020 7407 6033.
Coming soon is Harvard
Gardens, the latest phase
of private sale homes at the
Aylesbury Estate. Call L&Q
on 0844 406 9800.
Read more: visit
our online luxury
section
HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury
VISIT US TO DISCOVER MORE
',73,3,:/,23/8:
813,3/:,2-,;,288183,3,//;3,73,373,/,$/703,&/3,
'73,;3,,:9),73,;3,,13,;,73,1/32,83,/1,73,*3,2,,73,;381:,
8785,,
7/,;/93,3/17,373,34/982,'733,/3,7/21/432,//;3,4,/3,28818,8,73,73/,4,*+,,
$/703,&/3,"373,3;,2,:885,/,8,
3,
,"813,4;,66;,
/703/31;
Computer generated image, indicative only. Prices and details are correct at time of going to press and are subject to availability.
,33,&33),2,*+',+#(
%66,.,,6+ !3,2/,,82/,,++/;,,6;
,/8;3,:

A town full of character

Transcription

Similar documents

HAPPEN

HOP placemat layout.indd

berewick master plan - Steele Creek Residents Association

berewick master plan

Foxridge Homes is the premier home builder within Qualico

perry homes - MD Anderson Cancer Center

Our designs for the development in Cookridge

8. truberry custom Homes

Solivita Discovery Days - BDX-Portal