1. home and garden
2. bed and bath
3. bedroom

Homes&
Property
Wednesday 20 May 2015
Strictly for
the birds
Design spy
Page 21
TOP COMMUTES P12 PAY LESS: FIRST-TIME BUYERS P14 CHELSEA SHOW WINNERS P26 SPOTLIGHT ON CLERKENWELL P38
Simply stunning
2015 New Homes Awards
Page 6
4
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Online
homesandproperty.co.uk with
This week: homesandproperty.co.uk
news: Rachel and her gang
win the battle of the basement
Property
search
REX
Trophy buy of the week
big, beautiful and only £21m
Cheers: Rachel Johnson and Stephen Lambert have stopped
a neighbour extending his house in this Notting Hill street
ONE of Britain’s leading television producers is celebrating
after joining forces with Mayor Boris Johnson’s journalist
sister, Rachel, to fight off a neighbour’s plan to sink a huge
basement beneath his Notting Hill home.
Stephen Lambert, who has won a clutch of Baftas for
prime-time shows including Gogglebox, led a protest
against Igor and Christina Kryca’s scheme to build a
basement beneath their home in Elgin Crescent.
The couple wanted extra space for a cinema room and
gym, but now it has emerged that Kensington & Chelsea’s
planning chief, Jonathan Bore, has dismissed the
project as “visually obtrusive” and a possible threat
to neighbouring homes.
£21 million: yes, it does come with a big price tag, but this
house is listed, has eight storeys and is on the doorstep of
St James’s Park. The 7,454sq ft Georgian masterpiece
exudes period charm, while indoors you will find high-spec
21st-century luxury. It also features a duplex master suite,
four further bedrooms and a top-floor media room and
terrace with divine views spanning Buckingham Palace to
the London Eye. Through Hathaways.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/trophy
London buy of the week white-hot,
roomy apartment is full of sunshine
£525,000: central Camberwell is
home to this bright and spacious
garden flat.
Pale floors, white walls and a sleek
style give a sense of space to the fully
integrated open-plan kitchen/dining
and lounge area. Both of the double
bedrooms are filled with natural light
thanks to large windows, and there is
O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk
Visit our new online
luxury section
HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury
O homesandproperty.co.uk/botw
Life changer have a holiday
for life — and earn an income
£900,000: take a short stroll from Penzance to The Mews,
a collection of converted granite barns set in two acres of
lovely gardens. The main house has four bedrooms, a
self-contained suite perfect for letting and bags of space
in the kitchen/breakfast room, dining and sitting rooms.
There is also a separate two-bedroom holiday cottage to
further boost your income. Through Country & Waterside.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechanger
Facebook:
also a stylish, modern bathroom. The
recently refurbished apartment in
Valmar Road, SE5 is located close to a
range of shops, restaurants and bars,
while Brockwell and Burgess Parks
are easily reached for those who enjoy
green space. Through Foxtons.
ESHomesAndProperty • Twitter:
By
Faye
Greenslade
@HomesProperty • Pinterest:
Editor:
Janice
Morley
@HomesProperty
Gardens with houses
VISIT homesandproperty.co.
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Homes & Property, Northcliffe
House, 2 Derry Street,
Kensington, London W8 5TT.
£1.1 million: this four-bedroom cottage at Normandy, Guildford, has a knot garden
by the late garden designer Rosemary Verey (homesandproperty.co.uk/gardens)
INSPIRED by the glorious gardens
at Chelsea Flower Show, we have
tracked down homes for sale that
come with spectacular outside space.
Join us on our property tour as we
uncover easy-to-maintain plots with
access to the Thames, country
retreats with classic kitchen gardens
in full bloom, and a historic garden
in Malmesbury that is said to have
been the burial place of the first
king of England.
5
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
News Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Is this
Britain’s
sexiest
modern
house?
By Amira Hashish
Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews
Christina’s mad
for New York flat
É MAD MEN star Christina Hendricks
is reportedly marking a new chapter
in her life by splashing out £740,000
on a New York pied-à-terre following
the end of the hit TV show.
Leading lady Hendricks, right,
who starred as Sixties siren Joan
Holloway in the long-running drama,
is thought to be moving into the
810sq ft one-bedroom apartment,
above, with her husband, the
American actor Geoffrey Arend.
The flat is located on one of the
upper floors of a smart, portered
block, which offers residents a
shared library, tea garden and
roof terraces on site.
Features of the apartment
include arched alcoves and a
decorative fireplace.
É IT IS only a matter of months until
the new James Bond movie, starring
Daniel Craig, explodes on to the big
screen. Now that Judi Dench has
bowed out as spy chief M, the more
menacing Ralph Fiennes is taking her
place. We can’t wait.
But who would have guessed that
a modest cottage in the village of
Oare in Kent was once the home of
actor Bernard Lee, below, who
starred in the first 11 Bond films and
who is considered by many as the
greatest M of all?
The four-bedroom terrace home,
above, overlooks the Thames Estuary
and is on the market for £389,995
with WH Breading & Son.
The salmon-pink façade won’t be
to everyone’s taste, but the house
spreads across four floors and has a
yard at the back with a heated plunge
pool. A revamp requires just a can of
paint — shaken not stirred.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/m
An aspirational home for a Labour leader
É IT’S a spacious four-bedroom
om
house in NW11 with a garden
big enough for any good
socialist to socialise in —
and now this former home
of Labour prime minister
Harold Wilson is on the
market for £1.6 million with
Goldschmidt & Howland.
Wilson, inset, who first entered
d
Downing Street in 1964, lived in the
Grade II-listed family home, left, in
Hampstead Garden Suburb from
1948 to 1956 with his wife Mary and
their
the two sons. The pipesmoking
premier went on
sm
to
t serve two terms at
No 10, from 1964 to 1970
and from 1974 to 1976.
The detached house,
on
o the market for the first
time
tim in nearly 60 years
since
sinc Wilson sold it, retains
plenty
of character and original
l
features, as well as that big garden for
summer parties.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/harold
REX
O homesandproperty.co.uk/high
It’s ‘M’ for on the
market at £400k
GETTY
includes a dazzling spiral staircase
encased in glass, chrome double
front doors, fabulous roof terraces
and a circular swimming pool in
the garden.
Its one possible drawback is the
potential for drooling architecture
students from around the world to
keep knocking on the door pleading
for a tour.
GETTY
É HIGH & OVER in Buckinghamshire,
above, is considered by many to
be Britain’s first modernist house
and the country’s sexiest private
residence. You can snap it up for
£2.8 million with The Modern House.
The white-rendered five-bedroom
home overlooking Amersham was
designed by Amyas Connell in 1929
for archaeologist and art historian
Bernard Ashmole.
The Grade II-listed property
6
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property The winners
homesandproperty.co.uk with
2015 LONDON EVENING STANDARD
NEW HOMES AWARDS: THE WINNERS
Clever design, creative conversions and the intelligent
use of space won accolades at our 24th annual awards,
in association with Close Brothers Property Finance.
David Spittles reports
The Gold
Standard
BEST APARTMENT AND
GRAND PRIX WINNER
The Penthouse, Wapping Lane, E1 — by
Ballymore
Join our video
tour of this
year’s Grand
Prix winner
at homesand
property.co.uk
High living:
Northbourne
Lofts, Clapham,
features modern
design, exposed
bricks and beams
Nowhere does London sell itself better
than from the vast terrace of a spectacular penthouse, where the city’s
treasures are laid out like a board game
— Tower Bridge, St Paul’s Cathedral,
the Shard, Big Ben, Canary Wharf, the
London Eye and the River Thames.
Wapping, a low-rise neighbourhood
with quiet cobbled streets and historic
wharves and warehouses, is an unusual
location for such a special London lair.
The duplex penthouse, reached by its
own lift, is at the top of a new 18-storey
tower on a bend in the river. It offers
awesome 360-degree views — and as
much space outside as inside.
With a circular floor plan and a perimeter of glass walls, there is a view from
anywhere in the apartment. Spaces
flow into each other rather than being
sectioned off. The centrepiece of the
lower level is a fabulous open-plan
kitchen and living area, while the floor
above, reached by a sculptural spiral
staircase, is taken up by a recreational
space with a wraparound terrace.
Sited between the City and Canary
Wharf, this is one for a banker with a fat
bonus who knows that if it was further
west, the property would be at least
twice the £3.2 million asking price.
BEST CONVERSION
Winner among small developers
(producing fewer than 100 units a
year): Northbourne Lofts, Clapham,
SW4 — by Manor London Ltd
Conversion of a Fifties office building
B ST
BE
T CON
ONVE
V RS
SIO
ION
N (ssmall dev
evelopper
e)
in Clapham has yielded four classic
lofts with slick, modern interior design
set against exposed brickwork and
beams, with a gunmetal staircase linking a mezzanine level.
Prices start from £900,000. Call
020 8022 7428.
Winner among large developers
(producing more than 100 units a year):
Bath House Lofts, Spa Road, SE16 — by
Hollybrook Ltd
Bermondsey has left behind its
Cockney past of brawny dockers and
pearly kings and queens to become one
of London’s trendiest districts. Plugged
into the South Bank cultural quarter
and within walking distance of the City,
it is also one of the capital’s bestconnected places.
Bath House Lofts, overlooking refurbished Bermondsey Spa park, was
once the local town hall, an imposing
Art Deco listed building with a façade
featuring Corinthian columns and a
magnificent communal lobby with
marble floors, a sweeping staircase and
gallery crowned by a domed roof.
Before conversion into 41 apartments,
including “affordable” penthouses
with up to 1,450sq ft of space and big
terraces, it was used as a set for BBC
drama Spooks. Prices range from
£450,000 to £1.35 million.
Together with housing charity
Peabody, developer Hollybrook is
working up plans for another SE1
project — Newington Triangle, between
Elephant & Castle and Borough.
HOME OR DEVELOPMENT
OF OUTSTANDING
ARCHITECTURAL MERIT
Winner: Banyan Wharf, Wenlock Road, N1
— by Regal Homes
This head-turning canalside project in
Shoreditch has the distinction of being
Europe’s tallest “cross-laminated
timber” building. The green and
innovative CLT construction system
allowed architect Hawkins\Brown to
“rotate” floor plates at different angles
— like a Rubik’s Cube — to create
apartments with dual- and tripleaspect views across the water and
beyond.
The façade is meticulously clad in
engineered cedar, while the homes
have large, private terraces. Residents
can also make use of tranquil communal gardens.
It is a mixed-use building with
commercial space at street level,
helping to enliven the waterfront. A
number of shared-ownership flats are
for sale, priced from £150,000 for a
25 per cent share. Call Islington &
Shoreditch Housing Association on
020 7704 7388.
BEST FAMILY HOME
UP TO £750,000
Winner: The Berwick, Courtauld Place,
Braintree, Essex — by Croudace Homes
BEST
ST
T CONVE
VER
RSION (large developerr)
This sizeable, traditional-looking house
comes with the bonus of a detached
garage with a studio/guest suite
above.
BEST FAMILY HOME
£750,000-£1.5 MILLION
Winner among small developers
(producing fewer than 100 units a
year): Bronlei Woods, Bramley, Surrey —
by Kilpark Properties
Imposing: Bath House Lofts, SE16, was used for TV’s Spooks
These four unmistakably modern
houses with bold exterior architecture
and light-filled, intelligently designed
interiors are a spectacular departure
from the country-cottage vernacular
that is more usually offered by
commuterland house -builders.
7
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
The winners Homes & Property
GRAND
PR I X
WINNER
The Pe
n
Wapping thouse,
Lan
Ballymoree, by
AR
AR
RCH
CHITEC
CHIT
CH
IT
TEC
ECTU
ECTU
TURA
RAL ME
ER
RIIIT
T
Spectacular: The Penthouse, left and
far left, in E1, is a worthy Grand Prix
winner, offering stunning 360-degree
city views, and as much space outside
as inside. Above, canalside Banyan
Wharf in Shoreditch wins our
Outstanding Architecture award
Winner among large developers
(producing more than 100 units): The
Yeoman, Froyle Park, Guildford — by
Linden Homes
A spacious, barn-style semi-detached
house that captures its rural setting in
the grounds of a listed Jacobean
mansion.
BEST FAMILY HOME
MORE THAN £1.5 MILLION
Winner: Asquith, Spencer Park,
Wandsworth — by Landview Properties
Standing on an elevated plot in the village of Bramley, near the historic
county town of Guildford, the houses
are in the Grand Designs mould.
Guarded from view by mature trees,
they have glass walls, minimalist
double-height spaces, roof terraces and
concealed underground parking.
Prices at Bronlei Woods start from
£875,000. Call 01483 796810.
Each of these four new townhouses
bordering Wandsworth Common also
has private access to the “secret garden” of four-acre Spencer Park, a green
sanctuary for the exclusive use of local
residents — celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and presenter Johnny Vaughan
among them — with tennis court and
children’s play area.
Each summer, owners of the 26
houses that share this exclusive space
adorn the park with candlelight and
enjoy a splendid dinner party. On several occasions the Beckham family has
visited this Narnia-style haven.
Ranging up to 4,500sq ft, the new
townhouses have six bedrooms, a family “super-room” with a wall of glass
that opens on to the rear garden, and
a subterranean level with cinema, gym
and guest bedroom suite. Prices from
£4.5 million. Call Savills on 020 3430
6900.
BEST FIRST-TIME BUY
DANIEL LYNCH
Winner: 243 Ealing Road, Alperton, by
Network Living and Hill
Buzzing: the popular Woolpack pub, part of the vibrant Bermondsey social scene
Unsung and still relatively undiscovered, Alperton in north-west London
is emerging as developers hit upon its
hidden assets — the Grand Union Canal
and the quick Piccadilly line Tube link
to the West End.
A B&Q superstore has made way for
441 homes alongside the canal and is
part of a £520 million Brent council
initiative to transform the area into a
residential haven, with a new school,
shops and business premises.
Flats are spread across seven contemporary-design buildings connected by
communal gardens, which include an
orchard and play areas. There is an
Continued on Page 8
8
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property The winners
‘After decades
of building
magnificent
homes they’ve
done it again’
homesandproperty.co.uk with
ECO-LIVING AWARD
LUXURY HOME (small developer)
Continued from Page 7
on-site car club, too, while the Tube
station is a 220-yard walk from the
development. Prices from £254,950,
with shared-ownership options
available. Call 020 8997 3373.
BEST LUXURY HOME
Winner among small developers
(producing fewer than 100 units a
year): Crossacres, Wentworth Estate,
Surrey — by Octagon
After decades of building magnificent
homes, Octagon has pushed the boundaries yet again with this 16,000sq ft
trophy mansion on the star-studded
Wentworth Estate.
The “Georgian-influenced” home sits
in a lavishly landscaped 2.3-acre plot
with ornamental swimming pool,
retractable fountains and tennis court.
Once over the threshold, visitors are
captivated by a curving marble staircase that wraps around a 25ft handmade Murano glass chandelier
suspended from a domed skylight at
the top of the house.
In every other respect, the house is
meticulously finished and equipped
with bespoke pieces of furniture
and accessories. Magnificent living
spaces are for formal and informal use,
A SHARE IN THE FUTURE
Oval Quarter, named as our Best
Regeneration Project, appealed to
Francesco Lisotto, 29, below, a retail
manager for John Lewis Partnership,
who bought a £375,000 two-bedroom
apartment in the first phase “because
it was an opportunity to buy early into
a fast-improving area”. Previously he
rented in Streatham.
He went down the shared-ownership
route, putting down a deposit of £7,500
and buying a 40 per cent share. His
monthly outgoings on mortgage, rent
and service charge are £1,500.
BEST REG
EGENERAT
AT
A
TIO
ION
N
PROJEC
ECT
T
Trial: the Rayner
family are testing
the Virido Concept
House, winner of
the Eco-Living
Award, in
Trumpington,
Cambridge
and there are five luxury bedroom
suites. But it is not always predictably
opulent. A “secret” family room is
hidden behind full-height kitchen
cupboard doors, while a subterranean
spa and cinema is a more casual
addition. And, of course, there is a
climate-controlled garage for eight
cars. All yours for £17.5 million.
Winner among large developers
(producing more than 100 units a year):
Ebury Square, Belgravia, SW1
— by Berkeley Homes
This redevelopment of a dowdy police
tenement block has brought 71 swish
apartments to an improving patch on
the Belgravia-Pimlico border. Classiccontemporary architecture gives a nod
to nearby Eaton Square, while the
grand entrance lobby with original
artworks has the feel of an exclusive
hotel. Interior design is sumptuous yet
tasteful, and amenities for residents
include 24-hour concierge, leisure
complex and underground parking.
BEST LONDON HOME
Winner: Penthouses at The Filaments,
Wandsworth, SW18 — by Mount Anvil
Once a light bulb factory, The Filaments puts other Wandsworth housing
schemes in the shade. It is a new town
centre hub — seven buildings with 416
homes and low-cost premises for local
small businesses, such as accountants,
internet entrepreneurs, lawyers, architects and designers, who want to be
able to walk or cycle to work.
Duplex penthouses at the top of a
15-storey tower clad in anodised aluminium and copper have glamorous
open-plan interiors — black-gloss
kitchen, walnut staircase, doubleheight windows — and huge terraces
offering panoramic views. Prices from
£1,275,000. Call 0845 077 9770.
BEST OUT-OF-LONDON
HOME
Winner: The Yeoman, Guildford — as
before
BEST REGENERATION
PROJECT
Winner: Parkside, Oval Quarter, SW9 —
by Oval Quarter Developments
Despite continuing problems with
landline and wifi connectivity, the twobedroom flats at this Zone 2 scheme
priced from £499,000 have struck a
chord, and not just with our judges.
Young singles and couples, keen to stay
in the capital rather than commute,
have been snapping them up .
A Seventies council estate has been
BEST FAMILY HOME
bulldozed to make way for this new
neighbourhood, being built according
to “garden city” design principles, with
low-rise blocks and lots of open space.
There are 808 new flats and houses,
allotments and one of London’s largest
new parks, which incorporates a showpiece community centre. Shared-ownership options make the properties
even more affordable, with the minimum 25 per cent stake starting at
£141,250 for three-bedroom apartments. Call 020 7582 7288.
Intelligent interior design: Bronlei
Woods in Surrey, Best Family Homes
in the £750,000-£1.5 million category
Georgian-influenced gem: developer
Octagon raised the bar for new luxury
homes with £17.5 million Crossacres in
Surrey, in lavish landscaped gardens,
with marble and Murano glass inside
ECO-LIVING AWARD
Winner: Virido Concept House,
Trumpington, Cambridge —
by developer Hill and architect Pollard
Thomas Edwards
The lucky Rayner family are living
rent-free for a year in this low-energy,
hi-tech concept house at a new
“settlement” of homes, schools, shops
and community facilities on former
green belt land south of Cambridge city
centre.
Called Virido — Latin for “going
green” — the zero-carbon home has
been built according to Passivhaus
principles, a German system that
dramatically reduces energy demand.
Lorna and Dave Rayner, whose
children are Harry and Ebony, expect
to pay less than £250 a year in energy
bills.
They are blogging about their experience — visit be-zero.co.uk — while academics at Leeds Beckett University are
monitoring the home’s performance
and keeping tabs on the family’s health
and wellbeing.
“Last winter we were so warm we
were surprised to see snow outside,”
says Lorna. “We have always tried to
lead an eco-friendly lifestyle, while
being realistic about what we can cut
from our lives.
“It is great to live in a house that isn’t
wasteful of energy. Sunshine pours in
9
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
The winners Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
BES
BE
ST
T FIIR
RS
ST
T-TIM
-T
TIM
ME BUYER HOME
E
My place: Surekha Abbas, 43, paid £350,000 for a two-bedroom flat at 243 Ealing Road, Alperton, our Best First-Time Buy.
She works for Discovery Communications in Chiswick. “I’d been renting privately for 15 years, saving for a home. With prices
rising fast, buying sometimes seemed further out of reach, but this was a place I had confidence in. I felt it was undervalued.”
BEST DEVELOPMENT IN
AFFORDABLE HOMES
SECTOR
Winner: Thames View East, Barking —
by Pollard Thomas Edwards & Hill
through the numerous large windows
and the design of the property and
garden means you really feel a connection with the outside.”
Green housing is not just about
double glazing and combination
boilers, it is about how properties fit
into the local environment and promote responsible ecology. The success
of Virido has paved the way for 208
homes, half of which will be managed
by the local council. The others will go
on sale later this year. As well as
brimming with green design, the
homes are architecturally pleasing,
clad in brick and timber, with an openplan layout.
Solar panels and sedum roofs with
plants help to retain rainwater and
attract insects and birds.
---
Unpopular council tower blocks in
Barking have been replaced by houses
with bay windows, their front doors
opening on to pedestrian-friendly
streets, along with newly landscaped
open space, establishing a genuine
sense of community right from the
start. The scheme of 276 local authority
homes also made use of an innovative
finance model — an overseas investment fund that pays for new council
homes on council-owned land.
BEST SMALL
DEVELOPMENT
Winner among small-scale developers:
Piano Yard, Kentish Town, NW5 — by
London Buildings
On a former piano warehouse site, this
mews-style terrace of new homes is
inspired by the architecture of the New
Orleans French Quarter, which is characterised by decorative metalwork
balustrading and balconies.
An elevated walkway above a quirky
communal courtyard garden links the
two sides of the mews. Internally, the
design emphasis is on light and volume, with floor-to-ceiling factory windows and doors, plus simple retro
finishes. Priced from £775,000, the
homes were quickly snapped up. Coming soon is another niche project — nine
Scandi-style houses in Maida Vale. Call
Pilcher Hershman on 020 7399 8600.
Winner among larger-scale developers:
The Annie McCall, Lambeth, SW4 — by
Henley Homes
At this Victorian maternity hospital,
closed 30 years ago, loft-style flats have
been created in the listed buildings,
while new artists’ studios and a lodge
have been built in the grounds. Prices
from £590,000. Call 020 7740 2640.
BEST LARGE
DEVELOPMENT
Winner: Orchard Gate, East Malling,
Kent — by Millwood Designer Homes
Redundant horticultural research
laboratories dating back to the Twenties
have been given a new lease of life with
this tasteful development, built with
reclaimed materials to give the sense
that the homes have grown organically
over time.
“This is one of those rare moments
when we can play a part in creating a
new hamlet in the heart of the Kent
countryside and ensure the future
productivity of the surrounding
orchards and fruit farms,” says Jeff
Elliott, deputy managing director of
Millwood, which has joined forces with
a charitable trust to revive the site.
Millwood’s design inspiration is 17thcentury timber-framed yeoman farmhouses. At Orchard Gate, terrace and
detached houses with allotments cost
from £330,000. Call 01732 448270.
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12
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Commuting
£649,995: The Cottage in Grove Hill, Dedham, Essex has
four bedrooms and stacks of charm (Fine & Country)
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Record
numbers opt
to commute
city to city
£2 million: six-bedroom Villa Romani, beside the Thames
in Lower Cookham Road, Maidenhead (Knight Frank)
£350,000: a four-bedroom detached house in goodvalue Winnock Road, Colchester (William H Brown)
£2 million: 11-bedroom property in Hinton House Drive,
Kings Worthy, Winchester, Hampshire (Strutt & Parker)
L
ONDON’S commuter belt is
having a bit of a moment
right now. The number of
Londoners leaving the capital
is at record levels, about
250,000 a year, according to the Office
for National Statistics, with most in
search of areas where they can afford
a family-size home near well-rated state
schools.
The exit roll call has been boosted by
last year’s stamp duty changes. A
recent report by Hometrack concluded
that the home counties are the biggest
beneficiaries of the tax reform.
Savills forecasts London’s commuter
hinterland will experience the strongest medium-term price growth in
England. Its findings are based on
analysis of the number of season ticket
sales from the main commuting
stations — establishing just where
L ondon’s commuter army now
lives, and why.
It found, unsurprisingly, that Londoners on the move are looking for somewhere not too isolated, with a quick
journey into town.
A quarter of the top 20 locations
are within half an hour — including
Reading and Shenfield, which will
benefit from the Crossrail development
— Woking and Gatwick. Maidenhead in
Berkshire is the swiftest, only 20
minutes from the capital, with average
homes on sale at just less than
£428,000. An annual season ticket
costs £2,908.
Maidenhead itself has a dreary town
centre, but the surrounding area is
home to some lovely commuter
villages, most notably Cookham,
Cookham Dean, foodie paradise Bray,
picturesque town Marlow and many
more. Cookham Dean is famous as the
place where Kenneth Grahame wrote
The Wind in the Willows. The village
adjoins the National Trust’s beautiful
Winter Hill estate, looking down into
the Thames Valley.
PRETTY COOKHAM DEAN
The village is busy enough to support
a handful of pubs, and a primary school
rated good by Ofsted. Its popularity is
driving up average prices, inexorably,
towards the £1 million mark. According
to Zoopla, village properties currently
change hands at an average £970,658,
up 3.17 per cent in the past year.
This is likely to rise in 2018, when
Maidenhead will join the Crossrail
network. With direct links to the
West End and the City, this is as surefire a way as any to identify where
price growth is likely.
ALAMY
It’s hard to leave London. Now new exclusive
research might make your where-to-buy
decision a little easier. By Ruth Bloomfield
Worth the move:
Colchester has
an average high
street, but it
boasts good
schools and
great-value
homes
PRICEY GUILDFORD
One of the most expensive locations to
make the top 20 is Guildford, among
Surrey’s top commuter towns, with
average prices standing at almost
£409,000. A detached house in this
area would cost about £760,000. An
annual season ticket for the 37-minute
journey costs £3,400.
Richard Howell, sales manager of Hill
Clements estate agents, says the town
has been a magnet for south-west
Londoners for decades. “You have got
a great high street, nearby pretty
villages and vast countryside. You are
an hour from the coast and close to
THIS IS
OUR SPACE
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13
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
Commuting Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
£1,295,000:
four-bedroom
detached house
in Oliver’s
Battery
Road North,
Winchester
(Hamptons
International)
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/oliversbattery for more pictures and details
both airports, and there is a wide variety of very good schools,” he says.
House prices go up the closer you are
to the station. Howell estimates that a
four-bedroom property within walking
distance would cost “from just under
£1 million to about £1.25 million”. Three
miles to the east, a more modern fourbedroom house — requiring a cycle ride
or drive to the station, where parking
costs about £1,500 a year — is between
£500,000 and £600,000.
AFFORDABLE COLCHESTER
Colchester in Essex is also in the
top 20, with a 52-minute journey into
London. An annual season ticket
costs £4,796, but the payoff is excellent
value for money. The average house
price is under £200,000, with a
detached house under £300,000.
The flavourless high street is packed
with mid-range chains. The town has
two cinemas, an arts centre, sports
centres, and some decent pubs. The
other draw for families is excellent
schools, in particular Colchester
County High School (girls) and the
Royal Grammar School (boys).
And Colchester has some property
gold mines. The Dutch Quarter, just
north of the city centre, has outstanding Tudor timber-framed homes, some
with Georgian frontages. William
Bardell, branch manager of Hestons
estate agents, says buyers could pick
up a two-bedroom house for between
£165,000 and £250,000.
Families gravitate towards the suburb
of Lexden, 15 minutes’ walk from the
town centre, for its grand Victorian
villas. A four-bedroom home costs
between £500,000 and £600,000.
O To discover the Top 20 commuter
destinations for London workers, visit
homesandpropery.co.uk/top20
FOR LONDONERS WHO MISS THE CITY LIFE
FIVE of the top 20 locations for
commuting into London are
cities in their own right —
Chelmsford, Cambridge,
Winchester, Brighton and Oxford.
WINCHESTER
“Most people want affordability,
but they don’t want to lose
London life,” says John Leeson,
managing director of Belgarum
estate agents in Winchester.
Just under an hour from
London, with an annual season
ticket costing £4,812, Winchester
offers a winning combination of
commutability, lifestyle and
affordability. The average house
is less than £415,000 and a
detached home will cost about
£624,000.
This ancient capital of Wessex,
perched on the western tip of
the South Downs, was voted the
best place to live in the UK with
great housing, facilities and
culture, and top state schools,
such as Kings’ School. The pretty
town centre has sadly lost its
independent shops, all but
obliterated by predictable
national chains. There are some
excellent restaurants, notably
pleasantly unassuming, Michelinstarred The Black Rat.
Leeson says: “It’s near the unique
New Forest and the coast, and is
steeped in history, and we have
plenty of schools with good and
outstanding Ofsted reports.”
Fulflood is just north-west of the
city centre and an easy walk to the
station. A fine four-bedroom
Victorian or Edwardian home in the
area would cost between £600,000
and £650,000. In St Cross, to the
south, a six-bedroom period pile
would cost about £2 million.
An exceptional new collection of 1 & 2 bedroom
apartments woven into the heart of Islington
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14
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property First-time buyers
homesandproperty.co.uk with
The cheap-rent route to buying your first home
Green fields: the public can enjoy Manor House Gardens
Ruth Bloomfield
finds a south London
housing scheme with
lower rents that gives
first-timers a chance
to escape the
dreaded deposit trap
T
HE deposit trap is a
problem most first-time
buyers know well — without
the assistance of the Bank of
Mum and Dad, it is often
impossible to even contemplate
joining the property ladder.
Short of plotting a diamond heist to
raise the average £69,000 required for
a typical first-time deposit in the capital — as calculated in a recent study by
Savills — buyers could instead turn
their attention to an under-the-radar
south-east London suburb, where a
solution is being offered.
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If all this sounds like a complete
no-brainer, then there are some downsides to consider. The first is that
rents have been set in line with newbuild homes in Lee — you could find a
better bargain if you are happy to live
in an older property.
Another downside is that the area is
a regeneration zone for a reason. The
Leegate Shopping Centre has been
dubbed the worst in Britain, with
just over a third of its shops empty.
Lewisham Shopping Centre, close to
the station, is far more vibrant, but it
lacks the kind of quirky independent
shops which make retail therapy a
THE KNOWLEDGE
LEE, SOUTH LONDON
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Past: Lee’s local stately home,
the Manor House, was built by
the founders of the Barings
Bank. It is now a library.
Future: developer St Modwen
has applied for planning
permission to regenerate the
declining Leegate Shopping
Centre, with new shops, offices
and homes.
Trivial pursuit: the name Lee
PICTURES BY GRAHAM HUSSEY
DISCOUNT DEAL
Housing association L&Q’s latest
scheme, Goldcrest House in Lee High
Road, Lewisham, offers would-be
buyers the chance to rent a one- or
two-bedroom flat at a subsidised rate
— 20 per cent less than for new-build
properties being rented commercially
in the area.
This, it hopes, will give them the
chance to start saving for a deposit.
Under the rules of the scheme, known
as UpToYou, tenants can stay in the
property as long as they want and
can then either move on to another
rental or buy themselves a property,
shared-ownership or otherwise,
further down the line.
L&Q (lqpricedin.co.uk/goldcresthouse) has 29 homes on offer, some
overlooking the River Quaggy and most
with either balconies or terraces, which
will be ready to move into next month.
Prices start from £930 per month for a
one-bedroom flat, or £1,150 per month
for a two-bedroom flat. Priority will
be given to people already living in
Lewisham.
The nearest station is Lewisham,
around five minutes’ walk from Goldcrest House. Trains to Cannon Street
or Charing Cross both take around
15 minutes, and those heading for
Canary Wharf can also pick up the
Docklands Light Railway. An annual
season ticket costs £1,284.
Stocking up: the market in Lewisham offers fresh produce
pleasure and not a chore. And since
work is under way on a six-year project
to regenerate the town centre, traffic
is horrendous at the moment.
While there are some decent pubs
and restaurants on the doorstep, they
can be counted on your fingers — most
locals head to Blackheath or Hither
Green on a night out.
Roxanne Halliday, L &Q’s sales
negotiator for the project, has lived in
the area and says Goldcrest’s big advantage is that it is close to everything —
open space, transport and shopping.
“The traffic problems will end when
the regeneration is finished. You can
get lots of ethnic foods and it is very
diverse and friendly,” she says.
derives from Leah, which means
clearing in the wood.
What it costs: an average home
costs £391,277, up 6.99 per cent
in the past year, according to
Zoopla. A two-bedroom flat
costs about £1,287 a month.
First-time buy: immaculate
two-bedroom flat in an
impressive period house on
Burnt Ash Hill, on the market for
£350,000 with Housesimple.
Landmarks: the tiny but very
charming Boone’s Chapel in Lee
Spacious living:
L&Q has 29
homes on offer
at Goldcrest
House — priority
will be given to
people already
living in
Lewisham
High Road. The chapel dates
from 1682 but fell into disuse
after the Second World War. It
has since been restored and
opens for exhibitions.
Eat: cake washed down with
excellent coffee at With Jam and
Bread, also on Lee High Road.
Drink: at the Dacre Arms, an
old-school neighbourhood pub.
Buy: basics at Lewisham
Shopping Centre.
Walk: the wilds of Blackheath,
a mile up the road.
16
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Homes abroad
£523,000: a one-bedroom, second-floor apartment in
the historic and central area of Le Marais, close to an
excellent food market. It’s for sale through Vingt Paris
P
ARIS, the beautiful city of
light and love, is one of
Europe’s most compact
capitals. Step off the Eurostar, push through the crowds
at Gare du Nord and the city lies in
wait, easy to cover in a weekend.
“People who love Paris have a real
passion for the intellectual life in art,
music, literature or architecture,” says
Susie Hollands of estate agent Vingt
Paris. “The city has a strong cultural
romance for so many nationalities.”
Hollands sells and rents Parisian
property to mainly international
clients, taking them on detailed city
tours and explaining the difference in
prices between the areas.
She acknowledges that the market,
as buoyant as central London until
2011, has been difficult since the French
elections in 2012.
“Paris has always been seen as a safe
haven for investment, but uncertainty
over tax changes caused buyers to
hesitate,” says Hollands. “However,
since the start of this year, we have an
active market again. The favourable
exchange rate for US and UK buyers
has made a significant difference.”
HEART OF THE CITY
Chic shops and cafés: the popular Cour du Commerce SaintAndré in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 6th arrondissement
In prime Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a
large studio on the top floor of an
elegant 17th-century building is for sale
through Vingt Paris for £616,200.
The owners have spent £35,000 on
updating the kitchen and bathroom,
and the 603sq ft apartment features a
view of the Eiffel Tower.
It would rent for more than £2,000 a
month, says Hollands. Nearby, an airy
£498,000: a two-bedroom apartment
in Montmartre, located in the 18th
arrondissement. Through Vingt Paris
A city that
satisfies all
the senses
Buy a Paris apartment and enjoy
‘les weekends’ of art, food and flea
markets, says Cathy Hawker
one-bedroom apartment over two
floors on Rue Jacob, arguably the best
street in the best neighbourhood of
the Left Bank, sold last month for
£287,000.
FOODIE HEAVEN
“All Parisians have a favourite café and
stick with one butcher and baker in
their neighbourhood,” says Hollands.
“No matter where you are in Paris,
there’s a food market at least two days
a week selling affordable fresh food.”
The city is divided into 20 arrondissements, or administrative districts,
each with its own atmosphere. The four
areas most popular with international
buyers include the 6th arrondissement
— Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Left
Bank. Once bohemian, but now home
REX
£616,200: a large, light-filled studio apartment on the
top floor of an elegant 17th-century building in centrally
located Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Through Vingt Paris
homesandproperty.co.uk with
to some of the priciest and prettiest
streets in Paris, this area is a huge
favourite with Britons. Unlike the prestigious but business-orientated 8th
arrondissement, the residential 6th
teems with life day and night. Historic
exteriors often hide quirky interiors.
Then there is the Triangle d’Or, or
“golden triangle” of prime designer
shops and five-star hotels in the 8th
arrondissement, marked out by the
exclusive boulevards of Avenue Montaigne, Avenue George V and the
Champs-Élysées. It lacks the buzzing
café life of the Left Bank, but it is classy
and elegant.
Vingt Paris has an 882sq ft, one-bedroom, eighth-floor apartment on
Avenue Foch for £895,000 and a beautiful three-bedroom, furnished and
“
17
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
Homes abroad Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Teamwork: Jessica and Peter Frankopan, and one of the opulent bedrooms at L’Hotel on the Left Bank
SHOPPING AND STAYING
renovated Art Deco apartment off Rue
Christophe-Colomb for £2.5 million. In
the working-class areas of the 9th, 10th
and 11th arrondissements, there are
exciting things happening, with a fabulous foodie scene, good wine shops and
a focus on organic produce. Check out
restaurants Bones and Septime, both
in the 11th.
The 9th is close to the Gare du Nord,
which is convenient for British visitors,
while the supremely hip 10th remains
a favourite with a younger crowd.
Lastly, there is Le Marais in the
3rd arrondissement. It features medieval buildings and Paris’s oldest and
possibly most beautiful planned
square, the Place des Vosges.
Le Marais borders the 11th and is
home to several cool concept shops,
Big breakfast:
Café de Flore is a
Paris institution
where early
rising English
customers can
pass on the
Continental rolls
and coffee and
order boiled eggs
with toasted
soldiers and tea
including Merci (merci-merci.com). A
1,022sq ft two-bedroom apartment
with a terrace overlooking Rue SaintMartin is priced at £677,000 through
Vingt Paris.
FRENCH FACELIFT
Expect to pay an average of £10,500
per square foot for renovations in
classic buildings, says Hollands. A
1,572sq ft three-bedroom apartment in
a Haussmann building by the Élysée
Palace is £1,128,000, half the price per
square foot of homes in the Left Bank.
It requires total refurbishment, but has
original 19th-century parquet floors,
several fireplaces and is hidden behind
a charming courtyard.
O Vingt Paris: vingtparis.com
PETER and Jessica Frankopan from
Oxford — a Croatian prince and the
great-great-granddaughter of
Sainsbury’s founder John James
Sainsbury — are the husband-andwife team behind A Curious Group of
Hotels, with venues that include
Cowley Manor near Cheltenham and
Canal House in Amsterdam.
In 2005 they bought L’Hotel, an
iconic Left Bank establishment that
was Oscar Wilde’s last home, and
where guests have included Salvador
Dalí and Frank Sinatra. L’Hotel is a
20-room opulent beauty, a historic
building filled with richly coloured
velvet furnishings in the heart of
Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Here, the Frankopans share their
top design secrets in Paris.
O The Boulevard St Germain is our
favourite for design shops — it’s
perfect, with international brands
including Roche Bobois, and chic
department store Le Bon Marché
nearby. The concept shops — Merci,
L’Eclaireur and Colette — are fabulous.
Along Rue de Seine, there are amazing
20th-century furniture galleries with
museum-quality pieces.
If we ever buy our own apartment
in Paris, these places are where we
would like to shop.
O Les Puces, the flea market at Porte
de Clignancourt, has small stalls that
stock vintage items. Rik Gitlin, an
American who has lived in Paris for
20 years, will be your guide for a day
for £300. Rik knows the finest
antique linen — and where to have
lunch (Philippe Starck’s restaurant
Ma Cocotte; macocotte-lespuces.
com). Email [email protected].
O French design company Caravane
offers patterned fabrics and chic
furniture. There are silk throws,
Chinese découpage wallpapers and
painted Indian wooden boxes, all
loved by discreetly elegant Parisians.
Global appeal:
at Caravane,
visitors will
find silk fabrics
and découpage
wallpaper
inspired by
exotic locations
around the world
L’Eclaireur: leclaireur.com/en
Merci: merci-merci.com
Le Bon Marché: lebonmarche.com
L’Hotel: l-hotel.com
Caravane: caravane.fr
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20
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Auction
B
AMBER GASCOIGNE, who
made his name putting
students through their paces
on TV’s University Challenge,
is facing a challenge of his
o w n a f t e r h i s g r e a t - au n t , t h e
Duchess of Roxburghe, left her country
estate to him.
The retired presenter is selling the
contents — more than 700 items — in
an attempt to save and repair the
stately pile, West Horsley Place near
Leatherhead in Surrey.
Gascoigne was unaware he was to
inherit the house until his solicitor
informed him following the duchess’s
death last year at the age of 99. But
though his great-aunt expected him
to sell the crumbling house, he
realised he wanted to save it.
The duchess was born Mary
Crewe-Milnes in 1915 in Crewe
House, Mayfair, where her father,
the Marquess of Crewe, hosted
parties with her mother, Marchioness Margaret, a Rothschild.
Their guests included King
George V and Queen Mary. At one
Crewe House ball, Winston Churchill
spotted his future wife, Clementine.
From this house, Mary, newly married to the Duke of Roxburghe, left to
become chatelaine of 80,000-acre
Floors Castle in Scotland. Soon
after, her parents retired to West
Horsley Place.
“Mary’s new husband was not the
most pleasant man in Scotland,” Gascoigne, 80, explains. After 18 childless
years, the duke’s butler handed Mary a
note on a salver, asking her to leave. The
dismayed duchess barricaded herself
in for six weeks. Divorced in 1953, she
Family ties: Gascoigne’s glamorous
great-aunt, the Duchess of Roxburghe,
died last year aged 99
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Bamber’s
restoration
challenge
Breakfast is served at West Horsley
Place: on an elegant Asprey silverplate tray (lot 277, est £200-£300)
Bamber Gascoigne was surprised to inherit beautiful
West Horsley Place. But now the contents must go to
auction to save the roof, discovers Philippa Stockley
inherited West Horsley Place upon her
mother’s death in 1967, and lived there
until she herself died.
HENRY VIII DINED HERE
Mary’s mother had furnished the house
grandly with items from Crewe House
and her husband’s former country
homes — Jacobean Crewe Hall in Cheshire, and Fryston Hall in the West Riding.
Nevertheless, the marchioness called
50-room West Horsley Place, run with
liveried footmen and with a walk-in
silver vault, her “stately cottage”.
Architect Nikolaus Pevsner said it had
an air of “cosy domesticity”, due to its
glowing red bricks.
Originally a Tudor oak-beam house
with a central double-height hall,
where Henry VIII famously dined, in
the 18th century a brick front was
bolted on to the beams and the hall
sliced in two, creating an upper floor.
One Tudor staircase remains. As Mary
Your ne w b e dro om aw aits
aged, she lived in just five rooms. Gascoigne, of Richmond, says these were
the only rooms he had ever seen. So
when he went to look round after her
death, he got a shock. “I saw the
upstairs drawing room for the first time
Man with a mission: Bamber Gascoigne,
inset, is selling the contents of West
Horsley Place to finance repairs
Rare: this London delftware Queen
Anne charger was made around 1702
(lot 252, est £2,000-£3,000)
Ready to go: Cartier leather travelling
case and Louis Vuitton suitcase
(lot 419, est £700-£1,000)
when I owned it,” he says. He saw
crimson silk-hung walls, 17th-century
paintings, a dazzling portrait of the
marchioness by Glyn Philpot (lot 224,
£10,000-£15,000) and a rare 18th-century Axminster carpet from Fryston
Hall (lot 51, £50,000-£80,000).
This sale is a constellation of star
buys, from hundreds of crested glasses
used at grand dinners (lot 57, £1,000£1,500), along with silver or gilt flatware and Minton and Sèvres services,
to a solid silver tray for canapés (lot
466, £500-£700). There’s the duchess’s
17th-century tester bed (lot 275,
£6,000-£8,000) and an Asprey silverplate tray (lot 277, £200-£300).
Or picnic hampers (lot 422, £300£500), ceramics including a rare
Queen Anne charger (lot 252, £2,000£3,000), and a Cartier travelling case
(lot 419, £700-£1,000).
Because of the state of the roof and
the foundations, much work is needed.
Gascoigne and his wife, Christina, hope
the sale will help raise the £4 million
required, despite the recent theft of
some other items listed for auction. But
the library is being gifted to Trinity
College Cambridge. For this couple,
saving West Horsley Place is a task they
feel compelled to accomplish.
O The Duchess: precious objects and
property from the estate of Mary,
Duchess of Roxburghe is at Sotheby’s
on May 27 and 28. Visit sothebys.com
NEW SPRING
COLLECTION
BEDS, FURNITURE, MATTRESSES,
BEDDING, BED LINEN AND
ACCESSORIES
Fulham | Chiswick | East Sheen
Tottenham Court Road | Hampstead
Kingston | Hammersmith | Chingford
www.featherandblack.com
21
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
Shopping Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
DESIGN
SPY
Hand it over: snap up a Mexican
hand-embroidered cushion in pink, £70,
or multiple colours, £57, by Montes &
Clark. Similar lampshades start at £50.
Visit its À La Carte Shopping pop-event
event at 20th Century Theatre, 291
Westbourne Grove W11, tomorrow, 6pm
to 9pm; Friday, 10am to 6pm or Saturday,
10am to 5pm (montesandclark.co.uk)
By Katie Law
Metallic moments: gold is going to be
big in homeware by autumn. The French
Bedroom Company has jumped the gun
with a gleaming gold-glazed porcelain
side table in a pattern of circles and
squares. It’s just over 18in high and costs
£125 (frenchbedroomcompany.co.uk)
Sitting comfortably: check out
British bespoke furniture maker
Arlo & Jacob’s Helena sofa with Jenson
Stripe Cardinal fabric, from £995, at its
first showroom, at Melbray House,
9 Melbray Mews, 158 Hurlingham Road,
Fulham SW6 (arloandjacob.com)
Say it with stripes: this black-andwhite-striped Mogg T-Chair must be the
ultimate mono statement. Designed by
Annebet Philips from the Netherlands,
it is made with ash and is hand-painted
to order. It’s £840 in stripes, or £450
for a solid colour (gomodern.co.uk)
■Twitter: @jkatieLaw
Fresh off the wheel: London potter
Linda Bloomfield’s lovely new collection
of ceramic vases, jugs and bottles comes
in on-trend shades of grey, mustard
and off-white and is inspired by the
paintings of Italian artist Giorgio
Morandi. Mix and match your own set,
from £36 to £72 (lindabloomfield.co.uk)
26
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Outdoors
homesandproperty
SILVER
GILT
A garden of sensual curves — with no need to water
“LONDON gardens can be conservative because so
often they’re responding to vernacular architecture,” says Matthew Wilson of Clifton Nurseries,
whose show garden for Royal Bank of Canada,
above, is anything but conservative, with fabulous
curved decking, futuristic furniture and a macro
bonsai olive tree. In fact, Wilson designed this sensual space to show that we can grow both edible
and ornamental plants without turning on the tap.
How? By creating the right conditions for them to
thrive in. This includes siting drought-loving plants
such as California poppies in a zero-irrigation dry
area and installing a reservoir pool that collects
rainwater and trickles through the garden to nurture water-loving plants such as Japanese iris.
O Enjoy a detailed tour of this garden in next week’s
Homes & Property
Chelsea Flower Show
SIX OF
THE BEST
From modern retreats to a tropical haven, Pattie Barron
chooses her favourite gardens from this year’s show
Retreat to an
oak tree house
SILVER
GILT
FOR the M&G Garden, left, Jo Thompson
conjured up a romantic space that
incorporates an oak retreat reached
by a stepladder, a large natural swimming pond, a woodland of river birches,
alders and acers, and tumbling roses
and peonies.
“I realised halfway through that I was
designing it for myself,” says Thompson.
“It’s my ultimate dream garden, with
masses of roses and a retreat that’s a
cross between a tree house and an office
on stilts.”
Although she strives for something
similar in her own East Sussex garden —
she has already planted 40 climbing roses
— the reality is a little less romantic.
“I have a big, white goalpost and a
chocolate Labrador to contend with,”
she says. Happily at Chelsea, all is fantasy
and real life does not intervene.
27
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
Outdoors Homes & Property
y.co.uk with
GOLD
Grasse plants are heaven-scent
VISITORS at Chelsea just need to follow the sublime scents
to discover a Provençal garden that showcases the fragrant
plants of Grasse, historically renowned as the centre of the
perfume industry, which is currently experiencing a renaissance. This is due to the support of ecologically sensitive
companies such as L’Occitane, which happens to be the sponsor of A Perfumer’s Garden in Grasse, above.
Designed by James Basson who, lucky chap, lives just outside
Grasse, the garden has seductive seats beneath a quartet of
olive trees. Aside from the classic perfumer’s ingredients —
jasmine, lavender and violet — it showcases the rose de Mai,
considered to have the finest fragrance for perfume. In fact,
it is substituted for a more beautiful rose, Yolande d’Aragon.
Order from classicroses.co.uk for end-of-year delivery.
GOLD
and
Best in
Show
Channelling Chatsworth
SILVER
GILT
“IT FELT like we were a team of termites — building, building,
building without needing to communicate what was needed
with one another,” says maverick designer Dan Pearson of
his 20-strong team. Together they created the greatest tour
de force at this year’s show — a representation of a small piece
of the 105-acre Chatsworth estate in Derbyshire, above.
Sponsored by Laurent-Perrier and inspired by the trout
stream and Joseph Paxton’s rockery at Chatsworth, the garden
is a sublime ornamental woodland with a backdrop of
boulders. It is bound to trigger a stampede to garden centres
for flowering shrubs and trees, plant groups that Pearson, who
has a naturalistic style, has championed for some time.
Photographs Marianne Majerus
Even the bees get
a designer hive
GOLD
THE Homebase Urban Retreat Garden,
left, is an urban community plot
designed by Adam Frost (see My Design
Chelsea, Pages 34-35). He reveals how
wildlife can flourish in the city among
modernist materials such as poured
concrete and Corten steel.
Influenced by the Bauhaus movement
of the early 20th century, the garden’s
two pressed steel water walls lead into
pools of water that act as paddling pools
in summer, while a series of layered
cedar wood rings provide seating.
That striking Corten steel pavilion at
the back of the garden, clad in cedar and
set among a bed of tree ferns, offers a
viewing area from the roof, which is
covered with wildflower turf and is home
to a colony of honeybees, housed in a
Bauhaus-inspired cedar hive complete
with Corten steel roof.
These orchids
are as bright
as parakeets
WELCOME to paradise, where the flowers are tropical
orchids the colours of parakeets, a multi-level waterfall
cascades into an oasis of ferns and a pavilion is
garlanded with jungle creepers. The Hidden Beauty of
Kranji, above, a large show garden created by designers
John Tan and Raymond Toh, features plants found in
Kranji, a suburb in Singapore that has a preserved
natural environment. If only we could grow the same in
Surbiton, although these species and hybrid orchids can
be grown indoors or under glass.
How will the orchids fare during a week of changeable
weather? Mark Gregory, who built the garden with his
company Landform Consultants, says nobody has a
clue, but then this is a place where magic happens, as
the garden illustrates.
TEARS AND
TRIUMPHS:
HOW A
CHELSEA SHOW
GARDEN IS
CREATED
Come to our
reader evening at
6.30pm at Clifton
Nurseries W9 on
June 3 and hear
Matthew Wilson,
designer of the
Royal Bank of
Canada Garden,
reveal what really
goes on behind
the scenes at
Chelsea. The
evening costs £15,
which includes
canapés and a
glass of Prosecco.
To book, visit
clifton.co.uk.
28
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Reader promotion
Offer’s
on the
table
Slide this way for storage and
make the most of your space
TRANSFORM your
home with Spaceslide’s
made-to-measure sliding
wardrobe doors, storage
systems and matching
bedroom furniture.
On the company’s
website, you can design
wardrobes to fit perfectly
in any space. Or visit
Spaceslide’s showroom at
Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
Readers can get 60 per
cent off orders online or
in the showroom before
May 29. To claim, visit
spaceslide.co.uk/summeroffer or the showroom, or
call 0800 980 3499 and
use code ES60.
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Bargain news
THE Colette
side table,
priced at just
£95, is a classic
French design
made from
solid mango
wood with
a subtle
washed finish.
Hand-carved
cabriole legs
and bun feet
add extra
character to the
Colette, making
it ideal for a
living room
with a shabbychic, farmhouse
or French-style
interior.
Readers are
offered a
15 per cent
reduction,
bringing down
the price to
just £80.75.
To claim, visit
withinhome.
com/15colette
or call
020 7087 2900
and quote
15COLETTE
before June 10.
Elegance in a sofa bed
LOVE Your Home’s Churchill Chesterfield sofa bed is a
modern, everyday, quality design.
It has a solid wood frame, with feather-wrapped
cushions for comfort and support. Built to the highest
standard, it comes with a 10-year guarantee. The sofa
bed is easy to use, with a double-width pocket-sprung
mattress for maximum comfort.
The three-seater is currently reduced by 15 per cent to
£1,274. To place an order, visit love-your-home.co.uk or
call 01483 410007.
Industrial-chic
pendants shine
at every level
THE Olivier vintage pendant light
from My Furniture can add a touch
of industrial flair to your living space.
Currently priced at £29.99, this
piece will fit all interior styles.
The long cable enables you to
hang the light at standard height,
low over dining tables or above
breakfast bars.
To order, visit my-furniture.co.uk
or call 0800 092 1636 while stocks
last. It is recommended that a
qualified electrician performs
any cable work.
Alison
Cork
Cheese set cuts it
INVEST in quality kitchenware from
One Regent Place. This slate
cheeseboard and knives set is
currently reduced from £69.99 to
just £24.99 and includes a 20cm x
30cm slate board, 26cm traditional
cheese knife, 18cm cheese shaver,
and an 18cm mini cheese cleaver.
Perfect for petits fours, bite-size
canapés or a selection of cheeses,
this elegant piece is a must-have
for summer dinner parties or
afternoon tea.
To place your order, visit
oneregentplace.co.uk or call
020 7087 2900 (Monday to Friday)
before May 25.
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 [email protected] with “Bargain News” in the subject line. For more bargains, visit alisonathome.com or homesandproperty.co.uk/offers.
Move to the
PRIDE OF PLAISTOW
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32
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Shopping
homesandproperty.co.uk with
‘I know
a bank
whereon
the wild
thyme
blows...’
2
1
3
3
Oberon:
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
Design trends
florals
By Barbara Chandler
1
ANGIE LEWIN of St Jude’s turns
her drawings and linocuts into
charming patterns. This design is
Meadow’s Edge, screen-printed on
linen at £54 a metre or as a cushion
cover for £38 (stjudesfabrics.co.uk).
2
THE Meadow wall mural by
Michael Angove is made to
measure. Customise your size and
the crop you want, then choose from
a standard smooth version you can
simply stick up, or a premium linentextured version. Priced from £60 a
square metre (surfaceview.co.uk;
0118 922 1327)
metre, while the cushion is in
Mosaica, at £28 a metre. Visit the
Sanderson website at sanderson-uk.
com, or call 0844 543 9500 for
UK stockists.
design is Cow Parsley Blue. The set of
four costs £40 (gillianarnold.com).
4
5
BETHAN JOHN of Decorator’s
Notebook prints photographs of
wildflowers through the process
of cyanotype. This delicate vase is
£18.50 (decoratorsnotebook.co.uk).
4
GILLIAN ARNOLD’S designs
are hand-printed directly from
wildflowers, and these clever mugs
stack to save space. This particular
6
DESIGNED by Christopher Guy,
this Le Jardin chair with a handcarved mahogany frame costs £2,309.
Finishes include natural brown, black
satin or white lacquer. Find the
showroom at Design Centre Chelsea
Harbour (christopherguy.com).
3
7
SANDERSON’S Papavera collection
of fabrics and wallpapers includes
the large-scale, stylised poppy with
cut-out edges for a fresh and eyecatching statement in any room. The
blinds here, Papavera on the left, Milla
on the right, are both £32 a metre.
Fabric on the chairs is also £32 a
) " ((
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ISLINGTON designer Clarissa
Hulse saved poppies from Greece
to mix with Scottish ferns and
Wiltshire meadow flowers for this
hand-printed Seed Heads cushion,
45cm x 45cm. It costs £45 with a
feather pad. Shop at 29 Corsica
Street, N5 (clarissahulse.com).
■Twitter: @sunnyholt
5
6
7
34
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Design
homesandproperty.co.uk with
By Pattie Barron
A
DAM FROST has won
Gold at RHS Chelsea
Flower Show six times, as
well as Best in Show. This
year, he has designed a
community garden in Main Avenue
called Urban Retreat, sponsored by
Homebase with whom he launched
the Homebase Garden Academy
three years ago. It’s an apprenticeship
scheme that helps kick-start Britain’s
next generation of horticulturists.
Last year, Frost was made an RHS
Ambassador, a role he uses to raise
the profile of horticulture as a career.
ADAM FROST: GARDEN DESIGNER
JASON ALDEN
The seven-times winner of
Gold at RHS Chelsea Flower
Show reveals those secret
places for all plantaholics
At Chelsea: Adam Frost’s Homebasesponsored Urban Retreat garden
MY LATEST PROJECT
A TREASURED POSSESSION
CREATING a garden at Chelsea takes
100 days of the year from start to
finish, so it’s time-consuming. For
private clients, I’m building a garden
at the foot of the Atlas Mountains
that reflects the landscape and
architecture of its surroundings,
but has a resolute English feel. In
London, I’m making a garden for a
plantaholic in Finsbury Park that has
a Tudor wall in the middle of it with
a six-foot drop. I love creating tiny
oases of calm in the city. You can
bring in wildlife, scent and colour,
and literally change people’s lives.
I HAVE two — my grandfather’s
garden fork, which dates back to the
Second World War, and the spade
that belonged to the grandfather of
BBC Gardeners’ World, presenter
Geoff Hamilton. I worked with him
for seven years when I started out,
helping him create the gardens that
were used for the TV programmes.
I was honoured that his wife gave
me Geoff ’s spade. It sits alongside
my grandfather’s garden fork in my
office and makes me smile every day.
TRANSFORMATION TIPS
LONDON gardens, on the whole, are
small, so don’t overcomplicate.
Incorporate different levels to make
the space appear larger and give it
some depth. Consider built-in
furniture and raised beds to make
the most of every inch. Divide your
garden into zones to make it more
interesting. Paths should meander,
not whizz you through the space in a
straight line. A series of focal
points — a seat, even a statement
plant — encourages a journey
through the garden.
MY FAVOURITE
LANDMARKS
I LOVE modern architecture and
Modernist materials such as concrete
and steel, which I’ve used a lot in
my Chelsea garden, so a favourite
building is the Bauhaus-driven
Isokon block of flats, above, in
Hampstead, where Modernist
architect Marcel Breuer lived.
BEST PLACES FOR PLANTS
Show-inspired: Aquilegia Ruby Port
from the Homebase Chelsea Collection
RASSELLS, the independent plant
nursery in Earls Court Road, is an
inspiration and the plants are always
a bit different. The Gated Garden in
the Three Crown Square area of
Borough Market is a hidden jewel for
everything from tomato plants and
fresh flowers to great big hydrangeas.
At Homebase, we’ve put a great
Chelsea Collection together, inspired
by this year’s show garden. There
are some knockout peonies and
aquilegias as well as foxgloves in
strawberry and chocolate shades.
,& $$$&,
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35
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
Design Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
WHERE I LIKE TO ESCAPE
BEST OUTDOOR SPACE
IN LONDON
GETTY
THE London Wetland Centre, left,
in Barnes is an extraordinary
nature reserve where you can see
kingfishers, water voles and all
kinds of wildlife in the most
natural settings.
At the end of Chelsea week, my
family always join me at the
Rose & Crown pub in Lower Sloane
Street, where many of the show
garden’s designers hang out.
Then on Saturday morning we
head to the showground for the
Saturday sell-off. We all muck in
and help sell the plants from
the garden and it’s fun and
hugely chaotic.
This year, the money goes to
Macmillan Cancer Support.
MY HOME
COMFORTS
MY SECRET SHOPS
I’M A big fan of Baldwin’s in Walworth
Road, a wonderful old herbalist shop
with high, old-fashioned wooden
counters that sells only plant-based
products. Cornelissen’s, left, the artists’
supplies shop in Great Russell Street,
smells wonderful and is a treat, even if
you only buy a paintbrush. Both these
shops are over 150 years old. Amazing.
THE NEXT GARDEN TREND
BEST GARDEN SHOP
THERE is an increasing awareness of
just how beneficial gardens and
gardening are to the mind and body.
Londoners lead busy and stressful
lives, so it makes sense to find time
to connect with nature. A growing
movement of enlightened doctors
even prescribe gardening or simply
getting outdoors.
HORTUS in Blackheath Village is a
great source and inspiration if
you are looking for something to
form a focal point in the garden, such
as a sculpture, an unusual container
or maybe an antique cloche.
Twentytwentyone in Upper Street,
Islington, on the other hand, has a
terrific selection of altogether more
I GO for a morning run around
Battersea Park when I’m working
at Chelsea. I love peeking through
the small, tucked-away entrance in
the park that leads to The Old
English Garden, a surprisingly
big and magical space with masses
of perfumed plants and a trickling
fountain.
At Kew Gardens, my boys love the
Xstrata Treetop Walkway, left,
which was designed by the same
architects as the London Eye,
Marks Barfield.
The walkway is 18 metres high
and you walk around the crowns of
the trees, so you get the same view
as the squirrels.
Garden luxury: lightweight In-Out
chairs, £528 each, by Eric Degenhardt
for Richard Lampert available at
twentytwentyone.com
AT THIS time of year, my
comfort zone is in my
own garden in Rutland.
My family and I eat
outdoors as much as
possible at an oak-and-
contemporary garden furniture,
from the simple Eames Elephant
Stool in bright colours to fabulous
teak patio tables that can seat up
to 10 people.
metalwork table that I
designed for my Chelsea
2013 garden. I call it the
thyme table, because it
has insets in the centre to
drop in pots of herbs.
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MOST COVETED
DESIGN OBJECT
I LOVE the work of London-born
stone carver Emily Young. I was first
introduced to her work when I
helped Terence Conran build his
Chelsea garden for the Imperial War
Museum in 2005, and he used a head
she carved in the style of a warrior.
Recently, I have loved Young’s
exhibit of six gigantic heads in the
middle of Berkeley Square, and I’ll
slope off this week because she’s
exhibiting in the art fair at Olympia
from tomorrow until Saturday. You
can see Angel busts, above, by Emily
Young in St Paul’s Churchyard at
St Paul’s Cathedral.
38
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Property searching
£510,000
IMPRESSIVE high-spec studio flat,
with a private balcony, in the Bézier
development by Old Street station.
Through Life Residential.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/bezier
Clerkenwell’s design
festival is showcasing
top talent in a
setting undergoing
a stunning
transformation,
discovers
Anthea Masey
Little gem: The Zetter boutique hotel in St John’s Square is a great place to meet
C
£1.85 MILLION
TWO-BEDROOM penthouse flat in
Goswell Road with a luxurious
open-plan kitchen and reception
room, roof terrace and private lift
access. Through Foxtons.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/goswell
£2.69 MILLION
STATE-OF-THE-ART extended
terrace home in Chequer Street,
built over three floors with three
bedrooms, a bespoke kitchen and
garage. Through Stirling Ackroyd.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/cheq
£5.95 MILLION
LUXURIOUS four-bedroom,
mid-19th-century detached house
with a roof terrace on the former
site of Cannon Brewery in Brewery
Square. Through Sotheby’s.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/brew
homesandproperty.co.uk with
LERKENWELL Design Week
is in full swing right now,
with the historic district
playing host to a multitude
of creative talents from
around the country and abroad. The
festival is now in its sixth year and going
strong.
During the three-day event, which
started yesterday, Clerkenwell designers and architects throw open their
doors, while some of the neighbourhood’s most historic buildings, including a former prison and a medieval
crypt, become gallery spaces filled with
the imaginative output of established
and new talent.
This year’s festival is showcasing an
array of new projects, street spectacles
and pop-up workshops. A giant tent
designed by architects Grimshaw has
also been pitched in the gardens
behind St James’s Church.
Clerkenwell is named after the Clerks’
Well in Farringdon Lane, which can still
be seen through a window in Well Court.
Islington Local History Centre arranges
visits if you want to learn more about
this EC1 “buffer zone” nestled between
the City and the West End.
Clerkenwell has always been a centre
of traditional craft, clock and watchmakers, bookbinders and printers. It is
therefore appropriate that it is once
again teeming with craftspeople and
small businesses.
St John Street is the district’s backbone. It starts at Smithfield Market
and ends close to Sadler’s Wells
Theatre in Rosebery Avenue, with
St John’s Gate, built at the beginning of
the 16th century as part of the Priory
of Clerkenwell, in between. Since
Clerkenwell’s transformation from
declining industrial area to a neigh-
Clerkenwell
Spotlight
A historic area
has become the
world’s biggest
media village
bourhood of design studios and converted warehouse flats, it has become
settled but increasingly wealthy, a hive
of activity during the week but quiet
and village-like at the weekend.
The arrival of Crossrail at Farringdon
and a pipeline of major developments
is bringing a second wave of change.
Farringdon is set to become the busiest
hub on Crossrail, with connections to
Thameslink and the Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines on
the Tube. Last year, Mayor Boris
Johnson controversially gave the goahead to Royal Mail’s redevelopment of
Mount Pleasant sorting office site on the
corner of Farringdon Road and Rosebery
Avenue. The mixed-use development
will have nearly 700 new homes.
The redevelopment of the former
Guardian offices in Farringdon Road has
moved a step closer with the appointment of architects Allford Hall Monaghan
Morris, although it is back to the drawing
board for the developers of Smithfield
General Market — west of the still-func-
tioning meat market — which has been
derelict for more than 15 years, after
former communities secretary Eric
Pickles turned down their plans.
WHAT THERE IS TO BUY
Many old industrial buildings in this
City-fringe district have been converted
into design studios and lofts. Notable
new developments include Brewhouse
Yard in St John Street, while Barts
Square, a new residential and commercial quarter in old St Bartholomew’s
Hospital buildings, offers 235 homes,
offices, cafés and a church garden.
Period houses around the hospital,
early Victorian houses in Sekforde
Street, and tenement and council
estates might also attract buyers.
John Athanasiou of Stirling Ackroyd
estate agents, which is this year’s sponsors of Clerkenwell Design Week Fringe,
says prices in the area start at about
To find a home in Clerkenwell, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/clerkenwell
For more about Clerkenwell, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightclerkenwell
F
Signs of
individuality:
left, Guven
Hassan, owner
of LilyMaila
hair salon and
coffee shop,
Clerkenwell
Green; right,
Danish company
Cane Line shows
off its outdoor
furniture in the
Clerkenwell
Priory cloister
garden during
Design Week
39
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
Property searching Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
CHECK THE STATS
Look sharp: left,
in St John’s
Square,
architects
Cousins &
Cousins have
designed a
multicoloured
jewel-like
pavilion in
collaboration
with Gx Glass,
as a focal point
for Clerkenwell
Design Week;
right, historic
St John’s Gate
■WHAT HOMES COST
BUYING IN CLERKENWELL
(Average prices)
One-bedroom flat £702,000
Two-bedroom flat £1.1 million
Three-bedroom flat £1.44 million
Source: Zoopla
RENTING IN CLERKENWELL
(Average rates)
One-bedroom flat £2,252 a month
Two-bedroom flat £2,942 a month
Three-bedroom flat £3,924 a month
Source: Zoopla
GO ONLINE FOR MORE
O The best schools serving
Clerkenwell
O The Clerkenwell rental scene
O The latest housing developments
O How this area compares with the
rest of the UK on house prices
O Smart maps to plot your
property search
NEXT WEEK: Surrey Quays. Do
you live there? Tell us what
you think @HomesProperty
Photographs: Daniel Lynch
within walking distance of work. “We
also get downsizers who are exchanging a house in a more traditional area
for a warehouse somewhere a bit
funkier,” he adds.
Staying power: Clerkenwell is not
considered a family-friendly area, so
many couples move out once they have
children, although they may hang on
to their home as a rental investment.
SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS
Top furniture showrooms and good
restaurants are two things that distinguish Clerkenwell. You will find kitchen
designer Bulthaup and iconic Swiss
furniture brand Vitra in Clerkenwell
Road, but there are many more, and
there is still time to visit the 102 showrooms on display during design week.
For nose-to-tail eating, there is
Fergus Henderson’s St John restaurant
in St John Street, which also houses a
café and bakery. Bruno Loubet has
launched Grain Store Unleashed at
The Zetter Hotel in St John’s Square for
a limited time, inspired by a veggiecentric menu at his King’s Cross restaurant. Across the road is Anna Hansen’s
The Modern Pantry, and round the
corner in Sekforde Street is a branch
of Bill Granger’s Granger & Co.
In Farringdon Road, The Eagle kicked
off the gastropub trend in the early
Nineties, while up the road near the
corner of lively Exmouth Market, The
Quality Chop House restaurant has
branched out to include a butcher.
Nearby you can find Sam and Sam
Clark’s Spanish and African-inspired
Moro and its little sister tapas bar,
Morito. Jerusalem Tavern in Britton
Street is one of London’s quaintest
pubs, while The Three Kings in Clerkenwell Close is a traditional pub that,
as the name suggests, celebrates three
kings — Henry VIII, King Kong and
Elvis Presley.
Open space: Clerkenwell is an urban
area, although there are a few green
spaces, such as in Charterhouse Square
and behind St James’s Church.
LEISURE AND THE ARTS
ALAMY
£325,000 for a one-bedroom former
council flat, £600,000 for a one-bedroom modern flat and £1.2 million for
a 1,200sq ft loft-style conversion. The
most expensive home on the market
now is a four-bedroom Victorian house
in Brewery Square, at £5.95 million.
The most expensive loft-style home
is a two-bedroom maisonette with a
double-height living room and roof terrace in a gated development in Dallington Street. It offers 2,267sq ft of space
and the asking price is £2.8 million.
In the heart of Clerkenwell, a twobedroom warehouse conversion above
a branch of Pret A Manger in St John
Street features 1,190sq ft of space and
is for sale for £1.3 million.
The area attracts: Clerkenwell has
traditionally been populated by architects and designers but, according to
Athanasiou, it is now increasingly
attracting City buyers who like being
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Whose little grey cells found a home
in Clerkenwell?
Find the answer at homesandproperty.
co.uk/spotlightclerkenwell
Old Red Lion Theatre in St John Street
is the local fringe theatre, while Sadler’s
Wells Theatre is a leading venue for
modern dance.
Travel: Farringdon Tube station is on
the Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines. From 2018 Farringdon will be the only mainline
station where Thameslink, Crossrail
and Tube services meet. Clerkenwell
is in Zone 1 and an annual travelcard
costs £1,284.
Council: Islington council is Labourcontrolled and Band D council tax
stands at £1,276.01.
40
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Ask the expert
homesandproperty.co.uk with
What does a share of a freehold mean?
Q
Q
A
A
Fiona
McNulty
WHAT’S
YOUR
PROBLEM?
IF YOU have a
question for
Fiona McNulty,
please email
legalsolutions@
standard.co.uk
or write to Legal
Solutions, Homes
& Property,
London Evening
Standard, 2 Derry
Street, W8 5EE.
We regret that
questions cannot
be answered
individually, but
we will try to
feature them
here. Fiona
McNulty is legal
director in the
real estate
team of Foot
Anstey LLP
(footanstey.com)
OUR LAWYER ANSWERS
YOUR QUESTIONS
CAN you explain what is
meant by a share of a
freehold flat? Is there
still a lease? I thought
that most freeholds were owned
by companies.
MOST apartments are
leasehold, which means
that you will have a contract
that entitles you to occupy
the flat for the term of the lease.
For instance, it may be for 99 or
999 years. However, you do not
own the building or the grounds in
which the flat is located.
The building will be owned by the
freeholder, which as you rightly say
is often a company.
The owners of leasehold flats can
buy the freehold of the building, but
this is usually through a company in
which each of the owners of the flats
has a share.
The company is a separate legal
personality from the flat owners and
it will own the freehold.
A share of the freehold is therefore
technically incorrect because the
leaseholder has a share in the
company that owns the freehold.
It is actually an efficient way of
managing a block of flats, as the
leaseholders who are members
$ %%
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%"%
of the company owning the freehold
are in control or have a say regarding
the management of the building,
for example in relation to service
charges for maintenance repairs.
More legal
Q&As
Visit: homesand
property.co.uk
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$*0*9,80*963*490*90*0.6637
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I HAVE just separated from my wife after
20 years. My father died seven years ago and
my wife and I are now trying to sort things
out with minimal expense. I am still paying
all the bills as before, but she is asking about the
money left to me by my father. I have £10,000 on
credit cards and £16,000 in the bank.
Also, our former family home was given to us as a
wedding present. It is in my name and we are in the
process of selling it. Am I right in thinking that I
should pay off the credit cards, then split the rest of
my cash in the bank with my wife and give her 50 per
cent of the proceeds of the house sale?
IT IS difficult to comment without having all the
facts. However, divorce settlements include a
range of possible outcomes to make sure that each
settlement is tailored to meet the needs of the
couple concerned. A settlement would take into account
matters such as whether or not you have children, any
other assets you both have and whether you both work.
Assuming that the only resources are the savings and
liabilities that you have mentioned and the house, then a
reasonable settlement would be that which you propose.
The credit card debt is personal to you so it is better for
you that this is repaid in full. Your wife is entitled to share
in your inheritance, as it was received by you during a
long marriage, and to a share of the property, given that it
was your family home. The settlement you propose
seems fair, but do seek legal advice about your options
and how to make the agreement legally binding.
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.
($$++
$+$$$
41
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
Inside story Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
With the rental
market on a roll,
it’s breakfast
al desko for me
MONDAY
I arrive at the office for 8am every day,
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed — some
days brighter-of-eye and bushier-tailed
than others. First stop is the kitchen
for a coffee and a bowl of porridge.
Contrary to The Boomtown Rats
song, I do like Mondays, as they allow
me to action all the work and ideas that
have come up over the weekend, and
check up on my clients. One of my
negotiators has a day off and she has
left me a list of catch-ups from her
weekend. One is an offer — I know the
landlord will be pleased with it.
This afternoon, I hold a private
viewing at an off-market house with
a well-known footballer — more
proof of Richmond’s desirability.
The property is still effectively a
building site and I feel I have a case of
the “Llewelyn-Bowens”, gesticulating
wildly in an attempt to help him
visualise the potential of the
amazing space.
She is also an estate agent, but in a
northern town, and tells me she has
valued a similar flat at £450 a month.
It really is a different world up there.
THURSDAY
We have a meeting at our headquarters
this morning with every office from the
South-West region — that’s more than
30 negotiators and 10 managers running through the previous week’s business. We can see rental prices creeping
up. Tales of “best and final” offers indicate that the pace of the lettings market
is picking up for the summer. This is
the seasonal trend every year.
I see a house this afternoon that is in
an amazing location with its own plot
next to the Thames. I love it and the
re-letting agent hasn’t found another
tenant yet. I put on my pitching boots
and manage to secure the instruction
for next week.
Diary of
an estate
agent
TUESDAY
FRIDAY
Our corporate and relocation services
department gets in touch this morning.
It has secured a deal that means we
will be working with a number of
corporate tenants looking for flats
and houses in Richmond. This is great
news, but with property flying off
the shelf, we need more. I am also
working with our corporate department to find short-term rental accommodation for the WAGs of the
Australian rugby team.
I value a three-bedroom house this
afternoon that is owner-occupied.
They had been looking to sell, but
decided to re-finance and keep the
It’s an Egg McMuffin morning for a few
of my negotiators before tying up all
our loose ends for the week and getting
organised for the weekend.
It is the company-wide meeting
tonight, so everyone needs to be out of
the office by 5pm to get to South Kensington on time. Lo and behold, something crops up at 4.45pm. It is an offer,
so I manage to agree it on the way into
London — and get to the meeting on
time. It is a good end to the week.
house as an investment. I have seen a
lot of cases similar to this recently.
I’ve got tennis practice this evening
in preparation for the company tournament in a few weeks’ time. My partner
plays badly — and that’s going to
scupper my dreams of winning.
WEDNESDAY
Still aching from tennis, I focus on
helping my team sort out the viewings
for the next few days. Wednesday is
always the day that Saturday’s diary
starts to fill up, so I need to ensure the
right tasks are being dealt with and all
our potential tenants and landlords are
happy with what we have achieved.
I value a two-bedroom flat this afternoon for another owner looking to
upsize and rent their previous property
rather than sell it — I advise that we
market it at £1,995 a month. When I get
back to the office I call my mother, who
has been trying to talk to me for days.
O Douglas Booth is lettings manager
at Marsh & Parsons estate agents
in Richmond (020 8939 1770).
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42
if you’re in the market
for a London property,
we’re
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Letting on
I
T’S Saturday night, I’m heading
off to my own birthday bash, all
set to party like it’s 1989, and a
tenant rings to stop me in my
tracks. For no particular reason
he is planning to move out of his
room the following week. He has
paid his rent for the next two weeks,
but he says he won’t pay any more.
He doesn’t appear to care a jot
about the six-month contract he
signed only three months ago. He has
decided he wants to leave, so he is
going. End of story.
I retort that he is obliged to pay rent
for the next three months, unless he
can find someone suitable to take
over his lease — so there. Then off
I go to dance to some Eighties hits,
determined not to let him spoil my
night. But as I’m strutting my stuff to
Madonna’s Into the Groove (yep, it’s
that kind of party), it suddenly strikes
me that despite my cavalier
response, I might not be within my
rights to just kick back and leave it to
the tenant to sort out this mess.
I had a similar situation, years ago,
with a particularly awkward woman
who gave me just three weeks’ notice
that she was leaving two months
before the end of her fixed-term
lease. At that time, I was warned by a
solicitor friend who specialised in
contract law that I had to try to re-let
the property as soon as possible to
reduce the tenant’s loss. Since then,
Don’t
leave me
this way. . .
A tenant’s decision to move out
early spoils the Eighties birthday
disco for Victoria Whitlock
The accidental
landlord
£695 a week: in Cromwell Road, SW5, Faron Sutaria has a
stylish, two-bedroom split-level apartment to rent, with
romantic rooftop views (homesandproperty.co.uk/alrent)
OnTheMarket.com is the new simple
way to search hundreds of thousands
of properties.
More and more estate and letting
agents are moving all their properties
from other sites to OnTheMarket.com
and are advertising them exclusively
with us first.
So, for a head start in the hunt for
properties you won’t find anywhere
else, search OnTheMarket.com.
£450 a week: in Cambridge Gardens, North Kensington,
this one-bedroom, open-plan flat is available to rent
through JD Wood (homesandproperty.co.uk/alrent1)
'" ""#""!""!" %"!"$"(&)%"""""%"
%"""
""""""'" "%
! " several landlords have told me this is
nonsense, that there is no obligation
on the part of the landlord to try to
re-let a property. So I decide to seek
the opinion of a more specialist
solicitor. I approach Leon Golstein,
head of property disputes at law firm
Seddons in the West End.
He stresses that as every situation
is different, landlords should seek
legal advice based on their specific
circumstances, but in principle, a
landlord does have a duty to try to
re-let a property to reduce the
tenant’s financial burden.
However, he points out that a
landlord isn’t obliged to take the first
applicant who comes along, and in
certain circumstances it might not be
possible for the property to be re-let.
For instance, the landlord might be
overseas, so unable to prepare the
property for re-letting, or the period
left on the lease might be too short
for a lawful let. If this is the case, the
tenant remains on the hook, he said.
Landlords can also pass on the bill
of re-letting the property to the
departing tenant, Golstein reassures
me. This includes letting agent and
marketing costs, assuming these
don’t amount to more than the rent
for the remainder of the lease.
The tenant will also be responsible
for the property and any associated
bills, such as council tax, while it is
empty, up to the end of their lease.
“There are other possible risks,”
says Golstein. “If the tenant leaves
the property empty, contrary to a
duty to keep the property occupied
or secure, and it burns down or
becomes a squat or is otherwise
damaged before it can be safely
re-secured by the landlord, the
tenant may find himself exposed to
all costs and losses arising as well.”
So it seems I will have to get my
skates on to re-let the room, which is
only fair, I suppose — but if I don’t
find someone suitable, my tenant
might regret spoiling my party.
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
46
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property New homes
homesandproperty.co.uk with
By David Spittles
Smart
moves
Immerse yourself in history
with a flat at Wesley Court
CELEBRATED and listed Hanbury Hall in Spitalfields has
a remarkable heritage. It started life in the 18th century
as a Huguenot church, then became a Methodist chapel
where John Wesley, a co-founder of the religious
movement, preached from the pulpit. Charles Dickens
used the building for public readings of his works, while
the founding meeting of the British trade union
movement also took place there.
The architectural legacy of the building, above, has
survived and is being redesigned as part of a collaboration
between the church community and developer
Thornsett, which has refurbished the main hall and
created eight flats in formerly dilapidated and under-used
rooms. Inevitably, they are quirky spaces, one with a
distinctive circular window, yet smart and modern.
Renamed Wesley Court, prices start at £575,000. Call
estate agent Fyfe Mcdade on 020 7613 4923.
Fringe district
has the edge
I
N THE blink of an eye, it seems,
Borough has gone from scuzzy
fringe to fiercely fashionable.
It’s not just the atmospheric food
market that appeals but the
wider area, a wedge of SE1 between
the river and Elephant & Castle.
This is the Tate-Globe-Shard
hinterland, a superbly central
address whether it is the City or
the West End that looms large in
your life.
Borough Place in Marshalsea Road
is a boutique scheme of two- and
three-bedroom apartments,
including a penthouse with a
fabulous 430sq ft roof terrace. Prices
from £975,000. Call Caddington Blue
on 020 7497 6033 for more
information.
Two Fifty One, right and inset, in
Southwark Bridge Road is much
larger — it’s a 41-storey mixed-use
skyscraper with 335 flats, and views
from the upper floors are spectacular.
On completion in 2017, the block
will have a wifi-enabled business and
home-working lounge-cum-café
alongside a private cinema club, a
gym and other amenities. Many of
the apartments have glazed winter
gardens.
Prices start at £634,000. Call DTZ
on 020 3296 2222.
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47
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015
New homes Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk/luxury
homesandproperty.co.uk with
THE PRICE IS RIGHT FOR SPACIOUS
FAMILY HOUSES WITH PARKING
Visit our
online
luxury
section
MEANS VAST AREAS OF
lush parkland
to run in
EDGWARE GREEN, bordering the
Metropolitan green belt in northwest London, has spacious fourbedroom townhouses (the smallest
is 1,845sq ft) priced from £650,000.
They are available under the
Government’s Help to Buy scheme,
which helps first-time and upsizing
buyers find their ideal home with a
manageable deposit. The modern
townhouses are well-designed homes
with private gardens, open-plan
kitchens and family rooms.
They include underground parking
with direct access to the lowerground level of each property, while
Stanmore Tube station is a 15-minute
walk. Call Barratt on 0844 811 4334.
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