Homes& Property Wednesday 13 May 2015 Clerkenwell Design Week Young, creative and fun Page 17 NINE ELMS’ CULTURAL QUARTER P6 HOMES UNDER £100,000 P10 SURFERS’ PARADISE P13 SPOTLIGHT ON READING P36 Oh brother Chelsea Flower Show’s youngest designers y and David Rich Harry RACHEL WARNE Page 30 4 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Online homesandproperty.co.uk with This week: homesandproperty.co.uk Luck of the draw: this new house in Bermondsey was approved but it’s claimed one council turned down another plan because a single councillor disliked flat roofs revealed: the London councils that like to say ‘yes’ IF YOU want planning permission for home improvements, you’re better off in Wandsworth, Kensington and Chelsea, where up to 92 per cent of applications are approved. An audit of the outcome of planning proposals in the past year by planning consultancy Daniel Watney LLP has uncovered a dramatic postcode lottery in the capital, with some councils rejecting two out of three applications. Nick Willson, director of Nick Willson Architects, says Londoners must share some of the blame as they fail to include enough detail with their applications. Property search Trophy buy of the week Regency style, modern luxury £4.2 million: early 18th-century design meets 21st-century luxury at this 7,600sq ft, Regency-style mansion in Cheam, Surrey. French limestone, Italian marble and solid oak are among plush materials used inside the six-bedroom home, spectacularly lit by an octagonal cupola in the roof. The kitchen is a bespoke statement of tulip wood and white granite, while the dining and drawing rooms, cinema and gym are air conditioned. Available through Hamptons International. O homesandproperty.co.uk/trophy London buy of the week boutique apartment will be a perfect pied-à-terre O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk £495,000: mosey on over to Mortlake to see this new boutique development of nine apartments in a prime spot opposite the Thames. Prices go up to £1 million for a penthouse, but this one-bedroom flat could be perfect if it’s a pied-à-terre you’re after. Inside you will find clean lines, space and natural light, hot homes: clever and small Two in one: the John Lewis Odyssey gas-lift table (£599) easily switches from coffee table to a full-size dining table DESIGNERS have recognised the challenges of living in small city spaces and have come up with versatile, lightweight furniture that has more than one use and which often folds away for simple storage. We’ve tracked down 25 of the best furniture ideas for small spaces, including slimline foldaway balcony and patio bistro tables and chairs that mean anyone with even a tiny patch of outdoor space can enjoy alfresco dining this summer. achieved by floor-to-ceiling windows and high-spec details. The 18sq ft reception room/kitchen features glass doors that open out to a private terrace, while the bedroom has an en suite dressing area and bathroom. Through John D Wood. O homesandproperty.co.uk/botw Life changer enough room for family and holiday letting £550,000: this 18th-century beauty in the hills above Llanwrda Village in the Towy Valley, West Wales, is all set up for a successful holiday let business, with its separate two-bedroom stone barn conversion and a one-bedroom annexe. The main farmhouse has three bedrooms and a spacious lounge/diner. Four acres of gardens complete the idyllic package. Through Sell My Home. O homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechanger By Faye Greenslade O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/smallspaces Facebook: 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 0527 Homes & Property, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT. @HomesProperty Post-election boost Sales rise as mansion tax sinks without trace THE Tory election win — and the sinking of Labour’s mansion tax plans — have given an instant boost to London’s housing market, say analysts. Potential buyers dreading the arrival of the hefty new tax on homes worth £2 million-plus have begun house-hunting again, while first-time buyers have welcomed the introduction of new ways to get them on to the property ladder, Estate agents Hamptons International saw its London-based business treble over the post-election weekend. “There was a threefold increase of instructions involving homes above the £2 million price bracket across London and the South-East,” says Johnny Morris, head of research. Jonathan Hudson, director at Hudsons estate agents, added: “All the buyers who had put in offers pending the result of this election £2.65 million: new to the market is this five-bedroom house in Grafton Square SW4 (go online for details) have been busy agreeing these deals since Friday’s result. We expect an increase in new listings in the coming weeks.” Join our tour of homes that have come on to the market since Friday at homesandproperty.co.uk/newsales. 5 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 News Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with Flatley dances his way to Belgravia Violinist’s home hits all the right notes É FRENCH violinist Philippe Honoré has put his Grade II-listed London home, above, on the market with The Modern House for £1.02 million. Honoré, who plays with the world’s leading orchestras and has been appointed violin professor at the Royal Academy of Music, fell for the quirky features in the striking two- bedroom house opposite Acton Park, W3, part of the Goldsmiths Buildings development. Robson Warren Architects turned the almshouses of The Goldsmiths’ Company into modern homes, and Honoré’s was the former chapel. O homesandproperty.co.uk/act É WHO would have thought Irish dancing could bring such riches? It certainly worked for Michael Flatley — he has snapped up a beautiful Belgravia mansion just off superprime Eaton Square. The dancer, below, who ranked seventh in The Sunday Times Rich List of musicians with a fortune of £195 million, is thought to have splashed out more than £20 million for the stuccoed gem. Previously based in Knightsbridge, Flatley and his wife, Niamh, have said they love living in London, where their eight-year-old son Michael St James goes to school. When they fancy a break from the capital, they jet off to their Barbados beach house or their castle in Cork. Flatley, 56, will appear as a guest performer in his show Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games on Friday and Saturday evenings at the Dominion Theatre until June 27. He will make his final appearance as a dancer on the UK stage on July 4 at Wembley Arena, with the British touring production of the same show. Cosy up to the Clooneys É GEORGE CLOONEY and his lawyer wife Amal, right, are keen to inject a little Hollywood glamour into their Thames riverside home in the leafy village of Sonning, Berkshire. They only bought the £10 million, nine-bedroom mansion seven months ago but it is already having a luxe facelift, with the addition of a pool, hot tub and 12-seater cinema. It will surely set new standards for the area. A nearby six-bedroom home, above, also has star quality. It has just come on the market with Hamptons International for £2.95 million. O homesandproperty.co.uk/son By Amira Hashish Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews Harry’s wild about £13m Miami house ÉTHE Temple House is the largest family house in South Beach, Miami. Harry Styles, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, left, are among the A-listers who have used it for shoots and the setting for interviews. Currently owned by entrepreneur Daniel Davidson, the renovated Art Deco building is on the market at £13.1 million with Sotheby’s International Realty. The former synagogue features a grand room with a 25ft-high ceiling, far left, a spacious sundeck and a five-bedroom mansion on site. 6 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with A GRAND plan to create a major new cultural quarter at Nine Elms and Vauxhall, one of Europe’s biggest regeneration zones, has been unveiled this week. It is an ambitious initiative to combat the criticism that this fledgling riverside district, where 18,000 homes are to be dropped into the landscape within a decade, lacks soul and a sense of community. Some fear it will end up being a land of absentee owners, investors and transitory renters. However, city planners and developers are spearheading a project for this shiny new neighbourhood with “fresh urban thinkers” who know how global cities should evolve. The process is known as “cultural place-making”, where the arts are not a cuddly vanity project for some rich philanthropist, but embedded into the area and woven into its architectural fabric, helping to engage local residents and foster a sense of belonging. Well, that’s the theory. World-renowned architects are shaping the landscape with showpiece glassy and glossy buildings — satellite projects linked to the born-again Battersea Power Station. Public spaces, including a riverside park, are being designed with art and community Just the spot: Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery will be housed in the warehouse where his spot paintings were made Fresh urban thinkers and place-makers have been shipped in to bring community life to the new ‘global city’ being built on the south bank of the Thames, discovers David Spittles Will this newly launched cultural From £800,000: Riverlight at Nine Elms will host StudioRCA, launched by the Royal College of Art participation in mind — for theatre and dance performances, events, markets and exhibitions — while buildings awaiting redevelopment are being handed over to pop-ups. The power station’s developer has even appointed a director of design and place-making, David Twohig, to deliver a strategy for a rich and diverse programme of cultural events. “The spaces in between the buildings are as important as the buildings themselves,” he says. Circus West, the first residential phase of the power station, includes a contemporary take on the traditional village hall, while the original boiler house and control room will be cultural venues. Royal College of Art’s Battersea campus, a recent arrival, is an artistic hub with influence that is spreading to the less glamorous Lambeth and Wandsworth hinterland, where there is an established network of galleries and studios. The college has forged a relationship with developer St James by opening StudioRCA at the swish Riverlight apartment complex at Nine Elms where homes are priced from £800,000. Call 020 7870 9620. Coming soon is Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery, which will house the artist’s personal art collec- tion of 2,000 pieces, including works by Banksy and Jeff Koons. Opening this summer, the new space is a redevelopment of listed warehouses where Hirst’s famous spot paintings are produced. It occupies the entire length of a street once considered the wrong side of the tracks. But this grittier side of Vauxhall is changing fast, with the hipsters moving in, and developers offering cheaper loft-style apartments. Ironically, a nearby fine art storage warehouse belonging to auctioneer Christie’s is making way for The Residence — 510 homes, 76 of which are classified as “affordable” available on Cultural hub: creative input is transforming the Battersea and Nine Elms landscapes a shared-ownership basis. To register, call Bellway on 01689 886400. Charles Asprey’s Cabinet Gallery is also scheduled to open later this year. If Nine Elms Vauxhall is set to become the new Barbican, it will certainly be more navigable than the celebrated arts venue, with a linear park linking the individual developments — 29 sites across 482 acres — and a well markedout culture trail across the district. A “promenade of curiosities” will connect Lambeth’s pocket parks to Vauxhall Cross. Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, a revival of a Victorian venue, has put in place a summer programme of outdoor cinema screenings while a temporary ice rink will open for the Christmas and new year period. Boosted by a new pedestrian bridge, the area is also reaching across the Thames to be part of the Chelsea Fringe, hosting horticultural and arts events. DO THE LAMBETH WALK Nearby Fentiman Road has four-storey mid-Victorian houses popular with barristers and City types. Another hot address is Lilian Baylis Old School. The listed Sixties teaching blocks have been turned into generoussize, big-window apartments while new in-keeping homes have been built in the re-landscaped grounds. Call KFH on 020 7740 2640. Fabled Lambeth Walk’s Victorian streetscape was marred by redevelopment in the Seventies, but parts of it are being restored. Small businesses a n d g a l l e r i e s a re m ov i n g i n t o 7 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 New homes Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with Big picture: a series of free outdoor screenings brings film fans to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, right Urban strategy: a riverside esplanade is planned at Nine Elms, stretching from St George Wharf apartment complex, left, to Battersea Power Station quarter give Nine Elms heart and soul? refurbished shopfronts, and over-theshop accommodation is set to become available. The big question is whether a wider creative district can be “made” in this way. Can this slowly evolving organic process be manmade? Cynics would question why developers want to forge partnerships with the arts. It couldn’t possibly be for profit, could it? “I suppose patrons are okay, but we don’t want to be patronised,” says Bridget Wright, 58, a lifelong local resident. “A lot of snooty types from across the river in Chelsea are turning up,” she adds. “And we are already seeing prices moving beyond what many locals can afford.” Planning requirements force developers to make financial contributions and physical improvements to the local area. In the case of Nine Elms, two new schools and health care provision as well as the Northern line extension are part of the bounty to get the green light to transform an area. The smarter builders have put in place a cultural strategy to win brownie points with loc al counc ils and stakeholders — whether residents, businesses or lobby groups. Mark Davy, founder of Futurecity, a self-styled “place-making agency” that specialises in cultural collaborations, is at the centre of this debate. He is busy making places and has about 30 developer clients and 100 projects on the go across London and the South East. “In the past, creative neighbourhoods were in so-called ‘downtown’ areas with cheap industrial space and bad transport links, but the success of new developments built around the arts, such as King’s Cross, has persuaded the private sector to invest in culture,” he says. “Often it’s about making creative use of an existing budget. London is moving from a capital city traditionally defined by the financial sector to one defined by the creative and knowledge sectors.” Culture, he adds, brings the energy, authenticity and edginess that defines a modern city. Vauxhall’s backstreet scene: turn to Page 8 8 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with From £495,000: loft apartments at Embassy Works, a former laundry factory complex next to Vauxhall Park Vauxhall’s not getting left behind Zone 1’s cheapest area is set for a boost as the flash new neighbours move in, says David Spittles V AUXHALL’S backstreets, sprinkled with council tenements and housing charity schemes, including the Duchy of Cornwall estate — a charming enclave of terrace cottages built in the early 20th century — are likely to be big beneficiaries of the new investment and cultural connections coming to the wider district. The railway line’s arches used to act as a bulky boundary wall, blocking the alluring riverfront at Albert Embankment. But those once-derelict arches are being reincarnated as retail spaces and restaurants, while green pedestrian routes through to the Thames are finally opening up. By Zone 1 standards, property in the area is cheap, which attracts younger buyers as well as people with bigger budgets trading more expensive parts of London to be closer to the West End action. For many decades Embassy Transformed: above, the café in Bonnington Square; right, homes on the Duchy of Cornwall estate; far right, an aerial view of Embassy Works Works, next to Vauxhall Park, was a laundry factory that housed clients such as The Savoy and The Ritz. The complex of warehouses is now being converted into 39 loft apartments with exposed beams and brickwork. A giant penthouse has already been snapped up by a Soho entrepreneur. “For people who want to live in a glass tower, there are plenty of options at Nine Elms. We’re offering something different,” says Jason Tracey of Bmor. Prices from £495,000. Call JacksonStops & Staff on 020 7664 6649. A lot of families choose to live in Vauxhall, as there are pockets of relatively affordable period housing. Bonnington Square, a secluded space near Kia Oval cricket ground, has a close-knit community, with an awardwinning garden square and organic café run by a collective. The group rescued the square when it was under threat of demolition in the Eighties. +&36 ()*,!!'-*%/.#'($%,'2%4)''$,'/% '-**% 31+%2)''$(),$%,**,!%()"#% "/''%'"'*,)*,-*,,!'%*)', /!, !%/#"!%!*,%1 ()'.!!%**,', *,%%, !,0!%#**, %4&$!%-,*5 5///,#'.-" 1 !*,)0'-)!%,)*,, 9 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 Commuting Homes & Property L ATER this month hundreds of athletes will take part in the annual London 2 Brighton Challenge. Londoners running through the towns and villages of Surrey and Sussex should take note — these places are showing a healthy price growth as buyers squeezed out of the capital move in. Thousands of commuters make this journey, boarding trains from Victoria or London Bridge. Beyond Gatwick airport but still within an hour of the capital, there are 10 stops for buyers to choose from, whether they are looking for a value-for-money starter home or a country pile. Research by Savills details a cluster of Surrey addresses — Redhill, Earlswood and Salfords — that have enjoyed solid annual price growth, with the average house price now standing at £312,258. We made it: take the London 2 Brighton challenge and check out homes along the way REDHILL In terms of charm and aesthetic appeal, Redhill is a bit of a poor relation compared to Surrey’s top commuter towns, such as Guildford. However, a £50 million facelift is planned for Redhill station, which will include a town square, shops and new homes. The main factor in Redhill’s favour is the speed of the commute — trains to London take 35 minutes and an annual season ticket costs £2,672. What Redhill does have is quality primary and senior schools. The Warwick School and Saint Bede’s School are rated “good” by Ofsted. However, it doesn’t have a great array of period houses, although it offers plenty of affordable new-build properties in the city centre and post-war houses in the suburbs. Will Norris, a negotiator at Connells Residential, says his buyers tend to be young couples looking for a central t wo -bedroom flat for bet ween £200,000 and £240,000. They should expect to pay £450,000-plus for a fourbedroom house. Buyers who want period homes should look to nearby Earlswood, where roomy detached Victorian and Edwardian houses sell for about £400,000. Home search while on the run Commute from Surrey or Sussex and watch your home’s value rise, says Ruth Bloomfield there are three-bedroom Victorian cottages, priced at about £350,000. Lindfield, which is within a 15-minute walk of Haywards Heath station, has credentials — historic houses, an ancient church and a pond. Buyers can expect to pay between £450,000 and £550,000 for a three-bedroom Victorian semi-detached house. BURGESS HILL £970,000: five-bedroom detached house on Pendleton Road, Redhill (homesandproperty.co.uk/redh) HAYWARDS HEATH Strong choices in West Sussex are Haywards Heath and neighbouring Lindfield, just south of the Sussex Weald, within easy reach of some of the South East’s loveliest countryside. Haywards Heath is a 44-minute journey to London. An annual season ticket costs £3,808. An average property costs £315,483, up only 3.1 per cent in the past year, but 15.6 per cent since 2007. Sophie Wysock-Wright, a director of Savills, estimates that four in 10 of her London buyers want a family home. The top area in the town itself is Lucastes Avenue and the surrounding £699,000: six-bedroom semi-detached house on High Street, Merstham, Surrey (homesandproperty.co.uk/merst) roads, just west of the station, where a detached four-bedroom Twenties house would cost between £650,000 and £750,000. Close to the station Moving closer to the South Downs, another good West Sussex commuter choice is Burgess Hill. The journey to London takes 52 minutes and an annual season ticket costs £3,808. Peter Bushell, branch manager of Fox & Sons, admits the shops and restaurants aren’t as good as those in Haywards Heath, but adds that buyers who spend another 10 minutes on the train get an extra bedroom or a detached house. It is a “perfect hub” — a good commute to London and only a 20 minute-drive to Brighton. The best houses are the Victorian, Edwardian and Thirties semi-detached homes along Crescent Road, Park Road and Silverdale Road, priced at about £400,000. Much of the town’s housing stock was built post-war, and a three-bedroom house built in the Sixties would be priced at about £300,000. TOP COMMUTER DESTINATIONS Journey time (mins) Gatwick airport Horley Three Bridges Redhill Earlswood (Surrey) Balcombe Salfords Haywards Heath Wivelsfield Burgess Hill Hassocks 30 33 34 35 39 40 43 44 50 52 55 Annual season ticket price £2,952 £3,180 £3,200 £2,672 £2,688 £3,808 £3,180 £3,808 £3,808 £3,808 £3,808 Average price of a home £322,241 £322,241 £282,992 £312,258 £312,258 £470,704 £312,258 £315,483 £293,398 £293,398 £411,086 Annual price change (% ) 9.8 9.8 7.7 13 13 3.1 13 3.1 10.7 10.7 1.5 5-year growth (% ) 16.4 16.4 17.3 15 15 13.6 15 15.6 18.3 18.3 16.6 Source: Savills using Office of Rail Regulation and Land Registry 10 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property First-time buyer homesandproperty.co.uk with Dream of a London home for under £100k Ruth Bloomfield discovers affordable homes in Zone 3’s Catford — where even the commuting is easy and cheap THE KNOWLEDGE CATFORD A £76,000: for a 40 per cent share of a one-bedroom flat at Prospect Quarter, which is being built on the site of the old greyhound track S BUYERS find themselves increasingly priced out of Clapham and East Dulwich, an unlikely neighbourhood south of the river is starting to seem like a great first-time option, and one of the few places left in the capital where you can buy a home for less than £100,000. Catford is not glamorous, but it is affordable and is due to be revamped, so it will become a good bet for buyers keen to see their investment value grow. Lewisham council plans to regenerate the town centre, currently a rather sad affair with a proliferation of empty buildings and pound shops, while Transport for London has vowed to improve roads. Major new housing developments include Prospect Quarter, which is being built on the site of the former Catford greyhound stadium. Housing association Peabody (peabody.org.uk) has 38 shared-ownership properties for sale on the site. They will be ready to move into at the end of next month and priority will be given to those already living or working in south-east London. Another 22 sharedownership homes on the site will go on sale at the end of October. “It is the last bastion of really affordable homes that is close to London,” says Martin Fillery, head of affordable homes at Currell, which is selling the flats. “It really is the only place where you can buy a home for under £100,000. I think that it has been overlooked for years, but it is a key area.” A 40 per cent share of a one-bedroom flat at Prospect Quarter, with a full price of £190,000, will cost £76,000. Buyers also need to budget for a monthly rent of £247 and an estimated monthly service charge of £150. Two-bedroom flats start at £93,000 for a 30 per cent share of a property that has a full market value of £270,000. Added to the cost of the mortgage will be a monthly rent payment of £470, plus a service charge of about £165. Prospect Quarter is part of Barratt London’s Catford Green scheme. It will feature 589 homes by 2017, and shops, in landscaped grounds near Ladywell Fields, which has been spruced up with tennis courts and a café. A plus-point in this development’s favour is its transport links. Commuters can travel from Catford Bridge to Waterloo East, Cannon Street or Charing Cross in 18, 22 and 20 minutes respectively. Journeys from Catford to Blackfriars take 22 minutes, while a trip to St Pancras takes just more than half an hour. Both of Catford’s stations are in Zone 3 and an annual season ticket costs £1,508. In the future there is talk of extending both the Docklands Light Railway and the Bakerloo line to Catford. If either plan materialises, it would give the area a huge boost. Sleep easy: Prospect Quarter is part of Barratt London’s Catford Green project. By 2017 it will feature 589 stylish new homes along with new shops and landscaped grounds Past: Catford Stadium, one of London’s top greyhound racetracks from 1932 to 2003, suffered a fire in 2005 and was later demolished. Future: Lewisham council is plotting a badly needed upgrade of Catford Shopping Centre. Trivial pursuit: Catford is home to Britain’s largest surviving prefab housing estate. The Excalibur Estate was built after the Second World War to provide “temporary” housing for families bombed out of the East End. What homes cost: the average price is £337,982, up 7.42 per cent in the past year, according to Zoopla. For renters, a two-bedroom flat would cost an average of £1,218pcm. Landmark: the huge fibreglass cat at the entrance to Catford Shopping Centre. Eat: Sushi at Sapporo Ichiban. Drink: at Catford Constitutional Club on Catford Broadway. If you get peckish, it has a good modern British menu. Buy: fruit and vegetables at the old-school Catford market. Walk: along the River Ravensbourne, which runs through Ladywell Fields — you could almost be in the countryside. Get set to pounce: a giant cat greets visitors at Catford Shopping Centre &' ((73-()65(/7(&-7*6-(")3(32(635((2-(&-(,(323((73 (7-(/7(&-7*6-("),37%(""(-)(),(,(-31-( 6- (-(2)()(736-(/7(-((!)5(//-31(0()+-(/(-()+- (-6631-6(,-31-,(6)(//-31()(/))3+(-+3/3+)3 . 5(()37-(( 3-(("2(7-(*(+)6631( &4 4$ !21)2(/(37-(&)654(#) -6(37-(),(,3)+-()37)-(6()5-(/7(16-(7)((#4(.!3+-(+-+()(37-(/(-4 12 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Public spaces homesandproperty.co.uk with Key locations: far left, “shared” Exhibition Road; left, shoppers enjoy the sunshine in Lyric Square, the new public space in Hammersmith Crossing: the proposed Thames Garden Bridge Access all areas A SPRING CLEARANCE UP TO 40% OFF 1 5 – 2 5 M AY Ligne Roset City 37-39, Commercial Road – London, E1 1LF Call 020 7426 9670 www.ligne-roset-city.co.uk LL THE pavement artists in Trafalgar Square congregate on the strip in front of the National Gallery. This is because the rest of the square is managed by the Greater London Authority, which won’t allow their activities. The northern terrace — a roadway until it was pedestrianised in 2003 — is still managed by Westminster council. This is part of the madness surrounding the way we are allowed to use the London landscape — the city’s squares, roads, pavements, riverbanks and all the bits between the buildings. Their use is explored in Public London, an exhibition by New London Architecture (NLA) at the Building Centre in Store Street WC1. The show tracks the largely positive change in attitude towards public space in the capital in the decade since the city was awarded the 2012 Olympics. But the show’s organisers, NLA’s chairman Peter Murray and director Debbie Whitfield, say the debate about public space began much earlier when, in 1986, architect Richard Rogers first suggested pedestrianising Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square and the whole of Victoria Embankment, which would be turned into a park with the traffic sent underground. These radical ideas drove subsequent discussions with governments and mayors. Meanwhile, developers had begun to include areas that were ostensibly public in commercial schemes, such as Broadgate in the City and in Canary Wharf. Research found that office workers are prepared to walk up to 440 yards further at lunchtime if they can find a nice place to sit and eat their sandwiches or chat with friends. Landlords soon realised that friendly and welcoming public spaces outside their buildings would attract more tenants and customers. The show begins outside the NLA’s Store Street offices, where the curved forecourt-cum-road is turned into an installation called Never Mind the Bollards. All the items making up this urban environment — plane trees, cobbles, manhole covers and lamp posts — will be annotated to get people thinking about the spaces we share. The NLA had previously simply laid AstroTurf on its forecourt, which was immediately populated by lounging Londoners. “As soon as you give people something to sit on, they come from all around to use it,” says Murray. “Londoners are desperate for outside space where they can have a sandwich and meet their friends.” Fifteen years ago, Westminster council threatened to prosecute cafés that put tables on the pavement — now café culture is seen as an essential part of street life. Just look at Soho. The We love a cappuccino in the sun, a picnic in a park and browsing in our street markets. Public space matters, says Nick Curtis ‘As soon as you give people something to sit on, they come from all around to use it’ O Public London: Ten years of transforming London’s public spaces is at the NLA Galleries in the Building Centre, 26 Store Street WC1, until July 11 (newlondon architecture.org) conversion of Exhibition Road in South Kensington into a fluid “shared space” is a recent example of friendly space. Smaller projects include Assemble — a timber stage in New Addington town centre, built as a focal point for community events — and the proposed floating lido on Victoria Embankment, planned by Studio Octopi. In my bit of Lambeth, grass bays and flowerbeds have been built out into roads, helping drainage, slowing traffic and making life that little bit more pleasant. Many improvements involve transport upgrades and changes to road usage. The congestion charge was a major game-changer for the quality of life in London, as was the reintroduction of slower, more pedestrian-friendly, twoway traffic in place of one-way urban “race tracks”. This transformation is due for Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street. City Hall and TfL are currently organising London’s roads into nine categories, from arterial routes where vehicles can travel at 60mph down to pedestrian zones. In 2018, Alfred Place, off Store Street, will be converted into a park in time for Crossrail. The new link will mean thousands more people on the pavements in the West End and the City. Murray says: “We need to think about how we provide space for them to move around comfortably.” Hence the creation of a proper piazza around Centre Point. “One of the big ge st mi st akes Boris Johnson made was to abandon the pedestrianisation of Parliament Square for God knows what reason,” adds Murray. “But that will come back on the agenda because it really is a scandal.” Richard Rogers’s plan for a park on Victoria Embankment never came true, although “it is going to be a cycle superhighway, so less cardominated”. With expected local and central government spending cuts, the creation and maintenance of public space will inevitably fall to private developers. And there is an ongoing debate about how “public” the spaces should be. Murray says, however, that things are improving. Security guards at the More London development no longer treat passing cyclists as if they are terrorists. Murray adds: “There is still work to be done, but the open space debate is all going in favour of more sandwiches being eaten outside in summer.” 13 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 homesandproperty.co.uk with Holiday homes Homes & Property Wild Atlantic coast is a surfers’ paradise North Cornwall offers fabulous new family homes, good cuisine and beaches galore, says Cathy Hawker F OR SURFERS, active families or avid foodies, the North Cornwall coast is a destination that delivers. From the bright lights of Newquay to quiet coves, the wild Atlantic coastline with its big-name chefs — Nathan Outlaw, Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver — provides homes and holidays that lure families back again and again. This year has started strongly, says Miles Kevin of Chartsedge estate agents, helped perhaps by the popularity of the BBC’s Cornish-based serial, Poldark. After a long, post-recession hiatus, new developments are being built and are selling. “The market switched on at the start of spring,” says Kevin. “We launched Seascape, an off-plan development of 12 units in Newquay priced from £170,000, and immediately sold 10 homes. Prices are still between five and 15 per cent off their pre-recession peaks, but sensibly priced properties in good locations are selling well.” FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP Bay Retreat, a resort in St Merryn, 10 minutes from Padstow, stalled in the recession, but new owners have refurbished it to offer 28 two-bedroom modern holiday homes for £145,000. Annual service charges will be about £1,250. Also new to the market in New Polzeath, 30 minutes from Newquay Cornwall airport, Atlantic House has nine apartments available through fractional ownership. This was the site of a successful 27-room hotel built a b o u t 1 9 0 0 d i re c t ly ove r N e w Polzeath’s impressive, family-friendly beach. Families would return every summer for old-fashioned bucket-and- Surf’s up: Ruth and Hugh Pitman and their new-look home, The Yellow Cottage CORBIS Surfing couple realise their dream AFTER three years renting The Yellow Cottage in Trebarwith Strand, two miles from Tintagel, Ruth and Hugh Pitman from Wiltshire asked the owners to give them first refusal if they ever sold. The owners responded and, in 2007, the Pitmans bought the small bungalow overlooking the sea. “We holidayed there so we could take our three children surfing at Polzeath, but we discovered the surfing was excellent in Trebarwith Strand,” says Ruth, a chartered surveyor. “We completely fell in love with the village and have never bothered to go anywhere else.” The bungalow, however, was rundown and the Pitmans replaced it with a spacious house, keeping the distinctive yellow cladding and creating a comfortable New England-style home less than 100 feet from the beach. The family use it often, but also rent it through Perfect Stays, a rentals company offering a bespoke concierge service in some large, exceptional holiday homes. “It is easy to let during school holidays, Christmas and new year,” says Ruth. “May, June and September are increasingly popular months. In fact, you could let it for 18 to 20 weeks as well as some long weekends.” spade holidays. Helen Schofield from Henley had holidayed at Atlantic House since the Sixties. Now married with three adult children, she and her husband, Brian, knew the hotel well. With Brian’s brother Christopher, they bought the hotel in 2009 and, after securing some financial backing, last autumn had it demolished to make way for a new building. On completion next spring Atlantic House will become a 14-room hotel with nine contemporary two- and three-bedroom apartments available on a 999-year lease. These apartments average 1,100sq ft, all with balconies facing the sea, and will be sold fully furnished on a fractional basis priced from £105,000 to £145,000. Owners get five weeks’ use each year and can rent any weeks they don’t use. So far, 46 per cent of the 90 fractions are sold, mostly to families who knew the hotel, but also to couples like the surfers who wandered up from the beach and ended up buying into the project. O The Yellow Cottage is available through Perfect Stays from £1,400 for three nights. Visit perfectstays. co.uk or call 01208 895570. Rock on: lovely Newquay beach has been a favourite of families for generations From £105,000: new apartments at Atlantic House are being built on the site of the former beachside hotel, offering balconies and sea-facing views throughout O Atlantic House: visit theatlantic house.co.uk or call John Bray & Partners on 01208 863206 O Chartsedge: chartsedge.co.uk (01392 832446) 16 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property My home homesandproperty.co.uk with I got what I wanted PURE AND SIMPLE H White hot: the Ikea carcass kitchen Contrast: white walls and dark floors could oversee the project, which took five-and-a-half months. He kept the interior décor simple, with dark oak floorboards, white walls and window blinds. The living room features a large, white, bespoke wall unit, while the modern flueless ethanol fire surround is made with grey marble. The kitchen is an Ikea carcass, with bespoke plywood doors and counter tops in grey with a stylish splash of yellow on the wall with the fitted shelves. Upstairs neat balustrades double as bookshelves, and the master bedroom has built-in wardrobes and storage in the eaves. It is large enough for an armchair beneath a huge picture window, which slides open to reveal the rooftops of south London. Inserting a skylight at the top of the stairs allows for more light, while the skylight above the shower floods the bathroom with natural light. The project extended the property by about a third to 973sq ft and cost £110,000. It is valued at between £600,000 and £650,000. “I have invested a lot of time and energy in this project, but I have got exactly what I want. It is a home with the wow factor,” says Steve. His top tips include thinking ahead to plan for what you really want, and to create as much storage as possible. But one thing Steve regrets is not having sliding doors installed, which would have given him the option of using the kitchen and living rooms as one space or two separate rooms. OMEBUYERS sometimes need to search an area for a long time to find the right property with improvement potential. Steve Rosier’s ascent up the property ladder began in 2000 when he bought a four-bedroom Edwardian house in Brixton for the now-unimaginable sum of £260,000. By 2009, Steve wanted to move closer to the heart of London, so he sold his place for £425,000 and rented while viewing more than 60 flats over two years. He found a top-floor maisonette in Kennington — central enough so that he could hear Big Ben chime. It was advertised as having two bedrooms, though one was too small to justify the name. But what attracted Steve, a 44-year-old publicist with Channel 4, was a share of the freehold — ownership of the good-sized attic and the opportunity to totally refurbish. He paid £350,000 for the 647sq ft property. His research had proved that neighbouring properties with new loft conversions were fetching a sale price of £70,000 more, so the space-creating solution was obvious. Steve hired architect Francesco Pierazzi (fparchitects.london) to draw up imaginative plans with a cube-shaped loft extension to house a master bedroom and bathroom, and open out the main floor to create a living room and kitchen, plus a guest bedroom and a study area. After obtaining planning permission, Steve rented nearby so he ALL PICTURES: DAVID BUTLER Result:: Steve says planning is key After climbing the ladder, Steve Rosier has his perfect home, says Ruth Bloomfield Vantage point: Steve Rosier’s main bedroom is in a cube-shaped loft extension Sleek and chic: the living room features a modern fireplace and bespoke wall unit #!$$!$$! %# %#% ! & !' ! % ' ! $/*$(&&2$/)*$)* *23*$(3//.$%"$$$ '*)3$&&3*1$** *$,3$-+" !( ! " !! (% " ! (% ! % ! !' $ % %# '!' ! ! !! ! $ '# ! %% %! $ % " "" ! --$ $$-%+$ 2/*&(/&221(10 17 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 Design Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with Craft work: innovation in design can be found through the week. Don’t miss these Ballo stools by Humanscale, left, and the M11 furniture range by Mathias Hahn for Zeitraum, right CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK Go east to the cutting edge Three days and 80 venues will be devoted to the work of the latest young designers. This is a must-see, reports Barbara Chandler T HERE is only one event to visit in east London next week where you can see the latest cutting-edge designs for free. It’s Clerkenwell Design Week, of course. It began as an annual celebration of design five years ago, but it has now transformed into a leading independent festival, with group shows, product launches, installations, talks, walks and workshops. But if you want to soak up everything it has to offer, you’ll need to be quick, because it only lasts three days — from Tuesday until Thursday. Register for free entry to the show at clerkenwell designweek.com. The venues are an added bonus. This clutch of historic buildings housing about 80 showrooms is in an area saturated with medieval history. Make a start in St John’s Square, with its stunning pop-up pavilion of coloured glass. Then dip into Priory Church at the Order of St John monastery. Here you will find 35 booths for high-end furnishings, including rugs, furniture and wallpapers. Draw breath in the beautiful secret garden at the back, and gear up to see more with a glass of bubbly from the bar. Next, visit the Old Sessions House on Clerkenwell Green. It’s a fabulous 18th-century former courthouse, with top interiors brands filling a warren of rooms. At the medieval St John’s Gate, you will find under the arch a cocoon-like sculpture of woven, steambent hardwood designed and made by artist Laura Ellen Bacon and London woodworker Sebastian Cox. They’ve called this centrepiece The Invisible Store of Happiness. Finally, there is the Farmiloe Building, once home to a Victorian glassworks, with an entrance now decorated by Johnson Tiles. This — the “Design Factory” — is the largest show of the lot, with about 75 designers and brands crammed into a warren of rooms and steps. Take a break at the Leica Café, and browse a shopping arcade of designer goodies. O See Danish craftsman in action at the new Carl Hansen & Søn showroom at 16A Bowling Green Lane EC1 (carlhansen.com) O Retreat into felt “hammocks” in the Hypnos installation by Francesco Draisci, and/or book a “nidra” session, the yoga that’s like sleep, with Sto Werkstatt, 7-9 Woodbridge Street EC1 (werkstatt.sto.com) O Shop at a pop-up for new grads from Wednesday to Saturday (looklikelove.co.uk) Hot seat: the festival features the latest addition to the Cyborg chair range by Magis *(#"$0"-1-('"" "&1$"0-1-('"%"*$$((."1$""!+."(*-(('"-"*0$'"" $0(.",($/(.&1"$'",("$&-$('"0*"$("(*-(('"$'(1$/")" *(#"$0"-1-('. (*-(('")"&("'"0"$*,"("!""(("'" !""*0$'. 18 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Reader promotion Hook it or hide it homesandproperty.co.uk with Bargain news Sleek Danish-style sofa bed brings a Fifties retro touch Serve up a new kitchen with designer style in mind IF YOU fancy a new kitchen with minimum fuss, The Kitchen Restoration Company is the specialist to turn to. It can replace drawer fronts and worktops, and change sinks, taps and appliances if required. Units can be added or removed, while storage solutions can be installed. For a free brochure or a free visit from a designer, call 0800 917 7238, or visit kitchen-restoration.com. Readers are offered free fitting on all orders received by June 10 using code 13/05/ES/BH. Versatile and great value THE versatile Relyon Juno guest bed from One Regent Place has an impressive 55 per cent off — from £1,049 to only £499. In a classic Shaker design, it comes in a dark oak finish or a white finish, as pictured, and is crafted with fine detailing. It can be used as a classic single bed, as twin beds or the two single open-coil mattresses can be linked to create a large double bed. The mattresses are included in the price. To order, visit oneregentplace.co.uk or call 020 7087 2900 (Monday to Friday) before May 18. THE handy wall-mounted hook-and-hide unit from Within is hand-carved from solid mango wood and features six separate storage compartments, each with an antique-style brass name plate. Four practical iron hooks sit below for coats, hats or dog leads, while the top section provides the perfect place to perch other items. Readers can claim 15 per cent off, reducing the price from £125 to only £106.25. To claim your offer, visit withinhome. com or call 020 7087 2900 and quote HOOK15 before May 31. THE chic Pablo sofa bed, right, from Onedeko takes its inspiration from the style pioneered by young Danish designers in the Fifties, offering a clean, retro feel for your home. This is a modern classic, and it is available as a sofa bed, chair and lounger. Readers can claim an extra 10 per cent discount, reducing the price of the sofa bed from £1,188 to only £909 when using the voucher code ALISONATHOME. Visit onedeko.co.uk or call 020 7377 5900 before May 24 to claim your offer. Alison Cork Hang out in a pod WALLACE SACKS is offering a 60 per cent discount across its entire outdoor living collection, and with this offer you can snap up the indoor/outdoor hanging pod chair and frame with free delivery. The Brighton hanging chair, right, is made from weatherproof PU rattan with a robust weatherproof metal frame, both of which are guaranteed for five years. It also comes with an upholstered enveloping cushion. With a normal price of £999, the chair is now £399.60 until May 31. For free delivery, visit wallacesacks.com or call 0800 0114642 and enter code BLOFELD at the checkout. 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. “ 22 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Design homesandproperty.co.uk with By Katie Law E LEY KISHIMOTO is a British fashion and design company founded in 1992 by Mark Eley and his wife Wakako Kishimoto. The Brixton-based couple are best known for their vibrant silk screen prints, inspired by history and architecture, which span clothing, textiles and wallpapers. They recently designed the interior of Southerden Patisserie and Café in Bermondsey Street. Here they reveal who makes the best ramen in London, where to buy giant palm trees and why champagne tastes best drunk from a pewter goblet. Ou Our ur des de es es Lon London ondon o ondo nd do on n MARK ELEY AND WAKAKO KISHIMOTO OUR STYLE Mark: lots of pattern and colour have gradually crept into the house, mostly our own prototype wallpaper and textile designs, so the rooms look exuberantly colourful and busy. We use our hallway as an ever-changing exhibition space and installed a gallery hanging system that allows us to change paintings regularly without damaging the wallpaper. The kitchen is simple wood, stainless steel and slate with open shelves for all our pots, pans and blenders. Wakako, who is vegan, loves spending her spare time sprouting seeds. WHERE WE LIVE AND WORK WE’VE lived and worked on the Brixton/Clapham border since 1992. Our studio is a two-minute walk from home, which we share with our daughter Tomomi, 17, and our son Naoki, 20, who will probably come back to live here after he graduates from university next month. Our house is a classic Victorian four-bedroom mid-terrace. When we bought it the walls were falling down so we reinstated them, painted them white and stained the wood floors dark brown. ADRIAN LOURIE FAVOURITE OBJECT Mark: a Bizen ware bowl by Harada Shuroku, a Japanese potter who makes bowls and pots from the mud he collects from the roadside. Once a year he builds a caterpillar kiln on BEST DESIGN SHOP IN LONDON Both: Aram in Holborn. The founder, Zeev Aram is a pioneer who has been bringing the most talented designers to the public eye for more than 50 years. He discovered Thomas Heatherwick and Corin Mellor and worked with Eileen Gray who designed the amazing Bibendum chair, which you can buy in the shop. # &%#% #+%#%% %( "!& #- # &&%#% %( "!& " ) %*%%%#*%%# % #% ,*%' % % % (* * %' &%#% ,*% % * ! 23 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 Design Homes & Property DDP homesandproperty.co.uk with ALEX LENTATI MONEY NO OBJECT the top of a hill in Okayama, Japan, where he sits and fires all his bowls. He then sells his wares for the rest of the year. The bowl was given to us by Wakako’s mother. WHAT LUXURY MEANS Mark: it’s meeting friends at the Boot & Flogger, an atmospheric wine bar in Southwark, where I can drink champagne in pewter goblets, which makes it taste nicer and keeps it colder. FAVOURITE EATERY Mark: I love Friday lunchtimes at KOI Ramen Bar in Brixton Market. You sit outside under tarpaulin watching a guy make the best ramen in town for £5 a bowl. Wakako: my favourite is Michelle Wade’s Maison Bertaux in Soho, above, London’s oldest French patisserie. They made our wedding cake. We sometimes pop in for tea and a slice of cake. Wakako: it means splurging on special ceramic paints at my favourite art materials shop Green & Stone in King’s Road, to decorate my growing collection of whiteware. Wakako: I play classical music so an upright Steinway piano, though it would cost about £30,000. Mark: I would like a Japanese bathroom that includes a cedar box bath made by bathroom company Toto (the Armitage Shanks of Japan) because the way people wash in Japan is much more ritualised than here and the water you bathe in is completely clean. MOST TALENTED DESIGNER Both: Sissel Tolaas, above, a Norwegian scientist-artist who designs scents and has a client list that includes Adidas, Comme des Garçons, Ikea and DaimlerChrysler. She famously extracted bacteria from one of David Beckham’s trainers to mix with raw milk to make cheese. Her work is utterly fascinating. LAZY SUNDAY Both: we love to go hunting for treasure at Battersea boot market, which doesn’t start until noon. That leaves us plenty of time to visit Paramount Plants and Gardens in Enfield. You can buy huge palm trees and the people who run it are lovely. SECRET ESCAPE Mark: Streatham Park Bowling Club. It is a beautiful 1949 building with an enclosed green, roses and a marquee. There are jazz festivals there. It is a hidden oasis and a slice of traditional England in the middle of London. Wakako likes to walk around the old back streets of Brixton. # ,%% , %( %!%' % ' -+ $,%,% (##*% , # %#%# *% %( "+& % #%' ' 26 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Our home homesandproperty Timeless: the cobbled yard featured in TV’s Steptoe and Son We are happier all on one level A rambling office space in an old Hammersmith warehouse became the house Caroline Riddell wanted for family life, discovers Pamela Goodman C Photographs:: Lucas Allen AROLINE RIDDELL has been designing and decorating homes for clients, as well as her own family, for 10 years. She has that knack of being able to combine a great sense of style with an easy-going attitude that makes a house feel “designed”, but not at the expense of homeliness. Caroline recently sold her Hammersmith house and took on the challenge of a mews home a few streets away. The previous home was tall and thin, and life with a husband, two children, au pairs, a work assistant, cats and dogs was altogether too vertical. She cleverly used the proceeds of the sale to buy a derelict house in Suffolk — which she is restoring — and a London property that had been the two-storey, open-plan office space of an architec- Light touch: character fittings create a sense of homeliness tural practice. She and her husband, James, clearly have vision. James has a building company, Labatt Construction, which helps, and they both loved the location of the new home, a tiny, industrial, cobbled mews which was the original setting for Steptoe and Son’s yard in the Sixties TV comedy series. It is now a collection of offices and studios, occupied during the day but deserted by night. The building the Riddells wanted came with planning permission for residential redevelopment on the basis that a quarter of the property remained for “business use”. It was the perfect solution. They would create office space for both their businesses in the majority section of the ground floor, with separate access to their living quarters on the first floor, on to which they would add a smaller second floor for the children. The joy of such an arrangement — apart from the obvious one of being able to close the doors on their offices each night — was that their domestic lives would become more lateral. The winning feature of the new house for them is that, having climbed the tiny staircase bedecked in riotous Liberty wallpaper, they reach the principal room, where the ceiling opens to a raftered, double-height pitch. Here, as throughout most of the house, walls are clad in offwhite tongue-and-groove boards, and parquet flooring provides a seamless transition from one room to the next. The plain backdrop allows for bursts of colour — the yellow, hand-dyed linen blinds from Susan Deliss, the sofa in rusty-orange velvet from Etro, the redstriped cushions from Colony, and 27 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 Our home Homes & Property y.co.uk with Sign language: plain walls make the most of striking artwork Kitchen sync: deep blue-painted units in the hub of the house Farrow & Ball’s deep Hague Blue paint, which has been applied to kitchen cupboards and doorways. As kitchen, dining and sitting room are all in one, this is the hub of the house — a place where old and new furniture sits happily side by side. While Caroline is an ardent antiques collector — for clients as well as for her own home — she is planning to launch her own range of furniture in the next year or so to complement the interior design business she set up. The principal room maintains the proportions of the building’s previous existence, and James and Caroline worked out how they would divide the rest of the space for bedrooms and bathrooms. They created a main bedroom with an en suite bathroom and a small study from which rises a narrow staircase to the top floor. This has been extended into a substantial dormer to allow for two small children’s bedrooms and a second bathroom. It’s a masterclass in space management, and the children “love their cosy rooms”. T HEY all share the comfortable television room on the ground floor where they can be with their friends and, in summer, the whole courtyard of the mews is at their disposal. There are tables and chairs outside, tubs of geraniums and numerous potted plants. In the meantime, the dog is sprawled on the sofa, the cat’s on the dining-room table, a Tube train is rumbling past over a bridge nearby and sunshine is flooding the house with natural light. It’s a deeply comfortable place, and that is Caroline’s knack. White delights: cool tongue-andgroove walls create an ideal backdrop for soft furnishings in pops of warm, bright colour See the full version of this feature in next month’s issue of House & Garden, on sale now Mix it up: pattern works on bedroom walls, covers and blinds 30 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Outdoors homesandproperty.co.uk with Pattie Barron CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW Soak up dazzling displays New plants, floating platforms and organic flowering walls. Chelsea is full of exciting ideas T ) " (( $& "&$!&$( &-%+ ,&%, *& $'$ #%+ HIS year’s Chelsea Flower Show, which starts on Tuesday, is worth visiting for its new plants alone. Expect, for example, to be dazzled by flame Iris Carnival Time from Todd’s Botanics, delighted by two container clematis — blush Corinne and lilac-striped Endellion — from Raymond Evison and enchanted by David Austin’s three new roses, including myrrh-scented white rose Desdemona. Naturally, Austin’s soft yellow, beautiful English rose Charlotte is given a fresh airing. Meanwhile, the show gardens look especially exciting this year, with some designers seeming to set themselves impossible tasks, despite the fact that they only have days left to finish converting a patch of grass to their personal vision of paradise. Youngest designers on the block brothers Harry, 27, and David Rich, 24, have not only had to represent the wines of their sponsor, New Zealand winery Cloudy Bay, through the planting — cue luscious Iris Dutch Chocolate and dainty white Astrantia Shaggy, among others — but they are also replicating the oak-slatted shack in which customers sample the wines. Visitors can expect a madding crowd at 11am, 4pm and 6pm. Just as ambitious is Darren Hawkes. Starting with a model of cereal boxes on his kitchen table, he envisioned a Sylvan retreat: designer Jo Thompson aims to capture the spirit of Sissinghurst in the M&G Garden, above, while brothers Harry and David Rich, right, will show plants of wine shades in the Cloudy Bay Garden Reflective: the Home Personal Universe Garden has a circular waterfall and turfed day bed, below; fiery Iris Carnival Time, below right, from Todd’s Botanics, is one of many new plants to debut at the show garden for Brewin Dolphin of floating platforms suspended above woodland ferns, which resulted in five people cutting more than 40,000 pieces of slate by hand. Thank goodness he hired help. By contrast, Fernando Gonzalez has chosen resin jesmonite as his material of choice for organic, flowing walls and seating in his Pure Land Foundation Garden, studded with apricot foxgloves. The resin is made in the UK and is dubbed the chameleon of the building industry. In this garden it resembles white marble, but costs less — although it might take a while before jesmonite, used at Buckingham Palace, filters down to your local DIY store. Dan Pearson returns to Chelsea after 11 years with a gentle representation of the Trout Stream at Chatsworth House, complete with sandstone boulders from the Chatsworth Estate and delectable planting that is likely to signal a major move to flowering shrubs. Despite the garden being sponsored by Laurent-Perrier, the waterfall and stream are not of champagne, but you can walk by the stream sipping Cuvée Rose. Email laurentperrier@wildcard. co.uk with your name, address and phone number by Friday midday to win two tickets for Thursday, May 21. Sissinghurst also comes to Chelsea — well, an inspired version — in a sylvan retreat from designer Jo Thompson for M&G Investments. Expect a natural swimming pond, romantic planting and, if you’re lucky, a view from the two-storey rustic retreat inspired by the writing room of Vita Sackville-West. Email your name, address and phone number to [email protected] by Friday midday to win two tickets for Tuesday. An equally dreamy retreat is created by Fuminari Todaka in the Home Personal Universe Garden that features an idyllic circular waterfall and inviting day bed with a tactile turf mattress. P RACTICAL, urban spaces are offered by three designers. First, Matthew Wilson of Clifton Nurseries, with a prototype weatherproof plot that has a harvested water system and drought-tolerant plants. Next, Adam Frost offers inspiration with a Corten steel pavilion, water flowing down walls and columns of poured concrete for Homebase. Finally, Chris Beardshaw’s vibrant planting of clashing colours in his steel-tiled plot for Morgan Stanley suggests the diversity of east London, where this community garden, happily, is destined to settle after the show, forever preserving a little piece of Chelsea in Poplar. O For outdoor events this month, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/events 36 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Property searching homesandproperty.co.uk with R £400,000 CHARMING and set on a large plot, this two-bedroom, country-style cottage could be ripe for expansion. It’s in Cockney Hill, Tilehurst. Through Chancellors. O homesandproperty.co.uk/tile £525,000 THIS well-planned four-bedroom detached house behind electric gates in Bexley Court, Reading, is close to Prospect Park and Reading West station. Through Haslams. O homesandproperty.co.uk/bex EADING used to be all about the three Bs — beer, biscuits and bulbs. Now the town is focused on C for Crossrail. It always seemed strange for the cross-London project to stop at Maidenhead. In March last year, sense prevailed and it was announced that the railway would now terminate at the Berkshire town known as the capital of the Thames Valley. Reading is a real commercial hub and has more incoming than outgoing commuters. And, thanks to Crossrail, property prices are set to soar by the end of the decade. Although the fast trains to Paddington take only half an hour, Crossrail, when it arrives in Reading in December 2019, will deposit travellers into the heart of central London with the journey to Bond Street taking 55 minutes, to Liverpool Street and the City 61 minutes, and Canary Wharf 67 minutes. For those with long memories, Reading’s three Bs refer to its famous brewery H & G Simonds, which was founded in 1785 by William Blackall Simonds and finally closed in 2010; Huntley & Palmers, which in 1900 was the largest biscuit maker in the world but ceased baking in Reading in 1976; and Suttons Seeds, the only remaining business of the three, although sadly no longer in Reading. It started life in 1860, but is now based in the Devon town of Paignton. Reading is 40 miles west of central London. Close to junctions 10 and 11 of the M4, it is connected to the capital via Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway, which terminates at Paddington station. WHAT THERE IS TO BUY £410,000 A CLEVER conversion has transformed this three-bedroom end-of-terrace house in Shinfield from a barn into a wonderful family home. Through Haslams. O homesandproperty.co.uk/shin Reading grew rapidly after the arrival of the railway and this left a legacy of Victorian and Edwardian homes, everything from large detached houses to terraces of workers’ cottages. There are also new flats in the town centre, especially around the Kennet and Avon Canal. The town’s suburbs — Woodley, Earley, Whitley, Tilehurst and Caversham — have mainly modern houses built since the Fifties. There are period houses and cottages in the village of Sonning. Haslams estate agent Tim Harding says buyers expect to pay from £200,000 for a Victorian terrace Join the luxury holiday home specialists... Many luxury properties deliver over 39 weeks! !" " Vibrant centre: Town Hall Square underwent a major facelift two years ago READING Spotlight Crossrail signals more change for this busy Berkshire town Commute from the capital of the Thames Valley. It’s worth it for a family home for only £200,000, discovers Anthea Masey house, £300,000 for a three-bedroom semi-detached property, and £400,000 for a four-bedroom detached home. In the suburbs, one-bedroom flats start at about £135,000 and two-bedroom flats at £160,000. Town centre flats near the station are more expensive. One-bedroom flats here start at about £200,000 and twobedroom flats from £300,000. The area attracts: families come to Reading for its two notable grammar schools — Kendrick for girls and Reading for boys. There is also a good choice of private schools. Staying power: many people initially go to Reading for job opportunities, but then move within the town to be in a particular school catchment area, or to be closer to the motorway. To find a home in Reading, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/reading For more about Reading, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightreading F Pipe dream: Paul Gilmour, right, of Shave & Coster, a traditional tobacconist in Harris Arcade; far right, Peter Odell serves a meal at Oakford Social Club, a pub venue rated for DJ nights and live bands in Blagrave Street 37 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 Property searching Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with CHECK THE STATS ■WHAT HOMES COST BUYING IN READING (Average prices) One-bedroom flat £172,000 Two-bedroom flat £230,000 Two-bedroom house £292,000 Three-bedroom house £367,000 Four-bedroom house £646,000 Source: Zoopla RENTING IN READING (Average rates) One-bedroom flat £834 a month Two-bedroom flat £1,164 a month Two-bedroom house £1,077 a month Three-bedroom house £1,175 a month Four-bedroom house £1,483 a month Source: Zoopla GO ONLINE FOR MORE O The best schools serving Reading O The latest housing developments in and around the town O How Reading compares with the rest of the UK on house prices O Smart maps to plot your property search NEXT WEEK: Clerkenwell. Do you live there? Tell us what you think @HomesProperty SHOPPING AND EATING The Oracle is Reading’s main shopping centre. Overlooking the River Kennet, it has a good selection of high street brands such as Apple, H&M, Hobbs, Mango, Phase Eight, Topshop and Zara. The development is also home to two department stores, House of Fraser and Debenhams, as well as chain restaurants including PizzaExpress, Wagamama, Café Rouge and Strada. Harris Arcade has a good range of independent shops. For craft beer and cheese go to The Grumpy Goat, while Shave & Coster is a traditional tobacconist. For made-to-measure tailoring, try Simon Dowling Bespoke in The Forbury. London Street Brasserie is an awardwinning restaurant overlooking the Kennet. Cerise in The Forbury Hotel is a chic dining room serving modern British food. There is a growing independent coffee scene that includes gluten-free café Nibsy’s on Cross Street, My Kitchen on Queen Victoria Street, Picnic at Market Place, Shed in Merchants Place and Lincoln Coffee House on King’s Road. Milk Bar is a popular cocktail bar in Merchants Place. Reading Market, open Wednesday to Saturday, is found on Hosier Street. Every Friday, street food stalls are set up in Market Place. Open space: Forbury Gardens, a public park in the town centre, has the famous Maiwand Lion, a sculpture and war memorial. It is overlooked by a public square with a branch of Italian restaurant Carluccio’s and The Forbury Hotel in former council offices. Palmer Park in Wokingham Road and Prospect Park in Liebenrood Road are Reading’s two largest parks. The former has a sports stadium, gym, bike hire and a children’s playground, while Prospect Park has a miniature railway on the first Sunday of the month, a pond, a children’s playground and a listed mansion that houses a private restaurant. There are lots of peaceful walks along the River Kennet. Down by the river: The Oracle, above, is Reading’s main shopping centre; top right, Anne-Marie Beatty, director of ale and cheese shop The Grumpy Goat; centre right, Bruno Fonseca, barista at Workhouse Coffee Company ARTS AND LEISURE Music lovers should be well aware of Reading Festival. This year’s event takes place from August 28 to 30 at Little John’s Farm. Headline bands will be Mumford & Sons, Metallica and The Libertines. The Hexagon on Queens Walk is a multipurpose arts venue that puts on concerts, comedy and children’s shows. South Street Arts Centre is a fringe theatre and music venue. Progress Theatre, at The Mount, is an amateur dramatics theatre that also puts on the annual Open-Air Shakespeare festival in Caversham Court. The Mill at Sonning is a small theatre where the ticket price includes Lively: Broad Street is one of Britain’s more successful modernised high streets TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE Which “Reading girl at heart” swaps stories of growing up in the town with Reading-born comedian Ricky Gervais, above? dinner. Vue cinema at The Oracle has 11 state-of-the-art screens. Reading Museum is housed in the magnificent Victorian town hall designed by Alfred Waterhouse. The University of Reading has three museums. The Museum of English Rural Life is currently closed for refurbishment, while The Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology and Cole Museum of Zoology are both on the Whiteknights campus. Travel: there is a fast and frequent train service to Paddington that takes about 30 minutes from Reading station and about 40 minutes from Reading West. An annual season ticket costs £4,188. Reading council runs a bike hire scheme called ReadyBike. Council: Reading is Labour controlled and Band D council tax this year is £1,589.36. Find the answer at homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightreading Photographs: Daniel Lynch 42 if you’re in the market for a London property, we’re WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Letting on Fit smoke alarms or you’ll be toast Victoria Whitlock says a new law forcing landlords to protect tenants from fire is vital — and long overdue A 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. '" ""#""!""!" %"!"$"(&)%"""""%" %""" """"""'" "% ! " LL LANDLORDS will be required by law to install working smoke alarms in their rental properties from October, and I think this is a very good thing. I am all for health and safety — so I am only surprised this law wasn’t introduced earlier. Installing smoke alarms is a no-brainer. They cost only a few quid and they can save tenants’ lives. Someone, somewhere has estimated that you are four times more likely to die in a house fire if there is no smoke alarm. Changes to the law will mean rental properties must have working smoke alarms on every floor and landlords must test them before the start of each tenancy. Landlords will also have to install carbon monoxide alarms in high-risk rooms, such as those with a solid fuel heating system, including an open fire or a log burner. Carbon monoxide, also given off by faulty boilers and gas appliances, is a silent killer. You can’t see it, you can’t smell it and, unless you have got a ruddy great alarm to give you a shrill warning when it’s in the air, you can’t hear it, so this is also a welcome addition to the law. Any landlords who ignore the new rules could be fined up to £5,000. The problem is, it doesn’t matter how many of these life-saving alarms you install, at some point the batteries will die and, even though the new legislation will make it clear that it is the tenant’s responsibility to replace them, if they are anything like mine, they won’t. Changing a battery in a smoke alarm is way beyond the capabilities of every single one of my tenants. Years ago, a tenant specifically asked me to provide a carbon monoxide alarm, yet when she moved out I found the batteries were flat. Those in the smoke alarm had also died. One tenant emailed me a couple of weeks ago to say that the smoke alarm in her flat was “making an annoying beeping noise”. I told her to replace the battery. When I went round the following week, I found it chucked on the kitchen worktop. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have been round to inspect my flats and found the smoke alarms gaping open, with no batteries in them. For this reason, I think it’s worth shelling out a bit more and buying the ones with sealed batteries that last 10 years. Even better are the mains-powered alarms, but you have to pay for these to be installed by a The accidental landlord £519 a week: on Briar Avenue SW16, John D Wood has a four-bedroom house with a garden and off-street parking available to rent (homesandproperty.co.uk/alrent) £715 per week: John D Wood has this four-bedroom house on Fishers Lane, close to Chiswick High Road in W4, ready to rent from next month (homesandproperty.co.uk/ O Victoria Whitlock lets three properties in south London. To contact Victoria with your ideas and views, tweet @vicwhitlock qualified electrician and, to be really safe, you still need to fit them with a battery in case of a power failure. I once had tenants who ripped a smoke alarm off the hallway ceiling because it went off every time they burned toast. To avoid this, you can get optical alarms, which are less sensitive. Alternatively, you can install a heat alarm instead of a smoke alarm in the kitchen. If you are really tight or feeling broke, contact your local fire station. Apparently they have thousands of smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors to give away for rental properties. The new legislation will only apply to lettings that start after October this year, but we should all install alarms in every property now. Landlords should then make a diary note to replace batteries in 12 months’ time. We must make sure our tenants are safe, even if they can’t be bothered. Find many more homes to rent at homesandproperty.co.uk/lettings 44 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Inside story homesandproperty.co.uk with Quick exit from the haunted house MONDAY The week starts with an early morning meeting to try to make sense of the hectic weekend just gone. There is particular excitement to hear how the viewing has gone at one of our most expensive homes — a stunning six-bedroom detached Victorian house. Negotiators are always keen for the bragging rights after a sale of distinction. The news appears to be positive and lots of other interest is flooding in. There are also a couple of properties on the verge of exchanging contracts, but nothing is easy, so plenty more hours of chasing buyers and sellers and speaking to solicitors lie in wait. On top of trying to sell properties, we are helping to organise a charity fun run around the heath with two primary schools this weekend. TUESDAY After another early meeting, there is a valuation first thing for me. I have seen this Victorian house sitting empty for a while and I am hoping to find plenty of period charm. The owner has passed away and, to cut a long story short, the house is spooky. Very spooky. It is full of what I can only describe as “dark” art. As soon as my colleague and I let ourselves in next successful sale. We return from the meeting room to find the office full of tables, chairs, boards and a foldeddown marquee. After an initial worry that Homebase has redirected its stock delivery, I remember it is all for the charity fun run on the heath. Thankfully, we have managed to juggle all that’s going on to be just about prepared for 600 mums, dads and children making a great effort in aid of Cancer Research, Macmillan Cancer Support and The 999 Club. Diary of an estate agent FRIDAY we are uncomfortable. Fifteen minutes later, as we stand in silence, a huge chopping board crashes down on a worktop a few feet away. Cue the quickest exit we have ever made. Back to the office, a calming cup of tea and the day continues. The big offer on yesterday’s property is in, we have seen proof of funds and things are looking positive. Over to the negotiator to see if we can reach an agreement. WEDNESDAY We have been instructed to sell the haunted house. Unfortunately, I need to go there again. Not known for my bravery, I drum up the courage to arrange a time to pop back, this time with the vendor. Another interesting valuation turns up and it is a first for me — a four-storey house that has had the top two floors removed and subsequently repositioned a few hundred yards down the road. The property was split in half by two feuding brothers, believe it or not. I arrive to find one of the most stunning homes I have ever seen. Every now and again we view a house that reminds us why we do this job, and this is one of those. Meanwhile, there’s still plenty to do to make sure we are set for the fun run... time to start spinning plates. THURSDAY This morning’s meeting is interrupted by a call from our vendor who has been considering the big offer and it is good news. A huge sigh of relief from the negotiator and the sale has been agreed. The team is in high spirits, but it is now time to concentrate on our The big news of the day — the Tories are victorious and David Cameron is back in No 10. We have enjoyed working in a very healthy housing market so far this year and we hope that this general election result gives the market even more confidence. And maybe, just maybe, some topic other than politics will dominate the television news tonight. The Friday meeting is always a summary of the week and a chance to check that our Saturday diary is looking busy, but also manageable. Thankfully, it’s looking like another good weekend and things should run smoothly. The first day of marketing one house has seen close to 20 people booked in to view it tomorrow. As a result, one of our team will be camped out there all day. This should mean we’re in for a busy Monday morning. O Elliott Walker is branch manager of Hamptons International in Blackheath (020 3151 7346). RESIDENTIAL We see the future NEW RESIDENTIAL THINKING Land sales, Funding, Development consultancy, International marketing, New homes, Research, Prime sales and lettings, Valuation 020 3627 0918 JLL.CO.UK/NEW-HOMES 46 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Ask the expert homesandproperty.co.uk with Can I keep my dog in a leasehold flat? Q Q A Fiona McNulty WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM? IF YOU have a question for Fiona McNulty, please email legalsolutions@ standard.co.uk or write to Legal Solutions, Homes & Property, London Evening Standard, 2 Derry Street, W8 5EE. We regret that questions cannot be answered individually, but we will try to feature them here. Fiona McNulty is legal director in the real estate team of Foot Anstey LLP (footanstey.com) OUR LAWYER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS I AM single and live at home with my parents and my dog. I have saved enough money to put down a deposit on a property and would like to buy a flat, but wonder if it will be hard to find a place that allows dogs. My grandmother, who lived in a flat for years, had a dog, and as far as I am aware never had any problems. Realistically, am I going to be able to find a flat to buy where I can keep my pet? A ANY flat you buy will be leasehold, and whether pets are allowed depends on a flat’s lease terms. The keeping of animals may be prohibited. Alternatively, pets such as cats and dogs may be permitted with the landlord’s consent. However, that consent can usually be withdrawn at any time if, for example, a dog behaves badly. There is also likely to be a covenant in the lease against a noise nuisance, and a dog barking incessantly would be a breach of the lease. Perhaps consider buying a garden flat, but be aware that some blocks have communal gardens which may be covered by other rules. When you start flat-hunting, tell any selling agents that you will only consider flats where dogs are allowed. Often landlords will permit well-behaved dogs, so hopefully you will find a home for you and your pet, but do get the landlord’s consent in writing. More legal Q&As Visit: homesand property.co.uk WE HAVE been trying to buy a house that currently has a tenant in it. We were told the tenant would move out before we actually bought, but now he says he is staying put so we’ve had to pull out of the purchase. Our solicitor has done all the searches and the conveyancing work, though we did not sign a contract. He is now proceeding with another property on our behalf. We don’t really want to pay two lots of legal fees — do we have to pay him for the first lot of work he did? IT ALL depends on the agreement you had with your solicitor regarding his fees. If he did work and carried out searches without your instructions, then you may argue that he is not entitled to be paid. A solicitor’s fees should be transparent. At the outset your solicitor should have provided you with the best possible information regarding the likely cost. He should have given you, in writing, an estimate of his costs and an indication of how many hours the transaction was likely to take. He should also have confirmed how you would be charged for any aborted work, and given you details of disbursements. He may have agreed not to charge fees if the purchase did not proceed to completion, but disbursements such as search fees are likely to be payable in any event. If there was no specific agreement regarding charging for aborted work, then your solicitor can charge on a quantum meruit basis — that is, he can charge you a reasonable amount for work he has done for you. 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. # # # 10 MIN TUBE # # WITH ##!#"#$%##### ## # #! ## # Brought to you by 48 WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with By David Spittles Tasteful: these new builds feature a private mooring Perfect for summer: a mansion with a boathouse WEYBRIDGE is stuffed with “gin’n’Jag” houses and trophy mansions in gated private estates, but few come with a private mooring at the bottom of the garden. Tucked away in a leafy crescent, a pair of substantial new builds with up to 6,500sq ft of space back on to the River Wey. One of the houses even has a boathouse, while a footbridge could be built from the landscaped garden over to a private island. Each of the tastefully designed homes has a red-brick façade, a superroom opening out to the garden, library, media room and bar and six bedrooms. Prices start from £4.25 million. Call Newcourt Residential on 01372 237888. Smart moves A designer gem for WC2 C OVENT GARDEN has hidden gems among its boutiques, eateries and theatres. Its brick-built former council estates are tucked discreetly behind the shopping streets and have become genuinely coveted places to live — if you can afford them. Odhams Walk, close to Neal’s Yard and Seven Dials, dates from the Seventies. It was the last estate built by the now-defunct Greater London Council, and in its day won architectural design awards. The vision was for a high-density oasis of 102 intimate “patio garden homes”, accessed by open walkways and set at different heights above a perimeter of street-level shops and an underground car park. The top floor — once a commercial area — has been converted into swish two-bedroom apartments for sale. The resourceful redevelopment by architects FCH has created a new in-keeping wall of glass that throws light into a dark corner of the estate, right above the entrance ramp to the car park. Terraces allow glimpses of Covent Garden rooftops, while a dead communal area has been requisitioned to create an airy entrance lobby for one of the apartments. It is an amazing example of how value can be created out of a seemingly unpromising space. These new apartments, above and right, are probably more luxurious, certainly more expensive, than any others on the estate, which is gated after 8pm. Most of the original flats have been snapped up under right-to-buy and 49 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015 New homes Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with Read more: visit our new online luxury section HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury BROMLEY BOOMS WITH FIRST-TIMER HOMES some are sub-let, but it remains a mixed, rooted community of residents. “It’s not scary and has evolved like an established garden,” says one long-time resident. And what will a home on this council estate cost you? Prices range from £1.85 million to £2.25 million. Call CBRE on 020 7420 3050. One-bedroom resales on the estate cost from £785,000, according to Foxtons. BROMLEY has a spring in its step. Being a beneficiary of a £221 million Mayor of London initiative to improve some of the capital’s high streets, the south-east suburb’s tired town centre is getting a facelift, with a buzzing new quarter that mixes residential, leisure, shopping and the arts. The £90 million St Mark’s Square scheme, due for completion later this year, will bring 200 private and affordable apartments set around a new piazza and performance space, a multiplex cinema, hotel, cafés and restaurants. To register, call Cathedral Group on 020 7939 0800. Bromley is London’s largest borough at 59 square miles, most of which is green belt running into Kent and Surrey. Packed with leafy avenues, the area also has 20-minute train links to central London, making it popular with prosperous career professionals and self-made business people living in big family houses. Young locals moving out of the family home are likely purchasers at Berwick Quarter, above, in nearby Orpington. The scheme is tucked away behind the high street and close to the train station. Prices from £230,000. Call Robinson Jackson on 01689 833 322. A Berkeley Homes plan to redevelop Orpington police station into 83-home Brunswick Square has been approved by the local council.
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