1. real estate
2. apartments

Homes&
Property
Wednesday 17 December 2014
Take it
with you
Flexible furniture
for renters
Page 10
HIPSTER HOXTON FOR FIRST-TIME BUYERS P4 OUR FAMILY HOME MAKEOVER P6 LUXURY CHRISTMAS GIFTS P8
Let it glow
Fires by design: Page 2
London’s best property search website: homesandproperty.co.uk
2
WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Online
homesandproperty.co.uk with
David Spittles
has the word from the street
Property
search
Smart
Trophy buy of the week
new build so eco-cool it’s hot
£1,495,000: gorgeous Georgians are all very well but to
show you have both style and a conscience you need to go
ultra-eco and modern. Derico is an effortlessly cool new
build in Farnham, Surrey, surrounded by leafy grounds and
a vast expanse of Canadian cedar decking. It has a flexible
open-plan interior with a 28ft Poggenpohl kitchen/dining
area and four bedrooms. Through Strutt & Parker.
■ Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/trophyderico
Designer fires
are the latest
must-have
A
By
Faye
Greenslade
London buy of the week simply call
down for your French gourmet supper
£560,000: the Gothic listed Royal
Victoria Patriotic Building is home to
this lofty flat overlooking Wandsworth
Common, with open-plan living
spaces and stripped wood floors
throughout — perfect for parties.
Sleek wood-and-steel stairs lead to a
mezzanine level with study area,
plenty of storage space in fitted
wardrobes and a sleeping deck tucked
under the eaves. There’s a charming
courtyard garden with a lily pond and
ducks, plus private parking. French
restaurant Le Gothique, also housed
in the building, will deliver food up to
the flat. Through John D Wood.
■ homesandproperty.co.uk/buypat
Life changer leave the city and find a
year-round bonus in the Lake District
£595,000: minutes from Lake
Windermere, this three-bedroom,
three-bathroom villa with a selfcontained lower ground-floor flat
would make a great boutique B&B.
The double-aspect sitting room is
warmed by a wood burner, while the
Shaker-style kitchen/breakfast room
is open-plan to a lovely conservatory/
garden room. Through Carter Jonas.
■ homesandproperty.co.uk/lifewind
NEW generation of ecofriendly homes has put
fires and fireplaces
centre stage as a design
feature, ensuring that the
flames of the property market are
burning well through the cold winter
months.
Unlike the gas-guzzling and fossil
fuel fires of yesteryear — expensive
to run and damaging to the
environment — today’s versions are
chic and energy-efficient as well as
cosy.
Like Georgian and Victorian
developers before them, 21st-century
builders are using fireplaces as an
architectural statement. Innovative
“gel” fires have all the benefits and
none of the drawbacks, in that they
look good and are carbon-free and
low-maintenance. Fulham Reach is
a 744-home scheme between Putney
Editor:
Janice
Morley
and Hammersmith Bridges, on a
remarkably tranquil section of the
Thames favoured by scullers and
oarsmen. Penthouses have a superb
“floating” fireplace that acts as a
divider between an open-plan lounge
and dining area.
Cut into a bright metallic floor-toceiling panel, the abstract design
creates a stunning focal point
alongside sumptuous soft seating
and invites natural light into the
apartment, which covers a huge
5,266 square feet. Priced at
£8.95 million. Call 020 7879 9500.
Fires also figure prominently at
375 Kensington High Street, the
royal borough’s biggest housing
development for decades. Amenities
at this complex of apartments
include a spa, underground parking
and concierge services.
Duplex apartments have linear
Christmas candles
Our top tips for a beautifully scented Yuletide
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.
CREATE a cosy, welcoming feeling this Christmas by filling your home with the
flickering light of luxurious scented candles. Weave in warm and woody notes of
Frankincense and Sandalwood — or spice up your space with fragrant cinnamon,
cloves or juniper berries. Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/scentedxmas for our
top tips and favourite festive fragrances for the home.
3
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2014
New homes Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
CHAUFFEUR DRIVEN
GO GOTHIC
LIVE IN A
CLOCK TOWER
Hearth and
home: flats at
Chelsea Creek,
left, have a stone
feature wall with
integrated,
eco-friendly
gel fire
fireplaces that add a sculptural
element to the contemporary
interior design. Prices from
£930,000. Call 020 7118 0375.
At Chelsea Creek, apartments
have a feature stone wall with
integrated gel fire framed in black
polished marble, while at Ebury
Square, Pimlico, glamorous
apartments also have glowing fires
that you can snuggle up to. Prices
from £1.95 million. Call 020 7118 9111
for further details.
From £2.65 million: Marryat Place townhouses, Wimbledon
Raise a glass to
open-plan style
Super-rooms can create
harmony at Christmas
BREWERY WHARF is a rare newbuild scheme in Twickenham
alongside the River Crane, which
joins the Thames there. Georgianstyle townhouses in a gated mews
have interiors of a free-flowing
open-plan design, left, with lounge
and well-equipped kitchen.
Prices from £1.25 million. Call
020 3002 9457.
OPEN-PLAN “superrooms” come into their
own in the festive season.
These large, free-flowing
spaces are the answer to
easy entertaining over
Christmas and throughout
the new year.
“Such spaces are always
the hub of a home,
whether a house or an
apartment,” says Sean
Ellis, managing director of
developer St James, whose
research shows open-plan
living is a number one
design preference.
No longer does the dining
room feature — modern
lifestyles demand more
flexible interiors. Buyers
are encouraged in this by
popular television cooking
Party-perfect
mansion flats
MODERN mansion flats at
Hurlingham Walk, Fulham, provide
functional open-plan interiors, left,
that link with fully lit terraces and are
perfect for entertaining during the
party season. Prices from £650,000.
Call 020 8246 4199.
programmes that feature
celebrity chefs in their
own kitchens, promoting
relaxed home entertaining.
Open-plan family spaces
at Marryat Place,
Wimbledon, combine all
the key elements,
including champagne
fridges and flat-screen TVs.
A double-height glass
atrium throws in light, and
bi-folding doors open on to
a terrace and garden.
The scheme comprises a
group of large townhouses
with up to six bedrooms,
set in a private cul-de-sac
close to the All England
Club and Wimbledon
Village centre. Prices from
£2.65 million. Call 020
3697 9330.
WHY not go house hunting during
the festive break? Developers are
opening up this Christmas to offer
buyers the chance of choosing a
new home for the new year.
Like beautifully wrapped
Christmas gifts, show homes are
intended to tempt buyers. If you
are going to buy anyway — and you
like the designer’s style — then the
show home could save you a lot of
time and money. You can pick up
extra furnishings, fixtures or even
commissioned art, at competitive
prices. The Galleries, above, in
Brentwood, Essex, is a fabulous
redevelopment of a former
Victorian asylum by City &
Country, who are experts at
restoration building.
There are 131 homes carved out
of the listed buildings and
cloisters. Decorative stonework,
Gothic arches, cast-iron columns,
timber beams, oak staircases,
mouldings and fireplaces have all
been retained and restored, while
the original garden designs have
been reinstated. Former
needlework blocks have become
loft-style apartments and even the
deconsecrated chapel is now a
special triple-height residence.
Just launched are flats in the
clock tower featuring roof trusses
and exposed brick walls — and
ceilings high enough to
accommodate a very tall
Christmas tree.
Prices from £375,000. Call City &
Country on 01277 202122.
Read more: visit
our new online
luxury section
HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury
4
WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property First-time buyers
£425,000: for a two-bedroom flat in Bevenden Street in the heart of Hoxton, in
a sold former local authority block (homesandproperty.co.uk/hoxbevenden)
homesandproperty.co.uk with
£449,950: if you want gritty, this three-bedroom ex-council
flat is in Pitfield Steet, N1 (homesandproperty.co.uk.hox)
£141,250: for a 25 per cent shared-ownership stake in a flat
at Genesis’s new Mondrian scheme, near Columbia Road
And you thought you couldn’t afford it
Shared-ownership
options bring hip
Hoxton within reach
of first-time buyers,
says David Spittles
GRAHAM HUSSEY
H
OXTON is super-hip these
days but still takes a pride
in its raw, unpretentious
history. Not much more
than a decade ago it was
still a gritty, grey, working-class district
— a place for have-nots rather than
haves. Today its further ascendancy
seems assured, yet there are still homes
available for first-time buyers eager to
join the area’s mix of old and new
cultures.
While fancy factory lofts cost more
than £1 million, more modest homes,
including ex-local authority flats, start
at about £350,000. What’s more, the
East End’s charitable housing roots run
deep, meaning there are shared-ownership and rental deals for lower-income
Londoners committed to the area.
Mondrian is a new development on
the site of former Mildmay Mission
Hospital, close to Columbia Road
Flower Market in the Hoxton heartland. Genesis housing association is
offering a choice of tenures to suit different lifestyles and budgets. One-bedroom flats cost £1,725 a month to rent,
or £141,250 for a 25 per cent sharedownership stake. To buy the same flat
outright would cost £565,000. Green
design — triple glazing and solar heating — keeps running costs low. Call
0800 542 7236.
Former Queen Elizabeth Children’s
Hospital in Hackney Road has been
rescued as part of Mayor Boris Johnson’s affordable homes initiative.
Behind the listed Victorian façade are
186 flats, many with views across Haggerston Park. Due for completion in
2016, prices start at £365,000, with
shared-ownership options available
through Family Mosaic housing association. Call 020 3376 7775.
Hoxton Square, the area’s beating
heart, is an attractive urban space,
shielded from council estates and the
busy traffic swirl that surrounds it. Most
of the square has been gentrified and
you pay a premium to live there. A twobedroom flat in a portered, purpose-
Neighbourhood’s heart: you pay a premium to live in gentrified Hoxton Square
built block is on the market for
£625,000, through Foxtons on 020 7033
1414, while estate agent Green & Co
seeks offers in the region of £800,000
for an 820sq ft loft space in an authentic
warehouse with big windows and high
ceilings. Call 020 7251 8877.
£157,500: for a 30 per cent share at Shoreditch Heights, with priority for locals
RUBBING ALONG Hoxton is one of the
few places in London where the business world and an artistic community
happily co-exist. City bankers and lawyers reside in apartment buildings
where less-prosperous live-workers
have design studios, and they hang out
in the same bars and restaurants. Yet
t h e p r i c e d i f f e re n c e s b e t we e n
addresses within a short distance of
each other can be yawning. In Pitfield
Street, a three-bedroom maisonette,
a right-to-buy resale, costs £449,950.
Call estate agent Victor Stone on 020
3463 0065. A two-bedroom ex-council
flat in Bevenden Street is £425,000.
Call Foxtons on 020 3318 6437.
Developer Crest Nicholson has
arrived on this patch and will soon be
launching The Bevenden — 42 apartments, priced from £475,000. Call 020
3764 0693.
People living or working in Hackney
borough have priority to buy sharedownership flats at Shoreditch
Heights, part of a swish new private
development in Britannia Walk, a fashionable pocket that includes Jamie
Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant. Two-bedroom flats cost from £157,500 for a 30
per cent share — full price, £525,000.
Call 020 7089 1315.
181-207 Tooting High Street, LONDON, SW17 0SZ
Digital illustration is indicative only. Local area photography. Prices correct at time of going to press
Last few apartments remaining
80% already sold
Final 1 bedroom apartment £400,000
2 bed apartments from £445,000
Contact us to arrange an appointment
0800 883 0153 | [email protected]
thebroadwaySW17.com
Help
to Buy
6
WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property My home
homesandproperty
Happy family
home: Anahid
Jarvis, left, with
son Leo. Anahid
and husband
Simon turned the
Maida Vale
garden flat where
her aunt once
lived into a great
place to raise
their boy
Open-plan to the
max: exposed
brick, Metro
tiles, light woods
and polished
concrete work
surfaces in the
bright and airy
industrial-urban
kitchen/living/
dining room
Photographs::
Charles Hosea
New generation
— new design
When Anahid and Simon Jarvis married, they returned to her family
home and transformed an old Victorian flat into a stunning spacious
apartment ideal for family life, discovers Philippa Stockley
W
ITH its huge Victorian
houses and wide, treelined streets, cute shops
clustered round the
Tube station, numerous
famous residents — The Imitation Game’s
Alan Turing was born here; Kate Moss
lives here — and posh neighbours Little
Venice and St John’s Wood, Maida Vale
is a gorgeous part of town. These days,
many of the houses that once overflowed
with big families and their armies of staff
are now carved into flats holding an everchanging international set of people
passing through.
However, Anahid Jarvis, 33, her husband, Simon, 35, and their toddler son,
Leo, are long-term residents. Anahid’s
grandparents came to London from
Cyprus after the 1974 coup d’état, and
bought the house when it was a set of
run-down flats with sitting tenants. They
improved it, and Anahid grew up in an
upper flat. Her aunt lived in the garden
flat which filled the ground floor.
After her aunt’s death, the garden flat
was let for a decade. Meanwhile, in 2002,
Anahid, working in financial PR, met
financial markets trader Simon. They
married at Babington House in 2009 and
as they looked for somewhere to raise
a family, they thought of the flat.
At that time it had a garage on the side,
and a central hall with lots of rooms off,
carpeted and decorated for tenants. Anahid, who has a great eye for design, had
recently changed career and begun to
study art history. She wanted to make
things open-plan, to create more light and
space, especially across the back, where
a central window looked out to the highwalled garden with its lawn and roses.
The couple sounded out a few architects but none of them struck a chord.
Then Anahid’s sister, a painter with a
studio in Great Western Studios in Ladbroke Grove, said she’d noticed some
architects based there, called Threefold.
So the couple went to meet them. “We
just clicked, I couldn’t work with people
I didn’t get on with,” Anahid says.
The architects started on the designs
while Anahid and Simon spent all their
spare time trawling reclamation yards
and looking for ideas.
In 1979, a modest extension had been
put right across the back of the house.
The architects opened the thick back
wall of the original house line, leaving
exposed bricks, and knocked out interior walls, creating a big, L-shaped sweep
right across the back and down one flank
of the house. They also put French doors
to the garden. This opening up causes
dramatic change. Light fills what is now
a vast, chic, industrial-urban kitchendiner-living room. In the kitchen area
are cream hand-made tiles, old brass
hospital taps, reclaimed pendant lamps
and polished concrete work surfaces.
A central island has an old butcher’s
block set into a concrete surface, and a
Falcon range completes the look. The
reclaimed refectory table near the windows, again lit by pendants, is set with
mismatched old chairs. Where giant
load-bearing steels have been put in the
ceiling, they have been left visible, marking out where walls once ran.
Anahid also longed for a master bedroom with an en suite, “and a walk-in
dressing room like Carrie Bradshaw’s in
Smart storage: timber cupboards line
the wide hall, broken up by glass-fronted
ones, right. Copper fittings and Spanish
tiles in the chic en suite, far right
7
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2014
My home Homes & Property
y.co.uk with
Practical chic: Anahid, Leo, and a muted, minimalist palette
It’s a shoe-in: making the most of every inch of storage
Spacious: the garden flat occupies the entire ground floor
Sex and the City.” So the architects
moved the master bedroom to the front,
knocking through into the former garage
to carve out a very chic en suite with
patterned Spanish encaustic tiles on the
floor, walls of bevelled Metro tiles, copper taps, and the really nice, warm touch
of a sliding plank door to the bedroom,
which the builder’s joiner made out of
floorboards. “I’d seen something like it
at Babington House,” Anahid says. And
the black-painted walk-in dressing room
is as enviable as it should be.
A
NAHID and Simon wanted
lots of storage, and the architects had the idea of lining
the wide hall with bespoke
wraparound cupboards
made of planked timber, similar to the
pale limed timber used for the floors. The
long run of cupboards is broken up with
a couple of glass-fronted cupboards, one
housing a fitted wine-rack.
Two years after meeting the architects,
at Christmas 2012, the couple moved into
their gorgeous, light, modern, but also
very warm-feeling home — the perfect
place to raise Leo, born later that year.
WHO DID WHAT
Architect: Jack Hosea of Threefold
Architects (threefoldarchitects.com),
which was shortlisted for Young
Architect of the Year 2014.
Builder: Strongcross, through the
architect.
GET THAT LOOK
Bathroom white goods: CP Hart
(cphart.co.uk) and Fired Earth
(firedearth.com).
Copper taps: William Holland.com,
which also makes glorious copper
baths, and fairfieldbuilders.co.uk
Lighting: vintage reclaimed lighting
from Cornwall-based skinflintdesign.
co.uk. Vintage-style lighting from
Urban Cottage Industries
(urbancottageindustries.com).
Tiles: Spanish encaustic bathroom
floor tiles, a different pattern in each
bathroom, from Mosaic del Sur
(mosiacdelsur.com). Another stockist
is cement-tiles.com
Bathroom bevelled Metro wall tiles
and kitchen hand-made brick-shaped
cream tiles, all from Fired Earth, as
before.
Paints: Anahid has a good eye for
subtle paint tones, particularly warm
greys and pale blues — colours that can
easily look cold. Living Room: pale
grey chimney wall in Strong White;
hall and kitchen/dining walls in
All White, and master bedroom in
palest blue Borrowed Light. All from
farrow-ball.com
Reclamation yards, shops, fairs and
auction houses used: Lassco
reclamation yards (lassco.co.uk);
Retrouvius, for architectural salvage,
(retrouvius.com); The Architectural
Forum, again for salvage
(the architecturalforum.com; The Old
Cinema antiques/salvage shop
(theoldcinema.co.uk); Alfies Antique
Market (alfiesantiques.com); The
Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair,
Battersea, (decorativefair.com);
Criterion Auction House
(criterionauctioneers.com).
ANAHID’S INTERIOR DESIGN TIPS:
“It takes longer than you think. We
spent all our weekends scouring
reclamation yards and looking online
and in magazines. I don’t like
downlighters, so we bought interesting
and vintage pendant lamps.”
Taps: “We didn’t want the cold look of
silvery nickel taps. The kitchen tap is a
salvaged old hospital tap from The
Architectural Forum, stripped back to
the original brass. Elsewhere brass or
copper give a much warmer look.”
Be imaginative: “For my sliding
bathroom door I bought old bathroom
doors from Lassco which the joiner
made into a traditional plank door.
That idea came from a hotel.”
Economise: “We used plank boards
for floors, to surround the bath in one
bathroom, for the hall cupboards, and
to make shutters for the French
window — it ties the style together.”
Know your palette: Anahid used a
natural palette of wood, ceramic tiles,
polished concrete, and warm-cool
colours to make a comfortable,
slightly Scandinavian look that also
maximises light.
8
WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Christmas shopping
homesandproperty.co.uk with
An Ottolenghi feast
with waiter service
Just perfect for your prince
FOR him, give a multispot
reversible merino
lambswool throw, £74.95
from highgroveshop.com
— helping The Prince of
When only crystal will do
PLACE your order at least a week in
advance for an opulent, middle
eastern-style spread, complete with
waiters to serve, from celebrated
Ottolenghi. Price of dinner for two
starts at £150, depending on choices.
For details, visit ottolenghi.co.uk/
catering
Pattie
Barron
Champagne and
truffle treats
SEND a Fortnum & Mason
satin-lined blue box of marc
de champagne truffles and
Louis Roederer champagne
for £60, or a hamper filled
with silver crackers, sugared
almonds, champagne and
other sparkling goodies,
£250. Order online at
fortnumandmason.com
by next Monday for
premium UK delivery.
Last-minute gifts
Garden planter . . . for
the garden planter
Conran styling
in a coffee cup
MAKE an espresso an even more
pleasurable experience with a
sparkling set of striped platinum and
white bone china espresso cups and
saucers, designed by Jasper Conran
for Wedgwood. Single cup, £22.50,
saucer, £2.50, from John Lewis. Order
online at johnlewis.com and you can
click and collect from John Lewis or
Waitrose shops, for next-day
collection from 2pm.
A GARDENER would love a container
that is as practical as it is beautiful.
Whichford Pottery in the Cotswolds
has perfected the art of producing
garden planters that are resistant to
frost while being classically elegant.
Hand-crafted terracotta pots start
from only £23.50. Visit whichford
pottery.com.
■AND FINALLY... who wouldn’t like a
team of Santa’s little helpers for the
day, to clean, tidy and get a house in
order? Fantastic Services provides a
professional clean from £78 for a
two-bedroom flat or house. Even
better, treat yourself this Thursday,
officially Christmas Dust Day, the
traditional time when panic sets in.
A team of green-suited “elves” will
pitch up and clean your house, shop,
decorate, wrap and deliver your gifts.
Book via the GoFantastic app or
online at fantasticservices.com/elf
Wales’s Charitable
Foundation, last orders
December 21 — or classic
cedarwood shoe trees, £40,
at harrysoflondon.com.
Expert advice on Gorgeous blooms, every week
GIVE the gift that
home makeovers
keeps on giving,
FOR the friend who’s planning a new
year house paint but doesn’t know
whether to choose taupe or tangerine,
send over the country’s finest colour
consultant, Joa Studholme of Farrow
& Ball paints, to inspire and instruct
for £225 an hour. Details on farrowball.com/colour-consultancy.
all year. A weekly
delivery of a
seasonal
bouquet from
fashionable
McQueens,
which supplies
and creates floral
designs for the
Vanity Fair postOscars party in
LA, costs from
about £2,600.
Order online at
mcqueens.
co.uk or visit the
new Claridge’s
outlet. London
service only.
THESE beautifully
bevelled mouthblown
crystal flutes from
Baccarat’s Mille Nuits
collection are the
glasses of choice at
The Connaught’s hidden
champagne bar in the
heart of Mayfair. Order by
Friday for pre-Christmas
delivery — £145 each.
Visit uk.baccarat.com.
Cashmere for the cosiest toes
NOTHING says comfort
quite like cashmere
slippers. Find the perfect
pair in ecru bordered
with cream for £49 in
sizes 2½ to 10½ from
urbanara.co.uk. Order
by tomorrow for
guaranteed preChristmas delivery.
Go on, give Tom Dixon a Bash
FOR the stylistas among
you, this perfect hammered
brass bowl is finished with a
gold wash, from designer
Tom Dixon. Large Bash
Vessel, 9in high, £295;
small, 6½in high, £175.
From heals.com.
Visit our new online luxury section
HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury
FINAL 5 BEDROOM TOWNHOUSE REMAINS
IN ONE OF WEST LONDON’S MOST SOUGHT AFTER SQUARES
Master suite
Bespoke kitchen/breakfast room
n
n
Four further bedrooms
Family/Cinema room
Three terraces including second floor terrace room
n
Floor area 2,751 sq ft (255.58 sq m)
n
n
n
n
Three bathrooms
Underfloor heating & comfort cooling*
Two underground parking spaces
Ready for immediate occupation
1-4 Entwistle Terrace, St Peter’s Square, W6
GUIDE PRICE £3M
*Comfort cooling to kitchen/breakfast room, living room & master bedroom only. Price correct at time of going to press. Photography taken at St Peters Place.
www.stpetersplaceW6.com
0800 883 8601
10
WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Interiors
Sale prices from
£97: the Twitter
floor lamp, right,
also available as
a table lamp,
from £60
homesandproperty.co.uk with
From £795: the
Cell shelving
unit, left, can be
opened and
closed to extend
or reduce length
Super-adaptable
space saver: the
Leaning Wall
shelving system,
right, designed
by Sir Kenneth
Grange for Heal’s
recently launched
Ambrose
collection
Hang it
fold it
stack it
There are ways to save space without sacrificing style, reports Corinne Julius
L
£225: Brunel wall-leaning mirror with
concealed hanging rail, by Rob Scarlett
ONDONERS who rent need
furniture that fits their
lifestyle and can move
when they do. Private
landlords often impose
strict limits on what tenants can do to
personalise their homes, routinely
banning drilling holes in walls,
repainting rooms, altering flooring or
generally doing anything that affects
the fabric of the place — even when
the tenant’s plan would be an
obvious improvement.
Long-term renters want as much
quality around them as home owners
but in their case, furniture needs to
be flexible, adaptable, stylish without
requiring wall fixings and capable of
being folded up and moved.
Of course, it’s not only renters who
face flexibility issues, with space at a
premium in London in old and new
builds. Furniture maker and retailer
Heal’s is on the case. “It seemed
timely to address these space and
access issues with furniture that
works with the reality of urban
living,” says the company’s creative
director, Carmel Allen. The latest
range of Heal’s furniture and
accessories — called Ambrose, after
Ambrose Heal, grandson of the store’s
founder and a leading light in mid20th century design — focuses on
providing innovative solutions to such
dilemmas. The designs are adaptable,
multifunctional, easy to assemble,
good-looking, well made, durable and
very reasonably priced. They can be
folded up and moved to the next
location, but make the best use of
every available inch. “Our designers
have thought through all the access
issues so our pieces can be assembled
and dismantled to cope with narrow
staircases and difficult entrances
when you move house,” adds Allen.
Design consultant for the range is
eminent product designer Sir
Kenneth Grange, and the project has
been overseen by brand designer
David Steiner. Sir Kenneth designed
the Leaning Wall shelving system that
requires no wall fixing. Lightweight
oak shelves hang off fabric or steel
straps in a back panel that leans
against the wall. By adding on
additional elements the Leaning Wall
can accommodate a cabinet, a laptop
desk and a bench seat. All can be
packed away flat.
In a similar vein is Matthew Elton’s
A-Frame system which slots together
to make shelves, desk, coffee table
and clothes storage, without the
need to turn a screw, hammer a nail
or get out the glue, while the clever
YEH wall table, a small, two-legged
creation by Taiwanese designer
It’s not only
renters
who face
furniture
flexibility
issues, with
space at a
premium in
London in
old and
new builds
Kenyon Yeh, is powder coated and
round, with part of the circle folding
up to rest against a wall for support.
The Ambrose range includes exclusive
designs by leading contemporary
brands — for example, the Hot Mesh
colourful wire mesh chairs by Blu
Dot; Alessi’s Piana folding chairs in
zingy colours, and the Knap sofa bed
by Per Weiss. With extra flexibilty
offered by the adjustable back, it’s
ideal for lounging or sleeping, and is
a mini playscape for children.
A
GOOD range of colourful,
chic, but reasonably
priced accessories that
fold up or roll away is
also available from
Heal’s. Its new rugs are style items, in
bold geometric prints, from as little
as £70. The Twitter floor or table
lamps are elegant and don’t require
wall or ceiling fixings. Add a pop of
colour for £10 with a framed edition
of the vintage Irish linen tea towels.
This furniture for Londoners also
includes some terrific pieces for
Christmas guests that can be packed
flat and stored away, ready to do it all
again next year.
■ Heal’s stores: Tottenham Court Road,
W1 and King’s Road, SW3 (heals.co.uk)
11
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2014
Interiors Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Take it with you: filament bulbs from £22, glass pendants, £125, enamel shades, £42
Above: A-Frame
bench, £495,
dining table,
£795 and
shelving,
also £795
Left: Ball floor
lamp in copper,
now £175, down
from £250
No glue or
screws required:
A-Frame
shelving, left,
with a selection
of cushions and
throws. See
heals.co.uk
Below: Blu Dot
Hot Mesh bar
stool, from £175
Slim: desk £495, stool from £30, sideboard, £695 — Brunel range by Rob Scarlett
Left: Blu Dot Hot
Mesh chairs,
from £125
Bold New Apartments
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