The bid that paid off
Super-stylish sale bargains Page 27 Homes& Property Wednesday 7 January 2015 NEW HOMES: HOT AREAS IN 2015 P4 LONDON’S RENTAL HOTSPOTS P6 ST LUCIA P8 SPOTLIGHT ON MARYLEBONE P28 The bid that paid off CHARLES HOSEA Our home: Page 20 London’s best property search website: homesandproperty.co.uk 2 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Online homesandproperty.co.uk with This week: homesandproperty.co.uk Up and up: new apartments in Vauxhall and Nine Elms have leapt in price by almost a third in the past year, pushing SW8 into the £1,000per-square foot price league news: four new areas join the property postcode rich list FOUR more areas — Vauxhall and Nine Elms, Victoria and Pimlico, Hampstead, and Holland Park and West Kensington — have joined the elite group of London postcodes where homes cost an average of £1,000 a square foot. Eyewatering price rises over the past year in SW8, the postcode for Vauxhall and Nine Elms, are being blamed on overseas investors who pushed average values per square foot up 32 per cent, from £841 to £1,107. In Pimlico and Victoria, SW1, another area where thousands of new homes are being built, average prices per square foot rose 16 per cent from £966 to £1,123, according to today’s study by Lonres and Dataloft. Leafy Hampstead, in NW3, saw a 12 per cent increase from £968 to £1,086, while West Kensington, on the “wrong” side of Hyde Park, saw a 20 per cent rise, from £927 to £1,113. Property search Trophy buy of the week more than a touch of glass £4.25 million: Howsham Hall is more glass than wall, which is just as a Jacobean mansion should be. Set among 83 rolling acres on the outskirts of York, it has a lawn clipped for cricket, a charming former ice house, and gardens stretching to the River Derwent. The house, stuffed with Tuscan columns and Adam ceilings, has seven bedrooms, a magnificent great hall, drawing and dining rooms, a breathtaking central staircase, a gym and planning permission for a pool and spa. Through Savills. O homesandproperty.co.uk/trophyhowsham London buy of the week new year, smart new flat By Faye Greenslade £299,950: start 2015 in smart style with a new home at a boutique development carved from a restored and extended Victorian block in Streatham. The six smart flats combine original and new features — this top-floor home comes with a skylit open-plan living/dining space with exposed brick walls, honey oak floors and a high-spec kitchen with integrated appliances. The bedroom has large sash windows and plush carpet, and the bathroom is sleek. Launching early next month through Newbourne Homes. O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk Inspiration Craftsmanship Heritage THE MAYFAIR Life changer jam today — from your own orchard ANTIQUES & FINE ART FAIR THE LONDON MARRIOTT HOTEL GROSVENOR SQUARE LONDON W1K 6JP £750,000: Batchelors Hall, in the East Sussex village of Isfield, between Uckfield and Lewes, offers bags of 17th-century charm. There are big open fires and exposed beams in generous sitting and drawing rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room with a separate pantry, and five bedrooms upstairs, all with countryside views. Outside, a perfect little holiday cottage offers handsome earning potential, while a fruit orchard and wild garden are waiting to be cultivated. Through Freeman Forman. 8 - 11 JANUARY 2015 Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday O homesandproperty.co.uk/buystreat 12.00 - 21.00 11.00 - 18.00 11.00 - 18.00 11.00 - 17.00 THE +44 (0)1797 252030 www.mayfairfair.com TWO FOR ONE ENTRY WITH THIS ES ADVERTISEMENT ANTIQUES DEALERS O homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangerbatch FAIR LIMITED Editor: Janice Morley get comfy... London new-build homes for less than £250,000 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. The Peggy chair from only £460. If you buy before January 31st we’ll give you our super comfy bribe! Visit sofa.com/salenoton, pop to our London or Bath showroom or call us on 0345 400 2222. Editorial: 020 3615 2524 Advertisement manager: Jamie McCabe Advertising: 020 3615 0527 Homes & Property, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT. From £199,950: flats at Sundial Court, Surbiton (homesandproperty.co.uk/sun) STAMP DUTY reforms helped boost the number of first-time buyers to a sevenyear high last year. Now, with election jitters holding back bigger-earning buyers, and with interest rates staying low, 2015 is set to be the perfect year for young Londoners to get on the ladder. We take a tour of new-build starter homes in London under £250,000 — visit homesandproperty.co.uk/new250k 3 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 News Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with Is chart star Bruno getting broody? Get the ciders in, George AP É BRUNO MARS, right, has bought a new house to celebrate the global success of his new single, Uptown Funk. The Grammy award winner splashed out £4.5 million on the seven-bedroom, 9,000sq ft property in Los Angeles, which comes complete with pop star accessories including its own bar and wine cellar. As far as we know, Mars hasn’t popped the question yet but his girlfriend, model Jessica Caban, may be interested to hear that the house, in a gated development in the starpacked Studio City neighbourhood, has a separate children’s wing and a play area. Mars already owns a place in LA, in Mulholland Drive, bought for £2.17 million in 2012. É PENNARD HOUSE, below, in Somerset is becoming the country retreat of choice for pop stars. Singersongwriter of the moment George Ezra, right, and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin are among recent guests to stay at the family-owned 130-acre estate, while record companies hire the entire property for Glastonbury, as it is near the festival ground. Photographers for Vogue and Marie Claire magazines have hosted shoots at the venue, and fashion house Mulberry’s HQ is five minutes down the road. The stately pile is less than two hours by train from London Paddington, and the grounds, with a Victorian outdoor freshwater swimming pool and cider-producing apple orchards, are the scene of frequent parties. The house sleeps 12 adults, with a further 10 spaces available in tepees from May to September for happy glampers. Visit pennardhouse.com to book. Not just the Queen but Dame Joan, too MATT WRITTLE By Amira Hashish Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews É THE elegant 19th-century Belgravia townhouse, above, that was home and workshop to Simone Mirman, late milliner to the Queen and film stars, is on the market through Rokstone for £14.5 million. Paris-born Mirman based herself at 9 Chesham House for 30 years, the two ground-floor rooms serving as a shop, while the first-floor main reception room was a salon for VIP clients who included actress Joan Collins — made a dame in the latest New Year Honours. On the two floors above were workrooms where the hats were made, and Mirman and her husband lived on the top floor. When she retired in 1990 the house was turned into flats, but behind the Thomas Cubitt-designed stucco façade, it has been converted back to a luxurious five-bedroom home. In prestigious Chesham Place, it’s just around the corner from Sloane Street boutiques including Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chloé, Fendi and Tom Ford. Shoreditch celebrity ‘tea shop’ is £2.35m Long Firm. It was also a set for Duffy’s Stepping Stones video and for a Vogue photo shoot with supermodel Lily Cole, right. The ground floor has hosted a number of gigs and hit band Florence and the Machine was discovered while performing on Time for Tea’s tiny stage. The property was originally a bank before becoming a pawn shop and eventually a clockmaker’s. It was derelict in 1995 when “King of Shoreditch” Johnny Vercoutre paid £95,000 for it — so he stands to make a healthy profit. PAVID PARKER É THE Forties-themed Time for Tea event space and film location, left, in Shoreditch was expected to fetch at least £2 million when it came under the hammer through Savills. However, the four-storey Georgian freehold house is now on Fyfe Mcdade’s books for £2.35 million, after failing to find a buyer in the September auction. The quirky four-bedroom house, which extends close to 2,400sq ft, is regularly used for film and TV productions such as ITV’s The Bletchley Circle and the BBC’s The 4 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with T HE property spotlight is contantly changing its focus, with new areas highlighted thanks to upgraded transport links, regeneration or the arrival of new businesses or a creative community. Even the prospect of a new bridge over the Thames can raise a district’s desirability. In recent times, a single piece of outstanding architecture, or a particularly good new homes project, has been enough to raise the bar — bringing fresh vitality to an area and making it a good place to buy in the early stages of its upward curve. Here are four places to watch in 2015. Rising star: Notting Dale in W11 is pulling in celebrity creatives including fashion designer Stella McCartney and photographer Mario Testino WEST LONDON Notting Dale is the splendidly original name for the north-western corner of the W11 postcode. Sitting between White City and Ladbroke Grove, and enclosed on two sides by roaring dual carriageways, the area has an entirely different character to Notting Hill, the much better-known and better-off district to the east. While Notting Hill got the sweeping crescents, garden squares, then chichi boutiques and brasseries, Notting Dale lagged behind. Before the Second World War it was a notorious slum. Then in the Fifties, towering council estates grew up around the modest Victorian terraces, mews, workshops and light industrial premises. Not much else happened — until recent times. Chrysalis Records was a trailblazer, later joined by celebrated fashion and From £415,000: More West apartments, W11, with shared ownership available 2015: HOTSPOTS TO WATCH — IN portrait photographer Mario Testino. Stella McCartney and Cath Kidston have followed, while the Louise Blouin Foundation, in a former coachworks, is an art gallery and exhibition venue. The Yellow Building, a trendy office complex, looms over the Westway and is reminiscent of great Art Deco factories such as the Hoover Building in Perivale, putting this once-dead and desolate zone on the cultural map. Squatters once mockingly christened the area Frestonia, after Freston Road, where they lived before eviction. Ironically, some of London’s first housing associations began their work here in the 19th century and they are now back, building new homes. Peabody’s More West brings a mixture of flats for outright purchase and Get in early as smart architecture and regeneration breathe new life into emerging neighbourhoods across London, says David Spittles Victorian gas holders was built using a then-innovative geodesic design, an early example of a building style associated with the curves of the Gherkin in the City of London. shared ownership, priced from £415,000. Call 020 7775 8431. Part of a neighbourhood upgrade spearheaded by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, good-quality architecture overcomes what at first may seem an unpromising address alongside train tracks and the Westway. Launching soon is a scheme of four outst anding modern houses in Walmer Road. Designed by architect and lecturer Peter Salter, the copperand-concrete homes are grouped in a courtyard and have rooftop “salons” EAST LONDON Art Deco styling: The Yellow Building’s trendy offices loom over the Westway Mixed tenure: More West’s flats for outright sale and shared ownership feature quality architecture. Through Peabody (from £415,000). Call 020 7775 8431 and terraces, plus underground parking spaces. Call developer Bay Light on 020 7985 9850. NORTH LONDON Hornsey, postcode N8, was an old London borough, swallowed up in 1965 by newly created Haringey council. For almost 50 years, the area has been under a veil, but it is becoming a place in its own right again. It sits at the foot of magnificent Alexandra Palace Park, has a large stock of handsome Victorian and Edwardian houses, quick train links to Moorgate and King’s Cross, and a slightly shabby tree-lined high street that is now the focus of regeneration, with original shop fronts and the parish church tower getting refurbished under the watchful eye of English Heritage. A former Salvation Army citadel, latterly a music venue, is to become a new Curzon Cinema. New River Village, built on the site of an old waterworks, retains the Victorian pumping station and has more than 600 low-rise apartments running alongside a quarter-mile stretch of a canal that brings fresh water to London. One-bedroom flats cost from £325,000. Call Highland Estates on 020 3641 4225. Also on the high street, a former refuse depot and swimming pool, derelict for a decade, is being transformed into a 270-home estate with a Sainsbury superstore. Smithfield Square, the first phase, launches this coming Saturday. Prices start at £299,950 for studios. Call developer St James on 020 3002 9460. These are homes for young, style-driven urbanites looking for a good-value, improving area. A far bigger project is in the pipeline on the other side of the railway tracks, where planning permission is in place for 1,080 homes on 11 acres of National Grid land. One of the site’s Leyton, postcode E10, has no jazzy new skyscrapers or ritzy shopping mall to match nearby Stratford — but this East End outpost is nevertheless basking in post-Olympics sunshine, sharing the legacy benefits of the 2012 Games. See for yourself by strolling down the local high road, where traditional shop fronts have been revitalised with a colourful facelift. High street champion Mary Portas would be impressed. The A12 roars through the area but Leyton has the Lea Valley for a back garden and also borders Hackney Marshes and Wanstead Flats, among the largest areas of open land in London. Plus, it is on the Central line in travel Zone 3. As far as investment goes, it looks a good bet. Leyton is jam-packed with Victorian and Edwardian terraces. These homes are not always beautiful, but according to one local estate agent they offer “freakishly good value” by London standards, with lots falling into the £400,000 to £650,000 price bracket. Developers have been quietly adding to the stock. Claude Terrace is a scheme of Victorian-style townhouses aimed at young families trading up from flats. When launched a year ago, prices started at £395,000. The magnificent former Leyton Municipal 5 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 New homes Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with From £350,000: apartments at Tea Factory, Brockley Cross, SE4, above an art gallery Mixed use: the former Leyton Municipal Offices, acquired by Lea Valley Estates, has business space, an events venue, a real ale pub, and 32 homes are being created From £299,950: flats at Smithfield Square, Hornsey, with a Sainsbury store on site EVERY DIRECTION Offices have been acquired, restored and brought back to life after a period of disuse, by “community developer” Lea Valley Estates. The listed building is now a space for local businesses, while its great hall is an events venue. The borough’s former technical institute, part of the building, houses a real ale pub and 32 homes are being created within its walls. Call 020 8808 4070. SOUTH LONDON Brockley, postcode SE4, was discovered by young upwardly mobile commuters back in the Eighties, but the Overground extension through this leafy swathe of south-east London has been a game changer, bringing hipsters from Dalston, young professionals working in the City and West End, and families priced out of Greenwich and Blackheath. The charms of Brockley lie almost exclusively within its main conservation area, a network of wide, tree-lined avenues surrounding Hilly Fields, a green expanse where parents cluster with teenage daughters attending Prendergast School, alongside the park. Many of the vast Victorian houses became flats but increasingly they are reverting to single homes, along with more modest, flat-fronted, semi-base- ment terrace homes. Nothing much had changed for 20-plus years around the local train station, but with the East London line extension has come a batch of lively new shabby-chic bars and cafés selling organic food, plus delis and a micro brewery. It is a new hub for Brockley. “We opened in summer 2012 and the change has been dramatic. There are so many newcomers to the area and a fantastic sense of community,” says Alexandra Cousin-Bedford, owner of The Gantry, a fun and friendly bar and restaurant serving cocktails and a French menu. Splendid Rivoli Ballroom, a popular local venue, is touted as a redevelopment candidate. Local conservationists help keep builders at bay, but small residential schemes are springing up. A used-car showroom butting up against the tracks is being redeveloped into homes, as is Brockley police station in Howson Road. Brockley Cross, a hazardous doubleroundabout junction and former crime spot, has been given a pedestrianfriendly makeover and enhanced by Tea Factory, a development of copper-clad flats that cantilevers out above street-level premises including an art gallery. Prices from £350,000. Call estate agent Sebastian Roche on 020 8690 8888. * #* )&& # &)& 4)&0)%588,20$),)&09-80),7$)110)4524)0.5).,5)85 52$) ,/52)05/0*)1,.58550$)0.0.0/),)857$) 452),/)80506) *)95)40)8,.4)1))0),/)0.552)50,.5 0)!,80),/) ,7052)!50),/) 50)40)-070)505)/0520/)4),,906 #%%$# $' !"%!"% ),80)118,),/)0,/)1)..,5)5)(6 " $$$""$ & *$($& $ $ $ 3)# ) )+) !"!*)'))#) )+) %")! ) )+))! )#""))!$) !)) !"# "! #! 6 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Renting homesandproperty.co.uk with NEW SERIES: RENTING The essential guide for Generation Rent David Spittles launches a new series for 2015 focusing on London’s rental hotspots R ENTING has become a wellestablished London way of life — changing the capital’s housing market. It is a similar story across the country, with the number of people renting in the UK almost doubling from 2.5 million a decade ago to 4.8 million today. A further 1.1 million are expected to join the rental sector during the next five years. About 30 per cent of all households rent in the capital, and half of 20- to 35-year-old Londoners not only rent now, but expect that renting will be the norm in the future. This shift to private renting may appear to go against the nation’s emotional attachment to home ownership but rental Britain is clearly here to stay, driven by the high property prices that currently exclude many would-be buyers. People today are also getting married and starting families much later in life, so the average firsttime buyer age has crept up from 27 in the Eighties to 37 now. A CHANCE TO LIVE MORE CENTRALLY Employment patterns are changing, too, with people switching jobs and their working location more frequently, which puts a premium on flexibility. In London, tenants can often rent more centrally than they could afford to buy. London’s rental market is also boosted by the number of single households here, and by the influx of economic migrants and the growth in the number of divorcees and students. Britons are not newcomers to renting. It was a popular way to live after the Second World War and remained a comfortable option until the end of the Sixties. However, it acquired a downmarket image after a string of scandals involving rogue landlords. Tight new legislation followed and the sector’s reputation has been largely restored — yet London’s rental market has never enjoyed the steady upward trajectory seen in Continental Europe’s major cities, including Paris, Berlin, Brussels and Amsterdam, where up to 60 per cent of households happily rent privately, with many families living in the same rented house for generations. TRY A DIFFERENT WAY Recently, government and the property industry have been working on a new “business model” for private rented housing offering tenants goodquality accommodation, with security of tenure, rented from a trusted private or commercial landlord. This is already taking shape, with Choices: rents on one-bedroom flats in Notting Hill, left, range from £1,200 to £2,600 a month, while in Crystal Palace, right, the range is £625 to £825 &#&# &# !&% &&# &" #&&&&&##&% && &#&% &" &%! #& ! && & % &&# &# $$$ "&#"# && &%&## &&&&%& &# #&# &#&& !# 7 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 Renting Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with Waterfront living: homes at Johnson’s Lock, on Regent’s Canal near Mile End Park in Bow. The park is a green spine through the area, reaching the Thames at Limehouse HOTSPOT OF THE WEEK: BOW £1,525 a month: a two-bedroom flat with a balcony and on-site gym is available for rent at Caspian Wharf, Bow, through 1st Avenue (homesandproperty.co.uk/rentcasp) A nugget at the heart of the golden triangle B £1,733 a month: a two-bedroom, eighth-floor flat, ideal for sharers in Aqua Vista Square, Canary Wharf, to rent through Benham and Reeves (homesandproperty.co.uk/rentvista) purpose-built flats under construction in places such as Elephant & Castle, Wembley and Stratford. CHOOSING A LOCATION Two thirds of London tenants want to be within a 10-minute walk of a Tube or train station. Zones 2 and 3 are the most popular rental areas, especially the walk-to-work districts ringing the City and West End. Figures from estate agent Winkworth, which has a capital-wide branch network, show a considerable variation in rents. In the centre they are at least twice as high as in outer London. In general, rents are lowest in south London, outer north London and parts of east London. While one-bedroom flats in Notting Hill range from £1,200 to £2,600 a month, in Crystal Palace it is £625 to £825. In Tottenham or Wembley, the range is from £600 to £800, while in Walthamstow, it’s £600 to £700. Find out the cost of renting in any area of London, by street or postcode, using a website set up by Mayor Boris Johnson. Its “rents map” reveals the average cost of renting for the size of home you are seeking, so a two-bedroom flat in Kensington typically costs £620 a week, whereas the London average is £325 a week. Visit london.gov.uk/rents. Though London rents are rising, tenants are having to compete for homes, says estate agent Barnard Marcus. Eleven tenants chase every new property coming on to the market. Those seeking cheaper accommodation have triggered a boom in flatshares, says website Easyroommate. London’s flatshare population is about 700,000 and average monthly room rental is £563, some 40 per cent cheaper than the cost of renting the apartment outright. ULLISH east London estate agents speak of Bow being at the centre of a golden triangle formed by the City financial district, Canary Wharf and Stratford’s Olympic Park. The area “arrived” about 10 years ago when development spread from nearby Docklands. The focus then was on derelict canalside buildings and industrial sites. Warehouse flats and fancy new apartments attracted incomers from pricier parts of town, joining earlier gentrifiers who had discovered great-value period houses in neat neighbourhoods such as in the Tredegar Square conservation area. But the London 2012 Olympics were the real game changer for Bow, Period homes: Tredegar Square conservation area, above, drew early gentrifiers to Bow 10 years ago thrusting the area into the spotlight and enticing a new crowd, says Mark Wellington of estate agent Benham and Reeves. “It is unpretentious, lively, multiethnic and has lots of new bars, gastropubs, coffee shops and eateries, even a new on-site gin distillery at Bow Wharf,” he says. Down-to-earth Roman Road street market is another attraction, while there are well-kept pockets of green space, and Mile End Park forms a green “boulevard” to the Thames at Limehouse. Rents are rising, but Bow is cheaper than nearby Victoria Park “village” in Hackney — yet the latter is close enough to walk to from Bow, as are the waterfronts of Docklands. ■KNOW YOUR BOW TRANSPORT LINKS Getting to work: Bank station: eight minutes Canary Wharf: nine minutes Oxford Circus: 16 minutes TYPICAL RENTS PER WEEK New-build flat: £300-£550 Period conversion flat: £275-£475 Period house: £300-£500 Ex-local authority home: £260-£400 £1,950 a month: a two-bedroom furnished flat in Ursula Gould Way, in the Bow area, is available for rent through Benham and Reeves (homesandproperty.co.uk/renturs) 8 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Homes abroad THE PERFECT BEACH From its west coast location on the edge of the rainforest to its idyllic sandy beach curving between the magical Pitons, 10,000-year-old volcanic mountains that are a Unesco World Heritage Site, Sugar Beach is indeed special. It opened 30 years ago and today, under Viceroy’s management, the hotel boasts a £64 million makeover and charges from £643 a night in high season. Hollywood stars have stayed, yet Sugar Beach is an unshowy, private hotel with impressive annual occupancy over 80 per cent. Accommodation is in 78 one- and twobedroom cottages with private plunge pools. Some have sea views, others look towards the Pitons. Newly released this month are six freehold rental cottages priced from £764,300. Owners have four weeks personal use each year, two in high season, but otherwise the hotel will rent them. These are priced to generate a five per cent net return. Nearer the beach, Sugar Beach Residences are two- to four-bedroom detached villas of 1,800 to 2,800 square feet, built to order. Prices start from £1.76 million. Also available are four off- plan Glenconner Residences, larger beachfront villas, from £3.5 million. Resort facilities include tennis courts, gym, a rainforest spa, scuba diving and watersports, a kids’ club and three restaurants. Property director Penny Strawson says: “Being part of a five-star resort means our owners have effortless access to every amenity and activity.” St Lucia is so hot Buy a winter retreat on this tropical Caribbean island from only £191,000, says Cathy Hawker BUZZING RODNEY BAY Lush: stunning St Lucia regularly has January temperatures reaching 26C From £191,000: Hibiscus House, right, on the Cap Estate, where 250 villas and flats are being sold £1.76 million: spacious villas, left, built to order at Sugar Beach 4CORNERS IMAGES S T LUCIA’S blue skies, lush interior and January heat of up to 26C are just a direct flight away from London. Tourism figures, up 6.6 per cent for the year just ended, reflect the enduring appeal of this 27-mile by 14-mile Caribbean island that caters for affluent couples, families and sailors with some seriously upmarket hotels. homesandproperty.co.uk with Cruise ships dock in the north where middle-market hotels line the beaches. This is the busiest, buzziest part of the island with 44 restaurants in Rodney Bay alone. Nearby are cinemas, shops and a golf course. A former sugar plantation, Cap Estate at St Lucia’s northern tip has 250 homes, mostly detached villas in grounds of at least an acre. Prices range from £191,000 for two-bedroom flats up to £6 million for substantial mansions. Hibiscus House on the Cap Estate rents from £1,447 a night. Its tropical gardens have direct sea access while inside are six en suite bedrooms. The British family who own it have built a new house nearby and are selling Hibiscus House for £3,152,700 reduced from £3,789,600 through Savills. Flats and villas at Allamanda, a gated development overlooking the sea, also on the Cap Estate, start from £379,000 through Sotheby’s. O Sugar Beach: sugarbeachresidences. com (00 1 758 456 8091) O Savills: savills.com (020 7016 3740) O Sotheby’s: stluciasothebysrealty. com (020 7993 6156) "! & & "!" "$% # "!" "$% # "!" "$ # (%!"$,00# %*%#'!1$+'*%% '001!/% !0%.%!10%'!"%$1!!1%!%!$ !0%$!#0$! %&*,#*,+'*%1!/% !0%.*,% ,! !,0!"0%%0%#%$*1%!$'!0,1,%$,1%0.%!"$%% %*%,)*,*$!*,%!!,1%!$,*,,#%.%1!$#$,,!0.0%!%%!/!1%1"%'*%!0%%!1'1%$%!,0 ,,%!"$!0%.#./.%0!0! !,0!"0%%0%#%$*1%!00$% %01%.,#%#%#!,1%'),)%.1%)%%!%$,1!)%!%,$,#!, %0!$"-%##*!)%. 9 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 homesandproperty.co.uk with How to find the perfect architect architects who carry out residential projects in your area. 2 ARE THEY FOR REAL? There are people passing themselves off as architects when they are not fully qualified. So visit arb.org.uk to check with the Architects Registration Board before signing up a practice. If you have serious problems the board can also help mediate. Tall, dark and handsome isn’t enough — your project deserves more, says Ruth Bloomfield When you are interested in an architect, perhaps having viewed their website, ask if you can meet some previous clients and see their homes. Nick Willson, of Nick Willson Architects, says this will prove at the very least that architects and clients are still on speaking terms. As well as seeing whether you like the aesthetic and quality of the work, Richard Hawkes, of Hawkes Architecture, suggests asking a few practical questions, such as whether the scheme went over budget, how long it took, how hands-on the architect was, and how their fees were structured. Face time: communication and rapport are essential 4 YOU WANT FACE TIME Murray. Given that a major project on your home is a big investment, in both financial and emotional terms, Homes & Property has come up with a 10-point plan to help you make sure you choose the architect who is just right for you. 1 WORD OF MOUTH Personal recommendation is a great way to find an architect but if your friends can’t suggest anyone, contact RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, at architecture. com — it will supply you with a list of 5 DEMAND ATTENTION Don’t touch an inefficent firm that does not get back to you immediately, or hands you over to a junior. 6 BUSY — OR TOO BUSY? You might think that an architect with a busy schedule is a good sign. But they may also be too busy to give you the proper attention. 7 BE CLEAR, DEMAND CLARITY 3 MEET PREVIOUS CLIENTS REX W ITH ONE in four new romances now starting online, it is no wonder that a new website promises to match home owners with their perfect architect. If your new year resolution is to build a house — or, at least, an extension — then read on. The Architects Republic website, architectsrepublic.com, offers a free service, allowing people considering home improvements to select architects based on their location, typical budgets, skills and specialities, whether that’s designing eco-homes or restoring historic buildings. A shortlist of practices is then produced, complete with an online portfolio of previous projects. All of the firms registered on the site — at the time of launch it will be about 50 — have won at least one award for their work, though these awards may be obscure, so view them with caution. Peter Murray, chairman of New London Architecture, which promotes quality design in the capital, is a keen supporter of the Architects Republic site but says that meeting up with previous clients is also crucial, and it is important to decide how involved in the design process you want to be, because some architects have a clear philosophy about what they want to create. “There are quite often arguments when the client wants to do one thing and the architect says, ‘That is not the sort of thing that I do,’” says Home building projects Homes & Property Don’t even think about hiring someone you have only spoken to on the phone or communicated with by email. You must meet and see if you are like-minded, says Chris RomerLee, director of Studio Octopi architects. “You may work together for a year or more, so communication and rapport are essential.” Make sure you are clear which partner will oversee your project, says Silvia Ullmayer, of Ullmayer Sylvester Architects. You need continuity and a senior point of contact is essential. 8 PLAIN SPEAKING When it comes to what you need to ask a prospective architect, Studio Octopi’s Romer-Lee advocates straight talking by both client and company. If you are asking too much for your budget you want the architect who tells you right away, not the one who holds back in the hope that you will “find” more cash. 9 THE PLANNING HURDLE Ask your prospective architect about their experience and success rate of getting similar projects through the planning process. 10 OPEN HOUSE The annual Open House weekend features dozens of projects to inspire you. It will be held in London next on September 19 and 20. Visit londonopenhouse.org for details. '" &""" !1$!,$(!%0%#, '%!"$*1% & "!" "$ # % %!%$*%0$%)% !'*%%0!$$% / 1,#!00$!"/ !,1% ,, %!"$!0%.#./ 10 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Design trends homesandproperty.co.uk with Going with the grain Wood is full of pattern potential — naturally. Barbara Chandler discovers a new trend A O ABOVE: wall mural from a new collection of photography by Nic Miller at Surface View. This design is Weathered Wood 2 and costs £60 a square metre. Visit surfaceview.co.uk or call 0118 922 1327. O RIGHT: wood ash from a dying fire inspired this cotton cushion, 60cm square, with a feather/down filling. The maker, By Nord, is expert in furnishings with photographic digital prints. The cushion is £89 at occa-home.co.uk CERAMIC tree trunk with a vivid grain pattern and standing more than three feet high is grabbing attention at the Post Pop: East Meets West show at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. It’s a larger version of a vase on sale at Selfridges, and dominates an installation by London artist/designer Richard Woods, who calls his work Nature Making. “I’m twisting and distorting the way natural woods can be used,” says Woods, who also printed wood grain on chairs at the show, and made prints of sawn timber. He has made this style his own, printing a sideboard and shelving that is sold by Established & Sons. Other designers have also hijacked wood grain and tree rings, extracting a new pattern potential from one of London’s favourite natural materials. We are seeing cushions, wallcoverings and even rugs with a poetic timber touch — wood you believe it? O Post Pop: East Meets West, until February 23, Saatchi Gallery, Duke Of York’s HQ, SW3 (saatchigallery.com; 020 7811 3070) O Visit establishedandsons.com BISQUE Make the most of winter with one of our stylish hotties WINTER SALE NOW ON London showroom: 244 Belsize Road, London NW6 4BT T: 020 7328 2225 www.bisque.co.uk 11 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 Design trends Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with O LEFT: this log-effect wall mural comes in four pieces, to create a surface 315cm wide by 232cm high. It’s easy to hang with standard wallpaper paste. Price is £69.99 from allposters. co.uk O BELOW: Scandinavian brand By Nord has printed rough wooden planks on to its Fishing Lodge Blue Wall cushion. In 100 per cent cotton, it measures 40cm X 60cm, and comes with a feather/down pad filling. Priced £73 from occa-home.co.uk O LEFT: inspired by a trip to Iceland, Ella Doran’s new Rekki in Reykjavik range gives wood grain an icy tint of blue. Wood Grain Blue wallpaper, printed in the UK on high-grade FSC paper, costs £150 for a 10-metre roll — 52cm wide with a pattern repeat of 78cm. From elladoran.co.uk (020 7254 4744). O WOODS BY NAME... Richard Woods designed these ceramic tree trunk vases, left, for Wrong for Hay, a brand set up last year by London-based designer Sebastian Wrong and Danish manufacturer Hay. They come in white, pink and orange, and in three sizes: small, 15cm high, £39; O ABOVE: Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway, at the cutting edge since starting the Red Or Dead fashion brand in Camden Lock over 20 years ago, have created a budget take on the wood plank theme — as a wallpaper for Graham & Brown. It’s currently on offer at £20 a roll. Visit grahambrown.com or call 0800 328 8452. Stockists include B&Q and Homebase. Use it for a Pop Art cupboard rescued from a junk shop. medium, 30cm high, £77, and large, 45cm high, £232. Available from the Hay MiniMart on the lower-ground floor at Selfridges in Oxford Street, W1 (0800 123 400; selfridges.com). The much bigger version is now part of a Saatchi Gallery installation, shown in the main picture. O RIGHT: Michaela Schleypen based her Woodheart rug on a cross-section of a 100-year old oak tree. Handmade using a dense tufting technique in New Zealand wool and Chinese silk, it’s £975 a square metre. A version in moisture-resistant synthetic fibre is also available. See it at the FRONT rug specialists’ showroom in Bruton Place, W1 (020 7495 0740; wearefront.com). Winter 50% Sale UP TO OFF Enjoy an extra 15% off sale prices* Chingford | Chiswick | East Sheen | Fulham | Hammersmith | Hampstead | Kingston | Tottenham Court Road Beds, Furniture, Mattresses, Bed Linen, Bedding & Accessories 33 Stores Nationwide | 01243 380 600 www.featherandblack.com *see in store for details 18 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Reader promotion homesandproperty.co.uk with Dine at home in designer style Best of British Alison Cork Great deals galore LIFT your spirits and enjoy a new year treat with a 25 per cent discount from Alison at Home across its furniture and accessories range,* from handcarved, French-inspired chairs to dining ware and bed linen. Crafted from resin and pewter and finished in an antiqued silver colour, the Moulin candelabra, above, is modelled in a traditional Art Nouveau fashion and costs only £59.63 including discount. Visit alisonathome.com to see the full range. Order online or call 0800 472 5533 using code JAN725 to claim your discount. While stocks last. *Excludes clearance. WILLOW & HALL bedroom and living room furniture, made by craftspeople in Wiltshire, is available in a large choice of fabrics, and each item has a five-year wood frame guarantee. Sofa beds come with a 14cmdeep open sprung, pocket sprung or memory foam mattress. Readers get a further five per cent off all discounts with reductions of up to 35 per cent. Prices start at £954 and £1,121 for the Downton sofa/sofa bed, below. Order on 0845 163 3120 (quote ES21115) or visit willow andhall.co.uk/ bnews and use the code at the checkout before January 21. THE contemporary-chic Tretton dining set from my-furniture.co.uk includes an oval table with quality solid oak legs and a white lacquered finish, plus four matching white Eames-inspired chairs. The table measures H75cm x W90cm x L160cm*. The chairs are also available in a range of colours including red, blue, green, purple and black, while the table comes in both the oval design pictured here, and a round style. Readers are offered a £30 discount, reducing the oval table and four chairs from £399 to £369. To claim, call 0800 092 1636 and use code MFTR30 before January 31. See the range at my-furniture.co.uk. *Offer valid for white lacquered oval table and four chairs in white finish only. Bargain news Hall storage and seating — in one TRANSFORM your hallway with a truly stunning addition and benefit from The Cotswold Company’s January sale offer of up to 30 per cent off all wooden furniture until the end of the month. The Lyon Oak Monks Storage Bench, left, boasts an appealing rustic character with two deep drawers for outdoor shoes and boots, and a generous seating area. Made from solid oak, the highwaxed and lightly distressed finish will perfectly show off the natural beauty of the wood. The Lyon is currently reduced from £425 to just £325, but readers can save a further £20 on any orders over £200. Visit cotswoldco.com or call 0333 200 1725 to order, using code BENCH4, before January 31. Price of quality kitchen knives slashed CHOP, dice and slice like a professional chef thanks to the Jean-Patrique knife set, currently reduced from £89.99 to just £34.99. Each knife is forged and stone ground to give you balance and handling, and made using the finest carbon stainless steel to offer strength, durability and exceptional sharpness. Visit oneregentplace. co.uk to redeem your offer before January 12. While stocks last. 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. 19 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 Events Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with 1 2 3 4 5 Five things to see this new year By Barbara Chandler 1 WINTER DECORATIVE ANTIQUES & TEXTILES FAIR January 20 to 25. Battersea Park, SW11 (decorativefair.com) CHALET chic is the theme of this popular show featuring mini room sets, with an “Alpine Retreat” in the foyer, plus antler furniture, hunting trophies (we like this carved Black Forest bear, above), period rugs, and French and Swedish antiques. There are also antique skis revitalised as lamps. In all, 145 dealers are taking part. Prices start at £15, and there’s a free shuttle from Sloane Square Tube station. 2 THEN AND NOW Until January 23. Celebrating 50 years of the London College of Furniture, Commercial Road, E1 (thecass.com/ london-college-of-furniture) THE East End was home for years to the furniture industry, and at its heart was — and is — the London College of Furniture. Browse the archives and see Parker Knoll founder Frederick Parker’s collection of chairs, along with the work of college alumni, students and lecturers from 1964 to 1992, and the work of modern maestros, including the iconic Venturi Stool by Assa Ashuach, above. 3 PATTERN: WATTS’S ARCHITECT WALLPAPERS 4 HEAL’S MODERN CRAFT MARKET 5 THE MAYFAIR ANTIQUES & FINE ART FAIR Until January 18. Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, SE1 (ftmlondon.org; watts1874.co.uk) February 2-15. The Heal’s Building, 196 Tottenham Court Road, W1 (heals.co.uk) Tomorrow until Sunday. London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, W1 (adfl.co.uk) THIS exhibition charts the rise, from 1874, of Watts of Westminster, now in Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, SW6. The architects of the title are George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907, Gothic revival), George Gilbert Scott, or “Middle Scott” (1839-97) and Thomas Garner (18391906) — all trained by Middle Scott’s father, Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811–1878). Tickets: £8.80 adults; £5.50 students; £6.60 concessions. HERE’S one for the diary. Eclectic collectables from an avant-garde bunch of designers, and free workshops using new materials and processes. The stars are six furniture designers who will take part in Heal’s Great Bodging Race, competing in the store’s front window to create several pieces in a week. Bodging, incidentally, is an old term describing the use of unseasoned “green” wood to make, typically, Windsor chairs. IN THE ballroom and foyer of this West End venue will be a clutch of specialists from the British Antique Dealers’ Association and The Association of Art & Antiques Dealers. Browsers will include interior designers, shopping for clients. Marvel at fine English furniture, Regency porcelain and classics like this Fifties glass and brass English clock, above, £950 from Jeroen Markies Art Deco. 20 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Our home homesandproperty A BOLD STROKE OF GENIUS Ben and Jane Kilburn took a dingy Dalston house split into flats and turned it into a bright family home packed with clever design ideas, says Philippa Stockley Y OU just can’t prepare for everything, as architect Ben Kilburn and his wife Jane found when they started looking in 2011 for a new house near their old one in Dalston. Ben, 49, and Jane, 47, a solicitor, began to outgrow their home of 10 years when first Tess, now 12, then Billie, 10, and Esme, seven, arrived. After 10 months of being shown unsuitable properties they were totally fed up, when an agent said he’d got a house he knew they wouldn’t like, because it was divided into three flats. “We jumped out of our seats,” says Ben. “It was that moment when your eyes meet across a crowded room and you fall in love.” A project like this is catnip to an architect, so on a gloomy November day the couple went to view the big, four-storey, 1870s semi-detached house. It was dark, dirty, battered from tenants’ bikes — and a wall went slap up the middle of the collapsing staircase, dividing the flats. Apart from two Carrara marble fireplaces, all original features had been ripped out or covered over, and there were what Ben calls “significant” cracks, both in the side and spine walls. However, since a good architect and a good builder can fix pretty much anything, the couple made an offer well below the £850,000 asking price — only to discover they hadn’t seen the worst of it. The side wall was bellying out at third- and fourth-floor level, and when they brought in a structural surveyor to work out why, they found a catalogue of horrors. First, the old slate roof tiles had been replaced by heavy concrete ones that were pressing down on the house, Restoration drama: Ben and Jane Kilburn with daughters Billie, Esme and Tess. Right, the family’s bright, light-filled home library causing the joists to pop out of their sockets. Then, the person who converted the house to flats had hacked through the timber structural bracing to the upper floors — so if not for the place next door propping it up like a tottering drunkard, the house might have fallen down. THE RISK PAID OFF Feeling confident no one else would be rushing to buy, and having been quoted £50,000 to mend the “pregnant” wall, the couple reduced their offer further. To their shock, the owner put the house into a December auction. At this point lots of people would have thrown in the towel, but not the Kilburns. Ben was out of town, so Jane went to the auction alone. “You can track bids on your phone,” says Ben, “but you don’t know who is bidding.” Having agreed that their max was £800,000, he then watched the bids zip Features: original marble fireplace and new moulded cornices up to that mark. Then they started rising in £1,000 increments. “It went to £800,000, £801, £802, £803,” he says. “Then it stopped.” Dismayed, he thought they had lost it by a hair, when, 10 minutes later, Jane rang to say they’d got it. Next, just before the Christmas break, the couple were told they wouldn’t be able to transport their mortgage from the old house to the new one until the bulging wall had been rebuilt, inspected, and passed. They got that done by April — and their mortgage was moved. A HAPPY ending? Not quite. Before going to auction, Ben had done the right thing and checked with the planners whether he could convert the house back to a single dwelling from the three flats. He was told it was no problem. But between that phone call and putting in their planning application, Hackney council changed its policy. Replica: the replacement staircase has a lovely oak handrail “Our hearts stopped,” says Ben. “We were sitting on a half-derelict investment, and the tenants had left, so there wasn’t even an income.” Luckily, their application went to planning committee — a bit like an appeal court — where it went through without a hitch. From that moment their luck changed. Between May 2012 and May 2013 they were able to rent a nearby flat and start the massive building programme. TIME TO STRIP They had already taken off the roof and rebuilt it, and rebuilt half the top of the house. Now they stripped out all the rotten wiring and plumbing, ripped out the floorboards on the two lower floors, along with the windows, demolished the false ceilings, and took out the staircase. “Bit by bit, we got pretty close to taking the whole house down and rebuilding it,” says Ben. Welsh slates went up on the roof, plus photovoltaic and solar panels. They insulated the roof, the walls and the floors. They replaced rotten floorboards with good, similar Victorian reclaimed ones; had the windows remade as timber double-glazed sashes; put in underfloor heating, new wiring, and plumbing for extra bathrooms; had new cornices moulded, and a replica staircase made Universal appeal: cool colours and clean lines, a world away from those dingy flats 21 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 Our home Homes & Property y.co.uk with Welcoming: the spacious kitchen, part of the reworked house’s award-winning mix Brought back to life: reclaimed Victorian floorboards and new double-glazed sashes with a gorgeous oak handrail. Slowly the house came back to life as an open, welcoming and sustainable family home with wonderfully high ceilings. A stroke of genius was to connect the spacious lower-ground to the raised ground floor by means of an existing small, two-storey extension. They removed the floor in it, creating a sort of large glazed chimney looking out to the garden, and it holds their library. You can call — and see — up or down between these two floors, so everyone feels connected, wherever they are. Looking now at this beautiful, serene house, which won the Architects’ Journal small projects sustainability award 2013, you would never guess the transformation that went on here. THE DETAILS O House in 2011: cost £803,000 O Money spent: £400,000 (excluding architect’s fees, estimated at about 15 Rear view: extension on to the garden Space-saving stairs: to the attic playroom per cent, in this case £60,000. Prices vary, so agree them when hiring your architect) O Value now: estimated at £2 million O Architect: Ben Kilburn (kilburnnightingale.com) O Builder: Padraig Flanelly at Moy Homes (07976 362665) O Interior design advice: from Kate Hinckley ([email protected]) Photographs:: Charles Hosea 24 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Outdoors homesandproperty.co.uk with Giraffe sunflowers and other surprises solution, which offers the same benefits, comes from growing climbers — just check the brickwork is sound first.” At a time when a third of UK homes have traded plants for parking spaces, and more people have paved patios than trees in their back gardens, we gardeners have a real responsibility to help lessen the increased risk of flooding. The new 10-part series of Great British Garden Revival, starting this week on BBC2, is designed to pull us away from paving and back into planted gardens, with 11 presenters championing their personal faves from cherry blossom to peonies and even, from brave Christine Walkden and Carol Klein respectively, carnations and conifers. There is also an increasing demand for Britishgrown plants, and Londoners will be able to source special plants from outof-town nurseries at Grow London’s three-day garden event in June on Hampstead Heath, as well as the Secret Sunday farmers’ markets at the Royal Horticultural Halls. With truffle trees and pure white wild strawberries, we’ve got a sensational gardening year to look forward to W HAT’S hot for 2015? The plot-to-plate link grows ever stronger. Truffle trees from Seeds of Italy, £60 a pair, prefer free-draining soil, so start digging over the clay for fragrant shavings in years to come. The focus is on novel veg varieties this year, such as the sweeter-than-sugar liquorice plant, mustard from seed bred by Colman’s and white wild strawberries to grow in a window box. These seeds are all from botanist James Wong’s Homegrown Revolution range for Suttons, which is championing the world’s first fully blight-resistant ( !& &(" # ) $&-%+ ,&%, *& $'$#%+ Pattie Barron tomato, the very welcome Crimson Crush. Suttons also celebrates the sunflower with 14 new varieties that include possibly the world’s tallest, Giraffe, purported to reach 15ft, as well as one that might be more relevant to small-space Londoners, the Suntastic Yellow, a mere babe at one foot tops. Highlights at the Chelsea Flower Show this summer include Dan Pearson’s return after a 10-year absence with a garden for Laurent-Perrier that is inspired by the Chatsworth Estate; Jo Thompson’s sylvan retreat with natural swimming pool and writing room for M&G Investments, and Matthew Wilson’s town garden for the Royal Bank of Canada. This self-sustaining plot has its own reservoir for watering plants, a “floating” deck, pomegranate trees and a boundary hedge of guava, which Wilson assures will produce delicious edible flowers, if not fruit, in our favoured urban microclimate. Chelsea Fringe will stretch the London flower show to a full three weeks and is going global for 2015, with hubs Skyscraper: sow the Giraffe sunflower for 15ft-high blooms The RHS is investing a whopping £100 million in the future of horticulture over the next 10 years, which includes a new centre of excellence at Wisley and the UK’s largest pollinator-friendly perennial meadow at Hyde Hall in Essex, where designer Xa Tollemache will create an inspirational garden with edibles of the future, including chickpeas, lima beans, yams and tomatillos. If that lot doesn’t get your horticultural juices flowing, visit the newly completed Winter Walk at Wisley this weekend, and see scarlet stems, silvered bark and sculptural trees reflected in the ornamental lake, as well as a vibrant berry bed, scented daphnes and winterflowering iris. Just a few weeks later, these will be followed by the spectacular flowering of over 100,000 crocuses on the main lawn that are guaranteed to see in spring, sensationally. confirmed in Vienna and Slovenia while director Tim Richardson is in negotations with Milan, Melbourne and Miami. If you have a flowery event to share closer to home, sign up at chelseafringe.com. Scented shrubs: get inspired by the Winter Walk at RHS Wisley We’re finally getting the message that plant diversity in our gardens is what best brings in the wildlife, so expect to see a shift towards shrubs, trees and climbers, which provide a full range of habitats and feeding stations. Green walls are another way to create refuge for wildlife, but note the scientific conclusion of the RHS boffins: “Green walls often require special engineered structures and planting pockets for the plants to grow. A much easier and cheaper Small and sweet: white wild strawberries taste of pineapple and their lack of colour makes them invisible to birds Buy it: RHS Dahlia Collection THE showy flowerheads of these cottage garden favourites will put on a fabulous display, blooming prolifically from midsummer, especially when deadheaded regularly. They last well as cut flowers. The RHS is offering three of each of the following, supplied as tubers, for £9.99: Dahlia Ambition, right, with vivid magenta semi-cactus flowers up to 15cm across, grows to 90cm; Dahlia Rip City, left, which has fully double flowerheads of deep purplish-red, grows to 1.1m, and Dahlia Jescot Julie, right, with burnt orange and rich plum petals on each flowerhead, grows to 75cm. The nine-strong collection costs £19.98, saving £10 on the usual price, but Homes & Property readers can save a further 15 per cent by entering 310115 at the checkout at rhsplants.co.uk before the end of January 27. 25 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 Home gadgets Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with Take Ta ke e it it with wi w h you you yo The latest compact essential gadgets are perfect for London homes and for renters moving on, discovers Caramel Quin 1 2 3 4 5 1 STELLAR EAZISTORE PANS 2 JUDGE JEA11 INDUCTION HOB 3 ASUS S1 POCKET PROJECTOR 4 AMAZON KINDLE VOYAGE 5 BOWERS & WILKINS T7 Kitchen cupboards cramped? These mirror-polished stainless steel pans are designed to nest inside each other. The three-piece set pictured (£99.95) includes 16cm, 18cm and 20cm saucepans with glass lids, all dishwasher safe and ovenproof. The Eazistore range also includes a two-piece stockpot set (£99.95, 22cm and 24cm) and a non-stick frying pan set (£69.95, 20cm and 26cm). Visit hartsofstur.com. Perfect for miniature kitchens, this single hob, £49.95, simply plugs into a mains socket. Induction cooking is very energy-efficient, safe, accurate to control and easy to clean. But note that it only works with pans that can be magnetised — so to check yours, see if a fridge magnet will stick to the bottom of the pan. Touch controls let you set the desired temperature from 60C to 240C. Visit coopersdirect.com. Many Londoners no longer bother with a TV, preferring to watch DVDs and streaming services such as Netflix and Sky Go on a laptop or tablet. It’s a clever way to save space... but far from ideal when it comes to movie night or the big match. So plug your device into the paperback-size Asus S1 pocket projector, £299.99, point it at a white wall and turn off the lights. You’ll get the big picture you’ve been missing. Visit maplin.co.uk. No room for bookshelves? A Kindle takes the place of 1,000 books. The Kindle Voyage, from £169, is only 7.6mm thick, so ideal for commuters, and has the best display yet, but whichever model you choose, your Kindle can access more than three million books, newspapers and magazines. There’s even a Kindle First service giving access to new releases a month before publication. Visit amazon.co.uk/kindle. This portable wireless speaker is a first from Bowers & Wilkins, a UK brand famous for high-end hi-fi kit of the sort found at Abbey Road Studios. Stream music from your phone, tablet or laptop using Bluetooth, or plug in the output from a TV. Priced £299.99, T7 is the size of a hardback book, so you’ll get hi-fi quality sound yet save on space. With 18 hours of battery life it is also highly portable. Visit bowers-wilkins.com. 27 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 Shopping Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with T HERE is no better time than now to find designer bargains online and in the shops — with some prices slashed by more than half. 2 1 1 ARAM Until January 31. Drop chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen in a range of colours, down from £349 to £174.30. Aram Store, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, WC2 (aram.co.uk) 2 SCP Until stocks run out. Elmer sofa by Lucy Kurrein, down from £3,500 to £2,275. SCP, Curtain Road, EC2 (scp.co.uk) 3 CONRAN Until February 2. The beautifully made Rio Copa glass pendant light by Michael Ruh is reduced from £440 to £352. The Conran Shop, in Fulham Road, SW3 and Marylebone High Street, W1 (conranshop.co.uk) 3 4 CLARISSA HULSE Until 4 January 29. Virginia Creeper cushion in Neon and Pebble, less than half price at £22, down from £55. Clarissa Hulse, Corsica Street, N5. (clarissahulse.com) 5 FUTURE AND FOUND Until stocks run out. Small triangles vase, down from £16 to £11.20. 5 By Katie Law Design Desig ign ne ig new news ews ews Future and Found, Brecknock Road, N19 (futureandfound.com) at the sales 6 DESIGNJUNCTION SHOP Until January 16. The Victoria and Albert sofa is half price, down from £9,660 to £4,830. Thedesignjunction.co.uk 7 ARIA Until January 25. Jielde table lamp, also available in blue or white, down from £220 to £154. Aria, Barnsbury Hall, Barnsbury Street, Islington, N1 (ariashop.co.uk) 8 CLIPPINGS Online until January 11. Tall Boulder display unit by Coucou Manou, down from £1,595 to £1,116.50. Clippings.com 6 7 8 28 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Property searching Spotlight Marylebone Urban village with that Euro-vibe A central London favourite, locals love their Continental-style high street and smart apartments, discovers Anthea Masey homesandproperty.co.uk with H OT celebrity haunt Chiltern Firehouse isn’t the only big blaze of excitement in Marylebone — the madeover high street is a firm favourite with shoppers from all over London and abroad. So when André Balazs opened his restaurant and hotel in the magnificent red-brick former Edwardian fire station in Chiltern Street, he just knew he was about to be coated in the fairy dust that has been falling on the district for a decade. With Michelin-star chef Nuno Mendes at the helm, the Firehouse is so successful that everyone, it seems, wants to use the Chiltern brand. In nearby Paddington Street are two new homes schemes — Chiltern Place, a 12-storey office block conversion into 50 flats, and The Chilterns, 44 new-build apartments with prices from £4 million for a two-bedroom home. Developer Galliard Homes expects to achieve a record £3,500 a square foot for penthouses at The Chilterns, while star couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were reported recently to have viewed a five-bedroom duplex penthouse there at £25 million. SHOPPING-LED BOOM The Portman Estate, Chiltern Street’s landlord, came late to the game of retail-led regeneration pioneered by Howard de Walden Estates in nearby Marylebone High Street, but has caught up with its rival, curating a mix of shops that works a treat. Howard de Walden’s genius idea was to take the run-down high street and create a retail boom by playing down the predictable and supporting innovative independent retailers to set up shop there. Over the festive period, as the dusk falls and the fairy lights sparkle, Marylebone High Street does a roaring trade. Sadly though, it has become a victim of its own success with many of the independent stores gone, replaced by upmarket chains. Round the corner in Chiltern Street, however, there is a charming mix of independent boutiques, a whisky shop, a woodwind instrument specialist and an old-fashioned hardware store. Some long-standing residents of the red-brick tenements in and around Chiltern Street claim paparazzi who haunt the outside of Chiltern Firehouse in the hope of spotting a celebrity are an annoyance. But away from any unwanted attention their street might attract, Marylebone is a peaceful residential district with lovely period garden squares, mews homes, side streets of useful local shops and cafés and the feel of a European city where most people live in flats, walk to work and shop locally. Day and night: Coco Momo is among a range of popular cafés and bars in Marylebone High Street serving the lunchtime and after-work crowds Photographs: Graham Hussey WHAT THERE IS TO BUY Marylebone has a mix of properties from Georgian and early Victorian houses and quiet mews, to Victorian, Edwardian, interwar and modern flats, along with homes above commercial premises. However, it is easier to buy a flat there than a whole house — figures from the Homes & Property website show eight times more flats than houses are currently for sale in Marylebone. The most expensive houses recently for sale have included a newly renovated 4,291sq ft property in Welbeck Street, with five bedrooms and bathrooms, at £7.55 million, while the cheapest have included an unmodernised mews home with development potential in Devonshire Place Mews, for £1.65 million. Flats range in price from around £375,000 for a lock-up-and-leave studio to figures in the millions. A 349sq ft studio in Forest Court, Edgware Road, has been marketed for £375,000, with a one-bedroom flat in Cranfield Court, Homer Street priced at £600,000. Asking prices for family-size flats and maisonettes in Marylebone are now approaching £3,000 a square foot. A four-bedroom, four-storey, 3,971sq ft maisonette in Wimpole Street with a roof terrace is valued at over £2,700 a square foot. However, as a general rule price per square foot in Marylebone is between £1,500 and £2,000, with slightly more being asked in the medical district around Harley Street and Wimpole Street. The area attracts: estate agent Tim Fairweather, of Sandfords, says Marylebone is a long-standing favourite with high-earning doctors. The central London location and village atmosphere also draw buyers from overseas, who see property in Marylebone as a longterm investment. Renting: one-bedroom flats rent from about £300 a week to £1,000 a week. Recent lets include a one-bedroom flat in Homer Street with a communal roof terrace for £325 a week, with another, in Nottingham Place, at £975 a week. It is possible to rent directly from the Portman Estate and Howard de Walden Estates. Recent Portman Estate rental properties range from a studio in Manchester Street for £330 a week to a two-bedroom flat in Bryanston Square for £1,350 a week. Howard de Walden rental homes have recently included a two-bedroom Ossington Buildings flat at £565 a week to £1,595 a week for a four-bedroom house in Wigmore Place. To find a home in Marylebone, visit: homesandproperty.co.uk/marylebone £3.95 MILLION £10.95 MILLION £1.95 MILLION A FIVE-BEDROOM family house in Seymour Place, Marylebone, for sale through Hanover Residential. O homesandproperty.co.uk/sey THIS listed four-bedroom maisonette with a private lift and secluded roof terrace is for sale in Wimpole Street, Marylebone. Through Knight Frank. O homesandproperty.co.uk/wimpole A FREEHOLD two-bedroom mews house with an integral garage in Devonshire Close, Marylebone, is for sale through Sandfords. O homesandproperty.co.uk/devmews 29 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 Property searching Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with CHECK THE STATS ■WHAT HOMES COST BUYING IN MARYLEBONE (Average prices) One-bedroom flat £799,000 Two-bedroom flat £1.51 million Three-bedroom flat £2.24 million Four-bedroom flat £4.14 million Source: Zoopla RENTING IN MARYLEBONE (Average rates) One-bedroom flat £2,784 a month Two-bedroom flat £3,843 a month Three-bedroom flat £5,764 a month Four-bedroom flat £6,705 a month Source: Zoopla GO ONLINE FOR MORE Among specialist stores: La Fromagerie cheese shop and café in Moxon Street Homewares, books and fashion: Marylebone High Street has got the lot Postcode: Marylebone is in W1, which covers a large part of central London including Mayfair, Soho and Fitzrovia. Best roads: these include Harley Street, Devonshire Place and Wimpole Street in the medical district, and the garden squares — Bryanston Square and Montagu Square. Sandfords’ Tim Fairweather also reports strong Celebrity magnet: Chiltern Firehouse hotel and restaurant, launched in February last year in Chiltern Street by American hotelier André Balazs demand for Marylebone’s cobbled mews, while his personal favourite is Portland Place, home of the BBC, which he describes as “a really lovely boulevard”. Up and coming: Fairweather tips nearby Fitzrovia, saying the roads around Charlotte Street have not yet been discovered by international buyers. Also undervalued is the area north of Marylebone Road around Dorset Square and Lisson Grove. A development at 53/55 Lisson Grove has five new-build apartments, of which one, a three-bedroom home, was recently marketed at £895,000, or £973 a square foot — which is considerably cheaper than similar properties south of Marylebone Road. Travel: four London Underground stations serve the Marylebone area — Oxford Street, on the Central, Victoria and Bakerloo lines; Marble Arch, on the Central line; Great Portland Street, on the Circle, Metropolitan, and Hammersmith & City lines, and Baker Street, which is on the same three lines as Great Portland Street and additionally on the Jubilee line. All of these Tube stations are in Zone 1 and an annual travel card costs £1,256. Council: Westminster City Council is Conservative-controlled, and Band D council tax for the current year stands at £676.74. @CarolineGardn our new shop at 17 Marylebone High Street is proving very popular with the locals HAVE YOUR SAY MARYLEBONE @CarterJonas great dining in #Marylebone @35newcavendish next to our office, fusion food @theprovidores & fab cocktails @themarylebone @presideonline our favourite place in Marylebone is Caffe Caldesi. A bar/restaurant in the Italian tradition. Best place to sink a red wine @LoreleiKing fab place to live. For eateries, recommend The Golden Hind @BakerStreetQ @EatMoveBloom @PortmanVillage is an area to rival the High Street and Chiltern Street #boutique #chic For more about Marylebone, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightmarylebone F O The best schools in and around Marylebone O The lowdown on the best shops and restaurants O The latest housing developments O How Marylebone compares with the rest of the UK on house prices O Arts, leisure facilities and open space in the neighbourhood, including a choice of two fabulous Royal Parks O Smart maps to plot your property search NEXT TIME: Balham. Do you live there? Tell us what you think @HomesProperty TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE We know the man — but what is his jacket’s connection with Marylebone? Find the answer at homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightmarylebone 30 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property New homes Stella was the trendsetter COLOURFUL, cosmopolitan and slightly scruffy, the northern stretch of Portobello Road beyond Westway flyover has been winning new fans since designer Stella McCartney set up her fashion atelier in a former chapel in Golborne Road, heralding the neighbourhood’s “arrival”. Prices lag nearby Notting Hill by 40 per cent or more. A former councilrun rehab centre, 321 Portobello Road now offers ultra-modern homes, below, by local developer Cubic Studios. Behind the refurbished traditional shopfront is a three-floor new build, with daring interiors of raw concrete and polished plaster, reclaimed planks, galvanised steel, industrial-style shutters and oversize copper pipes that act as radiators. An internal courtyard has a “living wall”, and furniture, art and accessories by local designers are for sale separately. Prices from £1.2 million. Call estate agent Domus Nova on 020 7727 1717. homesandproperty.co.uk with Smart moves By David Spittles From £1.5 million: chic apartments, left, in Hollen Street, Soho, include duplex penthouses with glass walls and roof terraces, right It’s Soho respectable S OHO is lurching upmarket as it jettisons its sex-and-sleaze image and attracts movers from “respectable” near neighbourhoods such as Mayfair and Bloomsbury. New Crossrail stations being built are providing another area boost. Bankers, business executives and the idle rich are moving in, and the district is in danger of becoming sanitised. However, the new homes are far superior to the dingy and cramped flats of yesteryear. A new development at Hollen Street brings 12 chic apartments to a prominent corner. Light-filled interiors are slick and contemporary, designed by architects Johnson Naylor and Darling Associates. Glass-walled duplex penthouses have fabulous roof terraces, while the discreet entrance has a marble-lined lobby with a specially commissioned sculpture by British artist Charlotte Kingsnorth. Prices from £1.5 million. Call Knight Frank on 020 7861 5499. 31 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 homesandproperty.co.uk with New homes Homes & Property DUAL BONUS LOW STAMP DUTY, PLUS CROSSRAIL PROPERTY values in West Drayton, a potential Crossrail winner, are at the lower end of the London price spectrum, meaning first-time buyers can benefit from the new stamp duty changes. Two-bedroom flats, left, launched by Bellway at Drayton Garden Village, a new neighbourhood of 775 homes where there will be an upgraded pedestrian route to the planned Crossrail station opening in 2018, cost from £284,995, requiring stamp duty of £4,249. Previously, the stamp duty was £8,549. Call 0845 676 0252. Traditionally, West Drayton appealed mainly to people working at Heathrow airport or at one of the local business parks. But Crossrail is widening its draw with the prospect of trains taking only 23 minutes to Bond Street. Pair of eco-pads in Peckham Visit our new online luxury section HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury TWO stylish eco-friendly townhouses, left, set in a Peckham backstreet close to Queens Road Overground station at Albert Way, spring a surprise. Resourcefully squeezed on to a small plot, each of the semis, by Quay 2c Architects, has 1,415sq ft of space over three floors, with up to four bedrooms, terrace and roof garden. Priced £825,000. Call estate agent Caddington Blue on 020 7117 6985. This fast-changing district has been boosted by conservation status for the town centre. Up to 50 buildings in Rye Lane are benefiting from Heritage Lottery funding aimed at restoring the high street’s architectural fabric and bringing back vacant and derelict space above shops for housing. 32 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Inside story homesandproperty.co.uk with Doggedly determined to sign up new tenants MONDAY Finding someone their dream home is the reason many of us become estate agents. Today a buyer who put in an offer on an off-market property on the border of Bayswater before the weekend, rings into our Notting Hill Gate office to up the original offer, in order to secure their perfect home. And so begins my week… TUESDAY I am greeted with an early morning call from a vendor who has decided to pull out of a sale agreed with a young family expecting their second child. The poor family were due to move into their new home in the next few weeks. It is not surprising that they are extremely unhappy with the news, so I spend the rest of the morning searching our listings and arrange for them to view some more places in Notting Hill this afternoon. After seeing several properties, the young couple fall in love with a beautiful family home in Holland Park Mews, W11 and I am confident they will put in an offer. WEDNESDAY Today we meet with our planners and finalise the designs for our relocated Notting Hill office, in Kensington Park Road. We plan to move away from the traditional Mountgrange Heritage brand colours, and decide to go for use this opportunity to update each other on our progress, discuss current and new instructions, and afterwards make time for a drink or two in the pub next door. The sales team did a lot of valuations on properties before Christmas, but vendors, sensitive to the latest stamp duty changes, were cautious about putting their properties up for sale immediately. However, we are now getting instructed to start marketing, which suggests business is really starting to pick up again now we are at the beginning of 2015. Diary of an estate agent blacks and greys to blend in with the cool vibe of the local area and boutiques along the street. To accommodate our growing lettings and sales teams we decide to build a wide, open staircase and extend the office by including the basement to create extra space. I leave the meeting feeling excited about the structural developments at our new base. My colleague Hen, who heads up our lettings team, is about to take her miniature wired-haired dachshund, Peggy, for a walk, when we get a call from a prospective landlord. He is keen to meet up with Hen this afternoon for a valuation. The landlord happens to be an animal lover and insists that Hen calls round with Peggy. He is interested to know more about our Pet-Friendly Lets scheme. Hen outlines the positives of considering tenants with pets, one of which is not missing out on a growing part of the London lettings market, and the landlord — who takes a shine to Peggy — agrees to instruct Mountgrange Heritage and offer the pet-friendly scheme. FRIDAY THURSDAY This morning I am showing a potential applicant round one of our short-let apartments. It is currently occupied by an actor who is said to be away, rumoured to be filming a Hollywood blockbuster. I arrive at the property and press the intercom which is answered by the actor in a flustered voice, informing me that he is in the shower and will be right down. To my surprise, 10 minutes later he appears at the door in his underwear — with his hair perfectly coiffed. I assume he is getting into character for his latest starring role, although my client does not seem keen to linger and find out. Next stop is the monthly sales meeting where negotiators from all the Mountgrange branches meet up. We The expectant family ring me to say they would like to put in an offer on the mews house, and I spend the morning negotiating a deal with the vendor. Then I set off on some more viewings and receive my second offer this week for a striking and extraordinary townhouse in the sought-after area of Holland Park. This property has had a lot of interest so I am not surprised that it has been snapped up so fast by this particular buyer. Great news — marking a good end to a successful week. O Sam Allport is associate director of sales at Mountgrange Heritage in Notting Hill and Bayswater (020 7221 2277). 34 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Ask the expert homesandproperty.co.uk with How do I check if my tenants are illegals? 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. OUR LAWYER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS I HAVE let properties for years but last night in the pub I was told that under a new law I could be fined heavily if any of my tenants turn out to be illegal immigrants. It’s news to me. What is the correct situation please? A THE Immigration Act 2014 requires landlords of residential premises to check the immigration status of prospective tenants to ensure they have permission to be in the UK. Since December 1 last year, “right to rent” checks are being piloted in Birmingham, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, but the intention is to introduce the scheme throughout Britain during the course of this year. Right to rent rules require landlords and letting agents in these areas to check that someone has the right to live in the UK before letting a residential property to them. This includes landlords who sublet property or who take in lodgers, and it applies to new tenancies which started last December 1, or after that date. To check a prospective tenant’s identity or citizenship, the landlord must see a passport or a biometric residence permit which is an acceptable form of identification. Checks do not need to be carried out in respect of tenancies created before last December 1. If a landlord lets a property to someone who does not have the right to rent, that landlord could be fined up to £3,000. Many landlords already check on the creditworthiness and identity of prospective tenants, but there are also unscrupulous landlords who do not, and who also let substandard or illegal accommodation to immigrants. The Act is intended to prevent this practice. More legal Q&As Visit: homesand property.co.uk A FEW weeks ago I exchanged contracts on a house but I am not due to complete the purchase until the end of this month. The price is £475,000 and I am paying £10,000 for contents. My conveyancer has just said that it is up to me whether to use the old rules or the new rules regarding the payment of stamp duty, but has given no further guidance. What should I do? NEW rules for stamp duty were introduced on December 4 and it appears you exchanged contracts before that. Stamp duty used to be paid at a single rate on the full purchase price of a residential property — so had you bought before December 4, you would have used the old rules and the duty would have been calculated at three per cent of the full purchase price of £475,000. This is because the relevant band for stamp duty would have been three per cent for a purchase price of over £250,00 to £500,000 and would have amounted to £14,250. Stamp duty would not have been payable on the contents price of £10,000. The new rates are: nought per cent up to £125,000 — so nothing to pay; two per cent on £125,001 to £250,000, so £2,500 to pay, and five per cent on £250,001 to £925,000, so £11,250 to pay, making a total amount payable of £13,750. Under the new rules, again, the contents price of £10,000 would be disregarded for stamp duty. As you exchanged contracts before the new rules came in but are completing after that date, your conveyancer is right, you can choose whether to use the old rules or the new. You will save £500 if you choose the new rules. 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. 36 WEDNESDAY 7 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property Letting on homesandproperty.co.uk with Smoking out the cat in my pet-free flat A RE you a renter and a smoker? May I suggest you make it your new year resolution to quit the coffin nails? Of course it’s none of my business if you want to puff your way to an early grave, so you would be quite within your rights to tell me to butt out. But giving up might make your life easier when it comes to finding somewhere to rent. The majority of landlords don’t like letting to smokers and since this is one prejudice we are still allowed to express, many of us openly advertise for non-smokers and write a clause in the tenancy agreement banning smoking in our properties. I realise that this doesn’t necessarily stop smokers from finding accommodation — you just don’t own up to the habit, then light up as soon as the landlord is out of the way — but if you are caught you could be chucked out. You will probably have to resort to all sorts of acrobatics to smoke without getting busted, such as hanging out of windows. Or you will have to spray the place frantically with Febreeze before the landlord pays a visit, but only a smoker would think they can mask the stink of cigarettes so easily. Even if your landlord doesn’t mind you smoking, you will probably have to pay to fumigate the property when The accidental landlord you leave. I am seriously worried that my tenants are going to kill themselves smoking — and not in the obvious way. As I have banned them from lighting up inside the flat, they have taken to smoking on top of it. They clamber out of a window on to the flat roof every time they want a fag. Not only is this annoying the other residents in the building, but they are also in danger of falling through into the flat below. When one of the other residents called to alert me to the tenants’ antics I wrote to warn them that it is not a roof terrace, it isn’t intended for parties or fag breaks, and it could give way under their combined weight, but apparently that hasn’t stopped the frequent illicit puffing. I thought a gentle warning face to face might work better so I repeated during a routine “property inspection” that the roof was strictly out of bounds. “But you don’t want us to smoke inside the flat,” was their idiotic reaction, as if I was obliged to provide somewhere £750 a week: in Wenlock Street, Hoxton, Hamptons has this smart, split-level one-bedroom flat, close to shops and the Tube, available to rent (homesandproperty.co.uk/rentwen) for them to light up, even though I had made it clear when they viewed the flat that smoking was prohibited. I was about to persist in my argument when I was distracted by the sight of a ginger cat sitting on the sofa. This is a smoke-free and pet-free property. “Who does that belong to?” I asked. They all looked sheepish, then one announced it was a stray they had taken in. “He’s not really ours,” she said. “He’s a sort of flat-cat.” Oh dear. As the creature seemed very much at home and smiled at me I £485 a week: this refurbished two-bedroom cottage in W5, overlooking Ealing Common, is available to rent through Hamptons. Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/rentealing agreed that Ginger could stay. But later, as I was leaving, I bent down to stroke “flat-cat” and he shied away, as if he sensed I was the Cruella De Vil of cat land. “Oh he’s just nervous,” volunteered one of the assembled company. “At my old flat one of the tenants used to torment. . .” She swallowed the end of her sentence but flushed beetroot red as she realised she had already revealed he wasn’t flat-cat, he was her cat. I sighed. “Just make sure he doesn’t do any damage. And STOP SMOKING ON THE ROOF — or he won’t be the only thing that’s flat.” O Victoria Whitlock lets three properties in south London. To contact Victoria with your ideas and views, tweet @vicwhitlock Find many more homes to rent at homesandproperty.co.uk/lettings PUTNEY SW15 NOW OVER 60% SOLD ! ! " ####%('2#$$2(#$'#(,(#'(-*('#%# $$'--*#$&,-()'#$11#$*,$#-#-'($11# -$('#22(#)2#,(#2$-1-(#$'#$#(#$-/# (##$)2#,(#01-(#)#,(#(#-&,2'#$' #($&,# &(2$#,-*,#(&-&$-#$$2(#-11#,$ (#-## -(#*$'(##%$1& #,-1(#$#(1(&-#-11#(.#)$$-&# ,)$&-*#($&(/#(-'(#-11#%((#)2#$&&(## $#&22$1#)#($&(#$'#$#+,#&&-(*(#( -&(/ PRICES FROM £595,000 CALL 0333 666 2838 TO ARRANGE YOUR VIEWING APPOINTMENT ,(#'#$(#$1(#-( #""#(#-&,2'#$' # !"###(#'$-1 2(#*(($('#-2$*(#'(-&#'#$(#(/## ($-1#$(#&(&#$#-2(#)#*-*##(/ www.londonsquare.co.uk
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