1. real estate
2. apartments

Homes&
Property
Wednesday 12 November 2014
Get cosy with
Grayson Perry
What’s on in London
Page 17
NINE ELMS STANDS TALL P6 CROSSRAIL: WHERE TO BUY P8 FABULOUS BED LINEN P16 SPOTLIGHT ON BARNET P36
UK’s young
designers
Page 22
PATRICK QUAYLE
Out to conquer the world
4
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Online
homesandproperty.co.uk with
This week: homesandproperty.co.uk
news: now you can cuddle
up with your car
The car as
art: this
Knightsbridge
house, priced
£16.5 million, is
following a US
craze for glazed
integral garages
THE dream home for a wealthy car enthusiast has come
on the market in London — a £16.5 million Knightsbridge
end-of-terrace house with an integral glass-panelled
garage that allows the buyer to drool over their prized
motor from the comfort of the study.
The concept of car-as-artwork comes from America,
where houses regularly feature glazed car parking areas,
but this is a first for London.
Property
search
Trophy buy of the week
steer for those harbour lights
£9.95 million: your Chelsea Harbour neighbour, actor
Sir Michael Caine, may be moaning about Labour’s
threatened mansion tax but this jaw-dropping penthouse
with 2,500 square feet of lateral, white gloss-tiled
entertaining space is surely worth the pain.
It has a wraparound terrace with 360-degree views,
including over the harbour, while the master bedroom
covers 1,000sq ft and comes with a divine en suite
bathroom, wet room and central bathtub. The apartment
has direct lift access, 24-hour security, a 132in drop-down
O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk
£475,000: leafy Stroud Green is well
worth a look if you want to live in a
conservation area with good transport
links and green open spaces — it sits
next to vibrant Finsbury Park. You’ll
find good solid Victorian proportions
at this garden flat in a sought-after
road. A sleek new refit has resulted in
dark wood floors and white walls in a
Life changer move in and
launch a holiday rental firm
WITH the housing market cooling down, now could be a
great time to bag a good-value home ready for the new
year. We have found first-time buyer flats and homes for
second-steppers across London, all with price tags of less
than £250,000. We’ve even found a mansion block studio
apartment in prime Chelsea for only £140,000 — but with
that one, we must admit there’s a catch...
£850,000: there’s nothing to do to this Cornish gorgeous
Georgian set in two acres surrounded by farmland, a few
miles from Truro. There are four big bedrooms and two
bathrooms upstairs, three lovely reception rooms and a
glorious kitchen/breakfast room that opens to the gardens,
plus a one-bedroom annexe you could rent out. There’s also
earning potential from stables with planning consent to be
turned into holiday homes. Through Jackson-Stops & Staff.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/hothomes250
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangertruro
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andproperty.co.uk/
trophychel
London buy of the week a roomy
garden flat in sought-after Stroud Green
London homes:
bag one for under £250,000
What’s the
catch?: a studio
flat in this
handsome
Chelsea mansion
block for
£140,000
sounds too
good to be true
cinema screen and air conditioning throughout. There are
three further en suite bedrooms and secure underground
parking for two cars. Available through Foxtons.
VISIT homesandproperty.co.uk/
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Homes & Property, Northcliffe
House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington,
London W8 5TT.
spacious reception room/open-plan
kitchen that’s lit by a large bay window
and door out to the private garden. The
airy feel continues in two bedrooms
laid with plush grey carpet, and
bathrooms with high-spec fixtures.
A variety of shops, restaurants and
bars is a short stroll away. It’s for sale
chain free through KFH.
O Visit homesand
property.co.uk/
buyoftheweekstroud
By
Faye
Greenslade
@HomesProperty • Pinterest:
@HomesProperty
Win a Grundig washing machine
German design, stainless steel, 8kg capacity and rated A+++
WE HAVE the perfect prize
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stylish touch, thanks to
Grundig. The company has
launched in the UK with a
range of German-designed
home appliances that
combine innovative
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good looks to add a
contemporary feel to any
kitchen.
One lucky winner will
receive Grundig’s stainless
steel 8kg washing machine.
It has an A+++ rating for
energy use, while the 8kg
capacity allows for a larger
load to be washed, saving
you time and money. The
quick-wash program does a
full load in 40 minutes at
40c, while the silent mode
means you can wash at
night and no one will be
disturbed.
Available for the first time
in the UK, Grundig’s range
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machines, tumble dryers
and dishwashers has
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the collection scooping six
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with a five-year warranty.
To find out more visit
grundig.co.uk.
TO ENTER
For a chance to win a Grundig stainless steel 8kg washing machine, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/offers
before the end of November 23. Usual rules apply, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/rules for details
5
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
News Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Buy Tom’s ski pad
for a cool £37m
Homes gossip
ÉTOM CRUISE has put his estate in
the ski resort of Telluride, Colorado,
on the market for £36.9 million.
In addition to a 10,000sq ft, fourbedroom main residence, above,
there is a three-bedroom guest
house on site. The views of
mountain peaks are splendid and
Telluride airport is 10 minutes
away, making the estate an ideal
retreat for A-list fans of the slopes.
The Mission: Impossible megastar,
below, 52, who is reportedly dating
Australian model Miranda Kerr, 31,
ex-wife of British screen heart-throb
Orlando Bloom, is selling up via
Sotheby’s International Realty.
By Amira Hashish
£10,000 a week to
live like the Robster
ÉROBBIE WILLIAMS’S former
home in Little Venice is back on the
rental market. The four-storey
period villa, above, near Regent’s
Canal, is listed with Savills for
£10,000 a week.
With five bedrooms, it would be
perfect for hosting Christmas guests,
with a large reception room, study
area and a gym to work off the turkey
and trimmings. Communal gardens
with tennis courts and a play area
offer another incentive.
The singer, left, has a two-year-old
daughter, Teddy, with wife Ayda
Field and last month tweeted live
video footage from the American
actress’s bedside while she was in
labour with their son, Charlton. The
young family now split their time
between a 46-room Holland Park
mansion and a home in Los Angeles.
Rent a shabby-chic
celebrity haunt
6,000sq ft Dalston warehouse,
above left and right, is for rent.
MC Motors in Millers Avenue,
E8, is regularly used for
shabby-chic photo shoots.
Singer Jessie J, left, model
Cara Delevingne, and
Game of Thrones stars
Lena Headey and Emilia
Clarke have all been
seen there recently, so
it’s the obvious spot
for a starry Christmas
Party. Visit castle
gibson.com. Price on
application.
GETTY
Got some
gossip?
Tweet
@amiranews
GETTY
ÉA MAGNIFICENT “distressed”
O homesandproperty.co.uk/rentrobbie
Now that’s a (political) party house
REX
ÉIF YOU enjoy a drink, a flutter
and playing power politics, then this
three-bedroom house, right, in
Elstree Hill, Bromley, is for you.
It was the home of the early
19th-century politician and art
connoisseur Charles Long, 1st Baron
Farnborough, whose friends and
political allies, including William Pitt
and William Wilberforce, enjoyed
gambling and drinking parties on its
“casino terrace”.
Lord Farnborough helped establish
the National Gallery and his wife
Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough, was
a renowned artist and garden
designer. While her work can be
found at Tate Britain and the V&A,
some remains in the Elstree Hill house
and is sure to interest art collectors.
Available through Sinclair
Hammelton, the Italian-style villa
needs modernising but at £500,000
it could be a solid investment.
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/farn
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Computer generated image of an apartment at Camberwell Fields is indicative only.
6
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property New homes
Our garden’s
in the sky
SOME of the tallest towers are
being built at One Nine Elms, a
homes-and-hotel scheme with
436 flats. The first of the two
striking buildings is 56-storey
City Tower. Much is being made
of its dramatic architecture and
stunning views plus the five-star
hotel services available to
residents. But amenities come at
a cost — higher service charges.
Completion is in 2018. Prices
from £795,000. Call Strutt &
Parker on 020 7629 7282.
Nine Elms Point, right, a
complex of 593 flats, is being built
beside the new Nine Elms
Northern line Tube station in
Wandsworth Road. A new
Sainsbury superstore is part of
the project. Two-bedroom flats
start at £883,000. Call Barratt on
0844 811 4334.
Vauxhall Sky Gardens is rising
on a plot opposite the Tube
station. The 35-storey tower
includes communal gardens on
the higher floors, while the design
of the “rococo-style” entrance
lobby is inspired by historic
Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, from
1729 a centre of art and
architecture for 200 years. Twobedroom flats with interiors by
Philippe Starck’s Yoo company
cost from £980,000. Completion
in 2017. Call 020 7437 1000.
homesandproperty.co.uk with
N
ICKNAMED “New South
Bank” and even “Hong
Kong on Thames”, Nine
Elms is on the radar of
everyone looking for a
new central London home or an investment. This once-forlorn industrial strip
between Battersea and Vauxhall is
rapidly turning into the capital’s biggest new neighbourhood, attracting
buyers, renters and investors from
across London and the globe.
Covering 480 acres, the area between
Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge,
sandwiched by the Thames and Wandsworth Road, is five times the size of
Canary Wharf, with a mile and a half
of riverfront and up to 30 projects
either under way or poised to start.
As the distinctive residential towers
shoot up and the neighbourhood takes
shape, buyers are becoming more
forensic about the design, size and
price of the homes on offer, as well as
local amenities, and are deciding precisely where they want to live. After all,
Nine Elms will be a construction site
for at least another 10 years.
The rough masterplan envisages a
collection of micro neighbourhoods —
high-rise, low-rise, riverside and inland,
each with a distinct identity. There’s a
wide spectrum of homes and prices,
and resales are already appearing. It
takes about half an hour to walk through
the heart of the district, so proximity to
one of two new Tube stations coming
to the area is likely to be a big factor for
many buyers. A railway line, parallel
with the river, cuts through it, giving rise
to judgments about homes on the
“wrong side of the tracks”.
Up in the blue: Vauxhall Sky
Gardens, a 35-storey tower of 204
flats at Nine Elms with interiors by
Yoo and communal gardens on
the higher floors
NEW TOWERS
Five times the size of Canary Wharf, with two new
Tube stations and a business park, Nine Elms is
shooting skywards, discovers David Spittles
VAUX POP
Start your home search at the district’s
eastern end, by MI6 headquarters,
where a cluster of developments is
under construction. This patch, amid
Vauxhall’s fast-gentrifying streets, is
closest to the central London action
and likely to appeal to younger buyers
working in the City and West End.
Vauxhall Cross, currently a giant
traffic swirl, is set to be transformed by
a development of the same name: two
skyscrapers designed by architects
Squire and Partners that will “dovetail”
with the bustling transport hub, bringing 291 apartments plus a hotel, offices,
Manhattan
style: Embassy
Gardens streets,
right, around the
new US embassy,
have the solid
feel of the
Meatpacking
District, or the
capital’s
Edwardian
mansion blocks
shops and pedestrian-friendly spaces.
First phase completions from 2019. Call
Knight Frank on 020 7861 5411.
PARK PEOPLE
A linear park linking the river and
various developments including the
US embassy will be the pedestrian
spine of the new district. This “continuous car-free green corridor” will
run from Vauxhall Cross to Battersea
Power Station. It will be a focal point
for recreation, entirely open to the
public. The edges of this important
community facility will be lined with
shops, cafés and restaurants, appealing
7
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
New homes Homes & Property
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Transformation: the Vauxhall Cross
towers, by Squire and Partners, with
291 flats, a hotel, offices and shops.
Call Knight Frank on 020 7861 5411
OF LONDON
to families and those seeking to relax
and shake off the sweat of the city.
A key section of the park will snake
through what is now New Covent Garden Market, a 57-acre industrial estate
for London’s fruit and vegetable traders. The site will become a new Borough Market-style food quarter with
stalls, space for start-up businesses and
up to 3,019 homes.
Embassy Gardens, next door, is one
of the more advanced projects, a
complex of 1,982 homes that will form
a horseshoe around the new American
embassy. The apartment blocks are
more sober and arguably more considered than those at Vauxhall Cross. Built
of brick rather than glass and steel, they
are of varying height and character,
influenced by Manhattan’s historic
Meatpacking District.
Developer Ballymore has also delivered classy, contemporary-design
interiors.
The first residents move in early next
year. On-site extras include a spa, yoga
studio, library, cinema suite and 24hour security. Coming later is one of
London’s biggest Waitrose stores. Show
flats are open for viewing ahead of the
phase two launch next spring. Call 020
7062 8940.
Behind Embassy Gardens, warehouses formerly owned by fine art
auctioneer Christie’s are being redeveloped by Bellway into 513 homes,
while Nine Elms Parkside, currently
a Royal Mail depot, has planning consent for 456 homes, sports pitches and
a primary school. Riverlight has six
waterfront pavilions with 813 homes
and is well-located for the proposed
new pedestrian bridge across the
Thames to Pimlico. Prices from
£800,000. Call 020 7870 9620.
POWER PLAY
Awesome Battersea Power Station,
close to Chelsea Bridge, will be the
district’s commercial heart, its town
centre. The £8 billion power station
redevelopment will provide three and
a half million square feet of shops,
offices and restaurants, as well as 3,800
homes, the first of which will be ready
in 2016.
Two phases of apartments were an
instant sell-out and the third phase, a
series of dramatic, tumbling, titaniumclad blocks by “starchitect” Frank
Gehry, has just been unveiled, with
prices starting at £495,000 for a studio
and £3.2 million for a four-bedroom
townhouse. Call 020 7501 0678. Flats
in the power station itself have sold for
premium prices, with studios fetching
£800,000. “There are buyers who
want to be in the power station and
nowhere else,” says Kieran Chalker of
local estate agent Garton Jones. One of
the area’s two Northern line stations
will be within the 40-acre complex,
expected to be a vibrant, 24-hour
neighbourhood.
While the born-again power station
will open up the waterfront, closed to
the public for generations, the back
end of the development in Nine Elms
Lane is less enticing.
The industrial legacy is still evident
here. Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is
an incongruous presence, while the
land is criss-crossed by railway tracks.
Gas holders are being decommissioned
for new housing, called Battersea
Gardens, by developer St James.
Battersea Park East, a scheme by
Taylor Wimpey, seeks to enhance the
area by transforming derelict railway
arches and building 290 homes plus a
new primary school, and is perhaps a
chance to buy into a hot district at a
lower price. To register, call DTZ on
020 3296 2222.
To date, developers have been aggressively marketing homes and raising
prices with each new phase. Since 2011,
the average value of a home in the Nine
Elms zone has jumped from about £800
to £1,400 per square foot, while spectacular river-facing flats are fetching
more than £2,000 per square foot.
It is a good idea to compare resales
with off-plan prices. Garton Jones has
a number of resales priced from
£699,000 to £2.9 million. Call 020 7735
1888.
With many more flats becoming available, and property market sentiment
changing ahead of next year’s general
election, it is possible that prices may
plateau, at least in the short term.
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www.lqgroup.org.uk/pricedin
Registered Society 30441R Exempt charity. Details correct at time of
going to print 11/14. Your home is at risk if you fail to keep up repayments
on a mortgage, rent or other loan secured on it. Please make sure you can
afford the repayments before you take out a mortgage. FOR FULL TERMS
& CONDITIONS please see www.lqgroup.org.uk/pricedin for details.
Window on the world: panoramic view at Vauxhall Sky Gardens (020 7437 1000)
(
8
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Commuting
homesandproperty.co.uk with
N
OWHERE along Crossrail’s
route will the new train
service’s impact be more
m a rke d t h a n a ro u n d
its southern spur, from
Whitechapel to Abbey Wood in southeast London. In terms of the transformative effect on areas and enhancing their
desirability, each of the five districts
dotted along the spur is set to be driven
into a different housing bracket.
A new station is being built at each
stop and at peak times, 12 trains an
hour will take passengers to Docklands,
the City and the West End.
STATION STORIES
CANARY WHARF: this new station will
be one of the largest on the Crossrail
network, a spectacular design that has
been likened to a docked cruise ship,
with six storeys of shops, a cinema,
restaurants, bars, a landscaped park
and a roof garden above the tracks.
Crucially, for the first time, Canary
Wharf will have a direct link to Heathrow, slashing the journey time to the
airport to 39 minutes — a boon for timepoor bankers and business executives.
Crossrail marks a fresh stage in the
evolution of Canary Wharf and is the
key factor in ambitions to double the
area’s working population to 200,000
over the next 15 years. And more
employees mean more homes.
“There’s an abundance of new-build
projects nearing completion, and the
dynamics of the market are changing.
No longer is it just Canary Wharf workers buying or renting. People are moving in from west and south,” says Julian
Amos, of the local branch of estate
agent Hamptons International.
This part of Docklands is an alternative London, having more in common
with downtown Chicago or Singapore
than Kensington, Putney, Highgate or
the City. Most residents are high-earning singles and couples under 45.
Canary Wharf was built originally as
a financial zone. The vast majority of
apartments, new and older ones, are
outside the 97-acre estate. Homes
within a 10-minute walk of the office
towers are the most sought-after.
The new Crossrail station, anchored
below the dealing rooms, will provide
quicker links to Poplar, a poor relation
currently blocked off by a dock. At
most developments, prices are 15-20
Game changer: Woolwich’s new Crossrail station will vastly improve connections
from what is one of London’s cheapest areas to live — for now. Rail journey times
to the City, Canary Wharf, the West End and Heathrow airport will be slashed
PART 5:
WHITECHAPEL TO ABBEY WOOD
Crossrail
The transformation of these five districts will be the
biggest in their history, says David Spittles
per cent higher than a year ago, but
values are still quite a bit lower than in
central London, ranging from £600 to
£1,000 a square foot. This means you
can buy a waterfront flat with a budget
of less than £500,000, while if you can
stretch to £1 million or more, you can
live in a penthouse.
Typically, new one-bedroom flats cost
£300,000 to £500,000, and two-bedroom flats from £450,000 to £750,000.
Resales in less-glitzy first-generation
developments, built 15 or 20 years ago,
are cheaper.
CUSTOM HOUSE: Crossrail is a huge
boost for Royal Docks, one of London’s
main regeneration and housing growth
areas. Equivalent in size to the area
from Hyde Park to Tower Bridge, it is
currently out on a limb, served only by
the Docklands Light Railway, but Crossrail will take locals to the heart of the
West End — Tottenham Court Road — in
15 minutes.
The vision is for tens of thousands of
new homes and the sort of convivial
waterside living we associate with
places such as Chelsea Harbour. At the
moment, the area feels raw. However,
with the sweeping changes planned, it
is an opportunity to buy early into a
district with upside.
Royal Wharf is one of the new neighbourhoods being built, with 3,385
homes designed around a high street
and marketplace, garden squares,
parks, shops, restaurants and a
school. Much-needed family
houses are part of the mix and
MINUTES SAVED ON JOURNEYS TO AND FROM
TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD BY CROSSRAIL
Whitechapel
12
Reading
Heathrow
Abbey Wood
23
Custom House
15
Canary Wharf
9
almost half of this mainly low-rise development will be open green space, with
jogging and cycle paths plus a riverside
Woolwich
18
Shenfield
Inner
London
Abbey
Wood
Source:
Hamptons
Call for entries
The 24th annual
London Evening Standard
New Homes Awards
will celebrate and commend
innovation and excellence
in today’s new homes.
For more information and to request an entry form email avril@signaturevents.co.uk or call 01568 708 163. Closing date for entries: Friday 6 February 2015
9
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
Commuting Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
From £250,000:
Woolwich Central
apartments,
right, in blocks
linked by
landscaped
walkways and
sky gardens
£345,000. Call 020 8331 7130. The local
council is lobbying Transport for London to make Woolwich, currently in
Zone 4, a Zone 3 station, while another
aim is to reconnect the riverside with
Woolwich town centre, via new pedestrian routes and a public square.
Woolwich Central, a major town
centre scheme built above a Tesco
superstore, is an uplifting assembly of
nine buildings linked by open courtyards, landscaped walkways and sky
gardens. Modern, modular apartment
blocks are clad in a grid pattern of
black-and-grey panels and have glasswalled winter gardens for year-round
living and views of the Thames. Prices
from £250,000. Call 020 8855 7290.
Ex-local authority flats in the area start
at less than £125,000, according to
estate agent Peter James. Call 020 8858
2555. Away from the river-hugging town
centre and industrial estates, Woolwich
has tree-lined avenues, a common and
conservation areas.
Spectacular:
Crossrail, and its
new Canary
Wharf station,
left, with six
storeys of
amenities above
the tracks, mark
the area’s next
stage of evolution
ABBEY WOOD: this dreary south-London outpost will be brought in from the
cold by Crossrail, the biggest addition
to the local train network since the
North Kent line was built in 1849.
“The new link will morph the area
into a serious commuter zone,” says
Johnny Morris, head of research at
Hamptons International.
Most housing here dates back to the
Fifties and Sixties when the London
County Council built new estates on
marshland. Thamesmead, with its
brutalist-style concrete architecture,
was one of these neighbourhoods but
it is now being bulldozed to make way
for new homes for a new generation.
Peabody, the housing charity, is
investing £200 million in a new “garden
suburb” that will include apartments
along Thamesmead’s three miles of
waterfront and be connected to the
new Crossrail station.
Regeneration is already under way at
Southmere Village — 296 homes plus
a library, shops and community square.
Bellway is also building homes here.
Call 01689 886400.
Elsewhere, three-bedroom houses
sell for less than £180,000. Call Able
Estates on 020 8012 2231.
From £250,000:
flats at Royal
Wharf, right, a
new Royal Docks
neighbourhood,
with Custom
House the local
Crossrail station
promenade. Flats start at £250,000.
Three-bedroom townhouses with gardens and terraces cost from £630,000.
Call 0800 160 1200. A town centre of
sorts for Royal Docks has formed around
ExCeL exhibition centre, where smart
apartment blocks and a cluster of hotels
and eateries have sprung up.
WOOLWICH: still one of the cheapest
places to live in London, it has been
touted as “up-and-coming” for more
than a decade, without really achieving
that status, but Crossrail is likely to be
a game changer. When the station
opens in 2018, no other place beyond
Zone 1 in south London will be as wellconnected. Locals will be able to travel
to Canary Wharf in eight minutes, to
the City in 14 minutes, to Bond Street
in 22 minutes and to Heathrow in 50
minutes, without changing trains.
Royal Arsenal Riverside is the
address set to benefit most. The new
Crossrail station is being built within the
walls of this impressive housing estate,
a former armaments factory with a collection of prized listed buildings.
Developer Berkeley Homes has contributed £30 million to the cost of the
station and is building 592 flats in five
tower blocks above it, with prices from
Regeneration:
residents at the
new Southmere
Village in
Thamesmead
will be served by
Abbey Wood
Crossrail station
View homes for sale at every station along the Crossrail route. Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/hothomescrossrail
• Ready to move in now • Travel to Canary Wharf in just 4 minutes*
Sales Representation
0207 515 1491
www.av-e14.co.uk
Beyond your expectations
Price correct at time of press. *Travel times represent the quickest journeys via public transport from Canning Town Station which
is approximately a 10 minute walk from the development. Source: Transport for London.
10
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Area watch
H
AMMERSMITH, which has
lent its name to the Apollo
music venue, to the Lyric
theatre and to a flyover,
has never managed to
become associated with pioneering
architecture. This is a sprawling suburb
with a big market in three-bedroom
houses that are typically priced about
£2.2 million and sought after by families wanting to benefit from the range
of good local schools.
So how will Sovereign Court, where
flats are priced from £2,199,950 to
£3,849,950 fit in? Only the penthouse
remains for sale in phase one of this
luxury apartment development due to
complete in 2016. The scheme includes
Clarence House and adjoining Lancaster
House. They sit at the corner of
Glenthorne and Beadon Roads in W6
on the site of a former car park. The
developer, St George, is putting parking
places underground.
Interiors have a smart neutral palette,
though buyers can specify finishes,
from classic oak flooring to deep-pile
carpets. The 2.4-metre ceiling heights
are typical inner city, while “second”
ceilings conceal air filtration and comfort cooling systems.
PLUS POINTS
The concierge will deliver your mail and
pick up letters for delivery from a postbox on each floor, and there are refuse
chutes at every floor, too.
The three-bedroom show flat for the
remaining phases has an open-plan
living space, a Commodore kitchen
with marble central island and Siemens
homesandproperty.co.uk with
SOVEREIGN COURT
Luxurious
yes, but
perfection?
Not quite
Architecture writer Suzanne
Trocmé looks at two new
Hammersmith schemes and finds
the cheaper one is by far the best
appliances, plus dining and soft seating
areas. There is the ubiquitous wine
cooler but the apartment is cosy, rather
than palatial. A plus point is the natural
light from two aspects.
Sound systems and 55in LED TVs are
included, Sky and broadband thrown
in. The penthouse boasts a home automation system. Service charge is £3.50
a square foot and for the boiler you pay
£400 up front and then for additional
usage. Floor plans differ for the one-,
two- and three-bedroom flats, though
this proves more successful in some
cases than in others, with, for example,
compromised bathroom space in the
show apartment. Though fitted with
Villeroy & Boch fixtures and with a
heated marble floor and walls, the
shower room has its door facing the
Sovereign Court: scheme brings 418
luxurious new Hammersmith homes
Penthouse perfection: fabulous views
from Sovereign Court roof terrace
open-plan living space. Bedrooms are
further along a corridor that turns, raising the spectre of jet-lagged guests wandering into the hub of the home to
ablute when lunch is in full swing.
The other bathroom is en suite at the
other end of the corridor. You can see
why this arrangement was chosen, to
create an accessible loo. As a second
bathroom it does not work. The door
should be on the bedroom corridor,
which would have been easy to do.
Each apartment has a balcony and
floor-to-ceiling windows, so with all this
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11
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
Area watch Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
The high life: just the penthouse, with a spectacular living
space, remains for sale in the first phase of Sovereign Court
How it’s done: unrivalled riverside views at Fulham Reach,
which has a boat club, spa, a pool and residents’ wine cellar
DEVELOPMENT TWO:
FULHAM REACH
detail and conformity to interior
designer Helen Turkington’s vision, why
are the curtains not thrown in?
What irks me is the way that owners
are able to put up whatever window
treatments they wish. This can often
ruin the glass frontage with a mishmash
of curtains and blinds.
Vistas are marred by such short-sightedness.
SENSITIVE TO THE AREA
There has been a successful attempt at
Sovereign House to mirror the materials
used among existing buildings nearby.
The brickwork of Glenthorne Road will,
stylistically speaking, be reflected in the
next phase, Montpelier House, and the
architectural vernacular for this part
of Hammersmith is being sensibly
preserved.
The second St George site in Hammersmith, with homes from £1.6 million, is
called Fulham Reach and 75 residents
out of a possible 138 are already in the
first phase, Distillery Wharf, completing
early next year. Brunswick House has
sold all 49 homes, with completion next
autumn, and two elliptical new builds
complete in late 2016.
A site of over seven acres, this has been
a seven-year plan and it feels that way
— considered and resolved. Service
charges are higher than at Sovereign
Court — £5.48 per square foot rather
than £3.50 — but 186 of its 744 flats are
aimed at first-time buyers
This development has riverside
beauty and unrivalled views. I want to
move in. There’s a boat club, a private
club offering snooker, golf, cinema,
pool and spa, and a controlled cellar
to store up to 1,000 bottles of residents’
Could pose a problem: some Sovereign
Court bathrooms open on to living
spaces, to meet accessibility standards
wine. Planning rules at Fulham Reach
mean four state schools already have
access to the boat club, while half of
the finished site’s footprint will be open
space. Glorious.
While these flats are cheaper than
those at Sovereign Court, the interiors
are almost on a par, without the double
ceiling and air filtration. The scheme for
Young Professionals is not embarrassing. These flats — where qualifying firsttimers can buy 70 per cent with 30 per
cent held in deed through the borough,
with eventual 100 per cent ownership
possible — consist of one-room homes
built to the same standards. I viewed
such a “Manhattan” flat to uncover what
is the most luxurious element yet — in
less than 500sq ft, the largest utility
room of the entire venture. That is what
I call living.
Has Glammersmith arrived? I think so.
And not just for the rich. Well, not
quite.
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12
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Affordable homes
homesandproperty.co.uk with
This part of
Hackney is
trendy and
popular...
the block is
close to
music
venues,
restaurants
and bars
ESHomesAndProperty
From £148,000:
for a 30 per cent
share of a
one-bedroom
flat at Art
Deco-inspired
Shoreditch
Heights, right
and left
Find us on
Facebook
Get Old Street cred
H
ACKNEY’S frenetic Old
Street roundabout, with its
cluster of tech and creative
firms, became known as
Silicon Roundabout, and
soon the geeks wanted glitzy flats which
were then built in its hinterland.
Of course most of these flats are
designed more for the hedge fund
buyer than the first-time buyer. But the
latest arrival at Old Street is a landmark
development designed by leading
British architect Sir Terry Farrell, with
a selection of shared-ownership flats
that have an entry price of just under
£150,000.
Shoreditch Heights is just north
west of the roundabout, close to Moorfields Eye Hospital and about five
minutes’ walk from Old Street Tube
station — a Zone 1 stop served by the
Northern line. It’s no more than 10
minutes from the City and a quarter of
an hour from the West End.
One-bedroom flats start at £148,000
for a 30 per cent share of a property
with a full value of £495,000. It is estimated that mortgage costs, rent and
service charge will add up to about
£1,400. Two-bedroom flats, some of
which have balconies, start at £219,000
for 30 per cent, and the monthly cost
is estimated at £1,618.
The development, by Mount Anvil,
includes a total of 343 apartments of
which housing association Family
Mosaic has 28 shared-ownership homes
on offer. They will be ready to move
into later this month.
A major plus point of Shoreditch
Heights is its design. Reaching up to 26
storeys — though the shared-ownership
homes are limited to lower floors — it
is an elegant, Art Deco-inspired building, providing a welcome counterpoint
to all the steel-and-glass property
springing up at the fringes of the City.
“The development is in a good location,” says Stuart Spence, head of
residential sales at Family Mosaic.
“This area of Hackney is popular and
trendy. Right next to the development
is renowned electronic music venue
Just under £150,000 secures your
share of a Terry Farrell-designed
flat in prime Tech City, Zone 1.
Ruth Bloomfield reports
XOYO, Shoreditch Grind espresso and
cocktail bar, and The Nightjar cocktail
bar. Old Street also has its own Bavarian
bar, Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant
is literally next door, and you don’t
have to venture far into Shoreditch or
Hoxton to find favourites such as The
Book Club, Breakfast Club, Brick Lane
and Spitalfields. You also have The
Aubin Cinema in Shoreditch and the
Barbican centre.”
L
Smart move:
to buy a flat at
Terry Farrelldesigned
Shoreditch
Heights is to buy
into an expensive
swathe of prime
London property
IFE in this central zone has
traffic noise and pollution,
particularly as the site abuts
the heaving Cit y Road.
Another issue to mention is
that, because the Old Street area is now
so expensive, shared owners will initially be minority owners of their
homes, although they can increase
their share in their flat over time.
Until then, these newly minted home
owners will have to resign themselves
to shelling out £500 to £600 a month
in rent.
O Visit familymosaicsales.co.uk
13
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Homes abroad Homes & Property
Where to go
in 2015
A CAPITAL
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ITS happy 20th birthday to Eurostar,
whose first Chunnel train sped from
London to Paris on November 14,
1994. Used by more than 140 million
people so far, the train is chosen
over the plane by 70 per cent of
travellers between the two capitals.
Return journeys 20 years ago cost
from £99 and took three hours,
compared with £69 and two and a
quarter hours today. Property prices
in central Paris have tripled in that
time, but London buyers can still get
good value, says Susie Hollands of
French property agents Vingt Paris.
“Paris is underpriced compared
with London,” she adds. “A huge
factor for Londoners buying a piedà-terre here is that they can decide
on the spur of the moment to hop on
the train for a weekend away.”
She highlights a two-bedroom flat
by the excellent Montmartre food
market for £545,000 and a onebedroom artist’s atelier in Les Halles
for £459,000. Both are fully
renovated and ready to rent.
SUMMER IN
SUPER SARDINIA
BRITISH AIRWAYS continues to
expand its services from Gatwick
with new flights for next summer to
Bodrum and Dalaman in Turkey, the
Greek island of Crete, and perhaps
most excitingly of all to Cagliari, the
little-known waterfront capital of
Sardinia, two hours from London.
Sardinia has a hot Mediterranean
climate with bright, clear skies and
temperatures that rarely dive below
15C. Most of the 250,000 annual
British visitors to Sardinia head to the
north, but Cagliari on the south coast
is an upmarket delight.
The medieval city is 10 minutes
from the airport, resolutely Italian
with a vibrant culture and affordable
restaurants, says local British
resident Rebecca Lewis Lalatta, of
Italian property agents Casa &
Country. “Cagliari has three marinas
and is the training ground for the
America’s Cup yacht race,” says
Lalatta. “Today in November, from
my roof terrace I can see many sails
on the water. People enjoy sailing
and windsurfing here year-round.”
The beauty of living in Cagliari for
her, she adds, is the variety of
affordable activities nearby.
“You can go horse riding in the
mountains or to the coast and not see
a soul for 30 miles. The south has
some of the best beaches in the Med,
with Villasimius and Costa Rei to the
east and Chia to the west.”
A three-bedroom countryside villa
overlooking Bosa Castle is £941,000
through Casa & Country. One- to
three-bedroom flats in a restored
palazzo in the centre of Cagliari cost
from £329,700 through Savills.
O British Airways: ba.com
O Casa & Country: casaandcountry.com
O Savills: savills.com
O Vingt Paris: vingtparis.com
O Eurostar: eurostar.com
£459,000: close to Les Halles, a
one-bedroom fourth-floor
apartment. Through Vingt Paris
From £329,700: apartments in a restored central Cagliari palazzo. Through Savills
LOAFINGLY LOVELY FURNITURE
GETTY
Cathy Hawker finds good-value holiday
home hotspots easy to reach from London
Historic Boston: sought-after red-brick townhouses in Acorn Street, Beacon Hill
BOSTON FOR LESS
THAN £100
MANY budget airlines have talked
about introducing transatlantic
services but Icelandic-based WOW
Air has started taking bookings. From
March 27 next year it will fly five
times a week from Gatwick to Boston
for £99, adding a Washington DC
service later in the year.
Downsides include extra charges for
checked luggage, a measly 5kg hand
luggage allowance and a minimum of
three hours to spend changing planes
at Reykjavik airport — but the
beautiful, scholarly city of Boston is
worth it. Base yourself there and it is
an easy drive to New England resorts
such as Cape Cod, or to the ski resorts
of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Boston is walkable and wonderfully
green, with more than 60 universities
and colleges including Harvard, and
large IT and pharmaceutical
industries. Property prices are highest
among the aristocratic homes of Back
Bay and the red-brick townhouses of
Beacon Hill, with waterfront new
builds selling strongly. Gibson
Sotheby’s International Realty is
selling a two-bedroom flat with high
ceilings in an 1890 building in Back
Bay for £502,000. A studio flat in
Blackstone Park near the excellent
restaurants of South End is £219,300.
O Gibson Sotheby’s International
Realty: gibsonsothebysrealty.com
O WOW Air: wowair.co.uk
A PLACE TO STAY
AMES BOSTON HOTEL
VOTED the city’s best hotel in this
year’s prestigious Best of Boston
awards, the Ames is a good base for
visiting the capital of New England.
The 114-room hotel is in Boston’s first
skyscraper on the edge of the financial
district. Opposite is the red-brick State
House built in 1713 and emblazoned
with the lion and unicorn, symbols of
the British monarchy, while the Boston
Tea Party was planned one block away.
Boston Common and the shops of
Newbury Street, the waterfront and
Cambridge are all nearby.
Inside the hotel, original features
including beautiful mosaic tiles on the
half-barrelled ceiling in the entrance
hall are joined by a crisp black-andwhite scheme.
This is a funky, friendly and very
comfortable boutique hotel, perfectly
placed for business travellers in the
week and leisure guests at the
weekend.
Funky and friendly: the Ames Boston
Hotel, where rates start from £135 a
night. Visit ameshotel.com
16
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Design
homesandproperty.co.uk with
A great
mid-range
buy: The White
Company
produces
bed linen for
Achica, with
pillowcases
from £19.99
White nights
Katie Law says nothing beats the look and feel of crisp, fresh white bed linen
A
" %#
& &
$ !#
FTER A long day, one of
life’s great pleasures is
climbing into a bed
freshly made with crisp,
clean, white sheets in
pure cotton. Good-quality cotton
always feels deliciously cool and
smooth and the calming effect of
plain linen — with no buttons,
sequins, embroidered flowers or
jazzy patterns — makes for the
sweetest dreams.
Companies are cottoning on to our
love affair with the whiter shades of
pale bed linen and are producing
accessibly priced “hotel-quality”
sheets and pillowcases that feel
indulgent, but cost far less than a
single night in a boutique hotel.
Buyers’ notes: think thread count,
finish, weight and, of course, price.
Thread count refers to the number
of threads woven together in a square
inch, calculated by adding together
the number of threads in the length
(known as the warp) and the number
in the width (weft). So, 100 threads
lengthwise woven with 100 widthwise equals a 200 thread count. The
fewer used, the looser the fabric —
muslin has a thread count of 150, for
example — and the more threads
used, the tighter and denser the
fabric feels.
A higher thread count doesn’t
necessarily guarantee higher quality,
and a crisp, matt percale finish
versus a soft sateen feel is a matter of
personal preference. Matt percale
makes a good summer choice, while
the thicker, softer finish tends to be
cosy for winter. Egyptian cotton is
renowned for its quality and should
last longest. That said, a new set of
sheets annually is the gold standard.
Here’s our pick of good buys.
WHERE TO SHOP
M&S AUTOGRAPH
Thread count: 400. Single Oxford
pillowcase, £15; double duvet cover,
£69. Egyptian cotton, made in Pakistan.
Luxe factor: crisp and fine with no
frills. A perfect choice for weekend
guests who want to feel they are being
spoiled (marksandspencer.com).
JOSEPHINE HOME’S CLASSIC
Thread count: 500. Standard
pillowcase, £45; double duvet cover,
£250. Egyptian cotton, made in Europe.
Luxe factor: the boutique hotels’ label
of choice, tried and tested for durability.
Comes with a white grosgrain trim. The
perfect present, or an indulgence for
yourself (josephinehome.co.uk).
HOUSE OF FRASER
Thread count: 1,000. Standard
pillowcase, £36 per pair; double duvet
cover, £99. Indian cotton, made in India.
Luxe factor: indulgently thick cotton
with slightly glossy, sateen finish and
no-nonsense button closure
(houseoffraser.com).
ACHICA’S HOTEL LIVING RANGE
Thread count: 1,000. Pair of
pillowcases, £19.99; double duvet
cover, £64. Cotton from the Far East,
made in the Far East.
Luxe factor: from the new hotel luxury
Premier Basics range. Thick, supersoft, dense and strong, a great winter
choice, and totally plain (achica.com).
THE WHITE COMPANY
Thread count: 400. Standard
pillowcase, £20; double duvet cover,
£100. Egyptian cotton, made in Italy.
Luxe factor: gorgeously fine and
crisp. A brilliant mid-range buy
(thewhitecompany.com).
All white: Achica’s Hotel Living bed linen range comes with
a 1,000 thread count. Items are priced from £8.99 to £79
17
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
Shopping Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
TIME FOR
TOAST
You’ll find Toast’s
luscious
lambswool
throws, £239,
glossy and matt
glazed stoneware
teapots and jugs
in delicious
colours, right,
from £19.50, and
wool Jacquard
blankets, £135, at
the company’s
new shop in
King’s Road, SW3.
(visit toa.st).
GRAYSON PERRY
Fancy cosying up with artist Grayson
Perry? His fleecy Comfort Blanket,
£500, above, is one of several
merchandising collaborations
coinciding with the new show,
Grayson Perry: Who Are You? at the
National Portrait Gallery until
March 15. His self-portrait Map of
Days has also been adapted into a
range of graphic mugs and plates,
£30 each (npg.org.uk).
FORTNUM’S
Start to tap into that festive
feeling with a spot of early
Christmas shopping at
Fortnum & Mason. The
Victorian-style etched bauble,
right, is £40. Time-poor
customers can enjoy a free
gift-wrapping service when
they spend £100 or more on an
item — or it’s £5 if you’ve spent
less (fortnumandmason.com).
CAROLINE
GARDNER
Stationery queen
Caroline Gardner
is opening a shop
in Marylebone
High Street, W1,
where she will
launch her first
range of glass,
ceramics and
home accessories
including this set
of two “Here
comes the sun”
egg cups, above,
£12 (caroline
gardner.com).
SITTING ON A KNOLL
Buy the design classic you have always
craved at Knoll’s annual one-day sale on
November 22. Discounts include the
Saarinen marble dining table for £2,999,
reduced from £4,908; Saarinen
laminate and marble side tables for
£299, down from £588; Barcelona chairs
for £1,999, reduced from £4,908, and
Platner side tables for £299 — seen
above with a Platner chair — down from
£696. From 10am at 92 Goswell Road,
EC1 (knoll-int.com).
HOLLY HUNT SOFA
American designer Holly Hunt
opens her first London store this
month, showcasing her trademark
luxury look.
Everything in the range is
handmade and bespoke, so the
customer specifies the finish,
including this walnut-framed
Hadrien sofa, below, available in a
choice of fabrics or in leather,
priced at £9,765.
DESIGN SPY
By Katie Law
KRASSA YOUR
CASA
These stunning
black-and-white
encaustic cement
tiles are available
in four patterns
from designer
Afroditi Krassa,
known for her
work with Sketch,
Itsu, Heston
Blumenthal and
Curzon Cinemas.
Mix and match at
£105 per square
metre, plus VAT.
(afroditi.com).
22
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Design
homesandproperty.co.uk with
British art and design graduates are leading the world, armed with powerful business plans
to sell their work at home and abroad. Barbara Chandler charts their successes
NEIL WATSON
T
HIS has been the year of the
young designer, with the
under-30s launching a raft
of successful products for
London homes in shops, on
the web, and at big design shows. New
talent in the capital is no longer raw,
but assured and focused.
Powering the trend are Britain’s art
schools. “Our art and design education
leads the world,” says Isobel Dennis, in
her twelfth year as director of New
Designers, the annual showcase for new
graduates at Islington Business Design
Centre. This year’s event brought 3,000
designers to London in the summer
from colleges all over the country.
“Most importantly, young grads these
days are commercially aware and have
business plans.” Crucially, Dennis has
secured an ever-expanding list of business sponsors for her show — this
year’s included Sanderson, John
Lewis, Wilco and Hallmark. These
firms offer awards, cherry-pick the
talent, and put it to immediate use.
John Lewis, for example, gave new
grad Oliver Hubriak its award in
2012, and then speedily produced
his much-acclaimed Finn chair,
which won a prestigious furniture
Brewing up business: Richard Brendon
sells his Reflect mirrored tea cup and
antique saucer sets to top global stores
Design Guild Mark this year. Aged just
25, Hubriak will have more new furniture in John Lewis by Christmas.
Habitat also loves young designers,
says Polly Dickens, the store’s creative
director. “Our youngsters combine
technology and creativity,” she says.
“Their products are daring and push
the boundaries of interior design.” East
London’s Martha Coates, 24, joined
the company straight from Manchester
School of Art, and already has a rug
named after her. “Martha has reinvigorated Habitat textiles,” says Dickens.
O Heal’s, with its smartly revamped
Tottenham Court Road shop, has
talent-spotted its own new product
designers for 10 years. But its “Heal’s
Di scovers” collec tive seems
younger than ever this year. Newbie Sam Lloyd is only 22, and
developed his “sand-cast stools”
with their distinctive aluminium
tops while still at Kingston Uni,
boning up on metal techniques
in a foundry in east London. His
aim was a ready-to-go product,
for which he had even done the
costings. Now the stool tops and
footrests are cast in Belvedere, oak
legs are turned in Whitstable, and the
finished furniture is available in
Tottenham Court Road.
O Woolwich “woodsman” Sebastian
Cox, 28, is building a career on coppiced timber, creating furniture and
accessories for Heal’s and Benchmark.
Particularly poetic is a tall chest for
Heal’s, with a different British hardwood for each of the five drawers.
Others have become excellent entrepreneurs with burgeoning business
skills. Richard Brendon, 27, who
graduated from Kingston University in
2010, dreamed up his unique product,
Reflect, in 2011. It’s an elegant bone
china cup with a shiny gold or platinum
finish that reflects a decorative
“orphaned” antique saucer, thus creating a beautiful new/old pair.
In his first year Brendon sold 150
pairs. Now he is selling hundreds a
month, to prestige stores such as Fortnum & Mason, Lane Crawford in Hong
Kong, Le Bon Marché in Paris and Bergdorf Goodman in New York. He is
developing other ranges and is determined to maintain manufacture in
Stoke. “I want British industry to thrive
again, and design can help,” he says.
O Talented young pattern-makers
include Kit Miles, with his own London studio, and Nancy Straughan,
who has created wallpapers for
Graham & Brown. She hosts workshops
to share her skills, and her Christmas
decorations workshop will be on
November 23 at Smug in Islington. Visit
ifeelsmug.com (020 7354 0253).
Leader of the pack is Benjamin
Hubert, 30. In 2009, he packed a
stand, won through an award, in the
“futures” section of the 100% Design
festival at Earls Court with eight ranges
23
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
Design Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Left and far left: Sebastian
Cox and his Crown candelabra
PATRICK QUAYLE
Below: Liam Treanor set up
his furniture company in
south London in 2011. His
Lina oak desk is £875, with
Louis candlesticks, £27.50,
and Schuster stool, £358
Queen of pattern: Martha Coates, 24,
above, is on the Habitat design team.
Nancy Straughan, right, creates
wallpapers for Graham & Brown
of furniture and lighting for seven UK
and continental manufacturers —
astounding for one so young. Now
Hubert works for major global brands,
has moved into a new north London
studio and employs 10 people. And his
super thin, ultra-light table was chosen
for the annual Designs of the Year show
at the Design Museum this year.
19 20
TH
TH
!
28
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Our home
homesandproperty
F
ILM director Harvey B-Brown
— the B is for Bertram — flings
his arms wide, and beams. “As
soon as we saw this, we said:
‘We’re home!’” Brown and his
husband Steve, 50, live in a converted
warehouse apartment. It’s tucked in a
quiet side street, right on the border of
Spitalfields and Shoreditch, which, with
its health food shops and new bars,
increasingly feels like the Notting Hill of
the east.
“It looks very grandiose, but actually it
is quite modest,” adds Brown, 47, striding
off down a broad central corridor, his
considerable height dwarfed by the towering ceilings of the former knicker factory. “We used to live in Hampstead, in
a tall, thin house, but this is lateral, which
is great. And it’s also lovely to be able to
swan about and not touch the ceiling.”
Brown, who has directed more pop
videos and commercials than he can
remember, is currently writing an oldfashioned musical called Blue Jean with
songwriter Mike Kintish — planned with
Hollywood glamour and great songs and
costumes — and, he adds, a moral heart.
He is known for making stylish, colourful
and often nostalgic short films, so the
musical is a logical step. And since Brown
also has an MA in fashion design, those
costumes will be good.
■SHOWCASE: home is something
between a glamorous dream and a film
set, with a touch of Alice in Wonderland,
too. Super-high oak door frames,
stripped brick warehouse walls, a
flouncy, white-painted armoire to take
coats… and then, right in the middle of
the apartment, a glass-walled office
showcasing a black-and-gold ormolu
desk that came from Saudi Arabia via
eBay, lit by a dramatic Castle Gibson
chandelier with glass drops shining like
cabochon rubies.
The large sitting area, open-plan to the
big kitchen, has a huge green leather
Ligne Roset sofa, and a 1901 Bechstein
piano that has been revamped with a nod
to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, on which
Steve, an entrepreneur who used to run
a successful gastropub, is learning to play.
Big pieces work really well, holding their
own in the broad, high space.
■TOMCAT: the master bedroom has a
sensational steel “Tomcat” bed by British
designer Timothy Oulton, with Spitfireinfluenced leather backrests that pull
down, like two giant glove compartments. However, the aeronautic look is
softened by a large-scale circular daybed
upholstered in startlingly prett y
turquoise floral Christian Lacroix
fabric. Oulton also made the steeltopped dining table in the kitchen,
Dramatic: the huge green leather Ligne Roset sofa in the open-plan sitting area, where big pieces work in the broad, high space
A film director’s
dream factory
There’s more than a touch of Hollywood about this warehouse
conversion in east London, discovers Philippa Stockley
animated by mismatched Victorian
chairs, their seats covered in various
blue-green shades of velvet and silk. Just
feet away, a high-walled courtyard,
invisible to the outside world, opens up
via sliding glass doors. It has a living wall
of fragrant green herbs for Steve to cook
with, and a mirrored wall that appears
to double the space.
■FUN AND LIVELY: the mix-and-match
eclecticism of this dazzling apartment
keeps things fun and lively. And it took
years to put together, right? Wrong. The
whole thing took just a few months from
start to finish.
“When Steve and I set our minds to
something it happens very quickly,”
Brown says.
They married last December and went
house hunting. They wanted a warehouse they could do up. “At first we
thought we were too old for Shoreditch,
but it’s such a great area, with all these
Chillin’: left,
Harvey B-Brown,
in red trousers,
and husband
Steve, on
their daybed
upholstered in
Christian Lacroix
fabric. Their
extraordinary
steel Tomcat
bed by British
designer Timothy
Oulton is in the
background
Photographs:
David Butler
pop-up shops, and Shoreditch House
round the corner,” adds Brown.
“In early January I was making a
commercial in Bollywood when Steve
rang and said he’d found something. He
was so excited about it that I flew back
to see it.”
The flat was still a building site. The
developers were working on the warehouse floor by floor, and since the one
the couple were there to view was being
done last, it was still full of rubble.
The architects had already put in a
bathroom with subtle matt grey wall
tiles, but the overall plan was to create
a three-bedroom apartment.
Brown and Steve wanted two bedrooms so the architects modified the
design, put in the polished concrete
floors the pair liked best, and they completed at the end of February.
■LET’S SHOP: the couple sold their
previous Hampstead home lock, stock
and barrel. “Which was an amazing
opportunity to go shopping,” says
Steve, laughing.
“A set design,” Brown explains,
“works for the camera — but it’s not for
life. Here, the architects put everything
in the right place, they chose really nice
things — credit where credit’s due — and
then we decorated it. This is a perfect,
functioning home.
“After travelling, I really look forward
to coming home.”
29
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
Our home Homes & Property
y.co.uk with
Let the music play: the Bechstein, revamped with a nod to Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Master bedroom: the couple’s Tomcat bed, with adjustable leather backrests
Great outdoors: sliding glass dining area doors lead to the
courtyard with a fragrant living wall of herbs for cooking,
and a giant mirror that appears to double the outside space
Architects’ choice: a matt grey-tiled
bathroom was in situ from the start
Notting Hill of the east: warehouse on
the border of Spitalfields and Shoreditch
A DIRECTOR’S LIGHTING TIPS
GET THE LOOK
Go for a collection of all sorts of lamps —
industrial overheads, wall-mounted
anglepoises, chandeliers, and standards.
They have incidental, ambient lighting on
one five-amp circuit, so that everything
goes on, all the side lamps, with one flick
of the switch, giving instant atmosphere.
Then you can add other lighting on a
second circuit. Use different lamps and
lights for different effects and moods.
Architects: chrisdyson.co.uk
Living wall: by treebox.co.uk
Outsize sofa: from ligneroset.co.uk
Steel bed and kitchen table: by
timothyoulton.com
Circular daybed: by roche-bobois.
com
Taupe grey brick tiles in the
bathroom: by towerceramics.co.uk
Harvey B-Brown at harveybbrown.com
30
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Outdoors
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Do the spadework and enjoy a lazy summer
Get an irrigation kit, plant big pots of colour and buy no-fuss shrubs. With
your winter jobs done, you can sit back and sip cocktails all summer long
Go big and bold: fewer and larger pots
equals less work, more impact
Flower Carpet roses, which can go anywhere. Geranium Brookside’s lavenderblue flowers bloom for months on end
and just need to be sheared back in summer to keep on going. In shade, sultry,
dark-flowered Geranium phaeum, the
mourning widow, is your girl.
Forget slug-susceptible delphiniums
and lupins that only bring heartbreak.
Instead, introduce verticals by planting
— there is still time — allium bulbs, from
early season Allium hollandicum to later
summer Allium sphaerocephalon,
which will give your garden pink-topurple flowering drumsticks over
months. And instead of tricky, largeflowered clematis, plant the sumptuous,
easy-growing viticella varieties, such as
purple Polish Spirit, which just need to
be chopped back in February.
November is bare-root rose planting
month, but if you want to bypass black
spot and greenfly next summer, plant
no-fuss roses that still deliver on looks
and perfume — the rugosas. Roseraie de
l’Hay is a gloriously fragrant, deep
magenta rose that can be pruned anyold-how and is as tough as old boots.
Rosa rugosa Alba has white, open
blooms and fabulous, fat, orange hips.
Invest in the best, so you don’t need
to repair and replace. If you are buying
a deck, it is worth paying extra for
hardwood which only needs an annual
treatment, and is less likely to slip you
up in wet weather. Likewise, hardwood
furniture, obelisks and arches will last
a lifetime and need less upkeep than
softwood, which has a limited shelf life,
even when pressurised and painted.
It isn’t the mowing that takes the time,
it’s neatening the edges of the lawn. Cut
out the drudgery by installing a lawn
edging of flexible lengths of galvanised
steel, three feet or so in length, that you
just mow over to keep a neat and perfect outline. Visit everedge.co.uk.
W
ORK on weeds now so
you don’t spend next
spring and summer
on your knees, weeding out their offspring,
too. Then surround plants with a thick
layer of mulch — homemade compost
or job-lot bags of mix’n’mulch — which
will help suppress weeds and improve
the soil structure. The worms will
gradually work it into the soil, so you
don’t have to.
If you are laying down grit, gravel,
pebbles or cobblestones over paths or
bare patches of ground, don’t even
think of putting down so much as a
pebble without laying down a weedsuppressing membrane first.
PICTURES: MARIANNE MAJERUS/DESIGN: CHARLOTTE ROWE
Pattie
Barron
DESIGN: SUSSEX PRAIRIES
H
OW do you want to spend
your time in the garden
next year — on your knees
weeding, or on the terrace, sipping mojitos? Put
in the prep now, and you can put your
feet up later.
There is no need, for example, to
wield a watering can or hosepipe
through weeks of summer drought. Set
up an irrigation system now so plants
can be watered, so to speak, on tap. It
doesn’t have to be complex. Buy a
porous “soaker” hose and attach a
battery-powered timer to the tap, then
trail the hose around susceptible
plants, and bury under earth, or cover
with mulch. Take the strain from container watering, too, with a system that
drip-feeds water via individual tubes
into pots. Soaker hoses from about 25ft
and container irrigation kits are available at hozelock.com.
Talking of pots, downscale containers
so you have several large, co-ordinated
beauties instead of an army of disparate pots that will all need watering,
feeding and tending next summer. You
can still plant the same amount of bedding as before, but instead of planting
individually, gather several different
varieties or colourways into each large
pot for a bigger splash with smaller
upkeep. Visit iotagarden.com for a
wide rang of large containers.
Which plants kept on blooming this
summer, and which are just kicking
their heels? This is the ideal time to take
out the deadweight, reinvigorate the
soil and plant robust, weather-resistant
shrubs that, once-a-year pruning aside,
will look after themselves. On your
shopping list should be mahonia,
choisya, berberis, viburnum, pittosporum, hebe and hydrangea. Instead of
high-maintenance perennials, plant
easy groundcover such as lambs’ ears
— Stachys byzantina — in sun, blue bugle
Ajuga reptans Braunherz in shade, and
Less work: Hydrangea Annabelle looks great and needs little maintenance
buy it
Buy it top tools
THE Dutch family firm of Sneeboer
produces state-of-the-art gardening
tools that, with their rust-proof steel
blades and lightweight ash handles,
make light work of even heavy soil.
The long-handled fork, tilth rake
and spade, right, are short and light
enough to use as hand tools, but are
strong enough to do the job of their
full-size border versions, while a
traditional bulb planter, left, has an
extra-long handle of 89cm so you can
do the job without breaking your back.
The long-handled fork, 57cm, costs
£39.95, the rake, also 57cm, is £19.95
and the spade, 74cm long, costs £37.95.
The bulb planter is £59.95.
Make them your own by having them
personalised on the handles for
£5 extra.
All available from Sarah Raven at
sarahraven.com.
Easy-growing bulbs: spice up the border with Allium sphaerocephalon
36
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Property searching
WHAT’S FOR SALE
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Spotlight
Barne
Barnet
et
£399,000
A VERY pretty one-bedroom cottage
with a courtyard garden in Dury
Road, Hadley Green, is for sale
through Sean Heaney.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/dury
T
HE main attraction of the
north London suburb of
Barnet is that it has one foot
in the town, the other in the
countryside. From bustling
Barnet High Street it is but a short walk
to the open heathland of Hadley
Common with its duck ponds and hilltop views, and the rural delights of
Monken Hadley. There, the picturesque little church of St Mary the Virgin
is a favourite wedding venue, and
motorists politely give way to oncoming traffic passing through the gap in a
white picket fence.
Barnet is 11 miles almost due north of
central London. It sits west of Cockfosters, east of Arkley and Borehamwood,
north of Totteridge and Whetstone and
south of the M25 and the Hertfordshire
countryside.
WHAT THERE IS TO BUY
£875,000
A FIVE-BEDROOM family house in
Netherland Road, Barnet, set over
three floors with a contemporary
kitchen and a rear garden that
includes a separate studio flat.
Through Foxtons.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/nether
£8 MILLION
A GRAND ambassadorial residence
with eight bedrooms, a large garden
and lake, in Bentley Heath, Barnet.
Through Statons.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/bentley
The Barnet property market is varied.
There are pockets of period homes in
the Wood Street conservation area
around St John the Baptist Church and
overlooking Hadley Common, and
detached, semi-detached and terrace
Victorian and Edwardian houses in the
roads that were developed after the
arrival of improved transport links.
There are also local detached and semidetached Twenties and Thirties houses
and bungalows.
The most expensive house currently
for sale is in Dancers Lane, in the countryside between Barnet town centre
and the M25. It has seven bedrooms,
staff quarters and a swimming pool
complex, and the asking price is
£8 million (see homesandproperty.
co.uk/dance).
Hadley Wood, a suburban enclave in
Hertfordshire countryside north of
Barnet, is favoured by top footballers,
especially Tottenham Hotspur players.
The area has a mix of houses from the
Live the country dream
Outdoorsy families and soccer stars seeking
trophy homes love the rural feel and markets in
this north London village. By Anthea Masey
Edwardian period onwards, along with
its own railway station and a parade of
local shops and restaurants. Parkfield
House in Beech Hill, Hadley Wood, has
eight bedrooms and a cinema room
and is on the market for £4 million
(See homesandproperty.co.uk/
parkfield).
There is a handful of large detached
Edwardian houses in Granville Road
close to the town centre. A 3,000sq ft
house with six bedrooms is on the
market here for £1,325,000 (see homes
andproperty.co.uk/gran).
Hadley Highstone is a pretty village
spread out along the Great North Road
in the Monken Hadley conservation
area. It offers cottages and Victorian
To find a home in Barnet, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/barnet
For more about Barnet, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightbarnet
F
terrace houses, including a four-bedroom house in Langley Row, modern
but built in a traditional style, for sale
at £750,000 (see homesandproperty.
co.uk/lang).
In the centre of High Barnet, a period
property in Wood Street, in the conservation area, comes with planning
permission already in place for conversion from offices to a three-bedroom
house. It is priced £700,000 (homes
andproperty.co.uk/woodst).
Elsewhere in Barnet there are many
roads of Twenties and Thirties houses.
A three-bedroom house in Netherlands
Road, halfway between New Barnet
and Oakleigh Park stations, is for sale
for £575,000 (see homesandproperty.co.uk/nether).
New apartment blocks are also in the
Barnet mix. A two-bedroom flat in
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37
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Property searching Homes & Property
CHECK THE STATS
■WHAT HOMES COST
BUYING IN BARNET
(Average prices)
One-bedroom flat £207,000
Two-bedroom flat £402,000
Two-bedroom house £509,000
Three-bedroom house £603,000
Four-bedroom house £904,000
Source: Zoopla
RENTING IN BARNET
(Average rates)
One-bedroom flat £987 a month
Two-bedroom flat £1,453 a month
Two-bedroom house £1,488 a month
Three-bedroom house £1,886 a month
Four-bedroom house £2,844 a month
Source: Zoopla
GO ONLINE FOR MORE
O The best schools
O The best shops and restaurants
O The local renting scene
O Arts and leisure in Barnet
O The latest housing developments
O How this area compares with the
rest of the UK on house prices
Chill out and catch up: pavement café
in The Spires shopping centre, left, off
bustling Barnet High Street. Above,
Patrizia Iraldi, owner of Bel Gelato
ice cream parlour at The Spires. Right,
the duck pond at Hadley Green
For all this and more, visit
— just 30 minutes from the city
Brackenwood Lodge in Prospect Road
close to High Barnet Tube station is on
the market for £279,000 (see homes
andproperty.co.uk/brack).
The area attracts: estate agent Gina
Antoniou of the local branch of Savills
says Barnet still has the feel of a
traditional village, helped by its twice-
HAVE YOUR SAY
BARNET
@Dutchy_23 need to take a look at
89 in the High Street. Classy boutique
shop run by a home-grown Barnet girl
@fiona232 Dory’s is one of the most
popular cafés in Barnet, and also one
of the oldest
@HobartsN22 top local restaurant
has to be @SpizzicoBarnet hands
down
Pretty bunch: in The Spires shopping
centre, corporate consultant Natasha
Pearce takes her pick at Pinks Florists
weekly market, and buyers range from
Premiership footballers looking for
newly built trophy mansions to families
from north London pursuing a change
of pace and a more outdoor lifestyle,
made possible by having the countryside on their doorstep.
S t ay i n g p o w e r : a c c o rd i n g t o
Antoniou, once families have moved
to Barnet, they tend to stay — and the
wide range of house types allows them
to trade up and down.
Up and coming: local agents say there
are no undervalued pockets in Barnet.
Antoniou recommends that bargain
hunters look in the western part of
Enfield, which is largely residential and
well-served for shops. There are roads
of Victorian terrace houses off Chase
Side, with a nice village-like feel, for
between £375,000 and £400,000.
Travel: High Barnet is on the Tube
Northern line with a journey time of
around half an hour to central
London.
Hadley Wood, New Barnet and Oakleigh Park stations all have trains to
Moorgate, with transfers to the Underground at Finsbury Park and Highbury
& Islington. Trains from Hadley Wood
to Moorgate take around 27 minutes,
with the journey taking a few minutes
less from the other stations.
Oakleigh Park station is in Zone 4 and
an annual travelcard costs £1,800,
while High Barnet and New Barnet are
in Zone 5 and the travelcard costs
£2,136. Hadley Wood is in Zone 6 and
the yearly travelcard costs £2,288.
Council: Barnet council is conservative controlled and Band D council tax
this year is £1,401.07.
homesand
property.co.uk/
spotlightbarnet
Photographs: Graham Hussey
NEXT WEEK: Croydon. Do you
live there? Tell us what you
think @HomesProperty
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
What has this doomed ship got to do
with Sunday golf in Barnet? Find the
answer at homesandproperty.co.uk/
spotlightbarnet
$ #
40
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Letting on
A
S THE mother of teenagers,
I am used to being ignored.
However, I am not prepared
to put up with any more
cheek from my young
tenants, whose behaviour would have
tried the patience of Mother Teresa.
Ever since these four students moved
into my flat over the summer they have
consistently failed to pay their rent on
time and in full, and have ignored my
emails and text messages asking them
to pay up.
The first month after they moved in
they paid their rent a week late — after
I had sent them a reminder — and it was
more than £100 short. When I emailed
to ask where the rest was, they didn’t
bother to respond.
The next month I got an email from
one of the tenants saying he would be
away for a few weeks, and therefore he
would not be paying his rent. I replied
to say that in that case, I would not be
keeping his room for him.
He paid, in the end, but there was still
no sign of the missing £100-plus from
the previous month.
On their third month in the flat, one
tenant paid her rent in full, on time,
which was great. Another paid almost
the full amount, which was not quite so
good. Two paid nothing at all, which
was annoying. There was no sign of the
outstanding £100 from the first month
either.
I emailed all the tenants asking for the
payments to be brought up to date.
Three of them ignored me, again, and
the fourth explained she was waiting
for a student loan to come through, so
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Pay up now — or I’ll
cut off something
precious to you
£475
A WEEK
In a portered
period building in
Buckingham
Gate, SW1, John D
Wood has a newly
refurbished
one-bedroom flat
available to rent.
O Visit
homesand
property.co.uk/
rentbuck
Victoria Whitlock’s four student tenants
try every excuse in the book to dodge their
rent. But is she cruel enough to disconnect
their wifi? Well, if it works on her kids. . .
The
accidental
landlord
I agreed to give her another couple of
weeks. The two weeks went by, but she
still didn’t pay.
The following month I didn’t receive
any rent, nor the arrears from the
previous months. At that point I considered asking TalkTalk to disconnect
their wifi, which I pay for.
Ha, I thought, that should get a
reaction. I frequently switch off the wifi
at home to get my kids’ attention, and
I find it works every time. However, I
decided that was too mean. Who
knows, young people might shrivel and
die if they are disconnected for too long
from their cyber lifeline.
Instead I sent yet another nudgenudge email asking for payment by the
end of the week.
Friday came and went — and still
nothing.
By the following Monday, I was fuming. I fired off seriously angry emails to
all the tenants saying that unless they
paid their rent, plus the arrears, by the
end of the day I would be calling their
guarantors. That almost did the trick.
But not quite.
Three of the tenants, who clearly didn’t
want me having a chat with their parents,
paid up immediately, but the fourth
called to say she didn’t have the cash.
It wasn’t her fault, she whined, it was
something to do with a delay processing
her student loan. She said she would
have the money “in a few weeks”.
I might have given her more time to
pay if she and her flatmates hadn’t
already been so random with their
rent, but I had run out of patience.
I told her that unless all of the rent
was paid by the end of the day I would
call every one of the guarantors to ask
them to pay me directly in future.
I also said that if any of the rent was
late again I would start eviction proceedings.
That last bit was probably a bit harsh,
but I had started to think these youngsters were metaphorically — maybe
even physically — sticking two fingers
up at me.
She paid up and the next month all
the tenants paid, almost on time. Will
they get better? Only time will tell. . .
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
42
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Ask the expert
homesandproperty.co.uk with
After delay, can I tell him to drop dead?
Q
Q
A
Fiona
McNulty
WHAT’S
YOUR
PROBLEM?
OUR LAWYER ANSWERS
YOUR QUESTIONS
I AM in the process of
buying a house. The
seller, in turn, is buying a
new build. We exchanged
in August with an “on notice”
completion, on the understanding
that the completion date of the
seller’s new build would be in the
third week of August, while
completion for our house would be
about September 15.
However, the seller’s completion
has been delayed three times and
there is still no definite date. Can I
serve a “notice to complete” and
get them to move out and complete
or I get my deposit and costs back?
My solicitor did not warn me of
the drawbacks of “on notice”
completion and did not include a
drop dead date to complete on the
contract, which in my opinion, in
hindsight, he should have.
A
COMPLETION on notice is
usual when a new-build
property is involved. It is
quite uncommon for
completion to be on notice when the
property is not a new build, as buyers
often do not like the uncertainty of
completion on notice.
Your solicitor certainly should have
advised you of the issues which can
arise when completion is on notice —
especially when notice to you is
dependent on notice being served on
your seller.
If the contract between you and
your seller had included a long stop
date, it would probably have made it
more straightforward for you to
enforce the terms of the contract.
Without knowing the terms, though,
it is difficult to comment. Your
solicitor could try writing to the
seller’s solicitor requiring
completion by a certain date. If that
fails, he could ask for you to be
released from the contract and for
your deposit to be returned, or serve
a notice to complete.
If that doesn’t work there are
remedies available, such as rescission
of contract or specific performance,
but these are likely to be complex and
costly. You may end up having to seek
advice from a lawyer specialising in
property litigation.
IF YOU have a
question for
Fiona McNulty,
please email
legalsolutions@
standard.co.uk
or write to Legal
Solutions, Homes
& Property,
London Evening
Standard, 2 Derry
Street, W8 5EE.
We regret that
questions cannot
be answered
individually but
we will try to
feature them
here. Fiona
McNulty is a
partner in the
residential
property, farms
and estates team
at Withy King LLP
(withyking.co.uk).
More legal
Q&As
Visit: homesand
property.co.uk
I OWN a first-floor Victorian conversion flat, in
a building with five flats in total. Two tenants
have babies and are forever blocking the
entrance hall with their buggies. Now one has
had another baby, so there is an even larger buggy. It is
often difficult to open the front door of the building.
The owners of the ground-floor flat also use the hall
for storage not only of their buggy, but wellington
boots shoes etc. It is very annoying — what can I do?
Will the flat leases deal with this sort of thing?
THIS situation certainly appears to be quite
unacceptable. The entrance hall will be a
common part of the building, providing access to
the various flats. It should not be obstructed at
any time, as that will cause inconvenience for residents
and could be dangerous if there was a fire.
Look at your lease. There should be covenants in it
saying that the common areas, access ways, staircases etc
are not to be obstructed, and that the premises must not
be used for any purpose which will cause nuisance to the
other flat owners.
Your lease should also say you may require your landlord
to take action to enforce covenants which the other lessees
have entered into with him, provided you indemnify him
for his costs and expenses. However, it is best to try to
resolve matters amicably. Talk to the other lessees and
explain you are worried because the buggies, wellies etc
are not only a nuisance but may make it difficult to get out
in case of fire, or restrict access for the fire brigade. If that
fails, involve the landlord and/or any managing agents.
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.
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44
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Inside story
homesandproperty.co.uk with
I’ve no car, but the
city’s my oyster
Diary of
an estate
agent
MONDAY
I wake up and hit the gym… literally,
managing to drive my car into a wall as
I try to park, making this a terrible start
to my day. After apologising to the
scary-looking gym staff, I take a closer
look at the damage. Annoyingly, my car
is likely to spend the rest of the week
being fixed at the garage — and I will
have a hefty insurance excess to pay.
Two buses later and having discovered what an Oyster card is, I still manage to get in for 8am for our team
meeting. Our department is surging
ahead and we have a new person starting this week to help cope with the high
demand. I have 13 viewings over the
course of the day with buyers evenly
split between UK nationals and internationals, including a Russian family
determined to buy before the end of the
week. Watch this space.
(un)sophisticated palate. Back at the
office, one of my buyers calls, saying
he has read in the papers that house
prices are going down. During the
conversation an email arrives from a
solicitor to confirm that another one
of my instructions has just exchanged
at 26 per cent above the record price
for the street. I inform my nervous
buyer of this and subsequently take
him out on a tour of three properties.
I spend the rest of the day secretly hoping to hear from Kriss Akabusi and the
team at Record Breakers.
The property I viewed this morning
does not actually exchange, as the
buyer’s country-based solicitor only
works half days on Tuesdays. London
goes at a faster pace — my client is furious and considers pulling the deal.
WEDNESDAY
TUESDAY
It’s straight to an 8am viewing with the
buyer of a house due to exchange
today. The place has been under offer
for a month and these last-minute viewings are rarely good news — but on this
occasion it turns out the buyer simply
wants to measure up for the home bar
he is installing. I make a note to pop
over for a cocktail once they move in,
to give them the benefit of my
Well, it’s 10am and still no call from
Kriss, or the from the country solicitor
involved in yesterday’s sale. Then
thankfully the phone rings and it’s the
vendor’s solicitor confirming the
exchange. I phone our client, who is
thrilled. The house has been on the
market for 18 months, with seven
different agents, and she has had four
deals fall through. I take over a bottle
of bubbly and a card, and put her in
ment that Mr Akabusi must be too busy
with his motivational speaking to call
me about my recent record-breaking
performance is washed away by the
excitement that I could be about to
receive an offer.
Chris goes on: “I have thought about
it and would like to offer £10,000 above
the asking price, on the condition the
property is immediately removed from
the market and we can exchange in two
weeks.” I put it forward to the seller
who, after some thought as the property
is new to market, decides to accept.
FRIDAY
contact with our Knightsbridge office
as there is a property she wants to view
that is on the market with them.
THURSDAY
At 8am there is only my manager, James,
and me in the office, and he calls me
downstairs for “a chat”. My heart is
thumping as I wonder if he has found
out it was me who swapped the new
starter’s regular peanuts with Viper
chilli-covered ones. If he knows, he isn’t
saying. The company stats are in and
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with a couple of recent exchanges, I am
in second place for the year, one behind
Big Al in Fulham, apparently. James has
set me the target of beating Big Al, and
possibly even One Direction, to the
Christmas number one spot.
My colleague emails me that a gentleman called “Chris” — I’m hoping it’s a
misspelling — has called for me. I rush
to the phone and punch in the number.
“Hello,” says a Russian voice, “this is
Chris, who you showed the Park Walk
property to.” The initial disappoint-
The day starts with a breakfast meeting
with one of our developer clients. Over
my Eggs Benedict I see Hugh Grant,
Rowan Atkinson and Christine Bleakley
walk by — that’s Chelsea for you.
In the afternoon, my newly fixed car
is dropped back to the office in time for
the weekend and I am just about to
head home when I get a call from a
number I don’t recognise. I pick up the
phone and the caller says: “Michael,
this is Kriss…”
O Michael McHale is a senior sales
negotiator at Strutt & Parker in
West Chelsea (020 7373 1010).
46
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property New homes
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Smart
S
Sma
m
mart
mar
art mo
art
mo
By David Spittles
Heavenly views
from Angel flats
ONE of the best views of the City
skyline isis
from
just north of
This
aAngel,
swathe
the Square Mile, across the rooftops
of
dummy
text
of low-rise
Georgian and
Victorian
terraces.
The Warehouse, in Windsor Street,
is a scheme of nine two-bedroom
loft-style apartments behind the
retained façade of a former
industrial premises. Views such as
the one above can be enjoyed
through large, factory-style windows
and from the rooftop terrace, while
stylish, open-plan interiors, below,
are light and airy. Prices from
£850,000 to £1,325,000. Call Greene
& Co on 020 7604 3200.
Let’s all go down
the Strand
A
FRESH wave of building
is bringing new trophy
homes to a part of central
London that was once
the preferred address of
bishops and earls.
Few places in the capital have such
a deep history as Strand, Temple and
Aldwych. They have been urban
since the Middle Ages, when the
clergy and royal courtiers built
mansions with boat landings on the
banks of the Thames, between the
City of London and the Palace of
Westminster.
This patch was the domain of
17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys
and Sir Christopher Wren. Somerset
House is the only palace to have
survived the generations of
speculative development that
turned the area into a commercial
zone.
190 Strand, right, seeks to restore
the area’s cachet as a top residential
address.
A Sixties office block running down
to Victoria Embankment has been
bulldozed to make way for a two-acre
scheme of 206 homes, including
townhouses.
Six new buildings wrapping around
a private landscaped square take
their architectural cue from classic
mansion blocks — robust yet
intricate, with façades of stone and
decorative metalwork filigree panels
that imitate lace patterns.
A ground-floor colonnade runs the
length of the scheme towards the
river, moments from the site of the
proposed Garden Bridge, a floating
park across the Thames. The scheme
is a step up for the area, with a grand
entrance lobby and a package of
amenities from a spa to virtual golf.
Interior design is said to be inspired
by sumptuous hotels such as
47
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014
New homes Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
STARRY SECLUSION HOMES IN CELEBS’ PRIZED ENCLAVE
Read more: visit
our new online
luxury section
HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury
COOMBE HILL in Kingston upon
Thames has traditionally been a
magnet for celebrities including
Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, and it is
easy to see why.
The private gated estate is
sandwiched between two golf
courses, allowing high-profile
residents to live in quiet splendour,
unbothered by prying eyes. It is also
a fair bit cheaper than comparable
“town-meets-country” spots north
and south of the river, such as
Hampstead and Richmond.
Fairlawn, above right, is a former
grand Victorian pile, renovated and
split into a pair of six-bedroom
houses, book-ended by two new
builds. Each property has a 100ft rear
garden with access to a large
communal meadow. Residents arrive
through ornamental iron gates to a
gravelled quadrangle with an ancient
cedar tree and barn-style car ports.
Behind the tasteful, traditional
façades are the relaxed layouts today’s
families crave —modern-design,
open-plan spaces, cosy retreat areas
with eco-friendly fireplaces, “media
dens” and lots of storage. Prices from
£2.5 million. Call Coombe Residential
on 020 8947 9393.
Tottenham’s got the regeneration buzz
The Savoy up the road. The style is
bold yet oozes class, with coffered
ceilings and extravagant finishes of
marble and polished nickel.
Prices range from £1,225,000 to
£9,512,500. Call St Edward on 020
7118 9190.
IT’S CHEAP by London standards,
has quick transport links to the
City, West End, Docklands and
Stansted airport, and, crucially,
regeneration is beginning to make
a difference. It’s Tottenham.
The area evolved with the advent
of the railways and was an
important manufacturing base.
Streets of modest pre-Twenties
terraces were built, while the
Blitz later prepared the way for
sprawling council estates —
including notorious Broadwater
Farm — where improvements are
under way and new forms of tenure
are being introduced. Convenient
for Seven Sisters Tube station,
Lawrence Square, right, replaces
an industrial estate and brings 260
homes priced from £209,995. Call
Bellway on 0845 676 0261.
“At the moment, demand is
strong but supply is weak,” says
Maxine Casey of local estate agent
Barnard Marcus. “A lot of buyers
have a deposit but cannot find the
right property.”
More choice is coming.
Tottenham is one of the Mayor’s 10
new housing zones and in line for
10,000 new homes.
PUTNEY
SW15
NOW OVER 50% SOLD
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