42 opinionstory subhead thesundaytimes.co.uk/home 06.10.13

STNMAST2008

ask the expertS Chinese whispers The restoration guru This Cambridge is used to flog Far Eastern antiques; its story is equally exotic Our family home of 50 years is in urgent need of repair — but, as my partner and I are both retired, funds are short. The house is listed and I’ve heard I may be entitled to a grant to help with BEYOND THE the costs. Is this correct and, if so, how can we apply for it? BROCHURE KL, Sleaford Repairs to listed can karen be expensive, though there are robinson indeed grants and funds available. The amount is dependent on your circumstances and where you live, so check with your local authority to see if it can help. If it can’t, English Heritage (www. english-heritage.org.uk) has a National Heritage Protection Plan that can offer grants; in this case, o you like going shopping in you must meet certain criteria, other people’s ? I once such as demonstrating a financial went to an Ann Summers party need and being unable to obtain at a in Clapham funding elsewhere. Once you’ve (it was a long time ago), and I been assessed, you will be notified still snigger at the memory of a of the support available. DC-list celebrity’s wife struggling into a red rubber nurse’s outfit while pleading Adam Bell is MD of Restoration with the rest of us not to take photos. Projects; restorationprojects.co.uk Hadn’t occurred to us, actually — no offence, love, but you’re not that famous, and neither is your husband. The solicitor There are classier options on the Opposite my bungalow are four retail-from-home scene. The arrival of semi-detached houses. When the an invitation to peruse an exclusive plots were conveyed before the collection of vintage frocks or artisanal First World War, the documents accessories over a glass of wine never included a “no business use” fails to bring a warm glow of stipulation, with a penalty of £20 a anticipation for what will inevitably be month if the rule were breached, a serious exercise in wallet-loosening. payable to the plots’ sellers. My mother is always coming Breaches do now occur. If the home laden with scented stipulations are still enforceable, to candles, jewellery or other whom are the payments now due? unnecessary gewgaws, all Maurice Eden-Irving, because she feels it would It’s always been a party house, but now the revellers buy Northumberland be bad manners, having accepted hospitality, not to The restrictive covenants must shell out for something. have been created when one large Mind you, she’s probably Whatever his antecedents, an and lovely glass-fronted parcel of land was sold into plots. had a good dekko round the Louis, who was born in 1912, led still- cupboards off the modern They are enforceable by the original hostess’s house, the oppor­ an exciting life of heiress wives , which has a huge black Aga. owner of the large piece of land, tunity for a close-quarters and Formula One motor racing There’s enough living space — 5,144 who imposed the covenants, or by assessment of other people’s in what “has always been a party sq ft — to accommodate a gym, a yoga their successors in title. A being a seriously house”. The locals still tell sto- room, a laundry and a boot room. Peter successor must prove the benefit of enjoyable part of the domestic ries of Grand Prix greats and wants to go back to working in London the restrictive covenants passed to retailing scene. Which means Pink Floyd raving it up there. (he ran a brokerage firm there until the them on buying the land, and that Deborah Twist’s clients at the Sadly, he lived long enough to end of last year) and have a flat to stay in they are entitled to enforce them. events she holds in her home on turn into a renowned “nasty during the week; and with only one For the burden of a pre-1926 Trumpington Road, Cambridge, man”, Deborah relates, black- child, all those , stylish though covenant to bind a subsequent to sell the antiques she imports listed by shops and taxi firms they are, are just not necessary. owner, he must have had notice of from China, will get a good look for his extravagant rudeness. At £2.5m, Old Mill House is at the top the covenant. at what is currently the most Deborah and Peter, both 47, bought end of the soaring Cambridge market. As the covenants are 100 years expensive “city centre” house on the Old Mill House, the house for £1.5m in 2008 when they Ten thousand new jobs are promised at old, it may be hard to enforce estate agent’s books. moved back to Britain from Tokyo, the expanding Addenbrooke’s Hospital, them, especially if the breach is “City centre”, in this agent’s usage, Cambridge, where he worked in banking. They chose and the new AstraZeneca headquarters is long-standing and without previous doesn’t mean you’re cheek by jowl with £2.5m their new home with their daughter’s expected to bring 1,600 well-paid science objection. An application to the the ancient colleges and throngs of education in mind: Ines is now 10, and professionals to the town. Lands Tribunal to render the students at the heart of this venerable happily ensconced in a smart prep Deborah has gone for a modern luxe covenants obsolete can be made seat of learning. Trumpington Road is a What you get A six-, school a cycle ride away. Old Mill House style in the downstairs , with by the owner(s) of the burdened wide, busy boulevard heading out — via three- house with 5,144 had been in the hands of a developer for lots of dramatic grey and black — the land. If the restrictive covenants a large Waitrose — to the M11 and open sq ft of living space, set in half an three years, and the Twists are pleased perfect setting for the lacquered Chinese are still enforceable, then the countryside, but it is lined with some of acre of gardens with his basic work — , elec- cabinets and tables that are the stock in relevant landowner (likely a the city’s best schools. Who to call Strutt & Parker; trics and the kitchen conservatory. trade of her business, Uma Interiors neighbour of these semis) may Glimpsed from behind the high 01223 459501, struttandparker. Yet even with Deborah’s builder dad (uma-interiors.com). have a right to claim the payments. that gird its corner plot, the com on hand to help in both the house and The items blend in perfectly with the Old Mill House, in its carefully land- the garden, Peter reckons they spent a couple’s own furniture, including a Donall Murphy is a partner at scaped half-acre of garden, certainly stonking £300,000 on “finishing it ravishing yellow and gold Fornasetti Russell-Cooke LLP; russell-cooke. invites speculation. When Deborah off”. The result is very des res. It has a corner cupboard, and they even leave co.uk was growing up in Cambridge, she central with ancient wisteria the price tags on, which can be distract- used to pass the house every day on CAMBRIDGE and all kinds of groovy for even- ing: I nearly succumbed to a pair of red her way to school, intrigued by the A11 ing festivities. (It’s still a party house, and black lacquer 19th-century Sichuan Do you need help from tantalising whiff of scandal it gave off. River Cam apparently.) stools for £380. A whole lot classier than one of our experts? Back then, it was the home of Louis They reduced the bedroom count a rubber nurse’s outfit. Email your questions to Stanley, who his stepdaughter later from seven to six and upped the bath- propertyexperts@ claimed was the illegitimate son of the ¼ mile Old Mill House rooms to three. They have made the If you would like Karen to cast her sunday-times.co.uk. Advice is Liberal prime minister Herbert Asquith most of original features such as fire- critical eye over a property you are selling, given without responsibility and his lover Venetia Stanley. places, coving and shutters, as well as email [email protected]