HomesWednesday 20 May 2015 & Strictly for the birds Design spy Property Page 21

TOP COMMUTES P12 PAY LESS: FIRST-TIME BUYERS P14 CHELSEA SHOW WINNERS P26 SPOTLIGHT ON CLERKENWELL P38

Simply stunning 2015 New Homes Awards Page 6 4 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Online homesandproperty.co.uk with This week: homesandproperty.co.uk news: Rachel and her gang win the battle of the basement Property search

Trophy buy of the week big, beautiful and only £21m REX Cheers: Rachel Johnson and Stephen Lambert have stopped £21 million: yes, it does come with a big price tag, but this a neighbour extending his house in this Notting Hill street house is listed, has eight storeys and is on the doorstep of St James’s Park. The 7,454sq ft Georgian masterpiece ONE of Britain’s leading television producers is celebrating exudes period charm, while indoors you will find high-spec after joining forces with Mayor Boris Johnson’s journalist 21st-century luxury. It also features a duplex master suite, sister, Rachel, to fight off a neighbour’s plan to sink a huge four further bedrooms and a top-floor media room and basement beneath his Notting Hill home. terrace with divine views spanning Buckingham Palace to Stephen Lambert, who has won a clutch of Baftas for the London Eye. Through Hathaways. prime-time shows including Gogglebox, led a protest against Igor and Christina Kryca’s scheme to build a O homesandproperty.co.uk/trophy basement beneath their home in Elgin Crescent. The couple wanted extra space for a cinema room and gym, but now it has emerged that Kensington & Chelsea’s London buy of the week white-hot, planning chief, Jonathan Bore, has dismissed the project as “visually obtrusive” and a possible threat roomy apartment is full of sunshine to neighbouring homes. £525,000: central Camberwell is also a stylish, modern bathroom. The O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk home to this bright and spacious recently refurbished apartment in garden flat. Valmar Road, SE5 is located close to a Pale floors, white walls and a sleek range of shops, restaurants and bars, style give a sense of space to the fully while Brockwell and Burgess Parks integrated open-plan kitchen/dining are easily reached for those who enjoy and lounge area. Both of the double green space. Through Foxtons. bedrooms are filled with natural light thanks to large windows, and there is O homesandproperty.co.uk/botw Life changer have a holiday Visit our new online for life — and earn an income luxury section £900,000: take a short stroll from Penzance to The Mews, a collection of converted granite barns set in two acres of HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury lovely gardens. The main house has four bedrooms, a self-contained suite perfect for letting and bags of space in the kitchen/breakfast room, dining and sitting rooms. There is also a separate two-bedroom holiday cottage to further boost your income. Through Country & Waterside. By Faye O homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechanger Greenslade Facebook: ESHomesAndProperty • Twitter: @HomesProperty • Pinterest: @HomesProperty

Editor: Gardens with houses Janice Morley

VISIT homesandproperty.co. uk/rules for details of our usual promotion rules. When you respond to promotions, offers or competitions, the London Evening Standard and its sister companies may contact you with relevant offers and services that may be of interest. Please give your mobile number and/or email address if you would like to receive such offers by text or email. £1.1 million: this four-bedroom cottage at Normandy, , has a knot garden Editorial: 020 3615 2524 by the late garden designer Rosemary Verey (homesandproperty.co.uk/gardens) Advertisement manager: Jamie McCabe INSPIRED by the glorious gardens access to the Thames, country Advertising: 020 3615 0527 at Chelsea Flower Show, we have retreats with classic kitchen gardens Homes & Property, Northcliffe tracked down homes for sale that in full bloom, and a historic garden House, 2 Derry Street, come with spectacular outside space. in Malmesbury that is said to have Kensington, London W8 5TT. Join us on our property tour as we been the burial place of the first uncover easy-to-maintain plots with king of England. EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 5 homesandproperty.co.uk with News Homes & Property Is this Britain’s sexiest modern house?

It’s ‘M’ for on the É HIGH & OVER in Buckinghamshire, includes a dazzling spiral staircase above, is considered by many to encased in glass, chrome double market at £400k be Britain’s first modernist house front doors, fabulous roof terraces and the country’s sexiest private and a circular swimming pool in É IT IS only a matter of months until residence. You can snap it up for the garden. Christina’s mad the new James Bond movie, starring £2.8 million with The Modern House. Its one possible drawback is the for New York flat Daniel Craig, explodes on to the big The white-rendered five-bedroom potential for drooling architecture screen. Now that Judi Dench has home overlooking Amersham was students from around the world to É MAD MEN star Christina Hendricks bowed out as spy chief M, the more designed by Amyas Connell in 1929 keep knocking on the door pleading is reportedly marking a new chapter menacing Ralph Fiennes is taking her for archaeologist and art historian for a tour. in her life by splashing out £740,000 place. We can’t wait. Bernard Ashmole. on a New York pied-à-terre following But who would have guessed that The Grade II-listed property O homesandproperty.co.uk/high the end of the hit TV show. a modest cottage in the village of Leading lady Hendricks, right, Oare in Kent was once the home of who starred as Sixties siren Joan actor Bernard Lee, below, who Holloway in the long-running drama, starred in the first 11 Bond films and is thought to be moving into the who is considered by many as the 810sq ft one-bedroom apartment, greatest M of all? above, with her husband, the The four-bedroom terrace home, American actor Geoffrey Arend. above, overlooks the Thames Estuary The flat is located on one of the and is on the market for £389,995 upper floors of a smart, portered with WH Breading & Son. block, which offers residents a The salmon-pink façade won’t be shared library, tea garden and to everyone’s taste, but the house roof terraces on site. spreads across four floors and has a By Amira Hashish Features of the apartment yard at the back with a heated plunge include arched alcoves and a pool. A revamp requires just a can of

decorative fireplace. GETTY paint — shaken not stirred. Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews O homesandproperty.co.uk/m An aspirational home for a Labour leader

É IT’S a spacious four-bedroomom theirthe two sons. The pipe- house in NW11 with a garden smokingsm premier went on big enough for any good tot serve two terms at socialist to socialise in — No 10, from 1964 to 1970 and now this former home and from 1974 to 1976. of Labour prime minister The detached house, Harold Wilson is on the ono the market for the first market for £1.6 million with timetim in nearly 60 years Goldschmidt & Howland. sincesinc Wilson sold it, retains Wilson, inset, who first enteredd plentyl of character and original Downing Street in 1964, lived in the features, as well as that big garden for Grade II-listed family home, left, in summer parties. Hampstead Garden Suburb from

1948 to 1956 with his wife Mary and O homesandproperty.co.uk/harold GETTY REX 6 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property The winners homesandproperty.co.uk with 2015 LONDON EVENING STANDARD NEW HOMES AWARDS: THE WINNERS Clever design, creative conversions and the intelligent use of space won accolades at our 24th annual awards, in association with Close Brothers Property Finance. David Spittles reports The Gold Standard BEST APARTMENT AND in Clapham has yielded four classic GRAND PRIX WINNER lofts with slick, modern interior design The Penthouse, Wapping Lane, E1 — by set against exposed brickwork and Ballymore beams, with a gunmetal staircase link- Nowhere does London sell itself better ing a mezzanine level. than from the vast terrace of a spec- Prices start from £900,000. Call tacular penthouse, where the city’s 020 8022 7428. treasures are laid out like a board game — Tower Bridge, St Paul’s Cathedral, Winner among large developers the Shard, Big Ben, Canary Wharf, the (producing more than 100 units a year): London Eye and the River Thames. Bath House Lofts, Spa Road, SE16 — by Wapping, a low-rise neighbourhood Hollybrook Ltd with quiet cobbled streets and historic has left behind its wharves and warehouses, is an unusual Cockney past of brawny dockers and location for such a special London lair. pearly kings and queens to become one The duplex penthouse, reached by its of London’s trendiest districts. Plugged own lift, is at the top of a new 18-storey into the South Bank cultural quarter tower on a bend in the river. It offers and within walking distance of the City, awesome 360-degree views — and as it is also one of the capital’s best- much space outside as inside. connected places. With a circular floor plan and a perim- Bath House Lofts, overlooking refur- eter of glass walls, there is a view from bished Bermondsey Spa park, was anywhere in the apartment. Spaces once the local town hall, an imposing flow into each other rather than being Art Deco listed building with a façade sectioned off. The centrepiece of the featuring Corinthian columns and a lower level is a fabulous open-plan magnificent communal lobby with kitchen and living area, while the floor marble floors, a sweeping staircase and above, reached by a sculptural spiral gallery crowned by a domed roof. Join our video staircase, is taken up by a recreational Before conversion into 41 apartments, tour of this space with a wraparound terrace. including “affordable” penthouses year’s Grand Sited between the City and Canary with up to 1,450sq ft of space and big Wharf, this is one for a banker with a fat terraces, it was used as a set for BBC Prix winner bonus who knows that if it was further drama Spooks. Prices range from at homesand west, the property would be at least £450,000 to £1.35 million. property.co.uk twice the £3.2 million asking price. Together with housing charity Peabody, developer Hollybrook is High living: BEST CONVERSION working up plans for another SE1 Northbourne Winner among small developers project — Newington Triangle, between commercial space at street level, Shoreditch Housing Association on Lofts, Clapham, (producing fewer than 100 units a Elephant & Castle and Borough. helping to enliven the waterfront. A 020 7704 7388. features modern year): Northbourne Lofts, Clapham, number of shared-ownership flats are design, exposed SW4 — by Manor London Ltd HOME OR DEVELOPMENT for sale, priced from £150,000 for a BEST FAMILY HOME bricks and beams Conversion of a Fifties office building OF OUTSTANDING 25 per cent share. Call Islington & UP TO £750,000 ARCHITECTURAL MERIT Winner: The Berwick, Courtauld Place, Winner: Banyan Wharf, Wenlock Road, N1 Braintree, Essex — by Croudace Homes BEB STT CONVEV RSSION (ssmmall developpere ) — by Regal Homes BESTT CONVERRSION (large developerr) This sizeable, traditional-looking house This head-turning canalside project in comes with the bonus of a detached Shoreditch has the distinction of being garage with a studio/guest suite Europe’s tallest “cross-laminated above. timber” building. The green and innovative CLT construction system BEST FAMILY HOME allowed architect Hawkins\Brown to £750,000-£1.5 MILLION “rotate” floor plates at different angles Winner among small developers — like a Rubik’s Cube — to create (producing fewer than 100 units a apartments with dual- and triple- year): Bronlei Woods, Bramley, — aspect views across the water and by Kilpark Properties beyond. These four unmistakably modern The façade is meticulously clad in houses with bold exterior architecture engineered cedar, while the homes and light-filled, intelligently designed have large, private terraces. Residents interiors are a spectacular departure can also make use of tranquil commu- from the country-cottage vernacular nal gardens. that is more usually offered by It is a mixed-use building with Imposing: Bath House Lofts, SE16, was used for TV’s Spooks commuterland house-builders. EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 7 The winners Homes & Property

GRAND PRIX WINNER The Penthouse, Wapping Lane, by Ballymore

ARARCHCHITITECECTUTURARAL MEERIRIT

Spectacular: The Penthouse, left and far left, in E1, is a worthy Grand Prix winner, offering stunning 360-degree city views, and as much space outside as inside. Above, canalside Banyan Wharf in Shoreditch wins our Outstanding Architecture award

Winner among large developers (producing more than 100 units): The Yeoman, Froyle Park, Guildford — by Linden Homes A spacious, barn-style semi-detached house that captures its rural setting in the grounds of a listed Jacobean mansion. BEST FAMILY HOME MORE THAN £1.5 MILLION Winner: Asquith, Spencer Park, Wandsworth — by Landview Properties Each of these four new townhouses bordering Wandsworth Common also has private access to the “secret gar- den” of four-acre Spencer Park, a green sanctuary for the exclusive use of local residents — celebrity chef Gordon Ram- say and presenter Johnny Vaughan among them — with tennis court and children’s play area. Each summer, owners of the 26 houses that share this exclusive space adorn the park with candlelight and enjoy a splendid dinner party. On sev- eral occasions the Beckham family has visited this Narnia-style haven. Ranging up to 4,500sq ft, the new townhouses have six bedrooms, a fam- ily “super-room” with a wall of glass that opens on to the rear garden, and a subterranean level with cinema, gym Standing on an elevated plot in the vil- they have glass walls, minimalist and guest bedroom suite. Prices from lage of Bramley, near the historic double-height spaces, roof terraces and £4.5 million. Call Savills on 020 3430 county town of Guildford, the houses concealed underground parking. 6900. are in the Grand Designs mould. Prices at Bronlei Woods start from Guarded from view by mature trees, £875,000. Call 01483 796810. BEST FIRST-TIME BUY Winner: 243 Ealing Road, Alperton, by Network Living and Hill Unsung and still relatively undiscov- ered, Alperton in north-west London is emerging as developers hit upon its hidden assets — the Grand Union Canal and the quick Piccadilly line Tube link to the West End. A B&Q superstore has made way for 441 homes alongside the canal and is part of a £520 million Brent council initiative to transform the area into a residential haven, with a new school, shops and business premises. Flats are spread across seven contem- porary-design buildings connected by communal gardens, which include an orchard and play areas. There is an DANIEL LYNCH DANIEL Buzzing: the popular Woolpack pub, part of the vibrant Bermondsey social scene Continued on Page 8 8 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property The winners homesandproperty.co.uk with

‘After decades ECO-LIVING AWARD LUXURY HOME (small developer) of building magnificent homes they’ve done it again’

Continued from Page 7 on-site car club, too, while the Tube station is a 220-yard walk from the development. Prices from £254,950, with shared-ownership options available. Call 020 8997 3373. Trial: the Rayner BEST LUXURY HOME family are testing Winner among small developers the Virido Concept (producing fewer than 100 units a House, winner of year): Crossacres, Wentworth Estate, the Eco-Living Surrey — by Octagon Award, in After decades of building magnificent Trumpington, homes, Octagon has pushed the bound- Cambridge aries yet again with this 16,000sq ft trophy mansion on the star-studded Wentworth Estate. and there are five luxury bedroom centre hub — seven buildings with 416 The “Georgian-influenced” home sits suites. But it is not always predictably homes and low-cost premises for local in a lavishly landscaped 2.3-acre plot opulent. A “secret” family room is small businesses, such as accountants, with ornamental swimming pool, hidden behind full-height kitchen internet entrepreneurs, lawyers, archi- retractable fountains and tennis court. cupboard doors, while a subterranean tects and designers, who want to be Once over the threshold, visitors are spa and cinema is a more casual able to walk or cycle to work. captivated by a curving marble stair- addition. And, of course, there is a Duplex penthouses at the top of a case that wraps around a 25ft hand- climate-controlled garage for eight 15-storey tower clad in anodised alu- made Murano glass chandelier cars. All yours for £17.5 million. minium and copper have glamorous suspended from a domed skylight at open-plan interiors — black-gloss the top of the house. Winner among large developers kitchen, walnut staircase, double- In every other respect, the house is (producing more than 100 units a year): height windows — and huge terraces meticulously finished and equipped Ebury Square, Belgravia, SW1 offering panoramic views. Prices from with bespoke pieces of furniture — by Berkeley Homes £1,275,000. Call 0845 077 9770. and accessories. Magnificent living This redevelopment of a dowdy police spaces are for formal and informal use, tenement block has brought 71 swish BEST OUT-OF-LONDON apartments to an improving patch on HOME bulldozed to make way for this new Georgian-influenced gem: developer the Belgravia-Pimlico border. Classic- Winner: The Yeoman, Guildford — as neighbourhood, being built according Octagon raised the bar for new luxury A SHARE IN THE FUTURE contemporary architecture gives a nod before to “garden city” design principles, with homes with £17.5 million Crossacres in Oval Quarter, named as our Best to nearby Eaton Square, while the low-rise blocks and lots of open space. Surrey, in lavish landscaped gardens, Regeneration Project, appealed to grand entrance lobby with original BEST REGENERATION There are 808 new flats and houses, with marble and Murano glass inside Francesco Lisotto, 29, below, a retail artworks has the feel of an exclusive PROJECT allotments and one of London’s largest manager for John Lewis Partnership, hotel. Interior design is sumptuous yet Winner: Parkside, Oval Quarter, SW9 — new parks, which incorporates a show- ECO-LIVING AWARD who bought a £375,000 two-bedroom tasteful, and amenities for residents by Oval Quarter Developments piece community centre. Shared-own- Winner: Virido Concept House, apartment in the first phase “because include 24-hour concierge, leisure Despite continuing problems with ership options make the properties Trumpington, Cambridge — it was an opportunity to buy early into complex and underground parking. landline and wifi connectivity, the two- even more affordable, with the mini- by developer Hill and architect Pollard a fast-improving area”. Previously he bedroom flats at this Zone 2 scheme mum 25 per cent stake starting at Thomas Edwards rented in Streatham. BEST LONDON HOME priced from £499,000 have struck a £141,250 for three-bedroom apart- The lucky Rayner family are living He went down the shared-ownership Winner: Penthouses at The Filaments, chord, and not just with our judges. ments. Call 020 7582 7288. rent-free for a year in this low-energy, route, putting down a deposit of £7,500 Wandsworth, SW18 — by Mount Anvil Young singles and couples, keen to stay hi-tech concept house at a new and buying a 40 per cent share. His Once a light bulb factory, The Fila- in the capital rather than commute, Intelligent interior design: Bronlei “settlement” of homes, schools, shops monthly outgoings on mortgage, rent ments puts other Wandsworth housing have been snapping them up . Woods in Surrey, Best Family Homes and community facilities on former and service charge are £1,500. schemes in the shade. It is a new town A Seventies council estate has been in the £750,000-£1.5 million category green belt land south of Cambridge city centre. Called Virido — Latin for “going BEST REGENERATA ION BEST FAMILY HOME green” — the zero-carbon home has PROJECT been built according to Passivhaus principles, a German system that dramatically reduces energy demand. Lorna and Dave Rayner, whose children are Harry and Ebony, expect to pay less than £250 a year in energy bills. They are blogging about their experi- ence — visit be-zero.co.uk — while aca- demics at Leeds Beckett University are monitoring the home’s performance and keeping tabs on the family’s health and wellbeing. “Last winter we were so warm we were surprised to see snow outside,” says Lorna. “We have always tried to lead an eco-friendly lifestyle, while being realistic about what we can cut from our lives. “It is great to live in a house that isn’t wasteful of energy. Sunshine pours in EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 9 homesandproperty.co.uk with The winners Homes & Property

BEB STST FIRIRSTST-TTIMME BUUYER HOME

My place: Surekha Abbas, 43, paid £350,000 for a two-bedroom flat at 243 Ealing Road, Alperton, our Best First-Time Buy. She works for Discovery Communications in Chiswick. “I’d been renting privately for 15 years, saving for a home. With prices rising fast, buying sometimes seemed further out of reach, but this was a place I had confidence in. I felt it was undervalued.”

BEST DEVELOPMENT IN inspired by the architecture of the New BEST LARGE AFFORDABLE HOMES Orleans French Quarter, which is char- DEVELOPMENT SECTOR acterised by decorative metalwork Winner: Orchard Gate, East Malling, Winner: Thames View East, Barking — balustrading and balconies. Kent — by Millwood Designer Homes by Pollard Thomas Edwards & Hill An elevated walkway above a quirky Redundant horticultural research Unpopular council tower blocks in communal courtyard garden links the laboratories dating back to the Twenties Barking have been replaced by houses two sides of the mews. Internally, the have been given a new lease of life with with bay windows, their front doors design emphasis is on light and vol- this tasteful development, built with opening on to pedestrian-friendly ume, with floor-to-ceiling factory win- reclaimed materials to give the sense streets, along with newly landscaped dows and doors, plus simple retro that the homes have grown organically open space, establishing a genuine finishes. Priced from £775,000, the over time. sense of community right from the homes were quickly snapped up. Com- “This is one of those rare moments start. The scheme of 276 local authority ing soon is another niche project — nine when we can play a part in creating a homes also made use of an innovative Scandi-style houses in Maida Vale. Call new hamlet in the heart of the Kent finance model — an overseas invest- Pilcher Hershman on 020 7399 8600. countryside and ensure the future through the numerous large windows homes, half of which will be managed ment fund that pays for new council productivity of the surrounding and the design of the property and by the local council. The others will go homes on council-owned land. Winner among larger-scale developers: orchards and fruit farms,” says Jeff garden means you really feel a connec- on sale later this year. As well as The Annie McCall, Lambeth, SW4 — by Elliott, deputy managing director of tion with the outside.” brimming with green design, the BEST SMALL Henley Homes Millwood, which has joined forces with Green housing is not just about homes are architecturally pleasing, DEVELOPMENT At this Victorian maternity hospital, a charitable trust to revive the site. double glazing and combination clad in brick and timber, with an open- Winner among small-scale developers: closed 30 years ago, loft-style flats have Millwood’s design inspiration is 17th- boilers, it is about how properties fit plan layout. Piano Yard, Kentish Town, NW5 — by been created in the listed buildings, century timber-framed yeoman farm- into the local environment and pro- Solar panels and sedum roofs with London Buildings while new artists’ studios and a lodge houses. At Orchard Gate, terrace and mote responsible ecology. The success plants help to retain rainwater and On a former piano warehouse site, this have been built in the grounds. Prices detached houses with allotments cost of Virido has paved the way for 208 attract insects and birds. mews-style terrace of new homes is from £590,000. Call 020 7740 2640. from £330,000. Call 01732 448270.

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Registered Society 30441R Exempt charity. Details correct at time of going to print 05/15. Image represents typicalcal Shared Shared OwneOwnershiprship purchasers. 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 go to www.lqpricedin.co.uk. 12 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Commuting homesandproperty.co.uk with Record numbers opt

£649,995: The Cottage in Grove Hill, Dedham, Essex has four bedrooms and stacks of charm (Fine & Country) to commute city to city It’s hard to leave London. Now new exclusive research might make your where-to-buy decision a little easier. By Ruth Bloomfield

£2 million: six-bedroom Villa Romani, beside the Thames ONDON’S commuter belt is Berkshire is the swiftest, only 20 in Lower Cookham Road, Maidenhead (Knight Frank) having a bit of a moment minutes from the capital, with average right now. The number of homes on sale at just less than Londoners leaving the capital £428,000. An annual season ticket is at record levels, about costs £2,908. 250,000L a year, according to the Office Maidenhead itself has a dreary town for National Statistics, with most in centre, but the surrounding area is search of areas where they can afford home to some lovely commuter a family-size home near well-rated state villages, most notably Cookham, schools. Cookham Dean, foodie paradise Bray, The exit roll call has been boosted by picturesque town Marlow and many last year’s stamp duty changes. A more. Cookham Dean is famous as the recent report by Hometrack concluded place where Kenneth Grahame wrote that the home counties are the biggest The Wind in the Willows. The village £350,000: a four-bedroom detached house in good- beneficiaries of the tax reform. adjoins the National Trust’s beautiful

value Winnock Road, Colchester (William H Brown) Savills forecasts London’s commuter Winter Hill estate, looking down into ALAMY hinterland will experience the strong- the Thames Valley. est medium-term price growth in Worth the move: PRICEY GUILDFORD England. Its findings are based on PRETTY COOKHAM DEAN Colchester has One of the most expensive locations to analysis of the number of season ticket The village is busy enough to support an average high make the top 20 is Guildford, among sales from the main commuting a handful of pubs, and a primary school street, but it Surrey’s top commuter towns, with stations — establishing just where rated good by Ofsted. Its popularity is boasts good average prices standing at almost London’s commuter army now driving up average prices, inexorably, schools and £409,000. A detached house in this lives, and why. towards the £1 million mark. According great-value area would cost about £760,000. An It found, unsurprisingly, that London- to Zoopla, village properties currently homes annual season ticket for the 37-minute ers on the move are looking for some- change hands at an average £970,658, journey costs £3,400. where not too isolated, with a quick up 3.17 per cent in the past year. Richard Howell, sales manager of Hill journey into town. This is likely to rise in 2018, when Clements estate agents, says the town A quarter of the top 20 locations Maidenhead will join the Crossrail has been a magnet for south-west are within half an hour — including network. With direct links to the Londoners for decades. “You have got £2 million: 11-bedroom property in Hinton House Drive, Reading and Shenfield, which will West End and the City, this is as sure- a great high street, nearby pretty Kings Worthy, Winchester, Hampshire (Strutt & Parker) benefit from the Crossrail development fire a way as any to identify where villages and vast countryside. You are — Woking and Gatwick. Maidenhead in price growth is likely. an hour from the coast and close to

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£1,295,000: four-bedroom detached house in Oliver’s Battery Road North, Winchester (Hamptons International)

O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/oliversbattery for more pictures and details

both airports, and there is a wide vari- other draw for families is excellent ety of very good schools,” he says. schools, in particular Colchester House prices go up the closer you are County High School (girls) and the to the station. Howell estimates that a Royal Grammar School (boys). four-bedroom property within walking And Colchester has some property distance would cost “from just under gold mines. The Dutch Quarter, just £1 million to about £1.25 million”. Three north of the city centre, has outstand- miles to the east, a more modern four- ing Tudor timber-framed homes, some bedroom house — requiring a cycle ride with Georgian frontages. William or drive to the station, where parking Bardell, branch manager of Hestons costs about £1,500 a year — is between estate agents, says buyers could pick £500,000 and £600,000. up a two-bedroom house for between £165,000 and £250,000. AFFORDABLE COLCHESTER Families gravitate towards the suburb Colchester in Essex is also in the of Lexden, 15 minutes’ walk from the top 20, with a 52-minute journey into town centre, for its grand Victorian   London. An annual season ticket villas. A four-bedroom home costs costs £4,796, but the payoff is excellent between £500,000 and £600,000. value for money. The average house price is under £200,000, with a detached house under £300,000. An exceptional new collection of 1 & 2 bedroom The flavourless high street is packed O To discover the Top 20 commuter apartments woven into the heart of Islington with mid-range chains. The town has destinations for London workers, visit two cinemas, an arts centre, sports homesandpropery.co.uk/top20 centres, and some decent pubs. The       - #!+-%&(    ! #! -%&! +  FOR LONDONERS WHO MISS THE CITY LIFE -%'!% ! %*% FIVE of the top 20 locations for commutability, lifestyle and excellent restaurants, notably  %"%# %%&  commuting into London are affordability. The average house pleasantly unassuming, Michelin- cities in their own right — is less than £415,000 and a starred The Black Rat. Chelmsford, Cambridge, detached home will cost about Leeson says: “It’s near the unique Register your interest Winchester, Brighton and Oxford. £624,000. New Forest and the coast, and is    This ancient capital of Wessex, steeped in history, and we have WINCHESTER perched on the western tip of plenty of schools with good and    “Most people want affordability, the South Downs, was voted the outstanding Ofsted reports.” but they don’t want to lose best place to live in the UK with Fulflood is just north-west of the London life,” says John Leeson, great housing, facilities and city centre and an easy walk to the managing director of Belgarum culture, and top state schools, station. A fine four-bedroom estate agents in Winchester. such as Kings’ School. The pretty Victorian or Edwardian home in the Just under an hour from town centre has sadly lost its area would cost between £600,000 London, with an annual season independent shops, all but and £650,000. In St Cross, to the ticket costing £4,812, Winchester obliterated by predictable south, a six-bedroom period pile offers a winning combination of national chains. There are some would cost about £2 million. ) .. .$., $. ,)$.  14 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property First-time buyers homesandproperty.co.uk with The cheap-rent route to buying your first home Ruth Bloomfield HE deposit trap is a problem most first-time finds a south London buyers know well — without the assistance of the Bank of housing scheme with Mum and Dad, it is often impossibleT to even contemplate lower rents that gives joining the property ladder. Short of plotting a diamond heist to first-timers a chance raise the average £69,000 required for a typical first-time deposit in the capi- to escape the tal — as calculated in a recent study by Savills — buyers could instead turn Green fields: the public can enjoy Manor House Gardens dreaded deposit trap their attention to an under-the-radar south-east London suburb, where a solution is being offered. DISCOUNT DEAL Housing association L&Q’s latest  '-'-, scheme, Goldcrest House in Lee High Road, Lewisham, offers would-be buyers the chance to rent a one- or two-bedroom flat at a subsidised rate — 20 per cent less than for new-build properties being rented commercially in the area. This, it hopes, will give them the chance to start saving for a deposit. Under the rules of the scheme, known

as UpToYou, tenants can stay in the GRAHAM HUSSEY PICTURES BY property as long as they want and Stocking up: the market in Lewisham offers fresh produce can then either move on to another rental or buy themselves a property, shared-ownership or otherwise, further down the line. L&Q (lqpricedin.co.uk/goldcrest- house) has 29 homes on offer, some overlooking the River Quaggy and most "#$ with either balconies or terraces, which ,(--- -#!!- " #&&$- will be ready to move into next month. #! ! &-!-* $*!#&--$&#& Prices start from £930 per month for a one-bedroom flat, or £1,150 per month %4 (  for a two-bedroom flat. Priority will be given to people already living in Lewisham. The nearest station is Lewisham, around five minutes’ walk from Gold- crest House. Trains to Cannon Street or Charing Cross both take around 15 minutes, and those heading for Canary Wharf can also pick up the . An annual season ticket costs £1,284. pleasure and not a chore. And since Spacious living: THINGS TO CONSIDER work is under way on a six-year project L&Q has 29 If all this sounds like a complete to regenerate the town centre, traffic homes on offer no-brainer, then there are some down- is horrendous at the moment. at Goldcrest sides to consider. The first is that While there are some decent pubs House — priority rents have been set in line with new- and restaurants on the doorstep, they will be given to build homes in Lee — you could find a can be counted on your fingers — most people already better bargain if you are happy to live locals head to Blackheath or Hither living in in an older property. Green on a night out. Lewisham Another downside is that the area is Roxanne Halliday, L&Q’s sales a regeneration zone for a reason. The negotiator for the project, has lived in Leegate Shopping Centre has been the area and says Goldcrest’s big advan-        dubbed the worst in Britain, with tage is that it is close to everything — just over a third of its shops empty. open space, transport and shopping. Lewisham Shopping Centre, close to “The traffic problems will end when $2-.1-.-:.10.21- - $:76(-.07-.1-127./:2-6;2 the station, is far more vibrant, but it the regeneration is finished. You can 0.1(-622-;.-2 - lacks the kind of quirky independent get lots of ethnic foods and it is very 6;2-332-02;.- - ;2-3;-62-7 2(-.9(- shops which make retail therapy a diverse and friendly,” she says. 727-1275-.1-.-- :0.:-6-.1-.;2772 7 .2-/.:0--2.028 -  02::2-.-:79-.975-- -*.2:-7-, -;72 THE KNOWLEDGE derives from Leah, which means High Road. The chapel dates LEE, SOUTH LONDON clearing in the wood. from 1682 but fell into disuse What it costs: an average home after the Second World War. It Past: Lee’s local stately home, costs £391,277, up 6.99 per cent has since been restored and         the Manor House, was built by in the past year, according to opens for exhibitions. the founders of the Barings Zoopla. A two-bedroom flat Eat: cake washed down with Bank. It is now a library. costs about £1,287 a month. excellent coffee at With Jam and Future: developer St Modwen First-time buy: immaculate Bread, also on Lee High Road. has applied for planning two-bedroom flat in an Drink: at the Dacre Arms, an #$)"-!#-&-#$&- -&!-'+ permission to regenerate the impressive period house on old-school neighbourhood pub. declining Leegate Shopping Burnt Ash Hill, on the market for Buy: basics at Lewisham

               Centre, with new shops, offices £350,000 with Housesimple. Shopping Centre. and homes. Landmarks: the tiny but very Walk: the wilds of Blackheath, Trivial pursuit: the name Lee charming Boone’s Chapel in Lee a mile up the road. 16 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Homes abroad homesandproperty.co.uk with

£616,200: a large, light-filled studio apartment on the £523,000: a one-bedroom, second-floor apartment in £498,000: a two-bedroom apartment top floor of an elegant 17th-century building in centrally the historic and central area of Le Marais, close to an in Montmartre, located in the 18th located Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Through Vingt Paris excellent food market. It’s for sale through Vingt Paris arrondissement. Through Vingt Paris

ARIS, the beautiful city of light and love, is one of Europe’s most compact capitals. Step off the Euro- star, push through the crowds A city that atP Gare du Nord and the city lies in wait, easy to cover in a weekend. “People who love Paris have a real passion for the intellectual life in art, satisfies all music, literature or architecture,” says Susie Hollands of estate agent Vingt Paris. “The city has a strong cultural romance for so many nationalities.” Hollands sells and rents Parisian the senses property to mainly international clients, taking them on detailed city tours and explaining the difference in Buy a Paris apartment and enjoy prices between the areas. She acknowledges that the market, ‘les weekends’ of art, food and flea as buoyant as central London until

2011, has been difficult since the French markets, says Cathy Hawker REX elections in 2012. “Paris has always been seen as a safe one-bedroom apartment over two to some of the priciest and prettiest haven for investment, but uncertainty floors on Rue Jacob, arguably the best streets in Paris, this area is a huge over tax changes caused buyers to street in the best neighbourhood of favourite with Britons. Unlike the pres- hesitate,” says Hollands. “However, the Left Bank, sold last month for tigious but business-orientated 8th since the start of this year, we have an £287,000. arrondissement, the residential 6th active market again. The favourable teems with life day and night. Historic exchange rate for US and UK buyers FOODIE HEAVEN exteriors often hide quirky interiors. has made a significant difference.” “All Parisians have a favourite café and Then there is the Triangle d’Or, or stick with one butcher and baker in “golden triangle” of prime designer HEART OF THE CITY their neighbourhood,” says Hollands. shops and five-star hotels in the 8th In prime Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a “No matter where you are in Paris, arrondissement, marked out by the large studio on the top floor of an there’s a food market at least two days exclusive boulevards of Avenue Mon- elegant 17th-century building is for sale a week selling affordable fresh food.” taigne, Avenue George V and the through Vingt Paris for £616,200. The city is divided into 20 arrondis- Champs-Élysées. It lacks the buzzing The owners have spent £35,000 on sements, or administrative districts, café life of the Left Bank, but it is classy updating the kitchen and bathroom, each with its own atmosphere. The four and elegant. and the 603sq ft apartment features a areas most popular with international Vingt Paris has an 882sq ft, one-bed- view of the Eiffel Tower. buyers include the 6th arrondissement room, eighth-floor apartment on Chic shops and cafés: the popular Cour du Commerce Saint- It would rent for more than £2,000 a — Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Left Avenue Foch for £895,000 and a beau- André in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 6th arrondissement month, says Hollands. Nearby, an airy Bank. Once bohemian, but now home tiful three-bedroom, furnished and

          “                  

 

                              EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 17 homesandproperty.co.uk with Homes abroad Homes & Property

Teamwork: Jessica and Peter Frankopan, and one of the opulent bedrooms at L’Hotel on the Left Bank

SHOPPING AND STAYING PETER and Jessica Frankopan from Oxford — a Croatian prince and the great-great-granddaughter of Sainsbury’s founder John James Sainsbury — are the husband-and- wife team behind A Curious Group of Hotels, with venues that include Cowley Manor near Cheltenham and Canal House in Amsterdam. In 2005 they bought L’Hotel, an iconic Left Bank establishment that was Oscar Wilde’s last home, and where guests have included Salvador Dalí and Frank Sinatra. L’Hotel is a 20-room opulent beauty, a historic building filled with richly coloured renovated Art Deco apartment off Rue including Merci (merci-merci.com). A Big breakfast: velvet furnishings in the heart of stock vintage items. Rik Gitlin, an Global appeal: Christophe-Colomb for £2.5 million. In 1,022sq ft two-bedroom apartment Café de Flore is a Saint-Germain-des-Prés. American who has lived in Paris for at Caravane, the working-class areas of the 9th, 10th with a terrace overlooking Rue Saint- Paris institution Here, the Frankopans share their 20 years, will be your guide for a day visitors will and 11th arrondissements, there are Martin is priced at £677,000 through where early top design secrets in Paris. for £300. Rik knows the finest find silk fabrics exciting things happening, with a fabu- Vingt Paris. rising English antique linen — and where to have and découpage lous foodie scene, good wine shops and customers can O The Boulevard St Germain is our lunch (Philippe Starck’s restaurant wallpaper a focus on organic produce. Check out FRENCH FACELIFT pass on the favourite for design shops — it’s Ma Cocotte; macocotte-lespuces. inspired by restaurants Bones and Septime, both Expect to pay an average of £10,500 Continental rolls perfect, with international brands com). Email [email protected]. exotic locations in the 11th. per square foot for renovations in and coffee and including Roche Bobois, and chic O French design company Caravane around the world The 9th is close to the Gare du Nord, classic buildings, says Hollands. A order boiled eggs department store Le Bon Marché offers patterned fabrics and chic which is convenient for British visitors, 1,572sq ft three-bedroom apartment in with toasted nearby. The concept shops — Merci, furniture. There are silk throws, while the supremely hip 10th remains a Haussmann building by the Élysée soldiers and tea L’Eclaireur and Colette — are fabulous. Chinese découpage wallpapers and a favourite with a younger crowd. Palace is £1,128,000, half the price per Along Rue de Seine, there are amazing painted Indian wooden boxes, all Lastly, there is Le Marais in the square foot of homes in the Left Bank. 20th-century furniture galleries with loved by discreetly elegant Parisians. 3rd arrondissement. It features medi- It requires total refurbishment, but has museum-quality pieces. eval buildings and Paris’s oldest and original 19th-century parquet floors, If we ever buy our own apartment L’Eclaireur: leclaireur.com/en possibly most beautiful planned several fireplaces and is hidden behind in Paris, these places are where we Merci: merci-merci.com square, the Place des Vosges. a charming courtyard. would like to shop. Le Bon Marché: lebonmarche.com Le Marais borders the 11th and is O Les Puces, the flea market at Porte L’Hotel: l-hotel.com home to several cool concept shops, O Vingt Paris: vingtparis.com de Clignancourt, has small stalls that Caravane: caravane.fr #!$$!$  $ ! %#   %#% $ / *$(&&2$/)*$)* *23*$(3//.$%"$$$ '*)3$&&3*1$** *$,3$ -+"

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Homes & Property Auction homesandproperty.co.uk with

AMBER GASCOIGNE, who made his name putting students through their paces on TV’s University Challenge, Bamber’s is facing a challenge of his ownB after his great-aunt, the Duchess of Roxburghe, left her country restoration estate to him. The retired presenter is selling the contents — more than 700 items — in an attempt to save and repair the challenge stately pile, Place near Leatherhead in Surrey. Gascoigne was unaware he was to inherit the house until his solicitor informed him following the duchess’s death last year at the age of 99. But though his great-aunt expected him to sell the crumbling house, he realised he wanted to save it. The duchess was born Mary Breakfast is served at West Horsley Crewe-Milnes in 1915 in Crewe Place: on an elegant Asprey silver- House, Mayfair, where her father, plate tray (lot 277, est £200-£300) the Marquess of Crewe, hosted parties with her mother, Mar- when I owned it,” he says. He saw chioness Margaret, a Rothschild. crimson silk-hung walls, 17th-century Their guests included King paintings, a dazzling portrait of the George V and Queen Mary. At one marchioness by Glyn Philpot (lot 224, Crewe House ball, Winston Churchill £10,000-£15,000) and a rare 18th-cen- spotted his future wife, Clementine. tury Axminster carpet from Fryston From this house, Mary, newly mar- Bamber Gascoigne was surprised to inherit beautiful Hall (lot 51, £50,000-£80,000). ried to the Duke of Roxburghe, left to This sale is a constellation of star become chatelaine of 80,000-acre West Horsley Place. But now the contents must go to buys, from hundreds of crested glasses Floors Castle in Scotland. Soon used at grand dinners (lot 57, £1,000- after, her parents retired to West auction to save the roof, discovers Philippa Stockley £1,500), along with silver or gilt flat- Horsley Place. ware and Minton and Sèvres services, “Mary’s new husband was not the to a solid silver tray for canapés (lot most pleasant man in Scotland,” Gas- inherited West Horsley Place upon her aged, she lived in just five rooms. Gas- Man with a mission: Bamber Gascoigne, 466, £500-£700). There’s the duchess’s coigne, 80, explains. After 18 childless mother’s death in 1967, and lived there coigne, of Richmond, says these were inset, is selling the contents of West 17th-century tester bed (lot 275, years, the duke’s butler handed Mary a until she herself died. the only rooms he had ever seen. So Horsley Place to finance repairs £6,000-£8,000) and an Asprey silver- note on a salver, asking her to leave. The when he went to look round after her plate tray (lot 277, £200-£300). dismayed duchess barricaded herself HENRY VIII DINED HERE death, he got a shock. “I saw the Or picnic hampers (lot 422, £300- in for six weeks. Divorced in 1953, she Mary’s mother had furnished the house upstairs drawing room for the first time £500), ceramics including a rare grandly with items from Crewe House Queen Anne charger (lot 252, £2,000- and her husband’s former country £3,000), and a Cartier travelling case homes — Jacobean Crewe Hall in Chesh- (lot 419, £700-£1,000). ire, and Fryston Hall in the West Riding. Because of the state of the roof and Nevertheless, the marchioness called the foundations, much work is needed. 50-room West Horsley Place, run with Gascoigne and his wife, Christina, hope liveried footmen and with a walk-in the sale will help raise the £4 million silver vault, her “stately cottage”. required, despite the recent theft of Architect Nikolaus Pevsner said it had some other items listed for auction. But an air of “cosy domesticity”, due to its the library is being gifted to Trinity glowing red bricks. College Cambridge. For this couple, Originally a Tudor oak-beam house saving West Horsley Place is a task they with a central double-height hall, feel compelled to accomplish. where Henry VIII famously dined, in the 18th century a brick front was O The Duchess: precious objects and Family ties: Gascoigne’s glamorous bolted on to the beams and the hall Rare: this London delftware Queen Ready to go: Cartier leather travelling property from the estate of Mary, great-aunt, the Duchess of Roxburghe, sliced in two, creating an upper floor. Anne charger was made around 1702 case and Louis Vuitton suitcase Duchess of Roxburghe is at Sotheby’s died last year aged 99 One Tudor staircase remains. As Mary (lot 252, est £2,000-£3,000) (lot 419, est £700-£1,000) on May 27 and 28. Visit sothebys.com

Your new bedroom awaits NEW SPRING COLLECTION

BEDS, FURNITURE, MATTRESSES, BEDDING, BED LINEN AND ACCESSORIES

Fulham | Chiswick | East Sheen Tottenham Court Road | Hampstead Kingston | Hammersmith | Chingford

www.featherandblack.com EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 21 homesandproperty.co.uk with Shopping Homes & Property

Hand it over: snap up a Mexican hand-embroidered cushion in pink, £70, DESIGN or multiple colours, £57, by Montes & Clark. Similar lampshades start at £50. SPY Visit its À La Carte Shopping pop-event event at 20th Century Theatre, 291 Westbourne Grove W11, tomorrow, 6pm By Katie Law to 9pm; Friday, 10am to 6pm or Saturday, 10am to 5pm (montesandclark.co.uk)

Metallic moments: gold is going to be big in homeware by autumn. The French Bedroom Company has jumped the gun with a gleaming gold-glazed porcelain side table in a pattern of circles and squares. It’s just over 18in high and costs £125 (frenchbedroomcompany.co.uk)

Sitting comfortably: check out Say it with stripes: this black-and- British bespoke furniture maker white-striped Mogg T-Chair must be the Arlo & Jacob’s Helena sofa with Jenson ultimate mono statement. Designed by Stripe Cardinal fabric, from £995, at its Annebet Philips from the Netherlands, first showroom, at Melbray House, it is made with ash and is hand-painted 9 Melbray Mews, 158 Hurlingham Road, to order. It’s £840 in stripes, or £450 Fulham SW6 (arloandjacob.com) for a solid colour (gomodern.co.uk)

Fresh off the wheel: London potter Linda Bloomfield’s lovely new collection of ceramic vases, jugs and bottles comes in on-trend shades of grey, mustard and off-white and is inspired by the paintings of Italian artist Giorgio Morandi. Mix and match your own set, ■Twitter: @jkatieLaw from £36 to £72 (lindabloomfield.co.uk) 26 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Outdoors homesandproperty

SILVER GILT

A garden of sensual curves — with no need to water “LONDON gardens can be conservative because so How? By creating the right conditions for them to often they’re responding to vernacular architec- thrive in. This includes siting drought-loving plants ture,” says Matthew Wilson of Clifton Nurseries, such as California poppies in a zero-irrigation dry whose show garden for Royal Bank of Canada, area and installing a reservoir pool that collects above, is anything but conservative, with fabulous rainwater and trickles through the garden to nur- curved decking, futuristic furniture and a macro ture water-loving plants such as Japanese iris. bonsai olive tree. In fact, Wilson designed this sen- sual space to show that we can grow both edible O Enjoy a detailed tour of this garden in next week’s and ornamental plants without turning on the tap. Homes & Property

Chelsea Flower Show SIX OF THE BEST From modern retreats to a tropical haven, Pattie Barron chooses her favourite gardens from this year’s show Retreat to an oak tree house FOR the M&G Garden, left, Jo Thompson conjured up a romantic space that incorporates an oak retreat reached by a stepladder, a large natural swim- ming pond, a woodland of river birches, alders and acers, and tumbling roses and peonies. “I realised halfway through that I was designing it for myself,” says Thompson. “It’s my ultimate dream garden, with masses of roses and a retreat that’s a cross between a tree house and an office on stilts.” Although she strives for something similar in her own East Sussex garden — she has already planted 40 climbing roses — the reality is a little less romantic. SILVER “I have a big, white goalpost and a GILT chocolate Labrador to contend with,” she says. Happily at Chelsea, all is fantasy and real life does not intervene.  EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 27 y.co.uk with Outdoors Homes & Property

GOLD

Grasse plants are heaven-scent VISITORS at Chelsea just need to follow the sublime scents to discover a Provençal garden that showcases the fragrant plants of Grasse, historically renowned as the centre of the perfume industry, which is currently experiencing a renais- sance. This is due to the support of ecologically sensitive companies such as L’Occitane, which happens to be the spon- sor of A Perfumer’s Garden in Grasse, above. Designed by James Basson who, lucky chap, lives just outside Grasse, the garden has seductive seats beneath a quartet of olive trees. Aside from the classic perfumer’s ingredients — jasmine, lavender and violet — it showcases the rose de Mai, considered to have the finest fragrance for perfume. In fact, it is substituted for a more beautiful rose, Yolande d’Aragon. Order from classicroses.co.uk for end-of-year delivery.

GOLD and Best in Show Channelling Chatsworth “IT FELT like we were a team of termites — building, building, building without needing to communicate what was needed with one another,” says maverick designer Dan Pearson of his 20-strong team. Together they created the greatest tour de force at this year’s show — a representation of a small piece of the 105-acre Chatsworth estate in Derbyshire, above. Sponsored by Laurent-Perrier and inspired by the trout stream and Joseph Paxton’s rockery at Chatsworth, the garden is a sublime ornamental woodland with a backdrop of SILVER boulders. It is bound to trigger a stampede to garden centres for flowering shrubs and trees, plant groups that Pearson, who GILT has a naturalistic style, has championed for some time. Photographs Marianne Majerus

Even the bees get TEARS AND These orchids TRIUMPHS: a designer hive HOW A CHELSEA SHOW THE Homebase Urban Retreat Garden, are as bright GARDEN IS left, is an urban community plot CREATED designed by Adam Frost (see My Design Come to our Chelsea, Pages 34-35). He reveals how as parakeets reader evening at wildlife can flourish in the city among 6.30pm at Clifton modernist materials such as poured WELCOME to paradise, where the flowers are tropical Nurseries W9 on concrete and Corten steel. orchids the colours of parakeets, a multi-level waterfall June 3 and hear Influenced by the Bauhaus movement cascades into an oasis of ferns and a pavilion is Matthew Wilson, of the early 20th century, the garden’s garlanded with jungle creepers. The Hidden Beauty of designer of the two pressed steel water walls lead into Kranji, above, a large show garden created by designers Royal Bank of pools of water that act as paddling pools John Tan and Raymond Toh, features plants found in Canada Garden, in summer, while a series of layered Kranji, a suburb in Singapore that has a preserved reveal what really cedar wood rings provide seating. natural environment. If only we could grow the same in goes on behind That striking Corten steel pavilion at Surbiton, although these species and hybrid orchids can the scenes at the back of the garden, clad in cedar and be grown indoors or under glass. Chelsea. The set among a bed of tree ferns, offers a How will the orchids fare during a week of changeable evening costs £15, viewing area from the roof, which is weather? Mark Gregory, who built the garden with his which includes GOLD covered with wildflower turf and is home company Landform Consultants, says nobody has a canapés and a to a colony of honeybees, housed in a clue, but then this is a place where magic happens, as glass of Prosecco. Bauhaus-inspired cedar hive complete the garden illustrates. To book, visit with Corten steel roof. clifton.co.uk.  28 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Reader promotion homesandproperty.co.uk with

Offer’s on the table Bargain news THE Colette side table, priced at just £95, is a classic Industrial-chic French design made from pendants shine solid mango wood with at every level a subtle Slide this way for storage and washed finish. THE Olivier vintage pendant light Hand-carved from My Furniture can add a touch make the most of your space cabriole legs of industrial flair to your living space. and bun feet Currently priced at £29.99, this TRANSFORM your Spaceslide’s showroom at add extra piece will fit all interior styles. home with Spaceslide’s Hemel Hempstead, Herts. character to the The long cable enables you to made-to-measure sliding Readers can get 60 per Colette, making hang the light at standard height, wardrobe doors, storage cent off orders online or it ideal for a low over dining tables or above systems and matching in the showroom before living room breakfast bars. bedroom furniture. May 29. To claim, visit with a shabby- To order, visit my-furniture.co.uk On the company’s spaceslide.co.uk/summer- chic, farmhouse or call 0800 092 1636 while stocks website, you can design offer or the showroom, or or French-style last. It is recommended that a wardrobes to fit perfectly call 0800 980 3499 and interior. qualified electrician performs in any space. Or visit use code ES60. Readers are any cable work. offered a 15 per cent reduction, bringing down Alison the price to just £80.75. Cork To claim, visit withinhome. com/15colette or call 020 7087 2900 Cheese set cuts it and quote 15COLETTE INVEST in quality kitchenware from before June 10. One Regent Place. This slate cheeseboard and knives set is currently reduced from £69.99 to just £24.99 and includes a 20cm x Elegance in a sofa bed 30cm slate board, 26cm traditional cheese knife, 18cm cheese shaver, LOVE Your Home’s Churchill Chesterfield sofa bed is a and an 18cm mini cheese cleaver. modern, everyday, quality design. Perfect for petits fours, bite-size It has a solid wood frame, with feather-wrapped canapés or a selection of cheeses, cushions for comfort and support. Built to the highest this elegant piece is a must-have standard, it comes with a 10-year guarantee. The sofa for summer dinner parties or bed is easy to use, with a double-width pocket-sprung afternoon tea. mattress for maximum comfort. To place your order, visit The three-seater is currently reduced by 15 per cent to oneregentplace.co.uk or call £1,274. To place an order, visit love-your-home.co.uk or 020 7087 2900 (Monday to Friday) call 01483 410007. before May 25. O The companies listed here are wholly independent of the Evening Standard. Care is taken to establish that they are bona fide, but we recommend that you carry out your own checks prior to purchases and use a credit card where possible. To offer feedback on any of these companies, email [email protected] with “Bargain News” in the subject line. For more bargains, visit alisonathome.com or homesandproperty.co.uk/offers.

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Homes & Property Shopping homesandproperty.co.uk with ‘I know 1 2 a bank 3 whereon the wild thyme blows...’

Oberon: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Design trends By Barbara Chandler      florals   ANGIE LEWIN of St Jude’s turns metre, while the cushion is in design is Cow Parsley Blue. The set of 1her drawings and linocuts into Mosaica, at £28 a metre. Visit the four costs £40 (gillianarnold.com). charming patterns. This design is Sanderson website at sanderson-uk. 4 Meadow’s Edge, screen-printed on com, or call 0844 543 9500 for BETHAN JOHN of Decorator’s linen at £54 a metre or as a cushion UK stockists. 5 Notebook prints photographs of cover for £38 (stjudesfabrics.co.uk). wildflowers through the process GILLIAN ARNOLD’S designs of cyanotype. This delicate vase is THE Meadow wall mural by 4 are hand-printed directly from £18.50 (decoratorsnotebook.co.uk). 2 Michael Angove is made to wildflowers, and these clever mugs measure. Customise your size and stack to save space. This particular DESIGNED by Christopher Guy, the crop you want, then choose from 6this Le Jardin chair with a hand- a standard smooth version you can carved mahogany frame costs £2,309. simply stick up, or a premium linen- Finishes include natural brown, black textured version. Priced from £60 a satin or white lacquer. Find the square metre (surfaceview.co.uk; showroom at Design Centre Chelsea 0118 922 1327) Harbour (christopherguy.com).

SANDERSON’S Papavera collection ISLINGTON designer Clarissa 3 of fabrics and wallpapers includes 7Hulse saved poppies from Greece the large-scale, stylised poppy with to mix with Scottish ferns and cut-out edges for a fresh and eye- Wiltshire meadow flowers for this catching statement in any room. The hand-printed Seed Heads cushion, blinds here, Papavera on the left, Milla 45cm x 45cm. It costs £45 with a on the right, are both £32 a metre. feather pad. Shop at 29 Corsica Fabric on the chairs is also £32 a Street, N5 (clarissahulse.com).  ■Twitter: @sunnyholt  5 6 7           

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Homes & Property Design homesandproperty.co.uk with By Pattie Barron

DAM FROST has won Gold at RHS Chelsea Flower Show six times, as well as Best in Show. This year, he has designed a communityA garden in Main Avenue called Urban Retreat, sponsored by Homebase with whom he launched the Homebase Garden Academy three years ago. It’s an apprenticeship scheme that helps kick-start Britain’s ADAM FROST: GARDEN DESIGNER next generation of horticulturists. Last year, Frost was made an RHS Ambassador, a role he uses to raise The seven-times winner of the profile of horticulture as a career. Gold at RHS Chelsea Flower Show reveals those secret places for all plantaholics

At Chelsea: Adam Frost’s Homebase- sponsored Urban Retreat garden JASON ALDEN JASON

MY LATEST PROJECT A TREASURED POSSESSION I was honoured that his wife gave some depth. Consider built-in MY FAVOURITE CREATING a garden at Chelsea takes I HAVE two — my grandfather’s me Geoff’s spade. It sits alongside furniture and raised beds to make LANDMARKS 100 days of the year from start to garden fork, which dates back to the my grandfather’s garden fork in my the most of every inch. Divide your I LOVE modern architecture and finish, so it’s time-consuming. For Second World War, and the spade office and makes me smile every day. garden into zones to make it more Modernist materials such as concrete private clients, I’m building a garden that belonged to the grandfather of interesting. Paths should meander, and steel, which I’ve used a lot in at the foot of the Atlas Mountains BBC Gardeners’ World, presenter TRANSFORMATION TIPS not whizz you through the space in a my Chelsea garden, so a favourite that reflects the landscape and Geoff Hamilton. I worked with him LONDON gardens, on the whole, are straight line. A series of focal building is the Bauhaus-driven architecture of its surroundings, for seven years when I started out, small, so don’t overcomplicate. points — a seat, even a statement Isokon block of flats, above, in but has a resolute English feel. In helping him create the gardens that Incorporate different levels to make plant — encourages a journey Hampstead, where Modernist London, I’m making a garden for a were used for the TV programmes. the space appear larger and give it through the garden. architect Marcel Breuer lived. plantaholic in Finsbury Park that has a Tudor wall in the middle of it with a six-foot drop. I love creating tiny oases of calm in the city. You can bring in wildlife, scent and colour, and literally change people’s lives.   

BEST PLACES FOR PLANTS

 



   Show-inspired: Aquilegia Ruby Port     from the Homebase Chelsea Collection RASSELLS, the independent plant  nursery in Earls Court Road, is an inspiration and the plants are always a bit different. The Gated Garden in the Three Crown Square area of Borough Market is a hidden jewel for everything from tomato plants and fresh flowers to great big hydrangeas. , & At Homebase, we’ve put a great $$$&, Chelsea Collection together, inspired "*,  ,,*,* by this year’s show garden. There are some knockout peonies and aquilegias as well as foxgloves in strawberry and chocolate shades. EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 35 homesandproperty.co.uk with Design Homes & Property

WHERE I LIKE TO ESCAPE BEST OUTDOOR SPACE THE London Wetland Centre, left, IN LONDON in Barnes is an extraordinary I GO for a morning run around nature reserve where you can see Battersea Park when I’m working kingfishers, water voles and all at Chelsea. I love peeking through kinds of wildlife in the most the small, tucked-away entrance in natural settings. the park that leads to The Old At the end of Chelsea week, my English Garden, a surprisingly family always join me at the big and magical space with masses Rose & Crown pub in Lower Sloane of perfumed plants and a trickling Street, where many of the show fountain. garden’s designers hang out. At Kew Gardens, my boys love the Then on Saturday morning we Xstrata Treetop Walkway, left, head to the showground for the which was designed by the same Saturday sell-off. We all muck in architects as the London Eye, and help sell the plants from Marks Barfield. the garden and it’s fun and The walkway is 18 metres high hugely chaotic. and you walk around the crowns of This year, the money goes to the trees, so you get the same view

Macmillan Cancer Support. GETTY as the squirrels.

MY SECRET SHOPS MY HOME I’M A big fan of Baldwin’s in Walworth COMFORTS Road, a wonderful old herbalist shop with high, old-fashioned wooden counters that sells only plant-based products. Cornelissen’s, left, the artists’ supplies shop in Great Russell Street, smells wonderful and is a treat, even if you only buy a paintbrush. Both these shops are over 150 years old. Amazing.

THE NEXT GARDEN TREND BEST GARDEN SHOP Garden luxury: lightweight In-Out THERE is an increasing awareness of HORTUS in Blackheath Village is a chairs, £528 each, by Eric Degenhardt just how beneficial gardens and great source and inspiration if for Richard Lampert available at gardening are to the mind and body. you are looking for something to twentytwentyone.com Londoners lead busy and stressful form a focal point in the garden, such AT THIS time of year, my metalwork table that I lives, so it makes sense to find time as a sculpture, an unusual container contemporary garden furniture, comfort zone is in my designed for my Chelsea to connect with nature. A growing or maybe an antique cloche. from the simple Eames Elephant own garden in Rutland. 2013 garden. I call it the movement of enlightened doctors Twentytwentyone in Upper Street, Stool in bright colours to fabulous My family and I eat thyme table, because it even prescribe gardening or simply Islington, on the other hand, has a teak patio tables that can seat up outdoors as much as has insets in the centre to getting outdoors. terrific selection of altogether more to 10 people. possible at an oak-and- drop in pots of herbs.

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             MOST COVETED           DESIGN OBJECT I LOVE the work of London-born stone carver Emily Young. I was first         introduced to her work when I helped Terence Conran build his      Chelsea garden for the Imperial War  +) !#' Museum in 2005, and he used a head she carved in the style of a warrior. Recently, I have loved Young’s exhibit of six gigantic heads in the middle of Berkeley Square, and I’ll     slope off this week because she’s       exhibiting in the art fair at Olympia from tomorrow until Saturday. You   #  % %  &'+%  ' )'*%  # !%! %! % () )  %' )%% %% % ' can see Angel busts, above, by Emily Young in St Paul’s Churchyard at St Paul’s Cathedral. 38 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Property searching homesandproperty.co.uk with Clerkenwell’s design festival is showcasing top talent in a setting undergoing a stunning £510,000 transformation, IMPRESSIVE high-spec studio flat, with a private balcony, in the Bézier discovers development by . Through Life Residential. Anthea Masey O homesandproperty.co.uk/bezier Little gem: The Zetter boutique hotel in St John’s Square is a great place to meet

LERKENWELL Design Week is in full swing right now, with the historic district Clerkenwell playing host to a multitude of creative talents from Caround the country and abroad. The festival is now in its sixth year and going strong. During the three-day event, which Spotlight £1.85 MILLION started yesterday, Clerkenwell design- TWO-BEDROOM penthouse flat in ers and architects throw open their Goswell Road with a luxurious doors, while some of the neighbour- open-plan kitchen and reception hood’s most historic buildings, includ- room, roof terrace and private lift ing a former prison and a medieval access. Through Foxtons. crypt, become gallery spaces filled with O homesandproperty.co.uk/goswell the imaginative output of established and new talent. A historic area This year’s festival is showcasing an array of new projects, street spectacles and pop-up workshops. A giant tent designed by architects Grimshaw has has become the also been pitched in the gardens behind St James’s Church. tioning meat market — which has been Clerkenwell is named after the Clerks’ derelict for more than 15 years, after Well in Farringdon Lane, which can still former communities secretary Eric be seen through a window in Well Court. world’s biggest Pickles turned down their plans. £2.69 MILLION Islington Local History Centre arranges STATE-OF-THE-ART extended visits if you want to learn more about WHAT THERE IS TO BUY terrace home in Chequer Street, this EC1 “buffer zone” nestled between Many old industrial buildings in this built over three floors with three the City and the West End. media village City-fringe district have been converted bedrooms, a bespoke kitchen and Clerkenwell has always been a centre into design studios and lofts. Notable garage. Through Stirling Ackroyd. of traditional craft, clock and watchmak- new developments include Brewhouse O homesandproperty.co.uk/cheq ers, bookbinders and printers. It is bourhood of design studios and con- Johnson controversially gave the go- Yard in St John Street, while Barts therefore appropriate that it is once verted warehouse flats, it has become ahead to Royal Mail’s redevelopment of Square, a new residential and commer- again teeming with craftspeople and settled but increasingly wealthy, a hive Mount Pleasant sorting office site on the cial quarter in old St Bartholomew’s small businesses. of activity during the week but quiet corner of Farringdon Road and Rosebery Hospital buildings, offers 235 homes, St John Street is the district’s back- and village-like at the weekend. Avenue. The mixed-use development offices, cafés and a church garden. bone. It starts at Smithfield Market The arrival of Crossrail at Farringdon will have nearly 700 new homes. Period houses around the hospital, and ends close to Sadler’s Wells and a pipeline of major developments The redevelopment of the former early Victorian houses in Sekforde Theatre in Rosebery Avenue, with is bringing a second wave of change. Guardian offices in Farringdon Road has Street, and tenement and council St John’s Gate, built at the beginning of Farringdon is set to become the busiest moved a step closer with the appoint- estates might also attract buyers. the 16th century as part of the Priory hub on Crossrail, with connections to ment of architects Allford Hall Monaghan John Athanasiou of Stirling Ackroyd of Clerkenwell, in between. Since Thameslink and the Circle, Metropoli- Morris, although it is back to the drawing estate agents, which is this year’s spon- £5.95 MILLION Clerkenwell’s transformation from tan and Hammersmith & City lines on board for the developers of Smithfield sors of Clerkenwell Design Week Fringe, LUXURIOUS four-bedroom, declining industrial area to a neigh- the Tube. Last year, Mayor Boris General Market — west of the still-func- says prices in the area start at about mid-19th-century detached house with a roof terrace on the former site of Cannon Brewery in Brewery To find a home in Clerkenwell, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/clerkenwell Square. Through Sotheby’s. O homesandproperty.co.uk/brew ForF more about Clerkenwell, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightclerkenwell

Signs of individuality: left, Guven Hassan, owner of LilyMaila hair salon and coffee shop, Clerkenwell Green; right, Danish company Cane Line shows off its outdoor furniture in the Clerkenwell Priory cloister garden during Design Week EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 39 homesandproperty.co.uk with Property searching Homes & Property

Look sharp: left, CHECK THE STATS in St John’s Square, architects ■WHAT HOMES COST Cousins & BUYING IN CLERKENWELL Cousins have (Average prices) designed a One-bedroom flat £702,000 multicoloured Two-bedroom flat £1.1 million jewel-like Three-bedroom flat £1.44 million pavilion in Source: Zoopla collaboration RENTING IN CLERKENWELL with Gx Glass, (Average rates) as a focal point One-bedroom flat £2,252 a month for Clerkenwell Two-bedroom flat £2,942 a month Design Week; Three-bedroom flat £3,924 a month right, historic Source: Zoopla St John’s Gate

GO ONLINE FOR MORE

O The best schools serving Clerkenwell O The Clerkenwell rental scene O The latest housing developments O How this area compares with the rest of the UK on house prices O Smart maps to plot your property search

NEXT WEEK: Surrey Quays. Do you live there? Tell us what you think @HomesProperty

Photographs: Daniel Lynch

£325,000 for a one-bedroom former within walking distance of work. “We café and bakery. Bruno Loubet has kings — Henry VIII, King Kong and council flat, £600,000 for a one-bed- also get downsizers who are exchang- launched Grain Store Unleashed at Elvis Presley. room modern flat and £1.2 million for ing a house in a more traditional area The Zetter Hotel in St John’s Square for Open space: Clerkenwell is an urban a 1,200sq ft loft-style conversion. The for a warehouse somewhere a bit a limited time, inspired by a veggie- area, although there are a few green most expensive home on the market funkier,” he adds. centric menu at his King’s Cross restau- spaces, such as in Charterhouse Square now is a four-bedroom Victorian house Staying power: Clerkenwell is not rant. Across the road is Anna Hansen’s and behind St James’s Church. in Brewery Square, at £5.95 million. considered a family-friendly area, so The Modern Pantry, and round the The most expensive loft-style home many couples move out once they have corner in Sekforde Street is a branch LEISURE AND THE ARTS is a two-bedroom maisonette with a children, although they may hang on of Bill Granger’s Granger & Co. Old Red Lion Theatre in St John Street double-height living room and roof ter- to their home as a rental investment. In Farringdon Road, The Eagle kicked is the local fringe theatre, while Sadler’s race in a gated development in Dalling- off the gastropub trend in the early Wells Theatre is a leading venue for ton Street. It offers 2,267sq ft of space SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS Nineties, while up the road near the modern dance. and the asking price is £2.8 million. Top furniture showrooms and good corner of lively Exmouth Market, The Travel: Farringdon Tube station is on In the heart of Clerkenwell, a two- restaurants are two things that distin- Quality Chop House restaurant has the Circle, Metropolitan and Hammer- bedroom warehouse conversion above guish Clerkenwell. You will find kitchen branched out to include a butcher. smith & City lines. From 2018 Far- a branch of Pret A Manger in St John designer Bulthaup and iconic Swiss Nearby you can find Sam and Sam ALAMY ringdon will be the only mainline Street features 1,190sq ft of space and furniture brand Vitra in Clerkenwell Clark’s Spanish and African-inspired TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE station where Thameslink, Crossrail is for sale for £1.3 million. Road, but there are many more, and Moro and its little sister tapas bar, and Tube services meet. Clerkenwell Whose little grey cells found a home The area attracts: Clerkenwell has there is still time to visit the 102 show- Morito. Jerusalem Tavern in Britton is in Zone 1 and an annual travelcard in Clerkenwell? traditionally been populated by archi- rooms on display during design week. Street is one of London’s quaintest costs £1,284. Find the answer at homesandproperty. tects and designers but, according to For nose-to-tail eating, there is pubs, while The Three Kings in Clerk- Council: Islington council is Labour- co.uk/spotlightclerkenwell Athanasiou, it is now increasingly Fergus Henderson’s St John restaurant enwell Close is a traditional pub that, controlled and Band D council tax attracting City buyers who like being in St John Street, which also houses a as the name suggests, celebrates three stands at £1,276.01.

          

                 

      40 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Ask the expert homesandproperty.co.uk with What does a share of a freehold mean? Fiona WHAT’S I HAVE just separated from my wife after YOUR 20 years. My father died seven years ago and McNulty PROBLEM? Q my wife and I are now trying to sort things IF YOU have a out with minimal expense. I am still paying OUR LAWYER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS question for all the bills as before, but she is asking about the Fiona McNulty, money left to me by my father. I have £10,000 on please email credit cards and £16,000 in the bank. CAN you explain what is legalsolutions@ Also, our former family home was given to us as a meant by a share of a standard.co.uk wedding present. It is in my name and we are in the Q freehold flat? Is there or write to Legal process of selling it. Am I right in thinking that I still a lease? I thought Solutions, Homes should pay off the credit cards, then split the rest of that most freeholds were owned & Property, my cash in the bank with my wife and give her 50 per by companies. London Evening cent of the proceeds of the house sale? Standard, 2 Derry MOST apartments are Street, W8 5EE. IT IS difficult to comment without having all the leasehold, which means We regret that facts. However, divorce settlements include a A that you will have a contract questions cannot A range of possible outcomes to make sure that each that entitles you to occupy be answered settlement is tailored to meet the needs of the the flat for the term of the lease. individually, but couple concerned. A settlement would take into account For instance, it may be for 99 or we will try to matters such as whether or not you have children, any 999 years. However, you do not feature them other assets you both have and whether you both work. own the building or the grounds in here. Fiona Assuming that the only resources are the savings and which the flat is located. McNulty is legal liabilities that you have mentioned and the house, then a The building will be owned by the director in the reasonable settlement would be that which you propose. freeholder, which as you rightly say real estate The credit card debt is personal to you so it is better for is often a company. team of Foot you that this is repaid in full. Your wife is entitled to share The owners of leasehold flats can Anstey LLP in your inheritance, as it was received by you during a buy the freehold of the building, but (footanstey.com) long marriage, and to a share of the property, given that it this is usually through a company in was your family home. The settlement you propose which each of the owners of the flats seems fair, but do seek legal advice about your options has a share. and how to make the agreement legally binding. The company is a separate legal leaseholder has a share in the of the company owning the freehold personality from the flat owners and company that owns the freehold. are in control or have a say regarding More legal O These answers can only be a very brief commentary on it will own the freehold. It is actually an efficient way of the management of the building, Q&As the issues raised and should not be relied on as legal advice. A share of the freehold is therefore managing a block of flats, as the for example in relation to service Visit: homesand No liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar technically incorrect because the leaseholders who are members charges for maintenance repairs. property.co.uk issues, you should obtain advice from a solicitor.

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She is also an estate agent, but in a northern town, and tells me she has With the rental valued a similar flat at £450 a month. It really is a different world up there. market on a roll, THURSDAY We have a meeting at our headquarters this morning with every office from the South-West region — that’s more than it’s breakfast 30 negotiators and 10 managers run- ning through the previous week’s busi- ness. We can see rental prices creeping al desko for me up. Tales of “best and final” offers indi- cate that the pace of the lettings market is picking up for the summer. This is the seasonal trend every year. MONDAY I see a house this afternoon that is in I arrive at the office for 8am every day, Diary of an amazing location with its own plot bright-eyed and bushy-tailed — some next to the Thames. I love it and the days brighter-of-eye and bushier-tailed an estate re-letting agent hasn’t found another than others. First stop is the kitchen tenant yet. I put on my pitching boots for a coffee and a bowl of porridge. and manage to secure the instruction Contrary to The Boomtown Rats agent for next week. song, I do like Mondays, as they allow me to action all the work and ideas that TUESDAY FRIDAY have come up over the weekend, and Our corporate and relocation services It’s an Egg McMuffin morning for a few check up on my clients. One of my department gets in touch this morning. of my negotiators before tying up all negotiators has a day off and she has It has secured a deal that means we our loose ends for the week and getting left me a list of catch-ups from her will be working with a number of organised for the weekend. weekend. One is an offer — I know the corporate tenants looking for flats house as an investment. I have seen a always the day that Saturday’s diary It is the company-wide meeting landlord will be pleased with it. and houses in Richmond. This is great lot of cases similar to this recently. starts to fill up, so I need to ensure the tonight, so everyone needs to be out of This afternoon, I hold a private news, but with property flying off I’ve got tennis practice this evening right tasks are being dealt with and all the office by 5pm to get to South Ken- viewing at an off-market house with the shelf, we need more. I am also in preparation for the company tourna- our potential tenants and landlords are sington on time. Lo and behold, some- a well-known footballer — more working with our corporate depart- ment in a few weeks’ time. My partner happy with what we have achieved. thing crops up at 4.45pm. It is an offer, proof of Richmond’s desirability. ment to find short-term rental accom- plays badly — and that’s going to I value a two-bedroom flat this after- so I manage to agree it on the way into The property is still effectively a modation for the WAGs of the scupper my dreams of winning. noon for another owner looking to London — and get to the meeting on building site and I feel I have a case of Australian rugby team. upsize and rent their previous property time. It is a good end to the week. the “Llewelyn-Bowens”, gesticulating I value a three-bedroom house this WEDNESDAY rather than sell it — I advise that we wildly in an attempt to help him afternoon that is owner-occupied. Still aching from tennis, I focus on market it at £1,995 a month. When I get O Douglas Booth is lettings manager visualise the potential of the They had been looking to sell, but helping my team sort out the viewings back to the office I call my mother, who at Marsh & Parsons estate agents amazing space. decided to re-finance and keep the for the next few days. Wednesday is has been trying to talk to me for days. in Richmond (020 8939 1770).

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!" " **+*****+** * **+**!&#&  **+**!# (*!**+*** **+**!&#& 42 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD if you’re in the market Homes & Property Letting on T’S Saturday night, I’m heading off to my own birthday bash, all set to party like it’s 1989, and a for a London property, tenant rings to stop me in my Don’t tracks. For no particular reason heI is planning to move out of his room the following week. He has paid his rent for the next two weeks, we’re but he says he won’t pay any more. leave me He doesn’t appear to care a jot about the six-month contract he signed only three months ago. He has decided he wants to leave, so he is going. End of story. this way. . . I retort that he is obliged to pay rent for the next three months, unless he can find someone suitable to take A tenant’s decision to move out over his lease — so there. Then off I go to dance to some Eighties hits, early spoils the Eighties birthday determined not to let him spoil my night. But as I’m strutting my stuff to disco for Victoria Whitlock Madonna’s Into the Groove (yep, it’s that kind of party), it suddenly strikes me that despite my cavalier response, I might not be within my rights to just kick back and leave it to The accidental the tenant to sort out this mess. I had a similar situation, years ago, with a particularly awkward woman landlord who gave me just three weeks’ notice that she was leaving two months several landlords have told me this is before the end of her fixed-term nonsense, that there is no obligation lease. At that time, I was warned by a on the part of the landlord to try to solicitor friend who specialised in re-let a property. So I decide to seek contract law that I had to try to re-let the opinion of a more specialist the property as soon as possible to solicitor. I approach Leon Golstein, reduce the tenant’s loss. Since then, head of property disputes at law firm Seddons in the West End. He stresses that as every situation is different, landlords should seek legal advice based on their specific circumstances, but in principle, a landlord does have a duty to try to re-let a property to reduce the tenant’s financial burden. However, he points out that a landlord isn’t obliged to take the first applicant who comes along, and in certain circumstances it might not be possible for the property to be re-let. For instance, the landlord might be overseas, so unable to prepare the property for re-letting, or the period left on the lease might be too short for a lawful let. If this is the case, the tenant remains on the hook, he said. Landlords can also pass on the bill of re-letting the property to the departing tenant, Golstein reassures £695 a week: in Cromwell Road, SW5, Faron Sutaria has a me. This includes letting agent and stylish, two-bedroom split-level apartment to rent, with marketing costs, assuming these romantic rooftop views (homesandproperty.co.uk/alrent) don’t amount to more than the rent for the remainder of the lease. The tenant will also be responsible for the property and any associated bills, such as council tax, while it is empty, up to the end of their lease. OnTheMarket.com is the new simple “There are other possible risks,” says Golstein. “If the tenant leaves way to search hundreds of thousands the property empty, contrary to a of properties. duty to keep the property occupied or secure, and it burns down or More and more estate and letting becomes a squat or is otherwise agents are moving all their properties damaged before it can be safely from other sites to OnTheMarket.com re-secured by the landlord, the and are advertising them exclusively tenant may find himself exposed to with us first. all costs and losses arising as well.” So it seems I will have to get my So, for a head start in the hunt for skates on to re-let the room, which is properties you won’t find anywhere only fair, I suppose — but if I don’t else, search OnTheMarket.com. find someone suitable, my tenant might regret spoiling my party.

O Victoria Whitlock lets three £450 a week: in Cambridge Gardens, North Kensington, properties in south London. this one-bedroom, open-plan flat is available to rent To contact Victoria with your ideas through JD Wood (homesandproperty.co.uk/alrent1) and views, tweet @vicwhitlock

 '" " "#"" !" "!"   %" !"$"(&)%"  "" " " %"   %" " " Find many more homes to rent at  "" " "   "" '" " %         !           "  homesandproperty.co.uk/lettings 46 WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with By David Spittles Smart moves Fringe district Immerse yourself in history with a flat at Wesley Court has the edge CELEBRATED and listed Hanbury Hall in Spitalfields has N THE blink of an eye, it seems, from £975,000. Call Caddington Blue a remarkable heritage. It started life in the 18th century Borough has gone from scuzzy on 020 7497 6033 for more as a Huguenot church, then became a Methodist chapel fringe to fiercely fashionable. information. where John Wesley, a co-founder of the religious It’s not just the atmospheric food Two Fifty One, right and inset, in movement, preached from the pulpit. Charles Dickens market that appeals but the Southwark Bridge Road is much used the building for public readings of his works, while Iwider area, a wedge of SE1 between larger — it’s a 41-storey mixed-use the founding meeting of the British trade union the river and Elephant & Castle. skyscraper with 335 flats, and views movement also took place there. This is the Tate-Globe-Shard from the upper floors are spectacular. The architectural legacy of the building, above, has hinterland, a superbly central On completion in 2017, the block survived and is being redesigned as part of a collaboration address whether it is the City or will have a wifi-enabled business and between the church community and developer the West End that looms large in home-working lounge-cum-café Thornsett, which has refurbished the main hall and your life. alongside a private cinema club, a created eight flats in formerly dilapidated and under-used Borough Place in Marshalsea Road gym and other amenities. Many of rooms. Inevitably, they are quirky spaces, one with a is a boutique scheme of two- and the apartments have glazed winter distinctive circular window, yet smart and modern. three-bedroom apartments, gardens. Renamed Wesley Court, prices start at £575,000. Call including a penthouse with a Prices start at £634,000. Call DTZ estate agent Fyfe Mcdade on 020 7613 4923. fabulous 430sq ft roof terrace. Prices on 020 3296 2222. More holidaymakers for your property

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EDGWARE GREEN, bordering the manageable deposit. The modern Metropolitan green belt in north- townhouses are well-designed homes west London, has spacious four- with private gardens, open-plan bedroom townhouses (the smallest kitchens and family rooms. is 1,845sq ft) priced from £650,000. They include underground parking They are available under the with direct access to the lower- Visit our Government’s Help to Buy scheme, ground level of each property, while online which helps first-time and upsizing Tube station is a 15-minute luxury buyers find their ideal home with a walk. Call Barratt on 0844 811 4334. section

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MEANS VAST AREAS OF lush parkland to run in