HomesWednesday 11 October 2017 & Wild things

Design news Property Page 20

NEW HOMES: OVER SUPERMARKETS P8 NEW TOWN CENTRES P12 ALGARVE GOLF P17 SPOTLIGHT ON WOOLWICH P32

Use your loaf A clever plan for creating space on a budget Page 28 JULIET MURPHY London’s best property search news: homesandproperty.co.uk 6 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | News JAMIE WISEMAN JAMIE Family man: Ashley Tabor wanted to combine two flats at The Knightsbridge, SW7 Lifechanger of the BRITISH radio tycoon who week Host the glorious spent more than £100 mil- Even lion on the penthouse flat Goodwood racing set next to his London home in the hope of creating a £1,275,000: if you on a weekly basis for 10-bedroomA super-flat has had his fancy being the host up to £550. Separate hopes dashed — for now. with the most, make owner’s living space the rich Westminster council’s planning com- your mark in the looks out to the mittee was last night due to refuse world of B&B at colourful garden and Ashley Tabor the right to combine the Rooks Hill Guest courtyard — perfect two flats at The Knightsbridge, one of House in Lavant for afternoon tea. lose out prime London’s most expensive blocks, village on the edge Original character on the grounds that the project would of the Sussex Downs, features include result in a net loss of housing in the five minutes from beamed ceilings and borough at a time when councils are Chichester and a log burner in the under mounting Government pressure glorious Goodwood. sitting room, wood to increase their number of homes. The Grade II-listed, floors in an inviting Editor: Mr Tabor, 36, founder of Global Radio 17th-century house dining room that Janice which includes Classic FM, Heart, and is five-star AA rated seats 10, and a fully Morley Capital, was awarded an OBE for serv- and has five equipped kitchen/ ices to the media industry in this sum- luxurious en suite breakfast room. mer’s Queen’s birthday honours. guest rooms, plus a It’s for sale through VISIT homesandproperty.co.uk/ In 2006 he spent £15.2 million on a Trophy home of the week self-contained Savills (01798 rules for details of our usual four-bedroom flat at The Knights- apartment that lets 678003). promotion rules. When you bridge. In May this year he bought the respond to promotions, offers or Surrey barn with its own beach second, six-bedroom property for a competitions, the London Evening reported £90 million. Stamp duty of £2.8 million: Smithwood showcasing a striking glass Standard and its sister companies £13.5 million pushes the second pur- Common, near Cranleigh in staircase up to a vast kitchen/ may contact you with relevant chase above £100 million. Surrey, sets the scene for this dining/living area lit by walls of offers and services that may be of interest. Please give your mobile He applied for permission to combine wow house in nine blissfully glass to a fabulous sun terrace. number and/or email address if the two flats into a 15,000sq ft home, rural acres, taking in an Downstairs finds a master you would like to receive such which would create one of the most outdoor pool and a small lake bedroom suite overlooking the offers by text or email. valuable flats in the world. He has a two- with its own beach. pool, plus three further year-old son and his planning consult- What started life as a shabby bedrooms, two bathrooms, a Editorial: 020 3615 2650 ants, Gerald Eve, said the aim was to barn is now a jaw-dropping well-equipped gym and a Advertisement manager: create a “large, modern family home upside-down house designed cinema in the basement, where Ann Finan where the family could live separately to capture incredible country there’s also a temperature- Advertising: 020 3615 0266 from guest accommodation and other views from every room. Enter controlled wine room. Homes & Property, Northcliffe more public areas of the house.” through an entire wall of glass It’s on the market with Knight House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, and steel into a hallway Frank (01483 660073). London W8 5TT. O Find Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk

London buy of the week Village life in SW2

£699,000: one to see in SW2 is this bright garden flat in a leafy road within the Telford Park conservation area on the Balham/ Streatham Hill borders. Outside you see a beautifully restored Victorian house — but the interior has been shaped from a glassy extension that is all about high ceilings, wood floors and plenty of light from huge bespoke glass doors to the 26ft garden. A large skylight illuminates the sleek kitchen/dining space, open-plan to the spacious living area. Two decent-size double bedrooms have sash windows and fitted carpets and the use of a white metro-tiled bathroom. The green open spaces of Tooting Bec Common and the charms of Abbeville Village are on the doorstep. Through Winkworth (020 8012 3579). By Faye Greenslade EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 7 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by News | Homes & Property Cruise’s daughter is sold on Croydon É
HER father Tom Cruise sold his live in Parker’s home town of Beverly Hills home for £30 million Croydon and has clearly settled in to move to an über-luxurious the up-and-coming borough. estate in Florida last year, but The couple moved house very Isabella, the star’s adopted recently but have opted to stay in daughter with his A-lister ex-wife the area. They were spotted Nicole Kidman, has opted for a moving their belongings from a more modest lifestyle. Fiat 500 into a semi-detached Make-up artist Isabella has long property, right, worth about been drawn to London and in 2015 £450,000. she married IT consultant Max Even if Isabella is an heir to a Parker, the son of a Gatwick £350 million fortune and grew up airport test pilot father and an in a Los Angeles mega mansion, it antiques restorer mother. Isabella appears she has decided

REX left a rental in South Kensington to Hollywood life is not for her. SPLASH NEWS

O For more celebrity gossip, This is the visit homesand property.co.uk/ headline that gossip goes like this

By Amira Hashish REX

Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews Dear Diary, hope I make £1.5m today Does Amir’s house É BRIDGET JONES novelist and screenwriter Helen Fielding is selling knock you out? her Hollywood home for £2.6 million.

GETTY The British author, above, who was É AMIR KHAN has said he’s ready a London newspaper journalist to return to the ring following a before her blockbuster book and film troublesome year which has seen career, has lived just above Sunset him part from his wife, pregnant Strip in LA for 17 years. model Faryal Makhdoom, seen She could be in for a healthy profit, right with the British former having bought the three-bedroom world light-welterweight boxing bungalow for £1.06 million. It is champ. spacious at 2,700 sq ft. Glass doors Keen to start afresh and “do open to a shallow loggia running the Share his good taste what he does best”, Khan has length of the house and overlooking slashed the asking price of the the pool and dining terrace, below. PRINCE CHARLES was a regular at home they and their three-year- Fielding is moving to a £4.25 million The Pink Geranium restaurant in old daughter, Lamaisah, shared in farmhouse she has had built, Royston, Herts, when at Cambridge — Bolton, Greater Manchester. Listed bordering Brentwood and Santa not exactly the student canteen. in June for £1.6 million it’s now on the Monica. It has five bedrooms and a The renowned restaurant, which market for £1.2 million. poolside cabana with its own also welcomed Pierce Brosnan, Rod The site, comprising a six-bedroom fireplace, bar and bathroom. Stewart, Alison Moyet and Ruby detached house and a four-bedroom Wax, closed five years ago and the bungalow, boasts a huge gym, pool 17th-century property became a five- table, private cinema and heated bedroom thatched home packed indoor pool with an “AK” emblazoned with period charm. It’s for sale with boxing glove mosaic. The couple TuckerGardner at £1,195,000. Trains married in 2013 and Khan revealed from nearby Meldreth station reach last month that he’d filed for divorce.

King’s Cross in under 45 minutes. GETTY 8 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | New homes

RITAIN’S biggest supermar- kets are diversifying into property with an ambitious programme to build thou- sands of new homes at sites Bacross London. City planners and politicians, desperate to unlock land for house building, are encouraging supermarkets to redevelop low-rise stores where space is going to waste. For years supermarkets have raced to gobble up massive brownfield sites as shoppers showed an insatiable appe- tite for mega stores. These sites are now providing an enormous opportunity Live above the shop: Streatham’s High Road Hub includes — about 150,000 homes in London new flats, sports facilities and a Tesco Extra supermarket could be built above or alongside stores, says property analyst GL Hearn. Every chance should be taken when Britain needs at least 230,000 new homes each year to make up for the current deficit. Pop a TESCO LEADS THE CHARGE Tesco has already completed projects in Woolwich and Streatham, and iden- tified another 20 “air rights” sites in new flat London expected to bring at least 9,000 homes. Under way is a develop- ment at Morning Lane, Hackney, where a small store will replace a bigger one to free up land for more than 300 in your “own-brand” homes. Rival Sainsbury has teamed up with Barratt at Fulham Riverside and Nine Elms Point, Vauxhall, both of which have spectacular gardens above new supermarkets next to glamorous apart- basket ment blocks where homes are now for sale. Sainsbury and builder Mount Anvil are working up plans for a huge site next Up to 150,000 much-needed new to New Cross Gate train station, while Morrisons is to build 700 flats and London homes could be built houses at Chalk Farm Road, Camden. alongside or above supermarkets. KER-CHING! The big names are teaming up with For supermarkets, such redevelop- ments bring a welcome profit boost at developers. By David Spittles a time of intense competition and changes triggered by internet shopping. says Michael Bickerton of development careful design, including creative land- Sainsbury netted a £95 million profit consultant Cushman & Wakefield. “It’s scaping and attractive public spaces, from the Vauxhall deal alone, while an efficient use of land and can create is needed to protect buyers from noise, Tesco expects air rights to generate at a new neighbourhood hub in areas that smells from waste storage, the disrup- least £400 million, with a further £1 bil- need regeneration.” But will this be tion of night-time deliveries and the lion from offloading land, car parks and good building — or just a way of making general bustle of everyday opera- under-utilised space in stores. money for supermarkets? tions. The grocery giants are investigating Living above the shop is not some- ways to make above-store building more There are concerns about the architec- thing new, and in some ways the super- cost-effective. This includes off-site tural quality of the homes to be built, market sweep is a large-scale construction, or prefabricated homes, including fears that supermarkets could reinvention of the traditional high assembled in a factory and then craned adopt the “pile them high, sell them street, which had shops at street level into position. “There are huge benefits cheap” approach that turned them into and homes above — a classic model that to mixing supermarkets and housing,” global businesses in the first place. So, we know works. Others point to the GET THE BALANCE RIGHT SUPERB ON-SITE FACILITIES

FINANCIAL services worker given them keys and other Jamil Khammu and his items to pass on to people friend and work colleague and it’s all very secure.” Mahommad Al-Sabti, both In Zone 1, the scheme is a 31, recently bought a two- 20-minute walk from Jamil’s bedroom flat at Barratt and Mo’s office across London’s Nine Elms Point Vauxhall Bridge Road. The scheme in Vauxhall. Northern line extension will Jamil says living at Nine bring two new local Tube Elms Point improves his stations, while Nine Elms work/life balance. “Due to station will open right next my long working hours, the door in 2020. Vauxhall Tube facilities were definitely a is a five-minute walk away, factor when choosing the with links to Victoria in three development,” he says. “I minutes, Euston in 10 can use the gym 24 hours a minutes and St Pancras in 11 day and the cinema and minutes. Vauxhall and dining rooms are great for Waterloo mainline stations entertaining. are close, with trains to the “The 24-hour concierge is South and South-West. amazing. When I had beds Heathrow, Gatwick and delivered while I was at London City airports are all work, the staff were happy less than an hour away. Happy choice: Jamil Khammu, left, and Mahommad Al-Sabti to accept delivery and hold O For Nine Elms Point sales value the gym and concierge services at Nine Elms Point them out the back. I’ve even team, call 0844 358 3271 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 9 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by New homes | Homes & Property

Pass the pint of factory in Hayes, west London, in part- milk test: left nership with Barratt Homes. The inten- and above, the tion is to develop industrial premises £86 million and high-density housing on the 45-acre Woolwich Central site. Segro says there is a compelling scheme, with 259 case for “mixing up homes and jobs”. flats and the Old Oak, a vast industrial district in biggest Tesco in west London earmarked for a transport Europe on site super-hub, is also ripe for this concept and has already attracted a “co-living” development of micro flats.

To free up space for homes at eight-acre Fulham Riverside, Sainsbury down- sized its supermarket and put it on stilts, with car parking underneath. Above the supermarket sit beautifully landscaped podium gardens with a spectacular waterfall cascading down to the river. Tiered levels have a maze, a croquet lawn, a badminton court and outdoor gym, along with picnic areas and hedg- ing, to offer a sense of sanctuary. A central avenue lined with stylish town- “Waitrose effect”, where homes associ- HIGH-DENSITY SCHEMES houses, each with a lift, links with a new Looking for ated with a prestige brand might cost It is an issue of land economics. When riverside promenade. These homes more and sell for more. John Lewis and land is scarce, owners and developers have just been launched and cost from a new-build Marks & Spencer are thinking of enter- have to become more innovative. £3.25 million. Call 0844 854 9942. home? Start ing the fray. “Air rights” involves selling the rights Where once stood a land-eating low- Apex Airspace, a company that spe- to build over retained land on a long rise supermarket, at Nine Elms Point, your search on cialises in “air rights” development, leasehold basis. So even where super- 647 homes are being built. Seven new says it is talking to five leading super- markets collaborate with house builders, buildings, including two striking towers, markets about over-the-shop homes. they can retain the asset of the land. sit next to a compact store and more It is not just supermarkets who are Owners of industrial land and ware- than an acre of private gardens. adding homes to shopping lists. DIY house distribution centres are even The development also brings a new retailers such as B&Q, even the Royal investigating the feasibility of “sheds Northern line Tube station, due to Mail, are exploring opportunities and beds”. Segro is bringing forward open in 2020. Prices from £620,000. above their buildings. one such scheme at the former Nestlé Call 020 7501 3777. 10 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Winning boroughs What makes you happy?

Richmond has it all, while Bromley is bursting with good news. The latest Happy at Home survey from Rightmove finds the most contented London boroughs. Noella Pio Kivlehan reports

ICHMOND UPON THAMES has for the third year running been crowned London’s happiest place to live. But in a surprise move, Hackney in north- east London comes out of the shade and into the sunny uplands as this year’s number four. And whileR Richmond and Hackney residents have been enjoying their feel-good factor, it appears other boroughs have not been giving their residents nearly as much love as they’ve been used to. Kingston upon Thames was ousted from the number two spot, held since the first Rightmove borough survey in 2015. It plummeted 20 places to a lowly 22, joining number 23 on the list, Havering, which was in the top five in 2015, and still in the top 10 last year. Bottom of the list was Brent in north- west London. In the new Rightmove top five for 2017, Bromley is number two followed by Camden, Hackney, and Waltham Forest. The winning borough, Richmond, is rich of course and it always helps in the happiness stakes to have well-heeled residents. However, the survey also finds people like their borough to posses a sense of place, to enjoy a good stream How happy is of new investment, and offer enough affordable homes to give young people a chance to buy a place of their own. your borough? Rightmove’s research manager Abiola Oni and her team quizzed 17,000 people to find the UK’s happiest places, and 1 Richmond upon Thames says: “The connection between the 12 factors and the over- 2 Bromley all happiness levels actually suggests that money is less 3 Camden important than feeling you fit in with the other people in an area.” Oni adds that living in a neighbourhood with a lot of 4 Hackney well-designed regeneration and a variety of leisure-time 5 Waltham Forest activities on the doorstep plays a part in people’s overall 6 Sutton contentment levels. 7 Wandsworth In Bromley, regeneration has been rapid since the council 8 Southwark launched its town centre area action plan in 2011. The 9 Greenwich £94 million regeneration of St Mark’s Square — a public- private development involving the council and U+I — will 10 Westminster deliver a multiplex cinema, restaurants, a 130-bed Premier 11 Merton Inn hotel, and 200 private and affordable apartments, with 12 Hammersmith & Fulham a two-bedroom flat costing £515,000. The scheme is due for 13 Lambeth ALAMY completion next spring. Visit uandiplc.com/portfolio/st- marks-square-bromley for more. 14 Bexley 2020, while improving town centres with new schools, lei- Above left: in at In Camden, where average property prices sit at an eye- 15 Enfield sure centres and infrastructure. Lea Bridge station reopened No 3 is Camden, watering £1,071,316, residents felt safest and were happy 16 Islington in May last year with trains to Stratford. Two months later, with its bridge with local attractions such as its famous markets, shops, house builder Hill won permission for a £100 million mixed- over Regent’s restaurants and music venues that attract more than 17 Ealing use scheme in Lea Bridge Road. Providing 300 new homes, Canal close to 150,000 people a week. The town is also undergoing 18 Tower Hamlets 62 affordable, the project will have 21,000sq ft of commer- Camden Lock various regeneration projects. One of these is Camden 19 Harrow cial space. Prices will be released next month. Visit hill. Lock Village, a project being delivered by Mace, which co.uk/new-homes/lea-bridge-road for more. will feature eight new buildings of between three and nine 20 Barnet The Hill development is just the start of a total renaissance Above: the storeys with 195 homes, a food quarter, a canalside market, 21 Hounslow of the area in creating a new place. Three thousand new pedestrianised cafés and restaurants. Visit macegroup.com/projects/cam- 22 Kingston upon Thames homes within a quarter of a mile of the new station are high street in den-lock-village for details. already planned. Bromley, the 23 Havering But overall, Richmond basks in the sunlight of happiness. second-happiest Hackney, ranked at number 22 in 2015, has thrown off its historic 24 Haringey Nick Alderman, partner, residential development for Knight borough down-at-heel image to rise to fourth place in the Rightmove 25 Redbridge Frank, says: “It takes time for mindsets to change, and Rich- chart. It is now a mecca for hi-tech businesses clustered 26 Lewisham mond has been established for so long. To knock it off its around Shoreditch, particularly at Old Street Roundabout, perch would be difficult.” while Hoxton has become a hotspot for restaurants and bars. 27 Hillingdon “Hackney house prices have been rising a lot faster than other 28 Croydon RYING to explain the demise of the likes of King- boroughs over the past year — average prices are £669,519 29 Newham ston and Havering, the latter’s council leader, — so it’s likely that investment in areas around the Hackney Roger Ramsey, says: “Happiness depends on borough has added to how happy people are feeling,” says 30 Barking & Dagenham many factors, not always within the council’s Right: shopping Oni. Residents surveyed rated Hackney top for sports and 31 Brent control.” However, the good news is that if new in Kingston, recreational activities, opportunities to develop skills, and Thomes are a factor, his borough has an extensive 30-year which has art and cultural activities. Source: Rightmove. The City of London and the London borough regeneration project. Channelling his inner Monty Python, plummeted from of Kensington and Chelsea were omitted due to the small As part of ongoing development plans in fifth-placed sample sizes available Ramsey adds: “In Havering we always try to look on the second place to Waltham Forest, the council aims to build 12,000 homes by bright side of life.” No 22 in the chart EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 11 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Winning boroughs | Homes & Property

Celebrate: happy RICHMOND TAKES TOP SPOT times in Hackney, boosted into fourth place by arts and culture facilities and its A green status as a thriving hi-tech and friendly business mecca place made

for families ALAMY

SO WHAT gives Richmond residents that warm and fuzzy feeling? In its Happy at Home study, Rightmove based happiness on 12 key factors. Important among these were how safe people feel in their local area, the friendliness of their neighbours and the quality of local services. Full of the joys of With an abundance of green spaces — including Richmond autumn: not only Park with its famous herds of deer — plus great transport does Richmond links, picturesque river views, thoughtful neighbours, good boast London’s restaurants and fabulous pubs and shops, Richmond was largest Royal always going to score highly across the board out of the Park, Richmond capital’s 32 boroughs. Hill offers the There has not been much new-build development in this borough one of attractive borough. However, Richmond has reworked many the finest views of its historic buildings, creating smart new apartments. in England “Boutique schemes include Richmond Brewery, with prices starting from £1.5 million for a two-bedroom apartment,” says Daniel Hutchins, head of sales at Savills in Richmond. “It’s an early 20th-century red-brick building that was also once a toy factory and a Royal British Legion poppy factory and now comprises seven duplex apartments with

ALAMY views across the Thames.” SHUTTERSTOCK Glorious: having a sense of place, as Richmond does in abundance, was an important factor in the survey

From £1.5 million: for a two-bedroom flat at Richmond Brewery, a boutique scheme with seven duplex flats

Looking for a happy move? Start your search on 12 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | The growing city

Enfield: the local council teamed up with developers Barratt London and Segro to propose 10,000 homes and workspace for 10,000 new jobs centred around a station opening in 2019

OUSE BUILDERS are under fire for only being inter- House builders must end their ested in central London but obsession with central London. plans are afoot to change all that in an effort to solve This city has 200 town centres ourH housing crisis. London’s outer town centres are to be redesigned and devel- ripe for renewal, says Lee Mallett oped in an attempt to accommodate the city’s massive and rapid growth. To explain how this will happen, an exhibition opens this week at New Lon- don Architecture (NLA), called London Towns — shaping the polycentric city. This is a crisis It showcases regeneration proposals that will transform many of the capital’s 200-plus town centres. It also illustrates a new belief in “place making” among boroughs and developers as the guiding spirit governing growth to make towns more attractive for Londoners, for whom long commutes on overcrowded radial transport routes do not appeal. Communities appreciate good place making and it attracts investment and renewal. “Historically London has always been a polycentric city,” says NLA’s chairman and co-founder Peter Murray. A city of many centres with unique identities that have evolved through centuries, London’s suburbs cover two-thirds of its area but accom- modate only half its population. “In the 20th century outer London struggled because all the growth hap- pened in the centre. Croydon, for exam- ple, struggled for years with unsuccessful initiatives but now new development has taken off. There is huge enthusiasm for growth among the Old Oak: The Collective co-living space. example, have unlocked growth in the outer boroughs.” Old Oak Common is one of the centres two main towns outside central London featured at New London Architecture — Croydon and Stratford. Partnership A true polycentric city, says the exhibi- working between Croydon council, the tion’s new report, is “the result of an its growing population and ease the Mayor, Network Rail and Transport for economic policy that distributes eco- housing shortage, towns must play their London (TfL) has improved the trans- nomic growth more evenly”, creating part. Growth has been driven by a mas- port hub at East Croydon station with more chances for people to live and sive population increase from a low of new developments resulting at the adja- work, linked by a network of good trans- 6.1 million in the Eighties, to a new high cent Ruskin Square, Cherry Orchard port and digital connections, maintain- of 8.3 million in 2015. The population Road and Royal Mail sites to create a ing a better balance between a city and has grown by more than 100,000 a year whole new urban area. a region’s component parts. recently, but we still only build around In Stratford, the London arrival point Better connectivity is the key. In Aus- 46,000 homes a year. for European rail travel and subject of tralia, which has one of the world’s most the most important regeneration initia- urbanised populations, the Greater London is one of the world’s lowest-den- tive in London after the 2012 Olympic Sydney Commission has created a vision sity global cities with only 55 people per Games, a revitalised town centre is the for a “30-minute” polycentric city, in hectare. This compares to 250-300 in objective with up to 40,000 new homes which people only have to travel 30 parts of central Paris. and 50,000 jobs within a new “interna- minutes to reach jobs and services in Croydon, Wembley, the Royal Docks, tional quarter”. three main centres. At a recent NLA Old Oak Common, Edmonton, Thames- Other organisations are looking at Toronto: London event, the Canadian mead, Barking and Dagenham, Totten- outer London . TfL owns 5,700 acres city’s chief planner explained the desire ham and Wood Green, and many other across the city. It is busy with a massive to create a city that cycles and walks to London centres, all have major schemes development programme “to build work, with a transport system that con- being designed, planned and incorpo- homes and communities around the nects “everywhere to everywhere”. rating a combination of uses at different transport hubs where people want to The exhibition shows that to densify densities on show in this exhibition. live and work”. TfL has partnerships and intensify London, to accommodate Huge transport improvements, for with 13 developers and its plans are to The growing city | Homes & Property

Barking: left, redevelopment of Vicarage Field shopping centre will bring 855 new homes, a new hotel, enterprise workspace, a school and a healthcare facility to a five-acre site between the centre and Barking station solved in the suburbs

Stratford: one of the two main towns outside the centre, the east London home of the 2012 Olympics is an example of the transformative powers of infrastructure investment. Lend Lease is creating a new £2.4 billion mixed-use business development at the southern entrance to the Queen Elizabeth

ALAMY Olympic Park

Royal Docks: the Emirates air line boarding point. A “polycentric city” depends on transport connectivity

deliver 10,000 homes on 300 acres around the capital. It shows plans for over-the-station development at South Harrow, Turnpike Lane, Morden and Burnt Oak. “Getting the infrastructure right is key centres more “liveable”, reducing and the outer centres. Peter Murray is wor- to how successfully London will oper- calming vehicle traffic and spreading ried that rich developers are calling the ate,” says NLA’s Peter Murray. London’s commuter demand. tune. “Which means they they have largely radial transport links will be But housing is top of the political the upper hand in negotiating permis- hugely augmented by the Elizabeth line agenda. A generational divide has sions for sites, while planners struggle which can be seen as driving further opened up between young people and to find the resources to plan the wider central growth, but has also turned older home owners. And while regen- area.” “Zone 3 boroughs into Zone 1 bor- eration in the poorest areas has pro- Londoners can play their part — and oughs”. Crossrail 2 will extend this effect vided new homes for young discover more about the momentous north and south. professionals, these homes are too change taking place in the city’s outer expensive for local people. This regen- centres — by going to see the London The new radial Overground line has been eration/gentrification excludes local Towns exhibition. a great success, experiencing 258 per residents, especially young people. cent growth in users since it opened. Mayor Sadiq Khan’s new London Plan O London’s Towns — shaping the New orbital routes need to be developed is expected to be fairly radical in the polycentric city is at New London to ensure London’s polycentric charac- way it seeks to accommodate this new Architecture, The Building Centre, ter works better for all. Walking and growth in outer London. He needs to 26 Store Street, Bloomsbury WC1 until cycling solutions are required that make get it right, there are votes to be had in January 11 next year. 14 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Profile Keep London on track Chairman of Network Rail, Sir Peter Hendy. In a new series Philippa Stockley talks to London’s most powerful people

IR Peter Hendy has never lost his enthusiasm for trains and buses and still drives his own beloved Sixties Routemaster around London. A large photo Sof the bus hangs in his office, curiously like a farmer’s picture of a prize bull, while behind his seat stands a vast Fifties framed poster of a steam engine. Happy in his work even after a 42-year career in transport, including more than nine years as Transport for London Commissioner, Hendy is a doer who

thrives on new projects. The straight LYNCH DANIEL talking for which he is famous, even Challenge: Peter Hendy’s 42-year transport career includes nine years running TfL adding the odd unrepentant expletive, makes him likeable and believable. He has been chairman of Network Rail longer platforms and a new fleet of — which owns, operates and develops trains that will improve capacity 30 per the railway infrastructure and devises cent, while the new Intercities to Bristol the national rail timetable — since 2015. and Cardiff start running next Monday Since July, he has also chaired the Lon- [October 16].” don Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which is responsible for trans- NEW COMMUTER STATIONS forming the 560-acre former Olympic “In the next 18 months, we’re bringing Park into — its website proclaims — “a a whole new level of connectivity to dynamic heart for east London”. London, which will touch at least half This includes 24,000 new homes by of Londoners’ rail journeys — Croydon, 2031, plus a whole new cultural quarter Romford, Ilford, Slough, Elephant and with two university campuses. There’s Castle will all benefit.” Even Crossrail is already the stadium, West Ham United in the mix, as some of its tracks are FC’s new home, and busy Westfield owned by Network Rail. “It will trans- Stratford City shopping destination. “I form east-west travel. When Crossrail knew that area before the Olympics. We was authorised in 2007 I was there. So parked loads of buses where the sta- I hope I get invited to the opening,” dium is now. It was a dump,” he says. Hendy smiles. “Part of my job is to make sure that the “London Bridge is a really good exam- chief executive makes it all happen.” He ple of what large investment does. It was answers to bigwigs — at Network Rail to bombed in the Second World War, and

the Secretary of State for Transport, and RAIL NETWORK ever since I was a boy, it was a wreck. at the LLDC to London Mayor Sadiq £1bn revamp: London Bridge is being “The front was corrugated iron; the Khan. Despite being honoured with a turned into a “destination station” Tooley Street frontage was hideous; CBE in 2006 for keeping London run- but the new Tooley Street frontage ning after the 2005 bombings, and a all London’s major hubs. Last year, we [designed by international architecture knighthood in 2013 for keeping London made 1.65 billion journeys on the net- firm Grimshaw] is on the way, with running during the Olympics, he comes work. Now, the railway is in the thick of great shops. High street shops are over as a regular bloke. As he sits on a the most ambitious expansion and struggling, but station shopping is bench in bustling Waterloo station, no development programme since the booming. We work hard at pulling in one has the faintest idea who the man Victorian era, a new golden age. the right retailers. in the rumpled black linen jacket is. “Passenger numbers doubled in the “One of the railway’s jobs is to get past 20 years. Our challenge is to keep people to London so they can create THE RAILWAY EXPANDS capacity growing. Most people are trav- wealth. And better supply and better A few times a year, Hendy drives his elling to and from work, or for business. connectivity does good things to the Sixties Routemaster to take architects, You mustn’t get to the stage where peo- housing market.” developers and planners on tours of ple can’t get on, or can’t get to work. new and ongoing developments in Lon- 12,000 NEW HOMES don, so they can exchange ideas. AUTOMATIC TRAINS Network Rail has an ambitious target of Born in Hayes, Middlesex 64 years ago “It is the biggest programme of invest- building 12,000 homes on its land by and raised in Ealing, he went to Latymer ment since nationalisation in 1948. In the 2020, and in London, a just-announced Upper School on a council scholarship, next 12-18 months on Thameslink, Lon- package of small plots should provide before a degree in economics and geog- doners will see 24 trains an hour. 300 homes. “We’re making a concerted raphy at Leeds, then into what was Between St Pancras and Blackfriars/Lon- effort to release our land for homes, London Transport, as a graduate don Bridge, trains will be driven auto- making it easier for developers to build trainee. “I’ve always been endlessly matically, with a driver present. Outside on and around railway land, and build fascinated by transport and loved trav- that area, the driver will take over. affordable housing. elling by train and bus. “Thameslink goes up to Bedford and “Network Rail has four objectives set “I ran TfL under two mayors, and what Cambridge and King’s Lynn; out to the out by government: to look after pas- I learnt about transport is that what’s East Coast main line, and south to Gat- sengers and freight; to give value; regen- important is not how it works, but what wick, Brighton and Eastbourne. This eration, and housing. On that front, it does. The reason people invest in it is will affect a significant number of peo- we’re looking at a big scheme with Capco because it creates economic growth, ple. The trains won’t be faster, but at Clapham Junction. It needs a complete jobs, and homes.” because there are more of them with rebuild, and we’re looking at putting Network Rail’s domain is immense. It greater capacity, waiting and travel housing on a deck over the top of it. owns 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 times will reduce. At Waterloo, the These things take years — but if you don’t bridges and all the stations, and it runs ongoing programme involves making start them, they will never happen.” 16 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Finance Would it be fairer to make sellers pay the stamp duty? It’s a tough tax for London’s first-time buyers. Sara Yates suggests another way to pay it PICTURES: ALAMY It has been a struggle: these two are moving in — but the pressure of finding £10,000 in stamp duty can put an average £409,000 first-time buyer home totally out of reach for many young Londoners

HE capital’s housing market offers Londoners a raw deal. First-time buyers have to stump up an average £409,000, according to Halifax,T Britain’s biggest mortgage lender. That means that in addition to finding a minimum £40,000 deposit and at least £2,000 for legal and mort- gage fees, they are also hit with a stamp duty bill for more than £10,000. This additional hurdle stops many getting on the ladder. The Government introduced a grad- uated stamp duty system in the 2014 Autumn Statement. Under this system you pay zero per cent on the first £125,000 of the price of your property, then two per cent on the proportion up to £250,000, five per cent on the proportion up to £925,000, 10 per cent on the next slug up to £1.5 million and 12 per cent on the rest. is receiving money. Surely it is easier Before the new bands came in, you ‘People for them to pay the tax, instead of the paid a tax rate on the whole purchase moving up person already scrabbling around to price. According to the Treasury, the raise a deposit and mortgage? Getting new system helps “98 per cent of those the ladder rid of stamp duty for first-time buyers buying their first home, so that more would be would undoubtedly help more on to people can achieve their dream of the ladder. becoming homeowners”. paying duty As Phil Hall, head of public affairs and on the public policy at the Association of Unfortunately for Londoners, stamp Accounting Technicians, points out: duty is based on national house prices, lower-priced “People moving up the ladder would not the market in the capital. Latest house they be paying duty on the lower-priced government data shows that 64 per are selling, house that they are selling, not the cent of residential housing purchases higher-priced one they are buying.” in England, Wales and Northern Ire- not the one Simon Gerrard, past president of the land cost less than £250,000. But the at a higher former National Association of Estate high cost of a London starter home Agents — now known as NAEA Proper- means would-be buyers find their first price that tymark — highlights the benefits for the property transaction pushes them into they are Exchequer, whose “coffers would be the third tax bracket. buoyed by revenue from the inevitable This means that an average London buying’ increase in transactional volume”. flat, which costs £467,000 according to Rightmove, comes with a £13,800 NE group would lose out stamp duty bill. The average terrace — downsizers. However, house, at £602,000, generates an eye- Phil Hall adds: “In most watering £20,100 tax bill. Given these cases downsizers will prob- large sums, it’s no surprise that London ably have no mortgage and and the South-East paid nearly half of willO have significant equity. They’re the £11 billion stamp duty collected by likely best placed among all homeowner the Treasury last financial year. types to pay a little extra — certainly better placed than first-time buyers. Of course, the Government won’t be “It could also be argued that once this scrapping stamp duty — but it could be has been in place for a few years, down- done differently. It could be paid by the sizers are likely to have benefited from seller. This isn’t as outrageous as it these reforms to have got to wherever might seem. After all, it is the seller who they are on the property ladder.” EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 17 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Homes abroad | Homes & Property

UTUMN is Europe’s peak golfing season. As tempera- Tee off tures cool and students settle into classroom rou- tines it’s time for golfers to Areclaim their beloved golf resorts. from a Portugal’s Algarve is a golfing favourite with 39 courses along its beautiful 100- mile south-facing Atlantic coastline. But new authorities have worked hard to widen the area’s appeal for non-golfers, too. The Ecovia do Litoral is a dedicated home in 132-mile cycle path linking Sagres in the western Algarve with Vila Real de Santo António on the Spanish border. There are established walking trails along the Portugal coast and into the Monchique moun- tains, plus tennis clubs, marinas and plenty of water sports opportunities. Well-priced villas Resorts also understand the need for await in two top golf a wide offering of activities and two of the best are Vale do Lobo and Quinta resorts, reports do Lago, upmarket yet understated residential golf resorts. Both are within Cathy Hawker 20 minutes of Faro airport, both have extensive family-friendly facilities and acres where facilities include two 18- both have property prices that, at the hole golf courses, the largest tennis top end, far exceed anything else on facility in Portugal, a spa, gym and over the Algarve. “The number one reason a mile of beaches. why buyers choose to come is security, “Vale do Lobo has a different vibe to both personal safety and safety of their Quinta,” says Rita Castelo Branco from investment,” says Alison Buechner Quinta Properties. “Homes are gener-

Høbjerg of Savills associates, Quinta ally smaller, with younger buyers look- ALAMY Properties. “Even in the recession ing for good sea views. The golf Hole lotta fun: enjoy golf at Vale do Lobo in a dramatic setting overlooking the sea and beach on Portugal’s Algarve coast when prices along the Algarve were influence is strong with year-round crashing, those on Quinta do Lago and rental returns for owners.” a minute’s walk from the beach and the QUINTA DO LAGO west-facing balcony in one of the most Vale do Lobo did well.” Entry-level homes start from £137,000 restaurants and bars of the central A few miles along the coast next to the prestigious areas of the resort with for a one-bedroom, recently renovated square is £726,000. A two-bedroom Ria Formosa Natural Park, Quinta do views over the San Lorenzo golf course VALE DO LOBO apartment or £251,000 for two bed- 1,895sq ft flat opposite the tennis club Lago has four driving ranges, a Paul is £432,000 through Quinta Properties. Vale do Lobo is the Algarve’s oldest golf rooms. A beautifully renovated and at the heart of the resort is £361,000, McGinley golf academy and five golf On the Pinheiros Altos golf course, resort, established in 1962 on 1,235 furnished three-bedroom townhouse both through Quinta Properties. courses where more than 100,000 Chestertons International has a hand- rounds are played each year. some three-bedroom townhouse for The owner, Irish billionaire Denis £648,000 with private garden and ‘We’ll visit A LOVE of golf and the beaches, sports O’Brien, has lavished cash on his resort. communal pool. and restaurants on offer in Vale do His latest addition, The Campus, our new Lobo encouraged Paul and Fern opened this summer, with an extensive, PORTUGUESE PROPERTY Thompson and their children Lucy, 21, impressive multi-sports complex. SEARCH CONTACTS Algarve and Max, 18, to buy two homes there. Quinta is immaculately landscaped, O Savills: savills.com “We bought a house on the 10th hole less densely built than Vale do Lobo and O Chestertons International: villa each of the Ocean Course in 2010 and further from the sea. Homes are larger chestertons-international.com renovated it,” says business owner and facilities, including 16 restaurants, month’ Paul. “After a few years we sold it but are spread around the 1,606 acres. It is soon found we missed the area. This popular, with high prices for the ultra- May we bought a tired bungalow contemporary sprawling mansions Big Vale do Lobo overlooking the Royal Course with being built along Parque Atlantico. fans: golf, the plans to demolish it and build a Detached villas start from £1.8 mil- beach and local modern villa.” lion, with one-bedroom apartments in restaurants suit The family had already owned Lakeside Village from £182,000, two Paul Thompson property in southern Spain but the bedrooms from £411,000 and a com- and his family Algarve beat everywhere else. “We fortable semi-detached villa with three- plan to visit our new home around once bedrooms in Monte de Quinta with a month and will also rent it, expecting its own garden and pool is £640,000. £361,000: a two-bedroom flat close to to achieve 12 weeks rental each year.” A two-bedroom apartment with large Vale do Lobo tennis club (savills.com) 18 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Reader promotion Alison Cork

Amazing discount sale on textiles and wallpapers

MARVIC TEXTILES, supplier of designer fabrics and wallpapers for Pretty day bed is ultra versatile 80 years, is holding an unmissable three-day warehouse clearance sale RELAX and unwind on the It is being offered to from tomorrow until Saturday with Rochelle day bed in ivory Homes & Property readers discounts of up to 80 per cent on from Alison at Home. for just £399, reduced from fabrics, wallpapers, ex-display Featuring an additional £650. curtains and fabulous cushions. trundle underneath and To claim free delivery on Head to the company’s Acton two 16cm-deep comfort the UK mainland on any warehouse at Unit 3, Westpoint mattresses, this stylish Marketplace product, visit Trading Estate, Alliance Road, W3 Mirror makes an piece measures H107cm x alisonathome.com/ between 10am and 7pm tomorrow W96.5cm x L199cm and marketplace or call 020 and Friday, and 10am–5pm on elegant statement can be used as a sofa, 7087 2900 and quote Saturday. Parking is available. Visit single bed, separated as ESBN1110 before October marvictextiles.co.uk, call 020 8993 LIFT your home with the Venetian- two twin beds or set 17. Look for product code 0191 or email sales@marvictextiles. inspired Criterion mirror from together as a large double. Artisan-2010i. co.uk for more information. Alison at Home. This statement piece with a double bevelled edge and silver outline measures a generous 174cm x 85cm. Hang it either No needles with portrait or landscape style in a bedroom, living room or bathroom realistic pre-lit with the two fixings on the back. BargainBaBarargrgagaingaiainin nenewnewsewswss Reduced from £176.99 to £145, Christmas trees in a visit alisonathome.com/ marketplace or call 020 7087 size to fit your home 2900 and quote ESBN1110 before Bespoke timber October 17 to receive free delivery. BUY early for Christmas with Look for product code: YC086. windows with these stunning pre-lit Balsam fir trees. These realistic free-standing period styling trees have 70 warm light LEDs, ■The companies listed here are measure 1.5, 1.8 or 2.1 metres in wholly independent of the AYRTON’S bespoke timber windows height and are powered by a plug- Evening Standard. Care is taken beautifully replicate period in cable. The 120cm battery- to establish that they are bona windows — including stained glass, operated porch tree comes with a fide but we recommend that you as seen here. Windows from Ayrton wooden box and is also suitable carry out your own checks prior also provide greater security and for sheltered outdoor use. Trees to purchases and use a credit insulation, and are available in any are hinged to make them easy to card where possible. colour with a wide range of door assemble and store. To offer feedback on any furniture and glazing options. The 1.5, 1.8 and 2.1 metre trees of these companies, email For a free home design visit and are reduced from £189 to £169, homesandproperty@standard. further information, call 020 8877 £299 to £269 and £399 to £349 co.uk with “Bargain News” in the 8920, visit ayrtonbespoke.com or respectively, while the 120cm subject line. For more bargains, visit Ayrton’s London showrooms in porch tree is available for £139. visit alisonathome.com or Crouch End or Wandsworth. Visit alisonathome.com/market- homesandproperty.co.uk/offers Guarantee of up to 30 years place or call 020 7087 2900 and included. Get 10 per cent off until quote ESBN1110 by October 17 for October 31 with code AYRES1110. free delivery. 20 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Interiors Wild things Prowling, grazing, snarling — and cute — jungle beasts are stalking us home this autumn, discovers Barbara Chandler

Right: new wallpaper brand Mind The Gap, from Transylvania in Romania, offers a surreal take on jungle motifs. “We play with old photography and Above: Ardmore’s Leopard Walk wallpaper, from Above: World Map Animal Dark wallpaper, from antique illustration, vintage drawings £80 per 10-metre roll, and co-ordinating Zulu the World Heritage collection by Central Saint and contemporary patterns.” Imported Border wallpaper, from £20 for a 10-metre roll, Martins graphic design and illustration graduate by Pad Home, £150 a roll (020 7510 from Cole & Son, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, Kristjana Williams. Priced £425 per roll with three 0084; padhome.co.uk; stockists Lots Road, SW10 (cole-and-son.com). full drops (020 3567 1369; kristjanaswilliams.com). include rockettstgeorge.co.uk).

Left: pair this striking panther cushion on best- quality printed cowhide with the zebra pattern, right, for a full- on safari. It’s by A for Amara, an “own-brand” from the online luxury furnishing shop. Size is 45cm square, £70 each at amara.com

Above: Delcor has upholstered its large Monaco sofa in Clarke & Clarke’s Monkey Business fabric in charcoal for £2,513. All pieces made to order. New showroom is at 638-640 King’s Road, SW6 (020 7352 5551).

Right: Tiger, tiger burning bright — this gold-coloured candle is £15 at John Lewis (johnlewis.com). EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 21 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Interiors | Homes & Property

Right: Lemur Right: this tiger tray, £30, is wallpaper by from Graham & Green, which Albany is just has been selling treasures £12.98 a roll from for London homes for the Brewers over 30 years. Buy from decorating chain, the original boutiques in with 26 London, Elgin Crescent, W11 and stores including Regent’s Park Road, NW1 Aldgate, Putney, — and now there is also a Edgware Road, Bayswater flagship in Islington, Porchester Road, W2 Bromley and (grahamandgreen.co.uk) Surbiton. Look out for the new “project box”, £5.95, with Left: big bears in colour cards, the wild are paper and dangerous if curtain samples, provoked. This free paintbrush, little darling, just and discount 52cm high and vouchers. handmade in Readers can use resin, stays code BHPR0J17 sweet and safely on the website to put, offering a get one free handy surface (brewers.co.uk). for a drink, your keys, whatever. Priced £125 from outthere interiors.com

Right: crashing into your living room comes Marty the polyresin zebra. Standing an impressive 130cm high, make sure he’s well fixed to the wall with plugs and long screws. He’s just one of the eccentric animal products from Out There Interiors. Price is £330 (outthereinteriors.com).

Above: over 20 years, — see a selection here. Debbie Beevor of Quail About £50 for a tall vase, Ceramics in Kent has £29 for a smaller vase, £15 scooped the market with her for a pencil pot and £12 for marvellous menagerie of an eggcup (quailceramics. Left: and what became of the meticulously modelled co.uk; audenza.com; London monkey? One possibility is a table hand-painted pottery stockists include Maiden, lamp, as shown here at £116, in animals in slip-cast Shoreditch on 07957 polyresin, from Audenza (audenza. stoneware. Currently 693966 — or call 01304 379 com; 0116 2986393) popular are the wild animals 911 for more). 22 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Design

JUSTINE SIMONS My DEPUTY MAYOR FOR CULTURE AND THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES design By Liz Hoggard London USTINE SIMONS OBE was appointed deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries by London Mayor Sadiq Khan in July last year, after working in the capital’s cultural sector Jfor 20 years. She played a central role in delivering the 2012 Olympic Festival and the Fourth Plinth Commission. WHERE I LIVE — AND WHY I LIVE THERE I’ve been championing Elephant and Castle since we moved there in 1999 — and now its time has come. My Victorian terrace house is halfway Wealth of experience: Justine Simons became deputy mayor after 20 years in London’s cultural sector down Walworth Road, in the Liverpool Grove conservation area. There are bombed-out remedy shop Baldwin’s, and I can get a BEST MARKET buildings from the Second World War, some of manicure for £10 in Walworth Road. And my East Street Market off Walworth Road is the first social housing in London, cute little fave new café is Louie Louie (louielouie. incredible. And just opposite Southwark cottages, and new studios popping up. Charlie london) — great coffee, food, cocktails and vinyl. Playhouse there’s food market Mercato Chaplin was born here and Ernö Goldfinger’s Metropolitano (mercatometropolitano.co.uk) Favourite new local café: Louie Louie in Walworth Alexander Fleming House is at the top of the HOME DÉCOR with organic food and lots of Italian producers. Road “for great coffee, food, cocktails and vinyl” road. Ministry of Sound is nearby. I love herbal I love colour and vintage. We have William Morris wallpaper and Josef Frank curtains FAVOURITE SHOP and wallpaper, and vintage 20th-century pieces The Store, Alex Eagle’s new place in Soho of G Plan furniture. I’ve chandeliers from (alexeagle.co.uk) sells furniture, art, design, Roman markets and homeware from India. My photography, ceramics, fashion and rare books, partner is an artist so we hang his work and all selected by Alex. It’s part of The Vinyl screen printing that we’ve done together. Factory, which also runs 180 The Strand creative space and studios. HOMEWARE TIP Wedgwood (wedgwood.co.uk) is a favourite. I’m from Stoke-on-Trent and I grew up in the village next to Barlaston where Josiah Wedgwood moved all his factory workers for a better quality of life.

AMAZING ARCHITECTURE The new Design Museum in Kensington. I think director Deyan Sudjic and his team have done a fantastic job of bringing it back to life and opening up the streetscape. Good architecture can give life to an area — look at Tate Modern. SECRET SHOP Santa Maria Novella in Piccadilly Arcade (piccadilly-arcade.com) is one of the oldest Home décor: Simons loves colour and vintage at pharmacies in the world. Established in 1612 by home, including wallpapers by William Morris monks in Florence, it sells luxury gifts for the home, candles and fragrances. FAVOURITE GALLERY The London Underground because I think it’s an extraordinary London story. It’s such a gem that Tube passengers get these world-class artists popping up as they’re going down an escalator. It is a massive gallery for more than one billion passengers on the Tube every year.

TOP ARTY HUB Somerset House is like a new artistic making hub. The former palace now houses around 100 studios (somersethouse.org.uk/somerset- house-studios). In the basement, under Favourite gallery: art on London Underground the railways arches you’ll find designers can be viewed by up to a billion passengers a year like Gareth Pugh able to use affordable workspace right in the centre of town.

DREAM PROPERTY The Stanley Picker House on Kingston Hill (stanleypickertrust. org), or indeed any modernist building by Kenneth Wood. Stanley Picker was a collector and the open- plan house, completed in 1968, was designed by Wood to display his art collection and host Picker’s gatherings. I’m always on the Living Architecture site (living-architecture.co.uk) — great for booking birthday celebrations and holidays.

Homeware joy: Prestige Panther Get fresh: East Street Market off Walworth Road vase, £4,000 (wedgwood.co.uk) is a Simons favourite. “It’s incredible,” she says 24 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Outdoors

Exuberant classics: fill a handsome terracotta window box, left, with erica, hebe, solanum, mini cyclamen, senecio and ivy

For romantics: dusky pink Helleborus Walberton’s Rosemary can bloom all winter and well on

GETTY into spring CLIVE NICHOLS There is more to life than winter-flowering pansies and cabbages. Cyclamen flowers until the spring bulbs appear Alex Silver Dollar for window boxes. “Another great textural foliage plant is Mitchell Window boxes calocephalus brownii which makes a fuzzy barbed-wire ball with really bright, sparkly foliage, so it’s a great return dazzle backdrop when you plant pink cycla- mens in front of it.” He also likes using T MAY seem a bit early to think hebes, Heartbreaker and Tricolour about winter when the leaves are to a winter with magenta tips to their shoots. As still turning, but that’s the thing an alternative trailer to the ubiquitous with gardening — you have to look ivy, Bailey suggests trying the maiden- ahead. The geraniums are on their hair vine (muehlenbeckia complexa) Iway out, and let’s face it, the garden is garden which has “a bouncy freshness to it”. not at its best. All of which is a great It’s also the millennial plant of the excuse to head to Columbia Road or Against the hard, grey lines of the city moment so you can congratulate your- your favourite nursery for plants for it’s an uplifting example of how winter self for being in vogue. your pots and window boxes. They can planting can be lush and exuberant, dazzle with colour and invention. with hellebores, persicaria affinis Dar- Heucheras, with their orange, lime I am not talking about ornamental jeeling Red and blue ajuga Catlin’s Giant green, red and yellow leaves are far from cabbages. An unofficial poll (okay, I providing structure and pops of colour wintry and, despite their delicate-look- phoned a few friends) reveals I may be above a carpet of ferns and other wood- ing foliage, entirely evergreen. Bailey’s alone in my resistance to the horror of landers. For a smaller container, says favourite for containers is the fresh brassicas in boxes but each to their Buckley, you could reduce the combina- chartreuse Lime Marmalade to under- own. I’m not even talking about winter tion to hellebores and ferns with lam- pin bulbs such as early Kaufmanniana pansies — where some see cheerful ium maculatum Beacon Silver to trail tulips which will start flowering in Feb- yellows, mauves and oranges, I see down the edges. Add cut red cornus ruary, and muscari grape hyacinths a brittle, hunched stems and water- stems — dogwood — from florists to add little later. If you want something a bit logged petals. height and colour. more muted, the pompom-like grassy festuca glauca makes a cool impact in For an elegant classic for window boxes Who’ll be For designer and BBC Gardeners’ World winter, or the coppery sedge Carex and pots try evergreen ferns such as mother?: presenter Nick Bailey, author of 365 Days oshimensis Evergold gives a warmer deer fern (Blechnum spicant), polypo- snowdrops fill of Colour in Your Garden, winter colour feel. dium, or hart’s tongue (asplenium a pretty china is not all about the flowers. He loves scolopendrium) interplanted with teacup the muted silvery foliage of helleborus If you only have space, time or the will heathers — unsprayed, naturally — and for a two-plant combination, what cyclamen that will flower right through would work best? Festuca glauca with winter. If the heather’s dark flowered, picotee-edge burgundy cyclamen, or try white cyclamen; if it’s pale pink or Heuchera Peach Flambe, suggests Bai- white, try darker pink or red cycla- ley. Or hellebores with muehlenbeckia. men. “For spots of colour I might add Dutch For more romance, replace the forced campanulas which will trail a heather or cyclamen with large, nod- bit.” Like Buckley, he also uses florists’ ding hellebores in white or dusky pink. twigs in containers to liven things up. Underplant the whole container with “White twigs can look amazing with bulbs, lots of them, to pop up from evergreen silver foliage.” February. Stunning, dainty blue Iris Fuzzy barbed-wire balls, red stems reticulata will emerge first. Crocus, and flaming heucheras… who needs daffodils, hyacinths, muscari and small painted heather? tulips can follow. O 365 Days of Colour in Your Garden If you need inspiration for winter con- by Nick Bailey (Kyle Books). tainer planting on a grand scale, make a diversion to Michelin-star restaurant SOURCES Locanda Locatelli near Marble Arch. In O For bulbs: jparkers.co.uk the cricket pitch-length planter outside, O For heucheras: heucheraholics.co.uk landscape designer Declan Buckley dots O For calocephalus brownii (also narcissus Thalia and tulips Burgundy known as leucophyta): tropicalbritain. and Ballerina among evergreens in an co.uk; gardeningexpress.co.uk

awesome evocation of a woodland edge. GETTY O For window boxes: bayandbox.com 28 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Our home Who knew an extended dogleg to a Victorian terrace in Peckham could look this stylish? It’s all in the attention to detail, discovers Philippa Stockley

OW much extra space will make everyday life better? In Matthew Wood and Amber Dalton’s Peckham home, adding just 72 Hsquare feet — the size of a single bed- room — dramatically improves the entire downstairs. And since Matthew, 41, is the architect, the high-spec addi- tion, which also adds a solid foundation and underfloor heating throughout, upgrading the entire house, only cost £70,000. Basically, the couple have added a new square area at the end of the dog- leg of their Victorian home. But it’s how they’ve done it that matters. They con- sidered every detail, and made lots of trials on grouting, handles and so on. It all added time to the build but really polishes the finish. The new side walls are in striking, smooth black engineering brick Get some enhanced by immaculate black grout, Value: Matthew perspective: a which the builder piped painstakingly Wood and Amber long through- with an icing bag. A pale oak parquet Dalton remodelled view increases floor and bespoke beech-plywood their home with a the house’s kitchen with smoothly cut-out lug £70,000 budget sense of space handles offsets the black. Laminate in JULIET MURPHY bluish tones adds interest to drawers and cupboards.

The worktops look like black granite but are, unusually, paper composite, while a welded steel structure supports the It’s not what you do, it’s the way super-thin roof. With its glass roof light, glassed corners and a big glass door to ing in a windowed wall, the couple’s — a better term than “kitchen-diner”, the middle, purpose-built as two dwell- could and would extend both up and the garden, the space is wonderfully children, Huxley, six and Inez, three, for these are the spaces, apart from ings entered by a central front door. out. In 2008, he flipped the upstairs sunny, while the materials create a romp straight out to the lawn. And bed, that we spend most time in. Two-up, two-down, plus a dog-leg with bathroom and second bedroom and smart but organic feel, and soften since Amber, a food and travel journal- kitchen below and bathroom above, it removed a small corridor, creating sound. ist, is a keen cook, the old kitchen now They did a loft conversion years ago and was only about 800sq ft. space for stairs to a future loft room. Matthew connected the new bit to the runs through into the extension, creat- like most young Londoners, they had Fine for two, but not for four. The They finally built that room once Inez former cramped dogleg kitchen by ing lots more workspace, storage space to save up first. Married in 2003, they small, dark dining room got used as a was expected in 2013, but cut the tim- knocking out a sash window that used and openness, with a fresh dining area bought their two-storey home from hall-cum-dumping ground: “We had ing a bit tight, so ended up doing the to look longingly at the back garden. at the end. Matthew and Amber call friends in 2007. It’s a “half-house” — a to shovel stuff off the table to eat.” But whole job in six weeks flat. “When I left Now instead of a cramped kitchen end- this reconfigured space a family room Victorian symmetrical house cut down Matthew knew from the start that he to collect mother and baby from the

Black beauty: right, black grout, piped in with an icing bag, enhances the black brick in the skylit dining area of the extension

Portrait:: Juliet Murphy Photographs: French+Tye

Small wonder: left, though modest in size, the extension makes a big difference, providing reconfigured space that Matthew and Amber call their “family room” EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 29 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Our home | Homes & Property

WHAT IT COST Victorian half-house in 2007: £350,000 Bathroom/bedroom flip in 2008: £15,000 Loft extension, 2014: £40,000 Ground floor reconfiguration, this year: £70,000 Original size: 800sq ft New size: 1,250sq ft Value today: £925,000 (estimate) All figures exclude architect’s fees

GET THE LOOK Architect: Matthew Wood at Matthew Wood Architects (mwarchitects.co.uk) Builder: E&C Building and Design (eandcbuilding.com) Staffordshire Blue engineering bricks: from Travis Perkins (travisperkins. co.uk) Engineered oak parquet: from Domus (domustiles.co.uk) Large aluminium and timber door: from Ideal Combi (idealcombi.com) Big off-the-shelf skylight: from Glazing Vision (glazingvision.co.uk) Bespoke plywood kitchen: by builder (as before) Coloured laminate in kitchen: by Abet Laminati (uk.abetlaminati.com) Eco-friendly paper composite worktops: by Richlite (richlite.com) Plywood matt finish: by Osmo (osmouk.com) Black sink mixer tap: by Olif (olif.co.uk) Caravaggio pendant lamps: for similar try Skandium (skandium.com) Double steel sink: by Smeg (smeg.com) Kitchen paint: Cornforth White from farrow-ball.co.uk Black-and-white switch plates: from Top: the extension uses part of the Dowsing & Reynolds (dowsingand Victorian building’s broad side return reynolds.com) Above: a rain chain instead of a

FRENCH+TYE downpipe creates a water feature Matthew and Amber’s money-saving tips the opening, and the door and win- copper rain chain. Little refined O Olif black taps are smart and much dows took 12 weeks to make,” Matthew touches, from coloured flexes to cute cheaper than some upmarket brands. explains. Amber adds, drily: “It was black-and-white switch plates to neat O A paper-laminate worktop feels winter, so we were heating the gar- plywood round a set of dimmers, add velvety to the touch and is eco-friendly. that you do it den.” up, while the new area’s glazed corners O Glazing Vision off-the-peg rooflights Such delays meant that the whole job allow glimpses right through the house. come surprisingly big and save money hospital, the scaffolding was still up,” would be very thoughtful and slower, took eight months. But since it was their “A long view through a home increases on bespoke rooflights Matthew says, “but when we arrived and this time they stayed in the house own home, Matthew could try innova- the sense of space,” Matthew says. O The combined aluminium and home it was gone, and the builders had while the build went on. Cleverly, the tive ideas, particularly the super-slim timber door from Ideal Combi was done their job. They were great.” builders put up the extension before roof structure. His contractor, origi- Amber and Matthew’s fabulous new cheaper than some other brands The loft room, plus a tiny office on knocking through to the old part. nally a welder, enjoyed creating the family room looks like a set for a cook- O Smeg has perfected punching the stair turn, add 250sq ft, in which “They made us a sort of bedsit in the mild steel lattice that supports insu- ery programme, and both parents almost-square steel sinks — which the big skylit loft bedroom is perfect front sitting room, with a camping lated double plywood topped with especially enjoy coming downstairs in means they have no seams and look for children. stove and everything.” waterproof fibreglass. the morning to have breakfast in it with great — at a bargain price Next, the couple saved up to trans- Even so, there was no glass. “You Other interesting details include the children. You can’t put a price on O Dowsing & Reynolds makes trendy form the ground floor. They knew this can’t order windows till you’ve made decorative external brickwork, and the times like that. switch plates at a good price 32 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Property searching

Public art: The Woolwich Ship sculpture (1999) by Tom Historic: Woolwich pedestrian and vehicle free ferry links the town centre with North Woolwich and Grimsey in Plumstead Road marks the town’s naval history Silvertown north of the river. The Domesday Book mentions a ferry service over the Thames in this spot TRANSPORT Spotlight on Woolwich Thousands of new homes — some in handsome heritage buildings — and the Elizabeth line are pulling in young professionals. By Anthea Masey

OISED to become one of the its name, fans today still call Arsenal big winners from the arrival Today in Woolwich the “Gunners” of the Elizabeth line, Wool- The regeneration of Woolwich began wich will have its own station Rightmove has 364 in 2003 with the residential towers of stop on the new service in 14 homes to BUY and Royal Artillery Quays on the eastern months’P time. Trains will roll in on their edge of the town where it borders WOOLWICH ARSENAL station has way from Abbey Wood to Paddington, 242 to RENT Thamesmead. This was followed by a trains to Charing Cross via London putting this south-east London town new town centre square overlooked by Bridge and Cannon Street, and just eight minutes from Canary Wharf, a futuristic development of flats above HAVE YOUR SAY: Woolwich Dockyard station has trains 14 minutes from Liverpool Street and a giant Tesco. The largest of all, though, WOOLWICH to Cannon Street. Woolwich Arsenal is 22 minutes from Bond Street. is Royal Arsenal Riverside, the Berkeley LOCALS TWEET THEIR TIPS on the Docklands Light Railway with Already a place of great historic inter- Homes £1.2 billion development of the trains to Canning Town where the est with many heritage buildings, arsenal site which is bringing 5,000 @realJannaBanna Blue Nile for Jubilee line offers a quick service to Woolwich is being transformed with employed 80,000. In 1868, its workers new homes to the area, some in con- Ethiopian food; Viet Baguette for Canary Wharf. thousands of new homes and a revital- founded the Royal Arsenal Co-operative verted heritage buildings, others in Vietnamese; daily fruit and veg stalls Thames Clipper river boats run from ised town centre. Property agent CBRE Society which eventually owned farms, new riverside towers. and a lovely flower/plant market Woolwich Arsenal pier at Royal estimates that house prices close to the bakeries and housing estates as well as Woolwich is 10 miles south-east of @TyronWoolfe A beautiful walk by Arsenal Riverside to Canary Wharf, new station will grow 4.5 per cent a shops. A statue of one of the society’s central London with the Thames to the the Royal Barracks London Bridge and Westminster. year faster than in the wider area. founders, Alexander McLeod, stands north, Thamesmead and Abbey Wood Woolwich Arsenal is in Zone 4 and The former Royal Arsenal in Woolwich above its listed Edwardian HQ in Powis to the east, Welling, Eltham and Black- @tomekapator Best pizza in London an annual travelcard to Zone 1 is was at the heart of the munitions indus- Street, Woolwich, below the motto heath to the south and Greenwich to the @RustBPizzaCo £1,860. Woolwich Dockyard station is try for more than 200 years, cut off from “Each for all and all for each”. west. Estate agent Patricia Irwin-Brown in Zone 3 and the annual travelcard is public view by high walls and known In 1886, another group of workers of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward says @Clavdivs1 Some really fab pubs £1,520. The arrival of the Elizabeth only to those who worked there. During started a football club in Dial Square in young professionals moving to Wool- (@TheWoolwichPub & @DialArch) line at the end of next year will offer its First World War peak, it covered 1,285 the arsenal. The club soon adopted the wich seek value and the opportunities and the unparalleled Nepalese direct trains to Canary Wharf, riverside acres, stretching from Henry name Woolwich Arsenal and even the Elizabeth line will bring. The area’s cuisine of Kailash Momo (insanely Liverpool Street and Bond Street. VIII’s dockyard in the west to what is though it moved to Highbury in 1913 full potential will only become evident tasty & wonderful value) now Thamesmead in the east, and and long ago dropped Woolwich from after the line’s arrival, she adds.

£250,000 FROM £350,000 £525,000 A ONE-BEDROOM flat in Alexandra Street, North NEW apartments with one to three bedrooms at AT GRADE II-LISTED Royal Herbert Pavilions in Woolwich, with a courtyard garden and new Callis Yard, SE18, a short walk from Woolwich Shooters Hill, a three-double bedroom second- kitchen and bathroom. Dexters (020 7517 1199). Arsenal station. Call Savills (020 8012 1286). floor flat is for sale through KFH (020 8012 2741). £2.85 MILLION THIS 4,885sq ft, five-bedroom, four-bathroom house, part of a glorious Grade II-listed Georgian To find a home in Woolwich, visit mansion in Rush Grove Street, SE18, is set among rightmove.co.uk three acres of landscaped gardens with a private For more about Woolwich, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/woolwich fishing lake. Through JLL (020 8012 8985). EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 33 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Property searching | Homes & Property

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STATS CHECK WHAT HOMES COST BUYING IN WOOLWICH (Average prices) One-bedroom flat £298,000 Two-bedroom flat £367,000 Two-bedroom house £357,000 Three-bedroom house £440,000 Four-bedroom house £603,000

RENTING IN WOOLWICH (Average rates per month) One-bedroom flat £1,111 Two-bedroom flat £1,388 Two-bedroom house £1,294 Three-bedroom house £1,481 Four-bedroom house £2,091

Source: Rightmove FOR MORE, VISIT homesandproperty.co.uk O Use our School Checker to find For craft beers: brewer Luke Schram at Hop Stuff Brewery catchment areas and inspection reports for local schools O The lowdown on shopping and eating out in Woolwich O Local arts, leisure and sport O A tour of Woolwich’s green open spaces

Proud heritage: the Royal Brass Foundry, built in THE PROPERTY SCENE 1716-17, part of the Woolwich Arsenal, now the Royal Arsenal WITH so many new homes going up more details. Callis Yard is a scheme Property has converted the Grade II- Riverside it is easy to forget that Woolwich also of 120 one- and two-bedroom flats listed former Woolwich fire station in quarter which has a stock of period houses. and three-bedroom houses carved Sunbury Street into The Old Fire will have 5,000 Typical examples are a four- out of a former stable block in Station. There are just nine one- and new homes bedroom Victorian terrace house in Bunton Street. One-bedroom flats two-bedroom flats in all. A pair of the Eglinton Hill, on the market priced start at £350,000, two-bedroom flats two-bedroom homes remain, priced £600,000, and a Thirties three- are priced from £500,000 and the at £450,000 each and move-in ready. bedroom terrace house in Ankerdine houses are £800,000. They will be Call Foxtons on 020 7386 6525. Crescent for sale at £415,000, both in ready in autumn next year, available the Shooters Hill area. through Savills on 020 7531 2500 and ■ AFFORDABLE HOMES There are also converted houses CBRE on 020 7205 2199. Berkeley Homes is offering one- and and flats in heritage buildings in the Wellington Quarter in Wellington two-bedroom flats at Kinetic in arsenal and “right-to-buy” flats on Street opposite the town hall is a Cannon Square at Royal Arsenal estates of social housing. development of 81 private sale one-, Riverside under the local council’s And for fans of pioneering self-build two- and three-bedroom flats in four discount market sales scheme, open housing, there are two small enclaves towers of up to 12 storeys. It’s still no to Greenwich residents only, who pay of Walter Segal houses — at Parish more than a hole in the ground. Off- 80 per cent of the market price with Wharf off Woodhill, and in Llanover plan sales for completion at the end the council owning the remaining 20 Road. of 2019 range from £392,000 to per cent. Prices start at £402,500 £621,000. Call IP Global on 020 3696 before the discount. ■ NEW-BUILD HOMES 9630 for more. Housing association Asra has Royal Arsenal Riverside is the A handful of homes remain at The shared-ownership flats at Trinity Berkeley Homes development of the Academy, developer Durkan’s Walk, starting at £97,500 for a 25 per former Woolwich Arsenal riverside conversion of the listed Royal cent share of a two-bedroom flat with site. Some 5,000 homes are being Military Academy in Red Lion Lane a market value of £390,000 and created and prices range from overlooking Woolwich Common. The £143,750 for a 25 per cent share of a £485,000 for a one-bedroom flat and scheme comprises 328 homes of three-bedroom flat with a market £635,000 for a two-bedroom flat to which 173 are converted from the value of £475,000. Ready next £1,905,000 for a three-bedroom listed buildings and 155 are new month. Call 020 3394 0078. duplex penthouse. Call 020 8331 7130 build. The homes include 182 for for more information. private sale, 85 affordable and 23 ■ RENTAL HOMES Trinity Walk is a Lovell Homes extra care. Dennis Opera, lettings director at development which replaces the Prices at the development start at Dexters in Canary Wharf, says Connaught estate in Woolwich New £485,000 for a one-bedroom flat, Woolwich has seen a big influx of Road. One-bedroom flats in Phase £555,000 for a two-bedroom flat, young professional renters attracted One start at £355,000, with two- £600,000 for a two-bedroom house by the Royal Arsenal Riverside bedroom apartments priced from and £695,000 for a three-bedroom development, where they can expect Photographs: £420,000. Call 020 8003 9674 or duplex. Visit theacademywoolwich. to pay £430-£460 a week for a two- Daniel Lynch visit trinitywalk-woolwich.com for co.uk or call 020 3689 7828. GAMA bedroom period conversion. 38 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Inside story

Filling a townhouse with stars is a West End Story

MONDAY It’s my first day in CBRE’s West End office following my transfer from east Diary of an London, so I’m feeling pretty excited. I loved working in Canary Wharf but I’m ready to get my teeth into a different estate agent market. My new manager takes me for a coffee and we run through my first day’s itinerary, starting with getting to know applicants. incredibly high standard and is just a My first viewing is a six-bedroom few minutes’ walk from Harrods, which refurbished townhouse in Clerkenwell, I’m sure will be a major attraction. We with an applicant who is looking for get instructed there and then. accommodation for some of the cast of a West End musical. He offers on the THURSDAY property there and then. I wonder if Our sales team has forwarded an inter- there’s a chance of any discounted esting task to me. It is a request from a tickets… film director looking to rent multiple properties for his crew. I immediately TUESDAY book him in to look at some apartments I’m with a member of international around Southbank,his preferred area. royalty who is looking for a London Then it’s straight back to the office to base around Knightsbridge. We visit an try to get some of these offers tied up. incredible two-bedroom apartment — fingers crossed it ticks the boxes. The FRIDAY rest of my day takes me on multiple I tuck into my Friday treat — a full Eng- viewings stretching from Covent Gar- lish breakfast — on my way to the office. den right over to Wapping where I do It has been a hectic first week but the a viewing with a development which, weekend is in sight. when complete, will totally transform Fridays are always a bit manic as we this part of town, creating new homes, try to get deals tied up, and within 20 shops, restaurants, bars and public minutes I’ve already had two additional space. O Ben Brower offers. The team then manages to get is a lettings these offers agreed before the after- WEDNESDAY negotiator noon — to the delight of the landlords With my manager, I’m off to see a refur- with CBRE and tenants concerned. It has by all bished two-bedroom apartment in Residential accounts been a great first week for me Belgravia. It has been finished to an (020 7519 5942). here in the heart of town. 42 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Ask the expert Could our dream flat become a nightmare? Fiona WHAT’S MY MOTHER-IN-LAW is a widow living YOUR alone. She has decided that she wants to buy McNulty PROBLEM? Qherself a small flat, and says my husband IF YOU have a and I should buy her house from her so that OUR LAWYER ANSWERS question for it does not go out of the family. YOUR QUESTIONS Fiona McNulty, She lives in a very expensive area and we cannot please email afford to pay her the full market value. However, we WE WANT to buy a flat legalsolutions@ can pay her a price that would enable her to pay off but the estate agent says standard.co.uk her equity release mortgage and buy her new flat. She Qthe lease is very short — or write to Legal is very happy about this. about 65 years, he thinks Solutions, Homes She has a pension and savings and manages well — and he believes that is why the & Property, financially. Can we do it — and are there consequences flat is cheap. He also says we might London Evening of not paying the full market price? be able to extend the lease but has Standard, 2 Derry given no other information. The Street, W8 5EE. YOU can purchase your mother-in-law’s house at flat is lovely and we want it. We We regret that an under value, but she should have full capacity, have never had a leasehold questions cannot Aunderstand what she is doing and receive property and don’t really be answered independent legal advice. An up-to-date figure understand why it’s cheap. Does it individually, but should be obtained to establish the amount due to really matter, or should we walk we will try to redeem the equity release mortgage. away? Could we extend the lease feature them The difference between the price you pay for the easily? here. Fiona property and the market value will be deemed to be a McNulty is a gift from your mother-in-law to you and your husband. THE value of a property solicitor It would be prudent to obtain a valuation of her usually decreases as the specialising property from a Royal Institution of Chartered A length of the residential lease in residential Surveyors registered valuer. gets shorter. You are unlikely prepared to lend to you. If the the value of the flat is likely to property. The gift may have consequences should your mother-in- to get a mortgage on the flat in view landlord will not do this, then increase once the lease is extended. law need to apply in the future for state or local authority of the short lease — and even if you provided the seller has owned the flat Instruct a solicitor who is a specialist benefits. The gift may also have inheritance tax could get a loan, the terms are for at least two years, they have a in this field. You will need a specialist implications. unlikely to be favourable. statutory right to extend the lease, surveyor, too. Instead of buying the entire property you could buy an Establish whether the landlord is although there are some exceptions. interest in it, in which case you would need to agree how prepared to grant a new lease to the The seller could start this process O These answers can only be a very the property is held and in what proportions, and the seller which should be completed by serving an Initial Notice on the brief commentary on the issues raised parties’ obligations. Record this information in a before or at the same time that you landlord, the benefit of which can be and should not be relied on as legal More legal declaration of trust. complete the purchase of the flat. If transferred to you on completion. advice. No liability is accepted for such Q&As It should be remembered that there may be a stamp you are likely to get a longer lease at This is a complex and often costly reliance. If you have similar issues, you Visit: homesand duty liability. And all three of you should consider making completion, a lender may be procedure but generally worth it as should obtain advice from a solicitor. property.co.uk or updating your wills. 44 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Letting on

HE would make a 24-carat £577 per week: tenant, I was sure. I had Riley Marshall found someone with a has a four- cracking job, a high salary An angel tenant bedroom, and such an angelic face I two-bathroom didn’tS think it likely she was hiding townhouse to some shocking secret or a criminal rent in Hastings past. So I was a bit stumped when she fails credit check Street, Woolwich failed the credit check. SE18, with When I read through the report private garden from the referencing agency, I saw Victoria Whitlock asks fellow landlords to and two parking that her employer had verified that spaces (020 8012 her earnings were more than enough take a moment to give good tenants a good 4829) to comfortably cover the rent. Her previous addresses had been reference so they can move on without hassle confirmed, she had cleared the ID check and she had no County Court who won’t give a reference for their Judgments against her. So what on The tenant until they have done a final £462 per week: earth could be the problem? inspection of their property to make relocate-me. sure it has been properly looked co.uk has a two- The problem was that her previous accidental after, and I appreciate their diligence. bedroom luxury landlord had failed to give her a However, in many cases landlords apartment with reference. The referencing agency landlord simply can’t be bothered to provide a 24-hour gym had made several attempts to contact reference. Of course it is a drag for access to rent in the landlord over the course of a the tenant, who automatically fails the Royal Arsenal week, but she had ignored them. landlord told me my applicant had the credit check and can then be development in After the third email failed to elicit a been an “exemplary” tenant, she’d rejected by their next landlord. Woolwich SE18 response, the agency had given up. always paid her rent on time and (020 8012 3986) They probably thought they had looked after the property. Some landlords are nervous about done enough for their £20 fee. I wonder if this landlord realised taking tenants who have failed credit However, the lack of a landlord how close her “exemplary” tenant checks because the tenancy won’t be reference meant they ruled that the came to losing my property because eligible for rent guarantee insurance, tenant posed an “unacceptable risk”. she couldn’t be bothered to give her a unless the tenant is able to provide a I was advised by the referencing reference. guarantor. This is a whole lot of extra agency to ask the applicant for a hassle that could have been avoided. guarantor if I wanted to proceed with The landlord’s excuse for ignoring the I rarely buy insurance to guarantee the tenancy. emails and phone calls from the the rent because I trust my instincts. This seemed an extreme measure referencing agency was that she had If I think I have got a good tenant, for someone who was so clearly been busy. Well, we are all busy — but then I don’t think I need the insurance for the extra peace of mind O Victoria Whitlock lets four capable of affording the rent, so seriously, how busy do you have to insurance. If I think there is a risk it offers. The point of this story for properties in south London. instead I asked the tenant to be to not be able to take one phone that the tenant might not pay the landlords is that they should give a To contact Victoria with your persuade her landlord to contact me call or send a quick email? I have rent, I don’t take them in. But some good tenant a good reference — and ideas and views, tweet direct. When the call came the occasionally come across landlords landlords take out rent guarantee make all of our lives a bit easier. @vicwhitlock 50 WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | New homes Smart moves By David Spittles Drinks on the house OFT-LOVERS are celebrating the launch of apartments carved from listed buildings at the UK’s oldest brewery. For generations, the Ram Brewery, on a four-and-a-half-acre site in Wandsworth town centre, was enclosed by high Lwalls and cut off to the public, corralled by a car-clogged one-way system hostile to pedestrians and preventing any real sense of neighbourhood. Now though, the old brewery is on its way to becoming The Ram Quarter, a fashionable waterfront spot with 663 homes. Most of these are in shiny, modern apartment blocks, whereas Coopers’ Lofts comprises just 14 characterful properties in restored heritage buildings that will also incorporate a museum with original machinery. Even the residents’ lobby features an ancient beam engine encased in glass, while the apartments have comforting, vaulted ceilings and exposed-brick walls. Ram Brewery closed down in 2006 after a brewing tradition dating back to 1512, the longest in the UK. The Ram Quarter will feature a new boulevard with shops, bars and restaurants, cutting through the site alongside the River Wandle. About half the area will be open public space, with courtyard gardens and a market square. Characterful: heritage buildings now house loft-style flats at Prices start at £480,000. Call 020 3751 3190 for more. The Ram Quarter in SW18, where homes start at £480,000

From £695,000: left, flats at The Denizen, Golden Lane, EC1; below, Pinks Mews flats, in the heart of Holborn, priced from £995,000

LIVING in the Square Mile, next to Super-stylish homes in EC1 for City gleaming office towers and Wren spires, used to boil down to a workers seeking to put down roots Barbican apartment or a crash pad conversion in an outdated Westminster borough, Kensington or commercial building. Now a fresh Chelsea. wave of development is bringing Local planners continue to push for much more variety and wow-factor new high-rise office buildings to halt main homes for people who want to the defection to Canary Wharf, but put down roots in the area. they are also encouraging more The Denizen is a new scheme of 99 homes outside the core banking apartments in Golden Lane, which zone, towards Spitalfields in the east also boasts a prized listed council and Chancery Lane in the west. estate dating back to the Fifties, a Pinks Mews is a scheme of 35 forerunner of the Barbican. Prices handsome apartments behind start at £695,000. Call Taylor retained Victorian façades lining Wimpey on 020 3866 0901. either side of a hidden cobbled mews Tight supply means City of London in Holborn. The gated cul-de-sac is a homes normally make sound conservation area in its own right. investments. Yet values are still quite Prices from £995,000. Call CBRE on a bit lower than the best addresses in 020 7240 2255. EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2017 51 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by New homes | Homes & Property DEVELOPERS are casting their nets Fish Island’s over Fish Island, a former industrial FOODIES WILL LOVE HOMES zone in Hackney Wick. bait is canalside This little-known East End IN BERKSHIRE’S BRAY VILLAGE backwater, where in 1865 the Gas apartments Light and Coke Company established a small factory town that’s now a conservation area, has been thrown into the spotlight by the transformation of Stratford. For the last 20 years, the 50-acre site bordering Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has offered cheap studio space to hundreds of artists. However, the canalside land and buildings are now part of a masterplan to create a new neighbourhood with more than 5,000 homes, live-work dwellings, workshops and small business premises. Controversially, some old buildings occupied by creatives have been bulldozed for private flats. The Foundry is a scheme of 121 apartments grouped around a central courtyard garden. All flats have floor-to-ceiling windows and a private balcony, and there are From £880,000: detached homes at Green Gates in Bray communal roof terraces. Prices from £443,000. Call Weston Homes on From £443,000: above, The Foundry THE latest Michelin awards for culinary excellence have 020 8985 5597. offers 121 flats; above right, Fish reaffirmed the status of the Berkshire village of Bray, Though smartening up, Fish Island Island Village canalside flats, by Thinking of moving? where The Fat Duck and The Waterside Inn restaurants is not for the faint-hearted, being a Peabody and Hill, from £477,500 Start your search on have retained their three-star ratings alongside two gritty and graffiti-covered urban gastropubs with one star apiece. landscape. But that’s not deterring are bringing 580 canalside Foodie home buyers may be drawn to Green Gates, a fashionistas. Developer Aitch Group apartments priced from £477,500 at nearby scheme of luxurious detached houses, each with a is progressing four projects with up Fish Island Village. Call 020 3906 ground-floor “super-room” combining kitchen, dining and to 250 homes aimed at young 1950. The project includes on-site entertaining space. professionals working in Shoreditch “incubator” spaces for design and Set amid mature trees, the homes have traditional and the City who would never choose digital start-up companies, façades but contemporary-design, open-plan interiors to live in the new-build villages on the freelancers and early stage that suit modern lifestyles. Prices from £880,000. Call Olympic Park itself, while housing entrepreneurs, creating more than estate agent Roger Platt on 01628 773333. charity Peabody and developer Hill 500 jobs.