Out of the Blue Starchitect Staircase Page 26 LYNDON DOUGLAS LYNDON

HomesWednesday 4 November 2015 & Have a light bulb moment Design Property Page 15

NEW HOMES: BIG DISCOUNTS P4 FABULOUS FIRST-TIME BUY P7 MONEY SAVERS P11 & P17 SPOTLIGHT ON TOOTING P30 Out of the blue Starchitect staircase Page 26 LYNDON DOUGLAS LYNDON

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is listed with Savills for £5.25 million. REX Bean there... starry £2.5m mews house sale buys É A PRESTIGIOUS Belsize Park Thisjudge is the mews, famous for its well-known residents, has a house for sale. headlineNick’s that The four-bedroom, three-bathroom property, above, is at the head of goesX Factor like this cobbled Daleham Mews, where the barn likes of former Bond villain Sean By Amira Hashish Bean, below, late actor Roy Kinnear — father of Spectre star Rory — and Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews photographer Sir Cecil Beaton lived. It has a large private roof terrace and is available through Heywoods Estate Agents for £3.5 million. Lea’s cottage is É THE lakeside pile chosen by Nick Grimshaw, right, as his X Factor picture perfect judge’s house is on sale at £2.5 million. The Barnhouse, above and below, at É ACCLAIMED photographer Robyn luxurious Cotswolds development The Lea, right, who has worked with a Lakes by yoo, is so stunning that the long list of the world’s most beautiful boys in Grimshaw’s category, pictured, people, including supermodel were more than happy to stay in the Claudia Schiffer, is selling her UK instead of jetting off abroad. cottage, below, for £1.55 million. The five-bedroom home is also the The colonial-style property, only an launch project for Kate Moss’s new hour’s drive from New York City, has career as an interior decorator. five bedrooms and a beautiful Inspired by the idea of stumbling outdoor dining area, making it a across a hidden gem in the forest, the great place to entertain. model used colour pops, handcrafted Lea, whose work has frequently furniture, and art by Jake and Dinos

graced the pages of the New York SOTHEBY’S Chapman and Damien Hirst. Times, Vogue, Architectural Digest, the Financial Times, Velvet, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle Decoration UK, has a great eye for interior design. She has created a rustic look around original features such as a limestone fireplace and a stone sun room with French doors — an irresistible space.

O For more celebrity gossip, visit

homesandproperty.co.uk/gossip REX REX

Gated development set in beautiful landscaped gardens.

2 minutes walk to East Putney tube* • Underground parking Concierge • Private gym • Share of freehold • 999 year leases

www.oakhillpark.co.uk Savills New Homes 020 3430 6920 MOVE IN THIS YEAR [email protected] * Walking times are approximate and courtesy of www.walkit.com savills.co.uk 2 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Online stop press:

Lifechanger of the week open a boutique hotel in a listed riverside mansion ALAMY Fighting change: Gloucester Place is currently a one-way street, and many local residents want to keep it like that Trophy blow the bonus on exclusive £10m Coombe Hill Estate retreat Marylebone £9.95 million: this fabulous kitchen for a view of the garden. Go new-build on the desirable Coombe down to the basement for the spa Hill Estate — between Wimbledon complex, swimming pool and and Kingston upon Thames — is an cinema, or up the majestic staircase doesn’t want 11,000 sq ft bonus-buster. to the six bedrooms, two of them From the magnificent triple-height with balconies overlooking the entrance hall, choose one of the six neighbouring golf course. reception rooms or head straight to it both ways the 45ft glass-walled David Linley O Through Savills (020 8012 3129)

ARYLEBONE issue No Two Ways party to £1.35 million: a Grade II-listed residents are fight a council by-election Queen Anne mansion on the London buy of the week Southfields rebelling over last month, coming second banks of the River Severn could plans to turn to the Tories. make a fabulous boutique hotel. garden flat perfect for open-plan living Baker Street Almost 1,500 residents The imposing house in historic £675,000: what’s not Mand Gloucester Place into took part in a consultation Upton-upon-Severn, to love about the two-way streets. exercise — a record partici- Worcestershire, sits in beautiful simplistic clean lines They claim the £15 million pation, according to Graham formal gardens. and bright feel that proposal from Westminster King, head of strategic trans- Set at the end of a no through this Southfields garden council and Transport for port planning and public road, it has seven bedrooms — flat offers? London will cause traffic realm at the council. About three of them en suite — and The ample living chaos, turn quiet side streets 60 per cent objected to the a mass of entertaining space, space has been into rat runs and slash the plan, citing congestion, pol- including three reception rooms converted behind the value of their homes. lution and rat running. and a library. It also has a elegant façade of an The two streets currently But the council is deter- separate staff cottage and a barn, Edwardian house, form a one-way system mined to push ahead, with which could easily be converted featuring high ceilings running from Regent’s Park further consultation planned to a guest annexe. In all, there is and sash windows in room incorporates a doors opening on to a to Oxford Street. A poster “over the coming weeks”. A more than 4,000 sq ft of space, two double bedrooms high gloss and granite large patio and decked campaign has been launched spokesman said: “We will not counting the cellar. with fitted wardrobes kitchen, along with private garden. demanding “No Two Ways”, look at redesigning various and wood floors. dining and living areas. and local resident Steven elements before going back O Through Hamptons By Faye At the rear of the flat, The room has a skylit O Through John D Dollond founded the single- out to public consultation.” International (01202 066061) Greenslade an open-plan reception roof, plus huge bi-fold Wood (020 8870 8811)

O Find Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk Facebook: ESHomesAndProperty • Twitter: @HomesProperty • Pinterest: @HomesProperty 1,000 tickets to give away Editor: Janice Ideal Home Show at Christmas, November 25-29 Morley THE Ideal Home Show at Christmas VISIT homesandproperty.co. — sponsored by Gocompare.com — is uk/rules for details of our back in town at Olympia London to usual promotion rules. When bring you everything you need for you respond to promotions, your festivities. ! ! ! offers or competitions, the From decorations, handcrafted ! London Evening Standard and gifts, Christmas puddings and festive ! ! its sister companies may fizz to furniture and home contact you with relevant improvements, the show has it all. offers and services that may With more than 650 exhibitors, be of interest. Please give plus live entertainment, celebrity your mobile number and/or chefs including Gino D’Acampo, email address if you would pictured, and, for the first time, a like to receive such offers by special Christmas arcade showcasing text or email. the best toys and gifts on the market, tips for the ideal Christmas. We’ve this shopping trip is also bound to be teamed up with the Ideal Home Editorial: 020 3615 2524 a great family day out. Show to give you the chance to Advertisement manager: So join celebrity ambassadors Katie visit this much-loved annual event Jamie McCabe Piper, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and for free, with 500 pairs of tickets to Advertising: 020 3615 0266 Olly Smith, and hear all their expert give away. Homes & Property, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, TO CLAIM Kensington, London W8 5TT. To claim your free pair of tickets before the end of November 8, visit idealhomeshowchristmas.co.uk and use code ESFREE. See website for full T&Cs 4 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | New homes

ONDON’S homes market is alive, but not exactly kicking, except in isolated pockets such as Crossrail route hotspots. The cost of stamp Lduty, the curbs on interest-only mortgages and overpriced new-builds have been keeping buyers away. This atmosphere gives developers the jitters. By November, they are eager to sell and clear the books on the year’s projects before the new year brings a wave of fresh launches. The latest Land Registry figures show ROTHERHITHE HENDON that higher stamp duty charges intro- Barratt is offering incentives at several schemes where The Lawns, Hendon, above, is a scheme of Edwardian-style duced earlier this year are clearly tak- homes are ready to move into. Furnished penthouses at mansion flats set in communal gardens with a tennis court. ing a toll. Homes in the price-sensitive 19-storey Oslo Tower, Rotherhithe, above, cost from All homes have sold except for the £1.7 million show flat, £1 million to £2 million bracket have £795,000 and come with a parking space and stamp duty which has been reduced to include furnishings worth more been hit hardest, according to property contribution. Call 0844 811 4334. than £100,000. Call Regal Homes on 020 7328 7171. data firm LonRes, which reveals that 22.5 per cent fewer such homes changed hands in London during the three months to September. Transac- tions in the £2 million to £5 million price band were down 16.9 per cent. Prices have been cut on 35 per cent of prime London homes on the market, with 365 properties having had their asking price reduced by £250,000 and, in some cases, much more. Prime central London is no longer red hot, and there are fewer overseas investors wanting to buy into high- spec, high-priced tower blocks. This has created an oversupply — and the slowdown is spreading beyond central London to cheaper districts. Compared with a year ago, transac- tions are down in 31 out of 32 London

boroughs, the exception being Barking REX The race for a As the market slows LAST HOMES in London, house STANDING builders are slashing FULHAM At Fulham Riverside — a prices for an end-of- redevelopment of the former Kops Brewery — stamp duty savings of up season sale, reports to £37,200 are available on flats priced from £806,995. The open area David Spittles facing the river has a central communal podium garden, and there is underground parking, concierge, & Dagenham, according to estate gym and waterfront café. Call 0844 agents Portico. “There is demand, but 811 4334. only where buyers see value,” it says. Buyers are becoming very picky. LEWISHAM Small houses and flats with little stor- Stamp duty deals are also available age and poor layouts are being turned at 780-home Renaissance, below, in down. Agents say sellers are setting the Lewisham town centre, where only 11 price, but buyers are making offers, two-bedroom apartments remain for and this is where negotiations start. sale. The flats are on the 14th floor or Since the stamp duty changes, buyers of homes worth less than £937,000 pay less tax, but those buying more expensive properties face a far higher bill. Affluent families looking at a £93,750 stamp duty bill to trade up to a £1.5 million house are staying away, calculating that the same sum would fund an extension if they stayed put. “London is a city of two halves at the moment,” says Peter Rollings, chief executive of estate agent Marsh & Par- sons. “At the top end, buyers are cau- tious. At the mid and lower range of the BUILDERS ARE ON THE BACK market, there is good activity when FOOT: IT’S TIME TO HAGGLE properties are priced correctly.” New-home builders are on the back Buyers and sellers need not fear a foot and there are deals to be done right property crash, believe experts. Over across the price spectrum, especially the medium term, price rises in Lon- at schemes where there are only a few don will be steady rather than heady. homes remaining. While there are more people than Developers like to clear away the houses available there will always be a “fag ends” in order to move on to the market — at the right price. next big regeneration zone on the up. EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 5 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by New homes | Homes & Property

GREENWICH In Greenwich, left, an area of spectacular river walks and architecture, stands Greenwich Square, right, a hospital redevelopment by Hadley Mace, which is paying stamp duty on townhouses priced from £825,000. It’s an incentive worth at least £31,250. Call 0800 077 8177.

The best of both worlds Green living with London connections

Christmas bargain

above, so the views are good. Prices from £455,000. Call 0844 811 4334. PUTNEY At Putney Rise, Barratt is offering a 12-month sale-and-leaseback deal that may appeal to buyers who want to delay their move for 12 months. A Harcourt Place is a superb Bovis Homes The Kingston two-bedroom furnished flat, priced at development just over an hour’s commute* Unique 5 bedroom home £690,000, comes with a six per cent from the capital. rental return. The Kingston ﬁve bedroom home offers you superb high WANDSWORTH quality all-inclusive speciﬁcation, just 2 miles from the A whopping £214,875 stamp duty dreaming spires of Oxford city centre. saving is being offered on a £4.2 million new house at Spencer Park in All this at just £886,995. Wandsworth. Call 020 7228 7474. There are three show homes available to view, so get COMMUTER BARGAINS away from it all and contact us today to book a viewing. In the village of Storrington, West Sussex, developer Martin Grant has cut Ask about out Home Exchange scheme today. the price of the remaining five-bedroom Harcourt Place Elevation may differ to that shown. Photography depicts an Arundel at Heyford Park. Prices, Rosewood House home from £875,000 specification and availability correct at time of going to press. *60 minutes from Oxford Station to Oxford to £749,950. Call 01306 730822. London Paddington, plus 10 minutes drive to Oxford Station. Please see sales advisor for details. BUT BUYER BEWARE... NORTH AND EAST At Edgware Green, above, in north London, four-bedroom You have to ask yourself why a flat or houses aimed at young families stepping up the property 01865 594312 house is the last one left on the shelf. ladder cost from £670,000. Waterside Park, top, at You need to be sure what you are Royal Victoria Dock in east London, has one-bedroom getting and not be totally driven by a apartments priced from £350,000 that come with stamp property’s apparent bargain price. duty paid. Call 0844 811 4321.

Of course, most developers are bargaining chip. Be businesslike, act reluctant to announce price cuts, pre- quickly and don’t get stuck in a chain, bovishomes.co.uk ferring to dress up discounts in the though part-exchange deals are form of stamp duty and legal fee available, too. refunds, furniture packs and deposit- For many buyers, Christmas is the Oxford paid deals. deadline to complete the transaction But don’t let that stop you haggling and, with more than six weeks to go, Station London hard on the price. Parking spaces — this is still possible. (10mins drive to Paddington 60 costing anything between £10,000 So have your mortgage finance lined Harcourt Place) minutes and £100,000 — are an obvious up and your solicitor ready to act. 6 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | First-time buyer/commuting Going the distance for a starter home

HINKING of commuting? centre, as well as numerous coffee More space in a pretty shops. West Malling’s low profile village where homes cost means it has largely avoided the less than £300,000 march of the chain store. Maidstone sounds perfect — but, on is eight miles away, or a six-minute topT of your mortgage repayments, train hop, for major shopping. There you will have to factor in the cost of is a monthly farmers’ market, and your rail fare. you can learn to dive, windsurf or sail The average London house hunter at Leybourne Lakes Country Park. shops for their first home with an It is an easy commute. Trains to extensive wish list and a budget of St Pancras take 50 minutes, and an about £300,000, and quickly annual season ticket costs £4,136. discovers how little that will buy Kent’s education system is one of the best in Britain and West Malling does not disappoint. The Discovery First-timers in their thirties are School and Leybourne St Peter and St Paul CofE Voluntary Aided skipping tiny London flats and Primary School are both rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, while going straight to commuterland Malling School (seniors) gets a “good” report from the schools watchdog. for value. By Ruth Bloomfield Prices are not as high as in the rest of the county. An average terrace them in the capital. With an average house costs £308,000, with a semi- age of 32, they have often already detached home available for just outgrown the traditional tiny starter under £341,000, according to data flat. Most buyers in their thirties want from Rightmove. There is also a good

more space indoors, plus a garden — ALAMY stock of period property — Victorian and a not-too-painful journey to terraces and stone cottages — as well work. But they still have budget Hard to beat: as new-build houses. constraints, which is why many are pretty Great leapfrogging the first rung of the Dunmow, above, HOOK FOR GOOD SCHOOLS ladder and moving straight into has plenty of With a journey time to Waterloo of an commuterland. cafés, pubs and hour and three minutes, the affluent The good news is that this relatively small shops Hampshire town of Hook is as modest budget can still stretch to a commutable as much of London’s decent-size property, if you know Watering hole: Zone 4 — though an annual season where to start looking. the rural ticket will cost £4,684. It is also very villages handy for the M3. GREAT DUNMOW FOR surrounding Families like Hook because of its ATTRACTIVE HOMES Hook have some schools — Hook Junior School and Great Dunmow could win awards for lovely traditional Robert May’s School (seniors) are the quality of life it offers. For those pubs, such as both rated “good” with some £325,000: looking for a gorgeous location, this The Waggon and outstanding features by Ofsted. a large ancient Essex market town is hard to Horses, left, in The local countryside is a delight — one-bedroom beat — think duck ponds on the green ALAMY Hartley Wintney a walk to the ruins of Odiham Castle ﬂat in Darcy and wonky timbered buildings along is particularly recommended — with Court, West a high street with plenty of cafés, An annual season ticket is £5,136, WEST MALLING FOR plenty of traditional pubs, both in the Malling, below, lovely old pubs and little shops. For but this is offset by reasonable house LOVERS OF THE OUTDOORS town itself and the villages nearby. Its in a converted bigger shops, you can head to nearby prices and subsequently lower For an easy commute and good shops are mostly local independents, oast house, Chelmsford or Braintree. monthly mortgage repayments. schools, look at West Malling in Kent. with a couple of galleries, several with the living Indeed, a study by Halifax found Despite its proximity to the airport, A lesser-known commuter option cafés and farm shops, and a room in the that the Uttlesford district, which Malcolm Danford, principal partner compared with nearby Sevenoaks traditional butcher. roundel. Through includes Great Dunmow, is the best at Malcolm Danford & Co, says Great and Tonbridge, West Malling — £250,000: a Bob Waterfield, owner of Hook Ibbett Mosely rural place to live in England. Dunmow is little bothered by flight pronounced “mauling” — is a small three-bedroom Homes estate agents, says that with (01732 677030) There are several primary schools path noise. And it is great for lovers market town with plenty of charm. end-of-terrace £250,000 to £350,000 to play with, — Felsted Primary is rated of the countryside. “You are in the It is ideal for walkers who want to house, below, buyers could select from a modern “outstanding”, while Helena rolling fields within a 10-minute walk immerse themselves in revitalising with a rear two-bedroom terrace at £250,000 to £349,995: Romanes School (seniors) gets a of town,” adds Danford. country air after a working week, garden, next £260,000, a three-bedroom end of a listed “good” Ofsted report. A two-bedroom artisan’s cottage in with the Kent Downs to the west and to the train terrace for about £300,000 or a four-bedroom The reason Great Dunmow is Great Dunmow costs about £270,000 the High Weald to the south. station in three-bedroom semi with a good cottage in Great relatively affordable is that it does to £280,000, while a Thirties three- Its high street is a picturesque commuter- garden and garage for £350,000. Dunmow, centre. not have its own railway station: bedroom semi-detached house tumble of Tudor, Jacobean and friendly Hook. Period homes in the town carry a Through commuters must drive six miles to would be about £300,000. A modern Georgian buildings, and there are Through Carson premium, but £325,000 would buy a James & Co Stansted airport to pick up a three-bedroom house with a garage more than a dozen restaurants, bars & Co (01256 pretty two-bedroom Victorian (01371 876678) 47-minute train to Liverpool Street. would cost about £330,000. and pubs scattered in the town 226032) cottage in the old town. EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 7 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by First-time buyer/in London | Homes & Property THE KNOWLEDGE ANGEL Past: the area is named after you could be the proud owner of salted pistachio praline at an old inn that stood at the a 50ft one-bedroom narrowboat Oldroyd swings it. junction of Pentonville Road moored on Wenlock Basin. Drink: Bloody Mary at The Bar and Islington High Street. The Eat: there is an embarrassment with No Name, Colebrooke Row. pub closed in 1921 and its site is of riches in Upper Street, but Walk: along Regent’s Canal now occupied by offices. the chocolate mousse with towpath. Future: the proposed Crossrail 2 would provide a new rail link £130,000: south-west from Angel towards a dark Chelsea and Clapham, although blue-painted not until 2030. 50ft narrowboat Trivial pursuit: The Angel moored at Islington is the third-cheapest Braywick, property on the Monopoly board. Wenlock Basin. First-time buy: getting a Through mortgage will be tough, and Currells there are annual mooring fees (020 7226 to consider, but for £130,000 4200)

ALAMY Retro must-go: Camden Passage in Angel, Islington, for all things vintage, collectable and antique IRST-TIME buyers have become used to making painful compromises. The Now you can possibility of living in Zone 1 — with shops, bars and res- Ftaurants on the doorstep, and within cycling distance of work — for under afford to live £140,000 sounds almost impossible. Yet City Wharf, a canalside develop- ! ment from Fabrica by A2Dominion, canalside ticks all these boxes and more. In fact, the only compromise residents will have to accept is that to ! buy into this corner of Islington, they in Islington will only be able to start off owning a ! quarter share of their first home. Buy into smart new flats at the ! ! If this is not a deal breaker, then City Wharf, on Wharf Road, overlooks heart of the N1 action for under Wenlock Basin, with narrowboats moored decoratively around it. Timber £140k. By Ruth Bloomfield and Corten steel cladding on the building reflect the basin’s industrial history “The unique combination of canalside — it was once a base for barges laden living, great transport links and nearby with timber, coal, iron and stone. nightlife makes City Wharf a great The location is hard to beat — with investment,” says Rosie Nesbitt, Islington’s Upper Street and the Fabrica’s group sales and marketing increasingly brilliant King’s Cross to its director. “It is so near the City, Islington west, and the tech hub of Old Street and Hoxton, and with City Road’s ongo- and fashionable Hoxton to the east. ing regeneration, this has to be one of The nearest Tube station is Angel on the most exciting neighbourhoods.” the Northern line in Zone 1, so the com- Perhaps the only downside with this mute to central London and the City is project is the lack of immediate green a breeze. From 2018, it will also be pos- space. But Shepherdess Walk Park is sible to pick up Crossrail services to the close by, although tiny, and Victoria West End and Heathrow from Far- Park, the nearest substantial open ringdon station, just over a mile away. space, is two-and-a-half miles away. If There are endless bars and restau- it’s flowers you want, Columbia Road rants within five or 10 minutes’ stroll. Flower Market is closer. It is also not far from the Almeida Prices start from £138,750 for a 25 per Theatre, Whitechapel Gallery, the 02 cent share of a one-bedroom flat. Two- From £138,750: Academy Islington, Sadler’s Wells and bedroom new homes start at £198,750 a quarter share the Everyman Screen on the Green. for a 25 per cent share. of a one-bedroom The Islington Boat Club, based at the There are 28 shared-ownership ﬂat at City Wharf adjacent City Road Basin, can teach homes on the site. For more informa- in Islington, in a you to sail, kayak or paddleboard. tion, visit fabrica.co.uk/CityWharf vibrant location

! ! 8 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Energy-saving homes

Ground-breaking: the larch-clad house in Camden, designed by Bere Architects, was the UK’s ﬁrst accredited Passivhaus

S WE face another winter, Insulation was attached to the inner the idea of slashing heating faces of the walls, which were then re- bills to almost nothing Bye-bye finished to hide works. Windows were sounds like a fantasy. triple-glazed, and a solar thermal panel However, it is possible — on the roof makes enough energy to andA not just for modern, new-build heat almost all domestic hot water. homes, but for the majority of big bills The large building, which houses six London’s classic brick houses. people, needs no radiators and uses a This is because of a rigorous design small air-source heat pump to boost system called Passivhaus. Developed heating. “If you are going to do a refurb in Germany, it is the world’s leading Improving or moving, of roof repairs and windows, doing it low-energy building standard. this way will only cost four to 10 per The system uses triple-glazed, the Passivhaus system cent more, but you’ll make huge sav- immaculately fitting windows, photo- can save 90 per cent ings,” Baeli says. voltaic panels, plus other building techniques such as good insulation, in of your energy, says GOING UPMARKET a bid to cut energy use by 90 per cent compared with a typical home. Philippa Stockley Bigger developers are also getting in Passivhauses also rely on solar gain, on the act. Upmarket developer which means lots of glazing, particu- Grosvenor Britain & Ireland finished larly in south-facing areas, and opening two classic two-bedroom Georgian " " doors and windows to let heat in when terrace houses to rent in Passmore it is hot, with really good blind systems Street, Mayfair this year — the first # #" ! so that those rooms don’t overheat. private rental homes in the UK to To date, there are more than 250 comply with Passivhaus’s stringent certified Passivhauses in the UK. “EnerPHit” standard for retrofitting. Grosvenor has also finished two more CAMDEN TRAILBLAZER homes to rent, in St Barnabas Street, " # # # SW1. Director of development Anna ! " In north London, architect Justin Bere Farnes says: “We’ve been impressed has been designing ecologically sound with the results, reducing energy use homes for years. But when he came and saving tenants about £900 a year across the German system, he says it on bills. We will deploy what we have answered every question he had, so he learned from our pilot projects else- adopted it. where in Mayfair and Belgravia.” He persuaded a London couple to To enquire about renting in St Barna- build a new Passivhaus in Camden and, bas Street, call 020 7312 6449. when it was finished in 2010, it was the VISIT THE first in the UK to be accredited. WHAT DOES IT COST? The larch-clad, 118 sq metre two-bedroom home became a trailblazer. Building to Passivhaus standards rather Bright and airy, with sliding doors on than standard UK regulations costs to a south-facing terrace, it harvests Perfect ﬁt: a house in Passmore Street, from about 10 per cent more — for rainwater underground, uses a solar Mayfair, above and top, uses Passivhaus example, a “normal” build costing panel and has a tiny back-up boiler. principles and keeps its traditional look £75,000 might, if done to the highest Annual heating costs are 10 per cent of Passivhaus standards, cost £110,000. equivalent homes. grateful for. Let’s put our hands in our However, research by Bere Architects Not surprisingly, Bere says that “now pockets now. Our kids will thank us.” in association with the Building most of our clients want one”. Research Establishment, which advises “Every house should do it,” he says. RETROFIT WONDER the Government on building regula- “Over 50 years, a single home can save tions, found that, if energy rates rise at thousands. If the Government took a In west London, Octavia housing asso- five per cent each year, the Passivhaus long-term view, this could save the ciation has proved it’s possible to retro- costs would equal the regular build ! " " country billions. Instead of investing fit a three-storey Victorian terrace house after 14 years, and after that, become " ! in nuclear energy, it could do the right in a conservation area to save energy. progressively cheaper year on year. ! thing and contribute £10,000-£15,000 Octavia’s architect, Marion Baeli from "" to mortgages to cover the cost of PDP London, says that with a retrofit O To find out more about Passivhaus achieving these standards — a small the results are still brilliant, but to a principles, visit passivhaustrust.org.uk, thing which future generations will be slightly more relaxed specification. and Bere Architects at bere.co.uk 10 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Holiday homes

MOST visitors to the North Dorset town of Shaftesbury take time to peer down the steep cobbles of Gold Hill, where terrace houses, some thatched and Strike gold some with roses around the door, make up one of England’s iconic streets. Gold Hill was the star of the Seventies Hovis television advert, voted our favourite of all time, where a small in pretty delivery boy laboriously pushed his bread-laden bicycle. Today, Shaftesbury remains a per- fectly pretty synonym for all that is best about the English countryside. Raised rural Dorset high above Blackmore Vale, with misty views over Dorset’s patchwork fields, The area around Shaftesbury is it is two hours from west London on a good run and 40 minutes from the an ideal spot for a countryside coast. Much-discussed upgrades to the A303 — including tunnelling under bolt hole, says Cathy Hawker Stonehenge — would, eventually, further speed up the journey. miles off the A303.” North Dorset is Iconic street: MARKET TOWN LIVING popular for the schools, including Sher- the famous Hovis “Shaftesbury is an affluent market borne, Bryanston, Port Regis and Gill- advert recreated town in the middle of glorious coun- ingham School, plus Downside and on the steep tryside, but with relatively easy access Millfield in nearby Somerset. Wilson cobbles of Gold to London by road and rail,” says James says: “Many are boarding schools — Hill, Shaftesbury Wilson, of the town’s Jackson-Stops & parents like to keep a local base.” Staff branch. Ideal as a holiday home and perfect

“For regular weekenders, it is so much to lock and leave, Lyons Walk in the ALAMY easier to get here than the coast. Dorset heart of Shaftesbury is a freshly reno- is England’s only county without a vated listed building adjoining the taurant. Two-bedroom leasehold motorway, but Shaftesbury is only six smart Grosvenor Arms hotel and res- apartments, some with parking spaces, vaulted ceilings and private terraces, range from £130,000 to £225,000.

A MANOR — OR A CASTLE? Rural properties around Shaftesbury Thebestseat are spread across the counties of Som- erset, Dorset and Wiltshire. Wilson says the current sweet spot for buyers is £500,000 to £800,000. in the house Popular villages include the Don- £585,000: a four-bedroom house at heads, in the pretty Nadder Valley, and Wardour Court, with communal Cranborne Chase to the south. Most gardens. JS&S (01747 633009) buyers want a modernised house away from noisy roads. “They have an eye on potential running costs and upkeep, which is why thatched roofs are not always popular,” says Wilson. ! Houses on shared estates are appeal- " ing as second homes. Wyke Hall, a Grade II-listed 14th-century manor ! " house one mile from Gillingham, has been divided into individual homes. Jackson-Stops & Staff is selling West House, a three-bedroom, three-floor terrace, for £427,000. Six acres of com- £945,000: a four-bedroom house with munal grounds include a pool and an acre of gardens at Cucklington. tennis court, with annual maintenance Symonds & Sampson (01935 589054) and insurance charges of £2,400. Close to Tisbury and its station — jour- Four- and five-bedroom townhouses neys to Waterloo take one hour 50 with garages start from £585,000. minutes — Wardour Court is in the grounds of Wiltshire’s largest Georgian O Jackson-Stops & Staff: House, Wardour Castle. The 11 homes jackson-stops.co.uk have generous rooms, sash windows, O The Grosvenor Arms: high ceilings and modern interiors. thegrosvenorarms.co.uk

PUTTING DOWN ROOTS HERBALIST’S BACK HOME AFTER university in Weekends are spent with London, medical herbalist husband Nathan, their Jemma Cannon, pictured, terrier Eric and friends. trained at Kew Gardens “The Grosvenor Arms is and Chelsea Physic good for a grown-up meal Gardens before returning and good out-of-town home to North Dorset. In gastropubs include The 2007, she opened Beckford Arms and The Enchanted Plants, selling Foresters,” she says. “They her scented soaps and stock our soaps, too.” skincare products made The couple married this with plant extracts, and in year while sailing to New 2012 moved into her York on the Queen Mary 2 current shop in the centre and have begun married of Shaftesbury. life in romantically named “I love being part of such Bluebell Cottage, four a great community,” says miles from Shaftesbury. ! Cannon, 35. “It’s lovely having regular customers O Enchanted Plants: who become friends.” (enchantedplants.co.uk) EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 11 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Consumer campaign Homes & Property

OUSEHOLDS are being duped into renewing New series: expensive home insurance policies instead of shopping Haround for a cheaper deal. Are you being Under a widespread practice called “auto-renewal”, home insurers automatically renew policies for their customers each year. But while this ripped off? can be convenient and ensures households remain covered when their existing policy ends, critics say Home insurance costs can soar if you renew auto-renewal deters customers from shopping around and means they with the same firm year after year — it pays to can be caught out by big hikes in premiums. shop around and haggle, says Steve Lodge Insurers write to customers in advance of the renewal, informing prices in subsequent years when insurer’s own website. With them of the new premium. But where people renew. buildings insurance, don’t risk the price has gone up, most will not Even where an existing policy overpaying by covering your spell this out. includes a no-claims discount, property’s market value rather than They may also change features such households can generally still get a its rebuild value — which is generally as the excess on the policy — the cheaper deal by switching, she much lower. There is a free tool for amount deducted from claims — claims. calculating rebuild value on the without making this clear. Londoners who shop around could Association of British Insurer’s Although customers can cancel an pay about £200 on average for website. unwanted policy, most stay with buildings and contents cover, Having identified the lowest price their existing insurer and generally according to figures compiled for you could pay by switching, it can accept the auto-renewal price, Homes & Property by then be worth haggling with your according to price comparison Moneysupermarket.com. Average existing insurer for a better deal. website MoneySavingExpert.com. prices range from £260 in Research by Which? found that It warns that people who auto-renew Westminster to just £145 in Sutton. hagglers were offered discounts

often pay a “vastly inflated price”, averaging £51. GETTY and adds: “Insurers rely on your CHECK ONLINE Costly business: customers who auto-renew often pay a “vastly inﬂated price” inertia to keep charging you huge Online comparison services are a amounts year after year.” quick and convenient way to find a better deal. Moneysavingexpert.com LOYALTY DOESN’T PAY says that because the sites don’t all The Financial Conduct Authority compare the same insurers, it is regulator, which plans to publish a worth checking a number of them. report on auto-renewal before the To find the cheapest quote for a end of the year, says it is looking at typical home, it suggests searches on “remedies” — which could include CompareTheMarket.com, Confused. insurers having to make premium com and Moneysupermarket.com. increases clear. Two of the biggest insurers, Comparison websites point out that Direct Line and Aviva, are not on because insurers offer their best comparison sites, so it can be worth prices to new customers, households checking these directly, it adds. Some who don’t shop around at renewal special deals may also only be could be missing out on significant available directly from insurers or savings. brokers. People who have been with their home insurer for a number of years ALL IN THE DETAIL could be paying hundreds of pounds The AA, an insurance broker, says more than if they switched. comparison site users should watch “Loyalty doesn’t pay — insurers are out for insurers using high excesses very new business-led,” says and policy exclusions to offer a Moneysupermarket.com insurance market-beating price. It is also expert Sasha Evans, adding that most important to double-check make a loss from customers in their comparison site quotes and the cover first year and then look to increase on policies by clicking through to the

HOW BOROUGHS COMPARE IN LONDON

Most expensive Average buildings and Cheapest Average buildings and boroughs contents quote boroughs contents quote Westminster £260 Bromley £158 Camden £244 Croydon £154 Islington £226 Barking & Dagenham £153 Kensington & Chelsea £225 Havering £150 Hammersmith & Fulham £223 Bexley £148 Barnet £219 Sutton £145 Source: Moneysupermarket.com, average of the best quotes obtained by users for building and contents policies by borough

TAXING ISSUE HOME PREMIUM HIKE

HOME INSURANCE costs are set to summer Budget — applies when edge up following a tax rise on households buy a new policy or insurance premiums which came when they renew existing cover for into effect on Sunday. their property. The increase in insurance premium While the Association of British tax — from six per cent to 9.5 per cent Insurers says the tax rise hits of premiums — is likely to add more households in the pocket for having a than £10 a year to the average cost of “financial safety net, not a luxury”, a buildings and contents policy, says price comparison websites point out the Association of British Insurers. that people who shop around when The new insurance premium tax their policy comes up for renewal rate — which was announced by could make savings that easily offset Chancellor George Osborne in his the increase. 14 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Exhibition

ROM grocers selling fruit, is strewn with all manner of things, nuts and gingerbread, to card including a child’s sock and a “close players, drinkers, musicians stool” — a cabinet with a chamber pot and lovers — and every other inside which served as the lavatory — aspect of ordinary life besides while a discarded plate on the window F— 17th-century paintings of Dutch bench holds bones from a recent meal. interiors reveal a bygone world in A boy eats pottage — a thick vegetable incredible detail. soup — while his dog looks on with Britain’s own King George IV’s delight beady eyes; his mother feeds the baby in these absorbing, deeply human whose homemade bassinet is behind paintings, several of which he bought her chair, while father sprawls with in 1814, means that the Royal Collection pipe and beer after a copious meal of Rough and ready: a rubbish-strewn peasant’s house of is able to show 27 of them, including bread and round Dutch cheese, the 1668 by Van Ostade with a “close stool” toilet in the corner Johannes Vermeer’s A Lady at the remains strewn on a hexagonal table Virginals with a Gentleman, pro- with a skewed white cloth. duced in the 1660s and acquired by The ad hoc curtain is made with a bit George’s father, King George III. These of blue fabric over a saggy string; a fold- magical works really conjure up life at ing trestle table is clumsily stashed; a Home life that time, and the cities of Amsterdam tipped-over reed basket and a little- and Delft still have buildings and used broom show both the disarray but houses from the period in which such also typical life in this peasant’s home. scenes took place. Messy, yes — but there’s every mark of Pieter de Hooch’s 1657 A Courtyard contentment, too. in the age in Delft at Evening shows a sunny Dutch householders sent their courtyard of packed yellow sand, servants to get provisions in local behind a fine red-brick house. Two shops, a popular theme for paintings maids are at work — the elder, in a plain including Gerrit Dou’s The Grocer’s of Vermeer pine chair, spins in the shade cast by QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2015 (C) HER MAJESTY TRUST/ COLLECTION ALL PICTURES ROYAL Shop from 1672. A maid with a stout, the garden wall of a neighbouring Weigh to go: a maid with a pail has grapes weighed out in copper-bound wooden pail is having building. The younger woman crosses Gerrit Dou’s The Grocer’s Shop (1672). Servants shopping for grapes weighed out from a woven flat A Royal Collection show reveals the swept yard, head bowed against middle-class masters was a popular Dutch Golden Age theme basket. The pretty female grocer is sur- the glare, a wooden pail in one hand, rounded by supplies, from a broken Dutch domestic life in the 17th a glazed earthenware pitcher dangling cone of rock salt, to a blue-and-white from the other, perhaps heading to the platter of onions, to a hanging wire century, says Philippa Stockley well. The house’s red pantiles, large basket of eggs — just as we use today. glass windows and high chimneys show Her finest offering resembles a tray, but the stature of their employers, while is actually a glazed slab of gingerbread, beyond, the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) a Dutch favourite, temptingly propped and the squat town hall of Delft are on the counter. Decorated with instantly recognisable. Cherry or plum almonds, it’s a work of art. At the back blossom shows that it is spring. These of the bustling shop another assistant neat women appear to be contented cuts bread. servants of a well-run household. In a beautiful, but also naughtier $%(.(&0 In just such a middle-class home, painting, A Woman at her Toilet, by Card Players in a Sunlit Room, again Jan Steen, we glimpse a Dutch bed- " by De Hooch, show the owners playing room, and not a poor one. Its four- while a similar maid crosses the inter- poster bed has sky-blue silk hangings, nal courtyard — this time with a flagon with visible folds showing they are of beer. This marvellous painting really newly hung. On the rumpled bed a shows what such interiors looked like, woman falling out of her bodice from their costly leaded windows with perches to pull her stockings back on reed sunscreens, to the plank-and- after an activity one can only guess at. brace outer door with its cast-iron ring- A garter mark on her calf shows that pull, to the good-quality grey-and-white the stockings have not been off for long. ceramic floor, its tiles so beautifully Nearby, a lute with a broken string, and painted that you can see where they a grinning skull, comment silently. The are uneven. The walls are distempered, woman may be a prostitute but, if so, and there’s a nice oak peg coat-rack she is successful, as shown by a jewel- and a painting. Meanwhile, the closest lery box spilling pearls and her fur player sits on a chair of turned oak. Playtime: Pieter de Hooch’s Card Players in a Sunlit Room, clothing. The house may not be grand, but it is c1658, shows a young woman engrossed in a card game with Perhaps it is the forensic detail and the definitely comfortable and its well- the home’s owners as a maid brings fresh supplies of beer sense of glimpsing real lives, at least for dressed occupants can afford to while a moment, that make these works from away the hours, enjoying beers and the Dutch Golden Age so wonderful. pipes. Much less well known is Adriaen van O Masters of the Everyday: Ostade’s The Interior of a Peasant’s Dutch Artists in the Age of Cottage, showing an unruly semi-hovel Vermeer is at the Queen’s Gallery, of rough timber construction. The floor SW1, opening November 13. Visit royalcollection.org.uk for details.

$// ) &/$-0 '( /$&(' % (' * (0%( ( # -- , 0 Star of the show: Vermeer’s A Lady at Stocking ﬁller: Jan Steen’s A Woman at her Toilet (1663) shows Caught in time: Pieter de Hooch’s $ + ( $' ' !" the Virginals with a Gentleman (1662-5) a well-appointed Dutch bedroom, possibly a prostitute’s, and A Courtyard in Delft at Evening shows is a treasure of the Royal Collection suggests the antics that may have recently taken place there a younger and older maid at work EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 15 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Design | Homes & Property

From far left: London-based Buster+Punch’s new slender LED “light pipe” casts light outwards, but also spotlights any object below. The bulbs last 10 times as long as old tungsten versions and cost £39.99 from busterandpunch.com

The Mega Bulb SR2 by Danish “light artist” Soﬁe Refer aims to emulate the imperfections in the glass of much earlier bulbs. With a porcelain lamp holder, it is available in a variety of cable colours and with three different glass ﬁnishes — clear, silver and gold. All versions are suited to either hand- wound bulbs with their soft vintage glow or the white heat of a modern halogen — £139 from rume.co.uk

Voice-control your The squirrel cage globe light bulb (£23.08) and the Factorylux raw steel light bulb and let it wire balloon cage bulb (£42.84) are a homage to the earliest light bulbs that wake you up or play had ﬁlaments which “danced” up and down, rather like squirrels running up you music, says and down in their cages — the animals were popular pets in the 19th century. Barbara Chandler From lightbulbs-direct.com

HE Hue light bulb is straight are brighter, cheaper versions that out of science fiction. Manu- come in attractive shapes. “LEDs are factured by electrical giant the best bulbs for saving energy. They Philips, it looks normal are the way forward,” says Nick Smith, enough, but can change a director of Yorkshire-based light- colourT and be voice-controlled via your bulbs-direct.com, who also sits on the smartphone using Apple’s Siri operat- technical panel of the Lighting Industry ing system — visit meethue.com. Association (thelia.org.uk). Replace- A free app can apply a timer, act as a ment bulbs cost about £5. LEDs are so dimmer switch or arrange to wake you long-lasting — up to an incredible up gradually. It can also flash a pulse 50,000 hours —that they are now built in time to music. More explanation can into many fittings, most noticeably in be found at johnlewis.com, where the sleek, wafer-thin strips. Changing a bulb retails from £49.95. The store also bulb is a thing of the past. sells a bulb at £79 that acts as a speaker A Heal’s “mix-and-match” stall sells playing via Bluetooth. LED bulbs, braided flexes, lamp holders However, most people simply want a and shades, all made in England. The good source of light and there are plenty new lighting shop is at the homeware of options to choose from at John Lewis specialist’s showroom in The Queens in Oxford Street. It has 80 different Building, Westbourne Grove, W2. types of bulb hanging down in groups that you can turn off and on, so it’s a A new design firm, London-based good place to seek inspiration. Buster+Punch, is going a step further to make exposed bulbs truly contempo- The old incandescent bulbs that once lit rary. It has designed a robust, elongated our homes are now illegal because they glass shape with a narrow upright LED wasted so much energy. We loved their “light pipe” inside that casts light out- sparkle and warm glow. Their common wards, but also spotlights any object substitutes — Compact Fluorescent Bulbs come out below. Bulb life is around 10,000 hours. Lamps, or CFLs — have not proved In a crystal, gold or smoked finish, it popular. They have awkward shapes, In fact this type of bulb is not new at to resemble a squirrel in a cage — them without being dazzled. They are costs £39.99 from busterandpunch.com warm up slowly, tend to flicker and their all: in keeping with the craze for squirrels were commonly kept as pets priced from about £15, and the fancier (showroom, by appointment, at 24 light quality is often poor. However, they all things retro, it’s a copy of early light in the 19th century. Squirrel cage bulbs types can cost a good deal more. Southwark Street, SE1). save about 80 per cent of energy costs, bulbs. are hung without shades, sometimes A new version of the Plumen also has and last upwards of 8,000 hours — the The “squirrel cage” nickname singly but more often in lines or Experts agree that LEDs are the future. LED technology plus a decorative shape old bulbs used a lot of energy by getting applies because the light running up groups as they do not give out much Light Emitting Diodes of the past inspired by the work of modernist artist hot and lasted about 1,000 hours. and down the filaments is supposed light. This also means you can admire tended to be rather dim but now there and sculptor Barbara Hepworth. An exception among uninspiring modern bulbs is the Plumen CFL, with its slender, interlacing tubes and stunning shape. Since it came on to the DON’T HIDE YOUR LIGHT market 2010 it has become a design 1 The Quad Medium Table Light, in classic, now featuring in design muse- 1 2 3 4 weathered steel, has a clear glass ums around the world. It costs about “shade”. It’s £549 plus VAT from £19 (plumen.com). uk.originalbtc.com

One new style of light bulb is all the rage 2 The Neon Bottle Lamp from because of a loophole in the law. Out There Interiors gives off a warm, Squirrel cage bulbs can be seen in bars soft light from a white neon bulb and restaurants, and in the homes of encased inside a coloured style-conscious Londoners. Made of 39cm-high bottle sealed with a cork. glass in lots of different shapes, they It’s £115 from outthereinteriors.com are often dramatically oversized. Filled with clusters of tungsten fila- 3 A Seated Monkey Lamp holds the ments, they give off a pleasingly warm, bulb aloft — £180 from Out There orange glow. These bulbs are designed Interiors (as before). to be seen, not hidden by shades or opal glass. 4 The Sixties-inspired Walter Table They use just as much energy as Light has a satin copper stand and tungsten bulbs but they are not comes with either an anthracite or deemed illegal because they are opal glass shade. This version is 27cm classed as “decorative”, which means high. From £289 plus VAT from they are exempt from the regulations. Original BTC (as before). 16 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Events

1 2 3 4 5 Five things to see in November By Barbara Chandler

1 Modern Shows, Dulwich College, 2 Festival of Christmas, November 3 Handmade in Britain, November 4 Olympia Art & Antiques Fair, now 5 Mino Washi Paper from Gifu, Dulwich Common, SE21; November 22, 27-29; Harrods, SW1 (harrods.com). 13-15; Chelsea Old Town Hall (handmade until Sunday, National Hall Olympia, Japan, now until November 13, The 10am-4pm (modernshows.com). CHRISTMAS is up and running at inbritain.co.uk). £8 in advance; £10 on Hammersmith Road, W14 (olympia Proud Archivist, Hertford Road, N1 Tickets £10; two tickets for £10 after 2pm Harrods, with a huge spread of the door — show this page and get -antiques.com). Tickets £20 — show this (theproudarchivist.co.uk). IN THE Sixties, brutalist Christison decorations and gifts, special two-for-one entry. page and get two-for-one entry. BEAUTIFUL washi paper has been Hall was built at this famous school. restaurant menus and the ritziest MORE than 120 designer-makers will CELEBRATE the 25th edition of this made by hand in Japan since the Now actress Olivia Scott-Taylor, Father Christmas in town. Get be selling their handmade wares in prestigious fair with a glass of bubbly 8th century. Today, the skill rests in pictured, selling revamped old striped inspiration for your tree at free this elegant hall. Adam Aaronson will from the champagne bar, then just a handful of families. Designers school chairs, is one of 65 dealers who workshops on the second floor in the bring his mouth-blown glass, with tree wander amid a spread of treasures love washi — witness the iconic Akari will be at the venue, offering design Christmas at Home department. In baubles at £12.50, tumblers at £15 and that includes a pair of blue glass lamps by Isamu Noguchi. London classics from the last century. Look the Cookshop, nibble a Harrods perfume bottles, pictured, from £45. decanters, c1850, pictured, from designers Barber & Osgerby have just out for pieces by Charles and Ray mince pie and watch festive demos by Knitting is big this year, with cushions, exhibitor Thomas Woodham-Smith. launched a stunning range of washi Eames, currently stars of a show at the Cathryn Dresser, contestant in the throws — and even china patterned to See the highlights with free tours lamps for Islington’s design shop Barbican. Also find ceramics, glass 2012 Great British Bake Off. Find dates look like cable stitch. Also find daily at 1.30pm by art consultant Twentytwentyone — and their maker, and sculptural lights. and times online. furniture, textiles and silverware. Vanessa Curry. Ozeki, features in this show.

EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 17 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Saving money | Homes & Property

with adhesive magnetic strips. Choose between the DIY option and order online using your own measurements, or opt for the made-to-measure serv- GetGete it a ice. The DIY option costs from £55 a metre square panel (ecoease.co.uk). Insulated roller blinds and lined cur- wrappewrawrarapappppepe tains also reduce heat loss. UP THE CHIMNEY If your chimney flue is draughty, insert a Chimella into the By Katie Law cavity and open it up like an inverted umbrella. The device will also prevent OW that most fixed energy rubble and bird droppings falling down tariffs have been dropped the flue. If you accidentally light a fire just as the weather is without removing the Chimella, don’t getting colder, it’s worth worry — it is designed to burn away Blast away: put a Chimella up the thinking about how to safely. It costs £59.99 (chimella.com). chimney to block out any draughts makeN our homes warmer — without simply cranking up the thermostat. RADIATORS Reflect the heat from Few of us want the expense of installing radiators back into the room not out double glazing or cavity wall insulation through the wall with Radflek’s radiator and most lofts are insulated already. reflection panels, which are made So what are the best simple and cost- from thick laminated aluminium foil. effective ways to save on energy bills? Cut a panel to size and slide it into the Here are our favourite five. gap between the wall and radiator, where it won’t be seen. From £21.99 THE FRONT DOOR Stop draughts coming for three sheets — enough foil for up to through front and back doors by fixing six radiators (radflek.com). a rising portiere rod on the door. The curtain moves backwards and forwards HEATING Control the home thermostat as the door opens and shuts, and it remotely using British Gas’s Hive app. won’t get stuck. Rods from The Poles A British Gas engineer will install the Company are easy to put up and come smart thermostat, which connects to in white, bronze or nickel finishes in a wi-fi, then control it using an app on a range of lengths to fit most doors. From smartphone. It allows for much greater £33 (thepolescompany.co.uk). flexibility in turning the heating up or down wherever you are. Plus the new WINDOWS If you haven’t got double thermostat is a beauty, designed by glazing, Ecoease sells panels made Yves Behar. It costs £249 for the kit or from lightweight, fire-retardant, glass- £99 to upgrade to the new thermostat like polyester (polyethylene terephtha- Covered: a Cosidor rising portiere rod from Pole Design, from £157 (poledesign. if you are an existing Hive customer Smart trick: the Hive thermostat can late) that fit on to inner window frames co.uk) or ﬁnd rods from just £27.50 at The Poles Company (thepolescompany.co.uk) (hivehome.com). be controlled through an app via wi-ﬁ

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22 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Outdoors Pattie Barron

INTER is not the best time for the garden, but that is no reason to live with a forest of bare stems and not a Wflower in sight. Instead, celebrate the season by planting, right now, just one or two shrubs, climbers and container plants that will liven up the garden — and the view from the French windows — no end. Viburnums are renowned for their winter flowers, but the viburnum with the most va-va-voom is V bodnantense Dawn, which has, on bare stems from the end of this month through to spring, the prettiest clusters of frost- proof sugar pink flowers that smell divine. Plant this award-winning shrub at the back of your plot to give you good reason to trek outdoors on the coldest days and snip a few stems to enjoy indoors. Hamamelis, or witch hazel, is another bare-stemmed beauty with fabulous spidery blooms from the start of winter that, in variety Jelena, are a rich, glow- ing shade of copper. In autumn, the leaves take on wonderful tints, too, before falling. You could grow this curiosity in a container so you can admire the fuzzy flowers and enjoy the spicy citrus scent at close quarters.

Now that box caterpillar and box blight pose a double threat, we need to look at alternative evergreens. Christmas box, sarcococca, is no relation so is free of bug and blight, thrives in shade and, in variety Purple Stem, has long, slender leaves and honey-scented, pink- flushed white flowers all through winter, which are followed by small, navy blue berries. All that, and purple Winter stems, too. Edgeworthia chrysantha, also called paper bush, is a little known and even less grown winter-flowering shrub, which is a shame because it’s a gem, producing almond-scented flower sparklers clusters of white and yellow on the tips of bare stems. It needs a sheltered spot Banish bare stems and drab days — there are plenty —against a warm wall facing the sun is ideal — and as it gets no bigger than of bright, beautiful plants that will thrive in the cold about 1.5m, suits a container very well. Red Dragon is the feistier, flame-coloured version. Clothe a doorway, a bare, sunny wall or even the garden shed with an ever- green climber that has handsome, glossy green leaves which turn bronze in winter and, best of all, masses of dangling creamy-lemon bell flowers that keep on coming until spring. As a bonus, easy-growing Clematis cirrhosa Wisley Cream needs no pruning.

Embrace the frost with crisp, sparkly container displays that will shine out on grey days and in fading light. Instead of terracotta, which is prone to crack- Clockwise from top left: ornamental cabbages, framed in ing in freezing temperatures, employ ivy and senecio, put on a silvery show; winter-ﬂowering winter-hardy metal containers such as cherry Prunus subhirtella Autumnalis Rosea; Christmas zinc troughs, brushed steel planters or box Sarcococca hookeriana var digyna Purple Stem; even high-sided cake tins, holes spicy-scented witch hazel Hamamelis Jelena punched in their bases. On the patio, you could create a table- Photographs: top talking point of white violas, white- Marianne Majerus berried Gaultheria mucronata and frothy white calluna heather, tucking several grey-green Euphorbia you favour spiky, architectural plants, other side of the French windows, posi- flakes that, before you know it, will in small plants of pale grey senecio to myrsinites to spill over the edges, and forgo the ubiquitous bronze phormium tion a galvanised bucket planted with herald the spring. make doilies of lacy foliage, or back them up with a cheery row of and, instead, invest in an Astelia Silver the winter-flowering cherry, Prunus surround the fat rosettes of pale green purple-blotched white pansies and Shadow, with fabulous silvered spear- subhirtella Autumnalis Rosea, to O For outdoor events this month, visit and white ornamental cabbage with blue dwarf conifers. Underplant with shaped foliage that will gleam in winter provide a delectable flurry of soft pink homesandproperty.co.uk/events trails of green-and-white variegated baby white narcissi bulbs, such as sunlight and make a more dramatic blossom whenever the wind catches O Garden queries? Email our RHS expert bird’s foot ivy. In a window box, plant Thalia, for an early spring hurrah. If silhouette. Most importantly, on the the boughs. Call them winter snow- at [email protected] 26 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Our home homesandproperty.co.uk

Form and function: the striking staircase has built-in shelving at ground-ﬂoor level

JustJust oonene tthinghingg Big and blue Creating a stylish home for a glamorous power couple is no easy task — but architect Rashid Ali is comfortable at the cutting edge. By Philippa Stockley

BOXY steel staircase painted in a searing cobalt blue, something between a go-go dancer’s cage and a sculpture at the Tate, isn’t for every- Aone. But then not everyone is Philip Bueno de Mesquita — the entrepreneur who set up the successful trainer brand Acupuncture in the Nineties — and his wife, fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic, whose sexy, boldly coloured designs are a catwalk favourite with everyone from the Duchess of Cambridge to Michelle Obama and actress Cate Blanchett. This glamorous power couple bought their three-storey house new in 2013. One of a pair being built by a developer in north London, it was approaching the fit-out stage. The staircase sat solidly in the middle of the rectangular floors and was boxed Bold statement: with Adjaye, he had also helped design creating constantly changing effects. The in by thick blockwork, so it effectively the feature Ilincic’s previous home. steel fins were made to Ali’s 3D designs cut each floor in half, with small rooms staircase was While discussing the house’s internal in sections by a specialist fabricator, then to either side and lots of doors. custom-built for redesign, Ali and his clients toyed with fitted by the developer. But the couple wanted their house the home of lining some of the walls with intense blue Next, it had to be painted. If you have opened up to create a fluid space with fashion designer fabric. Then Ali came up with the idea ever painted staircase spindles you will plentiful light and a modern gallery feel, Roksanda Ilincic, of making a visually permeable steel know how fiddly that can be, but Ali’s particularly on the ground floor. So they left, and her staircase, powder-coated in the same staircase had to be spray-painted in posi- called in Rashid Ali. entrepreneur vivid blue. tion without getting paint all over the Ali, 37, who in 2011 was shortlisted for husband Philip Made of narrow steel “fins”, it would place. architect of the year, started out with Bueno de be extremely strong, but also see- It was tricky, but he did lots of colour “starchitect” David Adjaye, and so Mesquita through. Light would move around it in tests beforehand to get both the shade was no stranger to bold colour and unexpected ways as the sun moved, and and surface finish perfect. With some-

striking form. When he was working REX also as different electric lights came on, thing this dominant, “nearly right” just EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 27 powered by Our home | Homes & Property

Rhapsody in blue: the see-through staircase’s design creates different visual effects, depending on the source of light

White’s right: the bespoke kitchen units are lacquered MDF, ﬁnished with extra-deep, softly gleaming Corian worktops

doesn’t cut it. The stair also has the “chunky” window frames and went a £50,000 budget, there is usually a huge Best bar none: GET THE LOOK Special effects: built-in shelves on the sides at ground- for a narrower option. Rather like swap- amount that can be done. the cobalt blue Architect Rashid Ali’s practice is floors are poured floor level, making it practical as well as ping heavy spectacles for frameless Detail is incredibly important, and it is staircase, made RA Projects, at raprojects.info resin in a custom sculptural. ones, the windows now melt into the what architects excel at. of steel “fins”, is Flexiflow poured resin floors are by pale grey, above. Completely opening up the ground background, while also letting in more Mirrors: don’t use mean little strips of the centrepiece Altro, at altro.co.uk Swapping chunky floor has made the room feel much light. mirror in a bathroom. One huge piece of the house and Bathroom tiles from Mosa at mosa.nl window frames bigger, with the dramatic staircase at its of mirror will enlarge the sense of space, helps to give the and the Japanese-style bath is available for ultra-slim core. Poured resin floors, mixed to a RASHID ALI’S TIPS and if you get one cut by a glass mer- ground floor a from companies such as william ones lets in more special pale grey; an all-white bespoke Use an architect: they create added chant, it will only cost about £100. gallery feel garvey.co.uk natural light kitchen of lacquered MDF with an value for their clients — not just Lighting: I like architectural stick lights. Sinks from Duravit at duravit.co.uk extra-deep, gleaming white Corian work- aesthetically, where even small things They accentuate the space, there is no Architectural stick lights from bulb top, and architectural strip lighting, with can really improve your daily experience “box”, and you can add dimmers. Avoid Photographs: company Osram, at osram.co.uk LED bulbs on dimmers, complete the of life, but financially, too. Good design downlighters — they are corporate and Lyndon Corian used for work surfaces is from clean-lined gallery look. Ali also replaced increases value. Even if a client only has focus light too much in one spot. Douglas Dupont, at dupont.co.uk 30 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Property searching Spotlight Tooting With bustling markets, coffee shops and great Asian restaurants, this is a spot that’s newly cool — yet still affordable. By Anthea Masey

HE arrival of Soho House’s in Mitcham Road, a former cinema that Chicken Shop restaurant in is now a bingo hall. In his 1966 book Tooting High Street, along Nairn’s London, architectural critic Ian with a growing independent Nairn says of the Granada: “Miss the coffee culture, are sure signs Tower of London, if you have to, but Tthat Tooting has acknowledged the don’t miss this.” arrival of newcomers with deeper Built in the Thirties, the splendid pockets — though no one is further than interior is the work of Russian stage five minutes from a fast-food shop. designer Theodore Komisarjevsky. It As lively as this district is, things is an elaborate Gothic fantasy complete promise to get even more spirited with a disorienting hall of mirrors and, when Tooting Labour MP Sadiq Khan for non-bingo players, the best time to takes on Richmond Park Conservative see it is during London Open House MP Zac Goldsmith on May 5 next year each September. in the battle to become London’s next The way gentrification has crept mayor. Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt made a southwards along the Northern line — Tooting lies in south-west London splash there when he filmed scenes from Clapham to Balham through to and sits either side of Stane Street, the for British director Guy Ritchie’s Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway — Roman road that runs from the capital gangster film, Snatch. At 100 yards long illustrates how buyers are pushed to Chichester. and 33 feet wide, the lido is the largest further out into the suburbs in search One of the area’s Underground sta- fresh water swimming pool in England. of homes in more affordable areas. tions, along with the iconic local lido, It was built in a few short months in In the case of Tooting, this mainly carry the name Bec, after Tooting’s 1906, when the project provided much- Asian neighbourhood — evident from its historic connection with Abbaye Notre- needed local jobs. It is open during many curry houses, sari and jewellery Dame du Bec, a still-thriving Benedic- winter to members of South London shops and abundant fruit and vegetable tine monastery near Rouen in Swimming Club, which can trace its stalls — is now attracting a new genera- Normandy, France. own history back to a few months after tion of young middle-class buyers. Tooting Bec Lido, with its multicol- the lido was launched. When Soho House opened a branch not just the place where you rested The area attracts: estate agent Noel oured changing room doors, is one of Tooting’s other well-known landmark of its Chicken Shop chain two your head because it was all you could Lawrence, from the local branch of the capital’s best-known film locations. is the Grade I-listed Granada building years ago, Tooting finally became afford but cool, too. Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, says

HAVE YOUR SAY: TOOTING LOCALS TWEET THEIR TIPS @lottiebarn Best things to @gaiatarapilates Enjoy do: walk around the markets, delicious juices and visit the fresh naan shop and smoothies @RoutetoJuice pound-a-bowl veg market and Pilates @gaiatarapilates and lovely food @swhiteley For tapas @TotaRestaurant #Tooting @littletaperia, pub @theantelopesw17, posh pub @tooting_gardens Local £389,950 £789,950 £1.15 MILLION @Trafalgar_Arms, best Irish favourites: @UnwinedSW17 A RECENTLY refurbished two-bedroom flat in IN PLEASANT, residential Church Lane, SW17 CLOSE to good shops and restaurants, this bar @RambleTooting, wine bar, @Mudtooting Fountain Road, Tooting, with potential to add a this period family house has three double five-bedroom house in Mellison Road, SW17 @GaryChadwicks opens soon for coffee & brunch, roof terrace (Hamptons; 020 8012 1258). bedrooms. Through KFH (020 8767 1400). is so stylish inside (Foxtons; 020 8772 8000). @VKrishnatooting for curry @neighbourhoot Amazing & @TheSelkirkSW17 Lebanese dishes at Meza. To find a home in Tooting, visit rightmove.co.uk/tooting There’s one on Trinity Road, @wandojcf1978 Tooting Bec and another on @VKrishnatooting best curry For more about Tooting, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlighttooting Mitcham Road, Tooting in curry heartland of London

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In high spirits: homesandproperty.co.uk powered by left, Laura Wood, co-owner of There are local branches of Sains- Unwined wine bury’s, TK Maxx, New Look, Wilco and shop, bar and Primark, plus fried chicken, gourmet STATS CHECK kitchen, runs a burger and latte bars aplenty. In Upper tasting session Tooting Road, there is Walker Wyatt WHAT HOMES COST Coffee and a new branch of Tartine Bakery. Brickwood Café, part of a small BUYING IN TOOTING south London chain with branches in (Average prices) Clapham and Balham, is newly opened One-bedroom flat £348,000 Record breaker: in Tooting Market and models itself on Two-bedroom flat £503,000 Tooting Bec an Antipodean coffee shop with an Two-bedroom house Lido, right, is extensive brunch menu. Pedal Back £547,000 England’s biggest Café is a bike shop with a café in Broad- Three-bedroom house £665,000 fresh water way Market. In Tooting High Street, Four-bedroom house £932,000 swimming pool there is Coffee Company and Tartine’s Source: Rightmove original branch, while MUD café in Mitcham Road has a big following. RENTING IN TOOTING Tooting also has many fine Victorian (Average rates) pubs. The Wheatsheaf opposite Toot- One-bedroom flat £1,285 a month ing Bec Underground station fought off Two-bedroom flat £1,560 a month an attempt to convert it into a Tesco Two-bedroom house Metro, The King’s Head is in Upper £1,614 a month Tooting Road, The Selkirk is in Selkirk Three-bedroom house £2,267 a month Road, and The Trafalgar Arms — which Four-bedroom house £2,719 a month is more roadhouse than Victorian city Source: Rightmove boozer — in Tooting High Street has a smart outside garden at the front. The Antelope in Mitcham Road is the FOR MORE, VISIT Stepping it up: best gastropub, while The Gorringe homesandproperty.co.uk Tooting Common Park in London Road, a pub near the is popular with train station with a boutique cinema in O Use our School Checker to runners, dog the cellar, is a welcome addition to this find catchment areas and walkers and far-flung corner of Tooting. inspection reports picnickers Other local favourites, all in Mitcham O The lowdown on Tooting’s Road, include all-day brasserie rental scene many newcomers arrive looking for Clear focus: Graveney & Meadow, bar and music O Latest homes developments something they can afford, having photographer venue Tooting Tram & Social set in a started their search in nearby Clapham Michael Mapp former tram shed, and the Little Bar, or Balham. “We are seeing first-time at his studio which is run by Madeleine Lim, who buyers aged between 30 and 40 who in Balham once worked at Homes & Property. work in the City,” he says. High Road Staying power: Lawrence says there SOME LIKE IT HOT is a natural progression with buyers Thankfully you can still rely on Tooting trading up to houses in the Furzedown for a decent, affordable curry. Apollo area, although some will instead have Banana Leaf, Dosa n Chutny and long- TEST YOUR loft and side return extensions, before standing Sree Krishna all serve South KNOWLEDGE eventually moving further out. Indian or Sri Lankan food in Tooting High Street, while Mirch Masala and SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS Lahore Karahi are normally packed. Upper Tooting Road, Tooting High Travel: Tooting Broadway and Tooting Street and Mitcham Road are where Bec Tube stations are on the Northern the majority of shops are, offering line. Tooting train station is served by something for everyone. There are sari Thameslink services, with trains to shops, Asian jewellery stores and Blackfriars in 27 minutes and St Pan- places with wonderful displays of fruit cras in 37 minutes. Some commuters and vegetables. go into Waterloo via Wimbledon. All Two eclectic markets, Tooting Market stations are in Zone 3 and an annual and Broadway Market, sell everything travelcard costs £1,508. Where might you meet a Martian from luggage and clothes to Asian Council: Wandsworth is Conservative- in Tooting? Find the answer at spices, while newer stallholders are Photographs: controlled, and Band D council tax for homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlighttooting now widening the markets’ appeal. Daniel Lynch this year is £704.57. 34 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | Ask the expert Help us force neighbour to shift his skip WHAT’S I HAVE a mortgage on a two-bedroom Fiona YOUR maisonette that covers the top two floors of a McNulty PROBLEM? Qfour-storey Edwardian terrace house. There IF YOU have a is only one other flat in the house, covering OUR LAWYER ANSWERS question for the lower ground and ground floor. YOUR QUESTIONS Fiona McNulty, My master bedroom, which is on the top floor, is please email large and I would like to build an en suite in the WE OWN a semi-detached legalsolutions@ corner. I’ve been told I don’t need planning house with a shared standard.co.uk permission, but what about Building Regulations? Q driveway that leads to or write to Legal Do I also need to get the freeholder’s permission? the garages for both Solutions, Homes They wanted to charge a huge fee last year when I properties. A skip has been put on & Property, approached them about other work, so I would rather the driveway without our London Evening keep them out of it, if I can. permission and our neighbours Standard, 2 Derry refuse to move it. We have also had Street, W8 5EE. BUILDING Regulations are concerned with problems with them and their We regret that design and construction — particularly with the visitors parking on the driveway, questions cannot A health and safety of people in and around making it tricky for us to access be answered buildings. Generally, the construction of a new our bins. This is so difficult, as my individually, but en suite bathroom will require Building Regulations husband has mobility problems. we will try to consent. The onus is on you as the owner of the What can we do now? feature them maisonette, and also on the person carrying out the work, here. Fiona to ensure regulations are complied with. FIRST, look at your title McNulty is a Consider the terms of your lease carefully to see if you deeds to establish how the legal director will require the freeholder’s prior written consent. If such A driveway is owned. Either in the private consent is necessary, the lease is also likely to say that the you or your neighbour is wealth group of freeholder’s consent should not be unreasonably likely to own it, with the other having Foot Anstey withheld. You are, however, likely to have to pay the a right of way over it. (footanstey.com). freeholder’s surveying and legal fees for dealing with your There are probably covenants, too, Explain that their skip should not be not be causing a nuisance by request. You will also have to provide the freeholder with regulating and restricting the way the on the driveway, and request its obstructing your driveway with plans for them and their surveyor to consider. driveway can be used. Hopefully, removal. either a skip or with visitors’ cars. As you have a mortgage, you should notify your lender there will be a restrictive covenant If that fails, formally write to your As a last resort, you may take court of the works you intend to do and you should obtain the preventing it from being obstructed neighbour stating that you will be action, seeking damages and/or an lender’s written consent, if appropriate. by vehicles parked on it. instructing a solicitor to act on your injunction which will require the As your neighbours have refused to behalf if the situation cannot be neighbour to remove the skip and More legal O These answers can only be a very brief commentary on move the skip despite your having resolved, and remind your stop any future obstructions. Do seek Q&As the issues raised and should not be relied on as legal advice. asked them to do so, you should neighbour of relevant covenants and legal advice in this regard, however, Visit: homesand No liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar contact the skip hire company. obligations. Your neighbour should as court action can be costly. property.co.uk issues, you should obtain advice from a solicitor.

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MONDAY The last one in at 8.45am falls victim to the daily “coffee rule” and has to buy Buyer’s so excited a round for the whole team — so as I was in early, it’s another free coffee for me. Monday mornings are busy and I she forgets baby already have a full inbox from my view- ings on Saturday, as well as new inquir- ies to follow up. I have almost 300 in the Old Town to a couple needing an interested buyers on my “call list”, so artist’s studio. I’m familiar with this Diary of time management is key. house, as I sold it last year. Finished to A gentleman from Eastbourne walks a high standard, it’s the kind of place an estate in this afternoon, looking for a bolt hole. that’s popular with downsizers, and it Although he already owns a property is perfect for this couple because it in Marylebone, he wants something comes with planning permission for a agent small in south-west London for his studio in the garden. monthly visit up to the capital from the Finishing the day on a high, I complete THURSDAY East Sussex coast — lucky for some. the sale of a penthouse flat overlooking A woman has travelled from west I book him in for a viewing on Wednes- Clapham Common. I meet the buyer at London to see two flats before 8.30am day and he leaves with one of our com- the flat — along with his mother and — which wouldn’t usually be a problem, pany bags, as his 5p supermarket carrier father, who are contributing signifi- but I was at a late gig last night. Good is about to burst. cantly to the cost — with a Fortnum & transport links are the key requirement Later in the afternoon, I go with a Mason hamper and a lovely Marsh & for this buyer and even a 10-minute mother and her newborn baby on view- Parsons candle... and the keys, of walk to the Tube is too far. So I quickly ings. She is so excited about the last course. ring the owner of a flat that I know house, she calls her husband there and should be perfect for her, as it’s right then to persuade him to see it this WEDNESDAY next to Wandsworth Road train evening. As she leaves, I shout: “I think Changing my walk to work this morn- station. you’ve forgotten something!” — her ing, I take the leafy way up into the Old As I return to the office, my manager baby’s fast asleep in the front room of Town, where I bump into a buyer is blaming Thames Water works for the the house. I dealt with more than two years ago. traffic, but the coffee rule still applies. I enjoy living and working in the area, I spend the next few hours calling my TUESDAY as there is a real sense of community. list of buyers and get a bunch of view- burglary, which isn’t uncommon in this chain, and a slightly higher amount Our sales meeting in Battersea starts at I spend the afternoon with a great ings booked for the weekend. industry. He was nearly knocked over from a buyer in a long chain. I am not 8.15am sharp. We call it the “BBC meet- couple I’ve been showing property to by a chap who, in a communal hallway, sure which way it will go, but I will find ing” — Battersea, Balham and Clapham for a while. They find their dream FRIDAY was clearly attempting to break into out next week when I return from a — as it covers our network of offices in home today, but it’s beyond their The week has flown by — I can’t believe one of the flats in the building. My yoga retreat in Glastonbury. Yes, this these districts surrounding the budget. They leave feeling both excited how quickly. This morning I work manager notified the police. It’s all part weekend I am swapping gin and tonic Common. We discuss all available prop- and scared, but not before making through my “pipeline” of properties of the local “neighbourhood watch” for herbal tea. erty and the challenges of getting our calls to their financial adviser, their under offer and speak to solicitors and service we provide. “under-offer”homes to exchange. solicitor and even to the husband’s other estate agents within the chains. There’s a bidding war at the end of O Aileen McCarthy is an associate Later in the day, I show a recently mother to help make up the difference. My boss returns to the office full of the day’s business. A seller has got to director at Marsh & Parsons in developed house in Broadhinton Road It’s clearly the house they want. excitement, having intervened in a decide between a cash buyer with no Clapham (020 7501 3666).

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VERY time I find new tenants it takes me longer to complete all the paperwork because the Government Right to Rent has seen fit to introduce yet moreE red tape — and one more tree has to be felled as a result. When I let my latest property earlier this month it only took me a will drown me few minutes to create an advert and I spent just under an hour showing people around before I received an offer, but completing all the necessary paperwork took so long I in paperwork needed energy drinks to get me through it all. Creating the tenancy agreement Victoria Whitlock says she can find new wasn’t a problem, I always just write over the same one I have used for tenants, no problem. But wading through the years, but protecting the deposit and filling in and printing out all the Government’s rentals red tape takes forever prescribed information that landlords are legally obliged to give to tenants, along with the energy landlords will then be left holding £795 a week: this two-bedroom, two-bathroom ﬂat in Grenville Place, South performance certificate, gas safety The personal and valuable information Kensington, has the location box ticked. Through John D Wood (020 8012 2451) record and the Government’s new about their tenants, and they will “how to rent” guide, took the best accidental have a legal responsibility to keep part of an afternoon. this safe. are properly deleted from your keep the tenant’s documents on file It didn’t help that my little home You can’t just throw a photocopy computer. You can avoid this hassle so that landlords don’t have to printer kept jamming then ran out landlord of a passport or some other form of by delegating it to a letting agent, but worry about storing them. One of ink, prompting a dash to photo ID in a drawer, or add it to the at the end of the day it’s your company I have come across that WH Smith where the bewildering case you have been living in a cave pile on the floor next to your desk. responsibility to make sure the offers this service is right2rent.co.uk, array of cartridge options meant for the past year and haven’t heard of What if you are burgled and the checks are properly carried out and, which charges £13.50 plus VAT per that, inevitably, I bought the wrong Right to Rent, this is a Conservative perpetrator pinches the document if the agent makes a mistake, it is you tenant. one — so I had to make a return trip. initiative to flush out illegal and uses it to steal your tenant’s who faces the possibility of having to So, you can take on the extra And now the Government has immigrants by insisting landlords identity? You would be in big pay a £3,000 fine. paperwork or pay someone else to confirmed that from February 1 next check that someone has a right to live trouble. Alternatively, it is no surprise to see do it for you. It’s your choice, but I year, its bonkers Right to Rent in the UK before they grant them a This means that you have to keep all that some law firms have started to know which option I prefer. scheme will be introduced across tenancy. the information in a locked cabinet offer a Right to Rent service for England — but not Scotland, Wales or This means that we will have to or on a password-protected landlords. For a relatively small fee O Victoria Whitlock lets four Northern Ireland — I will have even check every tenant’s photo ID and computer. When you no longer need they will guarantee to take on the properties in south London. more paperwork to deal with every take a photocopy to keep on file. Of the documents, you will have to legal responsibility of verifying the To contact Victoria with your ideas time I have to find new tenants. In course, this also means that shred them or make sure that they status of your tenants. Some will also and views, tweet @vicwhitlock WEST LONDON LIVING

Historic character meets contemporary cool in leafy, lively Fulham.

Register now at 333 FULHAM PALACE ROAD 139 MUNSTER ROAD, LONDON SW6 6TE LONDON SW6 6DD www.huntspaperfactory.co.uk TEL 0207 368 4830 TEL 020 7871 4242 40 WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 EVENING STANDARD Homes & Property | New homes homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Smart moves By David Spittles From £1.5 million: contemporary ﬂats, main picture, within the former Royal British Legion poppy factory in Richmond, right, which was a brewery bottling Family-friendly schemes plant in a target priced-out renters former life

MORE than 14,000 new month and furniture rental homes are under packs can be purchased. construction in London Call 0345 683 8812. A bright future for as developers seize on Another family scheme demand from people being built in Deptford priced out of home will provide 249 homes. the poppy factory ownership. Developer Essential While singles and Living says more than couples in the 20- to two thirds of the EMEMBRANCE DAY this 36 million poppies a year are made, 40-year-old age bracket Creekside Wharf site will year coincides with the but the original factory is being split are the main takers, be given over to open launch of sleek, white- into designer duplexes. The Moda, above, a scheme space, plus there will be walled apartments carved handsome red-brick arch-window in Stratford designed by internal play areas, from Britain’s first poppy building was once a bottling plant Richard Rogers’s buggy storage, extra Rfactory. Opened in the Twenties, the and the words “Richmond Brewery architectural practice, is soundproofing, laundry Royal British Legion workshops in Stores”, picked out in blue and white targeting families who rooms, rooftop grow Richmond upon Thames employed ceramic tiles, are incorporated into want a longer tenancy gardens and communal mostly disabled war veterans to work the façade, adding to the character bringing architectural skill to the than the standard terraces with barbecues year-round making the fundraising and sense of history. project. A two-storey glass rooftop 12-month contract. and pizza ovens. paper flowers. Banda, a boutique developer that extension is being added, while the Rents range from £1,575 For more details, call Production continues to this day has left its Chelsea and Kensington contemporary design of the light- to £2,050 per calendar 020 7340 0300. from a neighbouring building, where patch to move to Richmond, is filled apartments is sympathetic to EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2015 41 New homes | Homes & Property

the building’s industrial heritage. home entertainment. All the homes Flats have minimalist kitchens and also have a terrace and parking bathrooms, engineered oak flooring, space, and some come with the dressing rooms and hi-tech controls bonus of a river view. Prices from for heating, lighting, security and £1.5 million. Call 020 7937 9600.

TRADITIONAL FLATS WITH A MELLOW VIBE

Grab yourself a piece of Crossrail phenomenon ANYONE who has bought a home PUTNEY is bursting at the edges with near a Crossrail station in recent home buyers and renters priced out years will be feeling satisfied. of the centre. /, "%(&&! '(*!#*) # '#*&+)) Property prices along the east-west Traditionally a family area, it is (&! train route, due to open in 2018, now attracting more singles and have been given a 20 per cent boost. couples, often City professionals and West Ealing is a case in point. When discerning downsizers who value the )&')()*+(#*)(.!#)+!)+# the Crossrail station opens, trains to riverside setting and surrounding )*!(&&!)-!!#'&& #)' '( # Bond Street will take just 13 minutes. open spaces. Heathrow, in the opposite direction, After a spate of in-your-face )) *# % !#+*) *& #*( &#&# will be 11 minutes away. developments, Oakhill Park returns Former Green Man Lane housing to the district’s more sedate roots estate, close to the new station, has with its traditional-style mansion been bulldozed to make way for a block scheme tucked away in a leafy 770-home neighbourhood with a road less than five minutes’ walk primary school, parks and an on-site from East Putney Tube. Restrained energy centre to reduce fuel bills. architecture of mellow yellow brick &5 55941 /1; ; 0 -55954 /1; ; Jigsaw, the latest phase, is a 90- and glass balconies dovetails nicely % 0 1:5251 619$3$ 9 0 $251 619$3$ 9 home development of houses and with the neighbouring grand flats, above, designed by architect detached homes. Conran and Partners. The name is The 52 energy-efficient flats come inspired by the “puzzle pieces” that with 999-year leases — owners also make up the site, a collection of get a share of the freehold — plus individual buildings linked by open underground parking, concierge and and landscaped spaces that also gym. Two-bedroom apartments cost connect with local parks and from £850,000. Call Savills on 020 '835 353 1 8;5 6 787 5$ :: 8;87 15 18;15$ ) 35 $7 $ 9$ transport. From £390,000 for one- 3430 6920. ; 5 755154 8;175 4583 51 6 '19 14 8 848318 5 :$ bedroom flats. Call 020 8003 0701.