Wednesday 14 March 2018

PETER RABBIT The star of home interiors: Page 14

FIRST-TIME BUYERS AREA WATCH: CAMDEN GUIDE TO RECYCLING SPOTLIGHT ON MAIDA VALE A chance to live in a Zone 2 hotspot Canalside homes We sort out the plastic confusion Stucco homes and painted barges Page 9 Page 10 Page 13 Page 30

Great teamwork How neighbours transformed their street: Page 6 JULIET MURPHY JULIET 4
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | News

THIS WEEK IN... Propertys search

‘A street transformed and recycle your plastic’ Life changer Janice of the week Morley your guests in an eco-pod EDITOR

£500,000: this character cottage HOMES & PROPERTY is used to talking in Bethersden, Kent, is set in Trophy home of the week total stunner in Surrey about redesigns but they are not normally lovely gardens that contain an innovative Armadilla “eco-pod”, £6.95 million: on the exclusive Crown Estate in Oxshott, Surrey, Belgrave House has views over our own. This week we’re pleased to be already doing a roaring trade as Prince’s Coverts woodland, with its hundreds of acres perfect for jogging, walking and riding. part of the Evening Standard’s fabulous an Airbnb holiday let. Designed to impress, the mansion showcases light, space and rich materials across four floors. A new look. H&P’s aim is always to be The pod has a neat little cavernous entrance hall with double-height ceilings and marble floors leads to several reception kitchen, a double bed and shower rooms including a library, dining room and drawing room, laid with dark wood floors to contrast innovative so we are excited by this week’s room, while the Grade II-listed with pristine white décor. There’s more wow factor in the kitchen and family room, framed by feature on a community that transformed cottage boasts a mass of exposed sliding glass walls to the gardens, outdoor pool and fields beyond, while the lower floor is home to beams, bespoke oak joinery a cinema room, bar, wine cellar and gym. Seven luxe bedroom suites are upstairs and there are a street, adding a new floor to every home: throughout and an inviting wood also staff quarters above a garage that’s fit for supercars. Through Savills (020 8012 3130). enough new space to house an elderly burner in the sitting room. There parent or a twentysomething. The launch are three bedrooms, a wet room and bathroom, and Ashford London buy of the week high-spec W9 on Friday of the film Peter Rabbit has International station nearby has given our design guru Barbara Chandler fast trains to London and the flat with a patio garden for cocktail parties the chance to make him an interiors star, Continent. Through Jackson- Stops (01580 471012). too (Page 14). And don’t miss Helen Bird’s £525,000: Elgin Avenue, Westbourne top tips on recycling (Page 13). She tells us Park is the prime W9 location of this smart new collection of flats. Our why plastic is not easy to recycle but is far choice, on the ground floor, feels too precious to waste. fabulously spacious and light thanks to big picture windows and sliding glass VISIT homesandproperty.co.uk/rules for details of our doors that lead out from the open-plan usual promotion rules. When you respond to promotions, living/kitchen/dining areas and sleek offers or competitions, the Evening Standard and its double bedroom to a decent-size patio sister companies may contact you with relevant offers garden — perfect for summer cocktail and services that may be of interest. Please give your parties. mobile number and/or email address if you would like to Solid wood floors, bespoke glass receive such offers by text or email. worktops, glossy cabinetry, a wine cooler and energy-efficient lighting are Editorial: 020 3615 2650 among high-spec details, along with a Advertisement manager: Ann Finan spa-style porcelain-tiled bathroom. Advertising: 020 3615 0538 Through Hamptons (020 3324 1600). Homes & Property, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT. News: Record £1bn handed out in Help to Buy London

NEW breed of “five per equity loans handed out in London in centers” is taking over the that period. However, the £600,000 new homes market in parts price cap means much of central Lon- of London, according to a don is too expensive to qualify, while study published today. Using there has been resistance from some theA Government’s subsidised Help to housebuilders concerned about “cheap- Buy London scheme and a five per cent ening” their brand by adopting the deposit to get on the ladder, these scheme. Nevertheless, the slowing buyers are now responsible for more market since 2014 has forced some than half of all new homes sales in a developers to begin offering Help to halo of postcodes around the capital. Buy after struggling to sell. West Wickham, near Croydon, leads David Fell of Hamptons, author of the the way, with 85 per cent of new homes Rainham in Havering, where 71 per cent £379,950: two- report, says Help to Buy has been slow sold in the last two years going to buyers of new homes were bought under the bedroom flats are to impact the capital. “Londoners are bolstered by a 40 per cent government scheme and prices are up 23 per cent. available with less than half as likely to use it as some- equity loan. The average price of a new Most top 10 Help to Buy locations are Help to Buy at one buying a new home almost any- home in the BR4 postcode is £421,000, in the outer suburbs, including Edmon- Rivermill Lofts, where else in England.” Help to Buy is up 14 per cent in two years. ton in north London, Erith in the east, Abbey Road, typically offered in less-affluent neigh- Other Help to Buy hotspots identified Peckham in south London, and Feltham Barking through bourhoods, on big regeneration in the Hamptons International study and Southall in west London. The fig- Ernest-Brooks schemes or to sell the final few homes include Becontree in Barking & Dagen- ures show that after almost five years (020 8115 8214 ) in a development, adds Fell. ham, where Help to Buy London was the flagship scheme to assist first-time used in 79 per cent of all new homes buyers is finally penetrating the capital, ⬤ Read Ruth Bloomfield’s story in full sales and prices rose 27 per cent, and with more than £1 billion in Help to Buy at homesandproperty.co.uk EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018
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Follow the yellow brick house Making ACTRESS Emma Roberts, inset, has spent £2.8 million millions on a Mediterranean-style villa in the laid-back hillside enclave of Los Feliz in LA. Spread across three does not floors, the yellow brick three-bedroom house, right, is the stuff of dreams for one of the please movie scene’s coolest young stars. Set in tropical gardens, it has walnut everyone KING HAMILTON wood floors, a skylight-topped lobby, a beautiful fireplace and French doors JAMIE THEAKSTON has won planning 30 years, says building work which lead on to a terrace. Of course, permission to build a four-bedroom may force him to move out. there is a pool and outdoor bar house in the garden of his Chiswick Heart Breakfast radio area, too. The American Horror mansion, much to the distress of his host Theakston, above, Story star is very much at neighbour Michael Attenborough, son will be obliged to home in Hollywood. Her of the late film director Richard. ensure the design aunt is Pretty Woman star The new house could be worth up to “preserves the Julia Roberts and her dad £2.5 million but theatre director character” of the is film actor Eric Michael, who has lived next door for conservation area. Homes Roberts. gossip By Amira Hashish Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews GETTY Cool café is made in Chelsea Lovegrove doesn’t do things by halves FROM style icon Millie Mackintosh, left, and Hot fiancé Hugo Taylor to Tatler cover girl Lady INDUSTRIAL designer Ross spot Sabrina Percy, Chelsea’s finest are flocking to Lovegrove is selling his Notting Hill the new Farm Girl Café just off Fulham Road, the home, right, for £9.5 million through third London branch of the healthy-eating The Modern House — a whopping restaurant run by Rose Mann. With showbiz fans £2.5 million less than he was asking including pop heart-throb Harry Styles and film actors in 2015. It also serves as his studio, workspace. As well as an expansive Margot Robbie, far left, and Jamie Dornan, no wonder and it’s where Lovegrove helped studio, there is a three-bedroom Mann is already seeking more premises. create the Sony Walkman, Apple home of 5,400sq ft over four floors. This 90-seater in Park Walk is the biggest and most computers and the Renault concept The property showcases Lovegrove’s beautiful so far, with interiors by Beata Heuman, and Benoit car he’s seen with, above. The experimental and industrial Marmoiton, the Beckhams’ ex-private cook, behind the striking building in a cobbled mews is architectural work, including a

GETTY menu. Book a table at thefarmgirl.co.uk on the site of David Hockney’s first dramatic white-gloss spiral staircase. 6
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | New homes pioneers homesandproperty.co.uk powered by

Use your imagination

A pioneering idea by one London street is being followed by new ways to solve the housing shortage across the city, says Lee Mallett

GROUP of 12 north London day after the PM had spoken, offers homeowners got together encouragement to local authorities to Looking for a and persuaded Camden “promote regeneration and change” in FORESTDALE TODAY council to let them build a addition to maintaining an area’s pre- home that offers one-storey roof extension on vailing character. Other groups, includ- eachA of their homes in a single daring ing housing pressure group London the potential to construction project. Yimby — Yes In My Back Yard — are The “Fitzroofs” scheme in Fitzroy calling for “Better Streets” whereby if extend? Start your Road, Primrose Hill, is a pioneering residents agree, densification and search on example of how neighbours can come “beautification” can take place, bypass- together to successfully build upwards ing planning gridlock. to create both an appealing streetscape and extra space for new homes. THE FITZROOFS PROJECT It’s an idea that is now gathering Retired architect Bernard Hunt helped momentum in London and the city’s drive the Fitzroofs project and himself lower-density outer suburbs to help lives in Fitzroy Road. “The whole thing solve the housing shortage. It offers the took us five years when it should per- prospect of financial gain as an incen- haps have taken three and a half,” he a positive,” says Bairstow. “We felt that tive to homeowners, while benefiting says. “I think the planning process as a group we were ‘the community’ and others at the same time. should be easier. AFTER 15 YEARS we communicated this to Camden “But the real issue is how to persuade council in a brochure based on local REWRITING PLANNING LAWS people to do anything. Sticks are not archive research and architecture refer- Sajid Javid, minister for the renamed very good. Carrots are. If it is signifi- ences. We added to the urban housing Housing, Communities and Local Gov- cantly in people’s interest to collabo- stock with sensitivity, without increas- ernment department recently floated rate, then they will. The business case ing the footprint.” the idea of allowing homes to more for densification is phenomenally He thinks it is a collective approach easily extend upwards and for suburbs strong.” Hunt’s neighbour in the street, that might work on other projects. “I to be densified, particularly around animations company director Jonathan think there are quite a lot of people out transport hubs. At the same time, Prime Bairstow, was appointed to chair the there who would like to try something Minister Theresa May ticked off devel- residents’ group: “It was an incredibly similar, or for co-housing projects, for opers for not doing their duty, vowing productive process. We live in the same example.” to “rewrite the laws on planning” and street. We are a thoughtful, knowledge- take a tougher line with councils that able and sensitive group. We had a EVOLVING CROYDON fail to meet housing targets. common interest.” The idea of densifying neighbourhood Although Mrs May did not refer Residents were spurred to pursue the centres is being pursued by Croydon directly to extending permitted devel- scheme after one couple implemented All grown-up: these illustrations show identified for expansion. Many buildings council, which is finalising new guid- opment rights so that people can build an historic consent for a mansard roof how Forestdale, part of Addington in the might grow to twice the current ance called Evolution of the Suburbs up without needing planning consent, storey, which disrupted the identical Croydon suburbs, could evolve steadily prevailing heights, with new public space that should become policy in October. some think the new draft National Plan- appearance of the street’s 12 homes. over 15 years following an “intensification” added and a greater variety of uses for The guidance is a product of the new ning Policy Framework, launched the “We decided to turn that negative into programme, with individual plots new buildings. draft London Plan that sets Croydon a EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018
7 New homes pioneers | Homes Property

Negative into a positive: left, Fitzroy Rd, where one resident’s mansard roof extension led to 12 homeowners unifying the look of their houses and increasing living space

In it together: far left, retired architect Bernard Hunt with neighbours in Fitzroy Road, NW1, who joined him in adding a single storey to a row of homes in the street

Super Supurbia: HTA Architects identified potential sites for 364,000 affordable new homes around transport hubs

Densification bonus: allowing a new home on the roof could mean a bonus of up to £190,000 for a homeowner Pictures Juliet Murphy THE SUPURBIA PROJECT Building up near stations target of 3,000 homes a year to be built THE architecture practice HTA Design, co-founded by by 2028, doubling its existing target. Bernard Hunt, inset, has developed the concept of “We want to make sure these homes “Supurbia”, partly as a consequence of the Fitzroy are deliverable. So we met residents in Road experience. This proposes incremental the north and the south of the borough densification of selected low-rise suburban in January,” says the director of planning neighbourhoods near transport hubs, to create more and transport for Croydon, Heather homes and make lacklustre low-density suburbs more Cheesbrough. vibrant, affordable and better places to live. “We’re pleased we got a receptive “We’re advocating a more permissible planning audience and acceptance that we need regime supported by design coding for the to deliver more housing and intensify densification of suburban some areas, but it’s obviously a different neighbourhoods,” says Riette issue when a block of flats is proposed Oosthuizen, HTA’s head of planning. on the house next door to yours. The Supurbia project team studied “We are lucky we have a lot of large areas surrounding 173 rail and Tube detached houses on large plots in the stations in 15 outer boroughs. It borough. When you assemble several claims potential for 364,000 new plots you can get a better solution. homes to be built in this way, based on a 50 per cent take-up “If residents did get together to densify their of the idea. It also calculates street or block we would welcome and possible windfalls of up to facilitate that and it is something that’s £190,000 for some owners — happening. We have several developers a “NIMBY-to-YIMBY” here in Croydon who specialise in that incentive for residents. market. “There is value in there for “We feel we are ahead of the game homeowners and we all need with this policy which shows residents somewhere for our children to how their neighbourhood might evolve. live,” Oosthuizen points out. It is all about placemaking. We’re not The extended home could be about cramming homes in. developed as self-contained “We have to show people how every- homes for children or elderly one will benefit from intensification, parents. “We need to make the and how it can support them with more development and planning shops and better transport, giving them process simple so it can happen. a better place to live in.” It would encourage so much more creativity. We also need to look at major commercial sites where this sort of thing could happen — large YES IN MY BACK YARD retail parks, industrial estates.” Page 8 8
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Interview

Yes In My Back Yard: London Yimby wants councils to get behind its campaign to let residents agree collectively to bring new flats and townhouses to their streets ‘The planners don’t always get it right’ Yimby stands for Yes In My Back Yard. Lee Mallett meets the leader of a housing pressure group

E’VE all heard of Nimby — the ‘Nobody wants about design, overshadowing, what would Not In My Back Yard brigade. to be called a happen if the street around the corner did this. Now they’ve got some Nimby’: John If this takes off, there needs to be a concerted opposition. London Yimby is Myers is behind effort to make sure infrastructure is built to the acronym for Yes In My Back the drive to let cope with additional people. The beauty of Yard.W It is campaigning for Better Streets, where Londoners be doing one street at a time is that it is gradual residents can collectively agree to more homes proactive in and you have time to adapt. The Fitzroofs in their street, known as “densification”. “densifying” their project in Primrose Hill [see Pages 6-7] has been London Yimby is led by lawyer John Myers, 44, streets, perhaps done very well. who works in the US but is on a career break with homes for and using his savings to fund the campaign. He extended family LM: but are you usurping planning control? studied at Harvard and worked in law and JM: most planners are in favour of more density finance in New York and London, before being so long as it makes sense, and it’s not too far inspired by the American Yimby movement. from public transport. The challenge planners face is the backlash from neighbours. So if the Lee Mallett: how old is London Yimby? community are all in agreement that you can John Myers: 18 months. We saw the movement find a way to make their lives easier, maybe in the US take off and now there are 40 groups provide homes for their children and elderly in 40 cities. They’ve launched a Bill in California relatives, they see the sense. to build up to 85ft high within half a mile of a railway station. We thought, why don’t we try LM: do you think people understand the that here? People love it. Nobody wants to be a benefits of extra density? Nimby. JM: some homeowners understand that if they can build a couple of terrace houses or add LM: lots of people harbour Nimby feelings. height, it not only makes sense but makes their JM: but nobody wants to be called a Nimby. We property worth more. Some just don’t get it — can work with that, find the positives and get as until they see it. many people behind high-quality housing as possible. LM: the Supurbia idea, to densify suburban neighbourhood blocks, has not met with LM: why are people Nimbys? much success yet. Have you experienced the JM: people worry about shadow [from new same response from local politicians? buildings], change, congestion, schools, JM: local authorities worry about political hospitals, public services. They worry new backlash. It’s important to minimise that. buildings will be ugly, that neighbours That’s why we came up with the single street will change. And frankly people worry idea. If you think about what is on the about their house price. The challenge is corners of the street and have controls on to find a way to address those concerns what’s being done in the back gardens, then and let the community and you can limit the effects to just that street. homeowners benefit. LM: what’s the next step? LM: what do you call your campaign? JM: we’re in talks with government, looking to JM: we call it Better Streets. London is improve our ideas, and for feedback from very spread out. Half the homes are one residents, homeowners, civic societies, or two floors. Bloomsbury is incredibly politicians. We’d like to demonstrate this attractive, yet it has five times the working. There are areas where people are housing of a lot of London. enthusiastic, especially if they have larger plots Densification works when done well. If of land. Then you could generate much more you take a typical suburban street, you housing, create stunning streets. can build a lot more housing there and let residents pick a style they want. You LM: as the Victorians did in Kensington? can make the street more walkable, JM: absolutely. The last general election showed more beautiful and have more people to young people care. In forthcoming council support shops, services and public elections, we will endorse candidates who are transport. pro-housing. Unless councils wake up to this, they are going to get wiped out. What might be LM: what do Londoners think? most effective is allowing residents to set their JM: we’ve organised many focus own design codes and giving them permitted groups. People were concerned development rights. EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018
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Left: Kennington Road shops. Right: popular Oval Farmers’ Market at St Mark’s Church opposite Oval Tube station is a five-minute walk away from new shared-ownership apartments at Hillingdon Street and could become your Saturday must-visit

From £101,250: 25 per cent of a one-bedroom flat

DANIEL LYNCH DANIEL WEARECCFM.COM in Hillingdon Street, Kennington, through Wandle

For sale nearby: a one-bedroom flat in Welsford Location: Hillingdon Street flats are within a mile Street, SE1 is £385,000. Call Acorn (020 8012 2625) of Elephant & Castle’s growing range of restaurants Buy in Zone 2 for £101,000 First-timer flats are for sale near the Elephant & Castle hotspot, discovers Ruth Bloomfield

ITH a huge shortfall in the night. But the sheer affordability of these homes number of affordable homes is likely to sweep away most objections. being built in London, any A 25 per cent share of a one-bedroom flat shared-ownership launch is a starts at £101,250. Buyers will need a minimum cause for celebration. Throw in deposit of £5,053, and a minimum household Wa Zone 2 location and you’ve got a real rarity. income of £46,000. They will also need to This month a selection of flats goes on sale in budget for £696.09 rent each month, mortgage Hillingdon Street, Kennington, ring-fenced for repayments estimated at about £481, plus first-time buyers priced out of the market and monthly service charge of £65.44. This comes to costing from just over £100,000. The deposits a grand total of £1,242.53 per month. needed are barely more than the down payment A 25 per cent share in a two-bedroom flat is renters have to make when they move home. priced at £125,000. Buyers will need a minimum household income of £60,000 to be eligible, and The homes are being sold by Wandle Housing will need to pay a deposit of £6,250. Association and expressions of interest are The monthly costs come in at £1,540.90, made being taken at hillingdonstreet.com. An up of rent at just over £859, mortgage payments impressive collection of 20, one-, two- and estimated at £594 and service charge of just three-bedroom flats is for shared-ownership over £87. sale. In terms of location these homes are hard to beat. Hillingdon Street is just east of London’s property market has had a tough two Kennington Park, while Burgess Park is also years, but prices in SE17 just keep on growing, nearby and it’s a five-minute walk to Oval Tube boosted by new homes sales at Elephant & station on the Northern line. Elephant & Castle Castle plus the area’s affordability compared regeneration zone, with its growing range of with most of the rest of Zone 2. good restaurants and a new shopping centre on An average flat in the Kennington postcode the horizon; the Kia Oval cricket ground and has breached the £500,000 mark at £513,818 Vauxhall station are all within a mile. according to the latest figures from Rightmove, For going out, all roads lead to Kennington up from just under £470,667 in October 2016. Lane with its Mediterranean and Middle However, buyers with a £500,000 budget have Eastern cafés and bars, as well as the excellent plenty of choice in the district, and could pick traditional Kennington Lane Café. Walworth up a two-bedroom period flat in rather grand Road has a cheap-and-cheerful range of useful Surrey Square, just off the rather less-grand Old shops, plus the traditional East Street Market. Kent Road, for sale with Garrett Whitelock for £499,995. Bargain hunters could adjust their The only downside is that Hillingdon Street is search east of the Old Kent Road where prices surrounded by some less-than-beautiful council are a little lower. There is also a huge amount of housing, and the area can feel a little desolate at new-build and newish-build on offer locally. 10
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Area watch GETTY From £820,000: loft-style apartments at The Green space meets the city: Hampstead Heath, with unrivalled London Maple Building. Through Savills (020 7409 8756) skyline vistas from Parliament Hill, is on Camden Town’s doorstep A Camden comeback Canalside factories provide a rich architectural mix for designers of new homes, discovers David Spittles

ONG before Clerkenwell and Shoreditch became creative hotspots, Camden was luring ad agencies, architects, fashion and film companies. After a few years out of the spotlight, the area is on the up again, partly Ldue to a backlash against the spreading corporate character of the City fringe. Camden was best-performing borough on prop- erty prices last year with a 13.7 per cent jump, according to property consultant CBRE. It’s a com- munity with a rich mix of homeowners, from bankers to actors, struggling writers and drop-outs.

The area has a “back door” to leafy Primrose Hill, GETTY while the famous Camden Market and quirky high street shops attract 25 million visitors a year. Magnet: tourists Call Hamptons International on 020 3451 1544. Regent’s Canal and its linked industrial back- flock to Camden Camden Courtyards is a former optical works drop, together with close proximity to King’s Cross Lock for Camden turned into 164 flats. It’s clad in patterned brick and St Pancras, were once negatives, but now the Market’s 1,000-plus with a Corten steel two-storey roof extension, two waterfront and train lines attract opportunities fashion, music, art internal courtyards and residents’ roof terraces. for imaginative regeneration of old canalside and food stalls From £770,000. Call Barratt on 020 7428 4455. warehouses and industrial buildings, while the Eurostar terminal puts Paris two hours away. Neighbouring Kentish Town has come a long way since the 1820s when Frankenstein author Mary Shelley There are still undeveloped canalside factories, small called it an “odious swamp”. Today the area has industrial premises, cobbled courtyards and mews music venues, cool bars and eateries, a French ripe for transformation into new homes. A former school, a restored listed Victorian baths and pool, electricity substation is becoming Arlington Lofts, plus a growing buzz created by arty Londoners. with 16 warehouse-style flats behind the Thirties The Furlong Collection is a gated scheme of eight brick façade. These boutique homes from devel- houses in cobbled Little Green Street, one of Lon- oper Fabrica have high ceilings, cool concrete walls don’s oldest Georgian terraces. These compact and molten silver-finish splashbacks. From homes have light-filled, open-plan interiors, £699,950. Call Marsh & Parsons (020 3918 4846). underfloor heating and air conditioning. Prices Mixed-use MOY’S offers eight flats and two from £1,495,000. Call 020 3451 1544. offices in the converted engineering works where Nearby, a former furniture factory, The Maple the world’s first electric camera was made. In a Building holds 57 loft-style flats with original Crit- quiet backstreet, the new architecture is a modern tall windows, steel columns and exposed-brick take on a classic London mews, with crisp brick walls. The restored entrance foyer is now a smart façades, factory-style windows, and dormers that Below: Scandi- concierge lobby and there’s a basement gym. The hide sheltered roof terraces. The swish flats are style XY Apartments building butts up against workspace for creatives future-proofed for home automation and tastefully from £600,000. with a kitchen run by Soho House. Prices from designed with industrial-style parquet flooring Savills (020 3320 £820,000. Call Savills (020 7409 8756). and dark metal finishes. Prices from £895,000. 8220) Camden council, once renowned for architect- led housing, is spawning 3,000 new homes itself by selling off land and bulldozing old estates as part of a community investment programme. Projects include XY Apartments, a scheme of 273 Scandi-style flats at Maiden Lane priced from £600,000. Call 020 3320 8220.

Looking for a hotspot? Start your search on 12
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Homes abroad

From £403,000: freehold apartments with one to three bedrooms at Regent Pool Residences, Porto Montenegro, for sale now with completion due in summer next year, will have access to the five-star Regent Porto Montenegro hotel spa, gym and rental pool

ONTENEGRO is one of Europe’s newest sover- eign states, yet it’s already a tourist heavyweight. The Balkan nation with a 180- Fall for a wild Mmile Adriatic coastline emerged from the remains of Yugoslavia and Serbia in 2006. It’s smaller than Wales with a population of just 620,000 — yet it wel- comed two million visitors last year. Top of visitors’ must-see list is Boka Balkan beauty Bay, where steep mountains surround calm, emerald water dotted with atmos- pheric stone towns such as Kotor, a Billions are being invested in little Unesco World Heritage Site. “There is £2.1 billion investment currently under Montenegro where a holiday flat need way in Boka Bay,” says Kieran Kelleher of Dream Estates, Savills’ local associ- only cost £52k, says Cathy Hawker ate. “Large-scale developments include Porto Montenegro, Lustica Bay and Portonovi, all with residential and lei- sure components and international Lustica Bay, on the Adriatic side of Boka five-star hotel brands.” Bay, there are plans for a championship golf course, two marinas, seven hotels Porto Montenegro is a marina, hotel and and 2,000 homes. There will be sports, residential scheme that opened in 2009, medical and retail facilities and even transforming the down-at-heel town of its own police and fire station. Tivat with super-sized leisure boats and Phase One, Marina Village, opens this a palm-lined waterfront. There are 450 summer with a five-star Chedi Hotel, berths with plans for 400 more, to cre- 176-berth marina and 220 flats, town- ate Europe’s largest superyacht marina. houses and villas priced from £145,000. Porto Montenegro marina was named Already 160 buyers from 33 different Superyacht Marina of Distinction at last countries have moved in. year’s London Boat Show. Smaller schemes around Boka Bay Around the marina are boutiques, ‘FOCUS IS ON FAMILY’ include Lavender Bay Residences with restaurants and bars and a five-star studio to three-bedroom flats around a hotel, Regent Porto Montenegro. Ten MICHAEL and Amra Ward from communal pool, gym, café and play- minutes away, Tivat airport has direct Richmond bought an old stone ground, from £66,000 to £230,600 with easyJet flights from London. house in Boka Bay as a holiday annual service charges from£800 and Porto Montenegro has 310 completed home in 2002. Both City investment furniture packages from £5,200. In flats in six buildings around the marina, managers, they were drawn to the walking distance of the Venetian archi- with resales from £338,800 for a one- lifestyle and business opportunities, tecture of Kotor Old Town, Dobrota bedroom flat that rents for £308 a night and moved there full-time in 2004, Apartments are 40 new managed stu- in high season. New Regent Pool Resi- extending to create the perfect dios to two-bedroom homes, from dences are one- to three-bedroom family home for them and children £52,000 to £140,000. Through Savills. freehold flats in three buildings, from Tara and Teo, now 14 and 10. £403,000. These handsome homes have “Montenegro truly is a wild ⬤ Savills: savills.com (020 7016 3740) water views and access to the Regent beauty with a very Mediterranean ⬤ Regent Pool Residences: porto hotel’s spa, gym and rental pool. At way of life focused on the family,” montenegro.com says Michael 52. “We love walking in the mountains and swimming in the sea on our doorstep. We’re all members of the Porto Montenegro Yacht Squadron. The children attend the Arcadia Academy, a wonderful school offering a British education.” The couple set up MoHo Montenegro, acting as property managers and developers. Amra, 50, is from Mostar in Bosnia, arriving in London as a refugee at the height of the Balkan Wars. She From £145,000: flats, houses and villas holidayed in Montenegro as a child From £66,000-£230,600: studio to at Marina Village, Lustica Bay, 15 minutes and speaks the language fluently. three-bedroom flats at Lavender Bay from Tivat airport. Savills (020 7016 3740) Residences, Kotor Bay. Through Savills EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018
13 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Cleaner London | Homes Property

HE simple truth is that if every one of 5 Don’t recycle greasy pizza boxes us reused or recycled just one item Don’t put greasy pizza boxes, takeaway boxes, or each day, London would become a other cardboard or paper covered in food into much cleaner and more efficient city. The good the recycling, as tempting as this may be on a For example, if we all recycled just one Friday night. The grease can’t be removed and it Textra aluminium can each, that would release causes defects in new products made from enough energy to power a television set recycled cardboard. constantly for the next 63 years. Here are my Top 10 ways to be a better recycler: recycling 6 Use the scrunch test Not sure whether a piece of paper can be 1 If it’s plastic and bottle-shaped, recycle it recycled? Try scrunching it up in your hand. If it In the UK, on average 16 million plastic bottles a doesn’t spring back, then it can be recycled. It’s day are not making their way into recycling bins. a good test to use with wrapping paper. And if We can do better. Empty bottles and crush — guide you’re recycling birthday cards, tear off any not flatten — them and replace the lids before glitter. recycling. Bleach and detergent bottles can be recycled like any others. The trigger sprays on 7 Give it a quick squish many household bottles can be left in place. Helen Bird of website Give cans and plastic bottles a quick squish —

that’ll save room in your recycling bin and make GETTY 2 Don’t forget about the bathroom Recycle Now offers tips them more efficient to transport. Scrunch foil If everyone in the UK recycled one toothpaste items together to help them get through the box, it would save enough energy to run a fridge for recycling in London sorting process without getting lost. Clean up first: butter tubs can be rinsed before in over 2,000 homes for a year. As well as recycling but greasy pizza boxes are a recycling no-no toothpaste boxes — not toothpaste tubes, which 8 If you’re not sure, check can’t be recycled — loo roll tubes, aerosols and If you’re not sure if, how or where you can 10 Think about your recycling space shower gel containers, soap, shampoo and recycle an item, visit the Recycle Now recycling A survey conducted with 2,000 London conditioner bottles can all be recycled. Take the locator recycleforlondon.com/local-recycling. residents highlighted a lack of space in homes pump dispenser off liquid soap bottles first. Just put in your postcode and the answer will as the biggest challenge to staying on top of pop up. recycling. For some quick hacks to tackle this 3 Give it a quick rinse problem, see recycleforlondon.com/one-bin- For pots, tubs and trays, give them a quick rinse 9 Look at the label rubbish before recycling them. There’s no need to get Look out for the labels that now appear on all every last spot of food off, and dishwashing sorts of packaging — everything from soft drink And never, ever... them is definitely a step too far — and a waste of cans, to bread bags and plastic toiletry bottles. ⬤ Put a dirty nappy in the recycling bin. energy. Sadly, film lids can’t be recycled. The symbols you see there will tell you whether ⬤ Put medical supplies such as syringes in the the packaging is likely to be collected for recycling. 4 Leave the lid on recycling or if the item can be taken to your ⬤ Mix textile recycling with other recycling. When recycling glass, leave the lid on, including local recycling centre. Cloth can wrap itself around the machinery and the metal lids on jam jars and the caps on You’ll find further explanation regarding recy- cause hours of downtime in recycling sorting

bottles. Glass reprocessors separate them and ALAMY cling labels when you look online at recyclenow. plants. are very grateful for them, too. Pyrex cookware Easy to tell: if something is bottle-shaped and com/recycling-knowledge/packaging-symbols- ⬤ Put your recycling in a black bag — chances cannot go into the recycling bin. plastic, its destination should be the recycling bin explained are high that it will be mistaken for rubbish. 14
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Easter interiors

Left: cotton Below: cork- Left and below: Rabbit & Cabbage backed placemats, WOW ceramic cushion with duck £35 for a set of pendant lamp by feather pad, £45 four, from Matteo Ugolini, (thornbackand Thornback & Peel £498 at Dark peel.co.uk) (as before) Light Design (darklightdesign. com)

Lop-eared and lovely: this bunny pattern, fresh in for Easter, is on cotton cushions, £30, melamine trays, £8.40, bone china mugs, £7, and sets of four placemats, £12.60 (lauraashley.com) We’re all ears Ahead of the new Peter Rabbit film’s UK release on Friday, Barbara Chandler goes big on bunnies in time for Easter

Above from left: 15cm-tall flocked bunny table decoration, £7 (talkingtables.co.uk); melamine placemat, £12 (handpickedbykate.com); limited- edition collectible alpaca Peter Rabbit toy, 29cm tall, by Steiff, handcrafted with gold-plated ear button, £199 from Harrods, SW1 (harrods.com)

Above: white rabbit cake/biscuit plate, £39, and handmade rosy rabbit pot with lift-off lid, £65, both from outthereinteriors.com

Above: resin bunny-and-carrot kitchen roll holder, £35, from Alessi in Brook Street, W1 (alessi.com) Right: Racing Rabbits cotton cushion with feather pad, £49, at misterberwyn. com and at handpickedbykate.com 18
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Sustainable design

Passionate recyclers ONDON is starting to deal with its plastic waste, with commitments from the Mayor, charges on plastic cups, reductions in take- away food packaging, the shunning of turn rubbish into plastic drinking straws and even a Foreign L Office pledge to ban avoidable use by its staff of single-use plastics by the end of this year. Such measures can work — imposing a 5p charge for carrier bags has slashed their use by 85 per cent. stunning homeware The way we care for the world is — literally — rubbish. At one end we are running out of materials and resources, yet at the other we are throwing them London designers lead the way in radical recycling away. This is the stark warning contained in a just- published book called Radical Matter (Thames & that cares for the planet, says Barbara Chandler Hudson, £32) by Kate Franklin and Caroline Till, co-founders of London trend and insight consul- tancy FranklinTill. “We must reject the take-make- discard model of consumption,” they say. Manufacturers make recycling difficult and users can be profligate wasters and lazy recyclers. But here’s the hope: designers can and are creating “innovatory materials and alternative systems of production”. The book takes an optimistic global view, exploring experimental new material uses for newspaper, sawdust, corn husks, seaweed and even shit and house dust. It re-evaluates old crafts and spotlights new ways of production. Many ideas are on the fringe, but their practitioners are pio- neer inventors, working often for very little reward.

The nation was appalled when Sir David Attenbor- ough’s TV series Blue Planet revealed the destruc- tive horrors of ocean waste. London-based designer Brodie Neill has been perfecting a robust “ocean terrazzo” from plastic waste washed up on beaches, showing his large pieces of furniture at the London Design Festival — “upscaling waste into wonder”. Now he’s tackling discarded “ghost”

fishing nets adrift in our seas. Neill spoke recently EVANS LUKE at the UN’s International Marine Conference and at an event on Innovation for the Circular Econ- Fired up: above, omy hosted by the European Parliament. at The People’s Brick Company in In a south London workshop, furniture maker Sebastian North Greenwich Cox has a new material made from fresh wood local building waste bound together with fungus. He’s already waste has been “grown” lamp shades, and made a lightweight used to fire kilns board for insulation, working with RCA graduate and build brick- Ninela Ivanova, also London based. “It’s early days drying racks yet,” says Cox, “but we are passionate about new uses for wood, which is super-sustainable when Toughened harvested correctly.” Also using waste wood is glass: Micaella London designer Conor Taylor, to make Foresso, Pedros makes his composite timber terrazzo. Solomon & Wu, furniture from makers of contemporary architectural elements chunky timber, in Hertfordshire, are upping production, collect- using repurposed ing Forest Stewardship Council-certified waste glass bottles to from local timber merchants. Design duo Adam form tough glass Fairweather and Rosalie McMillan of Smile Plas- joints, right

Saw it here first: far right, designers Marjan van Aubel and James Shaw mix waste sawdust from their London studio with soya bio-resin, which produces a foaming reaction they can harness to create tables, right, and chairs

tics turn plastic waste into boards for manufactur- ing. They make tabletops and storage boxes from a surprisingly beautiful, fragmented mix of plastic bottles and yoghurt and plant pots.

Opendesk is a new “on demand” way of making furniture, Waste not: Conor Taylor reclaims quality waste largely for offices at present, without a central wood to make Foresso, his composite timber factory and with no shipping needed. Instead, terrazzo for uses “from countertops to café tables” paid-for digital files for easy-assembly designs are EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018
19 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Sustainable design | Homes Property

Look, no factory: the team at Opendesk in London Fields, far left, sends out paid-for digital files to local makers with easy- assembly designs for office furniture built on demand, left. Greenpeace, Nike and Google are on the client list, as mega brands get the sustainability message

Far left: Zurich- based design studio Pour les Alpes has rekindled the Swiss craft of straw plaiting to create homewares

Left: Adidas has turned ocean plastic waste into its Ultra Boost Uncaged trainers Dutch design: Luc van Hoeckel and Pim van Baarsen of the Netherlands have launched their Super Local campaign to turn tourism waste in Zanzibar into beautiful marble-like objects, right

Home-grown: left, furniture maker Sebastian Cox with a lamp shade he has “grown” in a new material using fresh wood waste bound with fungus

materials and bespoke design. Let’s replace fac- tories with independent faces.”

Essays by prominent workers and campaigners feature in the book Radical Matter, with London colleges showing the way. Caroline Till cites the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion, and the Centre for Circular Design at Chelsea Col- lege of Arts. At Central Saint Martins Maison/0, professor in design for sustainable futures Carole Collet nurtures “sustainable intelligence”. Imagi- native and passionate Daniel Charny, curator and co-founder of Fixperts, heads up design at King- ston University, where he champions repairing rather than chucking away. Outside of the book, there are many more Lon- doners making new materials out of waste, and/or creatively recycling existing materials and upcy- cling furniture. Last week Ecobuild — the sustain- ability showcase — attracted 24,500 visitors at ExCeL, where Brixton’s Adam David Ge-Saelis, founder of Ongéan, built the registration and seat- ing area from discarded fittings and materials in his railway arches depot. He plans a “waste open event” for World Earth Day on April 22, and hopes ultimately to build a waste village.

The mass market is getting the message, too. M&S launched Plan A for a sustainable future in 2007. Now comes Plan A 2025. Chief executive Steve Rowe says: “We sent directly to local fabricators. At about £400, will engage 32 million customers, 85,000 col- an Opendesk is not the cheapest, but increasingly leagues and 20,000 shareholders in a massive customers are buying into the sustainable mes- movement for sustainable change.” sage. Opendesk has supplied mega brands includ- Meanwhile, flat-pack furniture maker Ikea has ing Greenpeace, Nike and Google, along with manifestos for environmental and social change start-ups such as Camden Town Brewery and co- in its new catalogue, and is making kitchen unit working hub WeWork. Joni Steiner, Opendesk fronts from reclaimed wood, with a foil made from co-founder and chief executive, says: “Local mak- discarded plastic bottles. If bottles are recycled ing has superfast lead times, sustainably sourced responsibly, they can be put back into use. 20
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Outdoors Sow seeds of your summer garden now

Start on a sunny windowsill then move your crops to outside pots. A balcony’s big enough and the fresh flavour burst will be amazing

zon Peat Free Compost (£5 for 50 litres, Alex Homebase) is excellent or, if buying online, try Wool Compost for Seeds (£7.99 for 12L Mitchell plus delivery, Dalefoot Composts), made in the Lake District from bracken and wool. With all seeds, sow roughly as deep as the seed is large, then keep the compost moist RITER Lewis Grizzard said: after sowing. I use an old plastic water bottle “It is difficult to think any- with holes pierced in the lid to sprinkle the thing but pleasant thoughts surface every day or so. You could also cover while eating a home-grown the tops of the pots with clingfilm to keep tomato.” You learn to appre- the moisture in until the seeds germinate. W ciate amazing fresh flavours when you grow Then take it off so they can get some air. your own food — and with no plastic wrap- ping it is a guilt-free trip. TOMATOES Even if you only have a narrow 10th-floor If you sow only one seed, make it a Sungold

balcony or a small concrete patch out back, tomato (£2.99, Suttons). The orange, cherry- RAVEN SARAH you can grow so much in pots, including sized fruits, in a different class to anything sweet cherry tomatoes, crunchy lettuce and you can buy in the shops, are sweet but with Choose with care: AUBERGINES fiery chillies. It’s time now to start sowing just the right balance of acidity. Classic red not all aubergine Baba ganoush fans, choose carefully. Many your crops inside. In about a month when cherry-sized Gardener’s Delight (£1.95, varieties grow well in varieties of aubergine don’t grow well in the seedlings are bigger, you can plant them Sarah Raven) is also a winner. Each plant will pots. Good choices pots, but these do: try Pinstripe (£2.99, Sut- outside in larger terracotta pots to grow on eventually need a 30cm diameter pot and a are Pinstripe and tons) or Patio Mixed (99p, Thompson & to maturity. For now, a windowsill, counter cane or railings to tie to as it grows. Patio Mixed for Morgan) for stripes and unusual colours; top or bit of floor is fine as long as it’s warm stripes and unusual Money Maker no 2 (£4.95, Sarah Raven) or and gets lots of natural light. CHILLIES colours, or Money Ophelia (£2.99, Marshalls) for your classic Any small pot will do, from small 9cm Just one plant will keep you in fiery fruits for Maker No 2, above, dark purple version. You’ll need a really plastic ones from garden centres to recycled a season. Chilli fruits look beautiful when for the familiar dark sunny, sheltered spot outside. Each mature yoghurt pots and coffee cups, as long as you ripening and don’t need a big pot if you purple fruits plant will eventually need a 30cm pot, or make a few drainage holes in the bottom. choose compact varieties. Try Apache and squeeze two in a large, deep window box. Plastic lids from food pots make good drip Thai Hot (£3.00/£2.40, South Devon Chilli It’s a classic: left, trays to save your windowsills. Farm). A 20cm diameter pot is big enough cherry-sized PERPETUAL SPINACH Use any multipurpose peat-free organic and an average window box could fit three. Gardener’s Delight The key is in the name. This isn’t the usual compost from the garden centre. New Hori- As you’d expect, chillies like a hot spot. tomatoes are heavy summer spinach but one that’s in it for the cropping and easy to long haul. Sow this delicious leafy green now, grow. Sow now and sometimes called spinach beet (£2.99, plant out later in Thompson & Morgan), and you’ll be picking 30cm pots with off leaves from the same plants until the end

THOMPSON+MORGAN canes for support of autumn to stir-fry, steam or throw into salads. Sow five seeds in small pots then One-pot wonder: plant outside into window boxes, hanging left, chillies, baskets or larger pots. aubergines and tomatoes are LETTUCE ripening here in one No crop is as versatile for small spaces as big outdoor barrel, lettuce. Sow any variety 1cm apart and cut making an attractive the leaves when small. Or start off each seed mini kitchen garden in its own pot and grow it on to maturity. A display with the 30cm pot will fit about five mature plants. promise of Great for pots is the compact Little Gem, a mouthwatering mini cos lettuce with crunch (£1.75, Suttons) produce and also Salad Bowl (£1.95, Sarah Raven).

SEEDS ⬤ thompson-morgan.com ⬤ suttons.co.uk ⬤ marshalls-seeds.co.uk ⬤ sarahraven.com ⬤ southdevonchillifarm.co.uk

COMPOST AND KIT ⬤ dalefootcomposts.co.uk ⬤ burgonandball.com ⬤ For more vegetable container tips: The Edible Balcony, by Alex Mitchell, is

MARSHALLS published by Kyle Books (kylebooks.com) 24
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 Homes Property | Our home

Right: the smart living and kitchen space with white metro tiles, bamboo ply on the island, black basalt worktops and industrial-chic pendant lighting

Left: Ed and Sarah Burgess, with two of their three children Ralph and Nell. Oak flooring is used here as wall cladding

Pictures Rachael Smith So many satisfying ideas under one roof

Ed Burgess and his wife Sarah wanted a home near good schools — and no listed building barriers to hamper their vision. They found just the place in Peckham. By Philippa Stockley

EORGIAN houses back garden, a garage, four bedrooms and a a window that juts outwards, giving terrific often pass on the view of Peckham Rye. Extended decades views when bathing. Off the dressing room history bug to their earlier with a basic, boxy sun room, it wasn’t behind the bed, Ed tucked a small office. He owners. Not in the listed and it had a generous attic that Ed designed the staircase to this new floor in case of Ed and Sarah knew he could convert under permitted birch ply, with a wall of books down one side Burgess. In 2012, development rights. for the family library. G after 10 happy years “I told Ed it was in a perfect location but it That was already transformative, but the enjoying the period was absolutely hideous,” says Sarah, 46. The couple had only just started. They went for charm in the top half of a tall Georgian ter- couple reel off the horrors of avocado bath- a complete reconfiguration to open up and race in Kennington, they were desperate for room suites, an ancient pine kitchen, plastic brighten everything and give them the a whole house with a garden. They did look windows and an old recessed porch. smart living and cooking space they really at late-Georgian houses in Dulwich, but Ed wanted. wanted to transform something. He knew it Downstairs, the solidly built two-storey house had Ed kept the front sitting room and hall, but would be tricky with a period property. three good-sized rooms down one side — includ- knocked most of the rest together. Sarah’s With three children — Clive, now 15, Nell, ing the sun room — and a hotchpotch of brief to him was that she didn’t want a wall 13 and Ralph 10 — and having identified the little rooms down the other: kitchen, scul- of glass or “boring” bifold doors. His solution Peckham-Dulwich border as their sweet lery, loo, hall. Oddly, the addition of the sun was to turn the back wall of the house into spot, they got a map, marked two preferred room made the former garden room, now a run of windows and glass doors punctuated secondary schools with pins, then drew the middle room, dark. by a window seat, a bookcase and an innova- circles round them. Their search focused Ed knew that he could open it all up and tive sliding screen that covers the French where the circles intersected, so the children draw in light from the top. So they bought windows to the garden. could cycle to either school. it. He got stuck into the loft conversion first That’s precise, but then Ed, 44, who worked and in just four months, added 540sq ft of Breaking up what would have been a huge square for starchitect Richard Rogers and other big habitable space. living space, a sort of box takes up one quarter, practices before going solo three years ago, He fitted in a big double bedroom with dividing the remainder into an L shape. The is precise. views across the back garden. Behind the box has oak along one side, which conceals The sixth agent they saw suggested a house bed, a row of Ikea wardrobes fronted with jib doors to a utility room and cloakroom. on the street he’d grown up in. It was slap- solid oak makes a huge, modern bedhead Round its other side is the kitchen area. bang in their target area, so Sarah went to — a practical, clever and cheap divider. The Transformed: from “hideous” Thirties brick semi to a great modern With bright orange cupboards — “spray- look. It was a Thirties brick semi with a long bathroom off the bedroom is enhanced by family home. Ed and Sarah Burgess went for total reconfiguration painted Ikea”, Sarah says — black basalt work EVENING STANDARD
25 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by Our home | Homes Property

Cool, yet so cosy: the ground floor was opened up into a family living-kitchen-dining space

surfaces and a vast, bamboo-topped island, Customise-it- it is chic. The living-dining area, now ultra- yourself: kitchen WHAT IT COST light thanks to a long overhead glass light cupboards from Ikea, down one side, has a big circular table that right, spray-painted a ⬤ Two-storey, 2,150sq ft house in Ed designed, mid-century modern chairs bright and lively 2012: £910,000 with new pads screen-printed by Sarah and orange ⬤ Total money spent: £230,000 the children, and a huge pendant lamp. excluding all fees Artist Sarah, who calls herself an at-home ⬤ Value now (2,690sq ft): £1.5 million mum, oversaw the interior design. Her (estimate) choice of paint colours is very good. “Strong Left: with her colours,” she says. “What I’ve learned about passion for bold GET THE LOOK colours and patterns is that you can be colours, artist Sarah braver than you think, because there’s noth- put Little Greene’s ⬤ Architect: Ed Burgess at ing so boring as doing the safe thing and Reverie-Jungle burgessarchitects.com/practice then being disappointed.” wallpaper in the ⬤ Builder: plentaeffect.co.uk Her mantra has paid off, with a striking downstairs loo ⬤ Bricks on back façade: ibstock.com chain-link wallpaper used on Ed’s prototype ⬤ Oak floorboards used as vertical sliding screens over the glass door, and a Right: Ed’s first task cladding: tedtodd.co.uk jungle print in the small downstairs loo. was to convert the ⬤ Bamboo ply on kitchen island: loft into a big double stantonsuk.co.uk With no trouble from the planners, the family only bedroom with a ⬤ Light bulb fitting over island: had to move out for a month and the whole bathroom off it that urbancottageindustries.com build, which included inserting massive gives terrific views ⬤ Metro tiles: lauraashley.com steels and relaying the slab, took eight out from the tub ⬤ Basalt worktops: geologyltd.com months. ⬤ Black floor tiles: domustiles.co.uk There are so many good ideas to inspire ⬤ Bespoke dining table: commission and delight here, developed with care and from Ed Burgess (as before) executed with brio. It all proves that it’s how ⬤ All windows: velfac.co.uk you use space, rather than how much there is, that really counts. 26
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Reader offers

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WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Property searching

1 Spotlight on Maida Vale This pretty central district is prized for its white stucco houses and bright canal barges. It’s cheaper than Notting Hill, discovers Anthea Masey

HE Little Venice area of Maida Vale, with white stucco villas Today in Maida Vale overlooking Regent’s Canal and its neat rows of colourful Rightmove has 669 barges, is one of the most Tpicturesque in all London. This is where homes to BUY and Oasis and High Flying Birds star Noel 696 to RENT Gallagher has failed to find a buyer for the mansion he put up for sale two years ago for £11.5 million having bought it for £8 million in 2010. Historian John Julius Norwich was luckier. He recently sold his larger man- sion in the same street for £12 million- plus, having paid £7,200 for it in the Sixties. Not that Gallagher can com- central London locations. This is partly plain when he can hang out with his down to the lack of large areas of shop- children at the Puppet Theatre Barge ping, although there are local shops, on Browning’s Pool, named after poet including independent cafés, delicates- Robert Browning who lived locally. This sens and boutiques, in two spots along romantic stretch of water where Clifton Road and Formosa Street. Regent’s and Grand Union Canals meet Once a bohemian enclave, rising is also home to a cosy café on a barge house prices have put Maida Vale’s with outside seating in the summer. prime roads beyond the reach of all but the very wealthy these days. Maida Vale takes its name from the Hero of Maida, an Edgware Road inn However, the neighbourhood is still that honoured Sir John Stuart, a British less expensive than St John’s Wood or lieutenant-general in the battle of Notting Hill and is often overlooked, Maida in southern Italy during the according to James Westendarp from Napoleonic Wars. King Ferdinand IV of the local branch of Chestertons estate Naples honoured him with the title agents. “Maida Vale has some lovely Count of Maida. communal gardens which are not as In Delaware Road, BBC Maida Vale well-known as those in Notting Hill but Studios, converted from an Edwardian which I personally think are even love- roller skating rink, is the BBC Sym- lier,” adds Westendarp. phony Orchestra base and hosted the Maida Vale is only three miles north- John Peel Sessions from 1967 until the west of Trafalgar Square with Kilburn DJ’s death in 2004. It opens to the pub- and St John’s Wood to the north; lic for frequent classical concerts. Marylebone to the east; Paddington to Visitors to Maida Vale comment on the south and North Kensington to the how quiet the area is compared to other west.

WHAT ELSE THERE IS TO BUY

£1.15 MILLION £2.3 MILLION £1.25 MILLION £895,000 A TWO-BEDROOM flat on the top floor of a THIS three-bedroom townhouse in Little Venice A THREE-BEDROOM maisonette forming part of A PERIOD three-bedroom garden flat in Lydford popular classic mansion block in Grantully Road in has an integral garage and sits in quiet, gated a fine Victorian terrace house in Randolph Road, W9, with its own entrance and planning the heart of Maida Vale, with the Tube a third of a Robert Close, moments from Regent’s Canal. Avenue, Maida Vale, with Maida Vale Tube only a permission in place for an extension. Through mile away. Call Chestertons (020 8012 3807). Through Sandfords (020 8012 3074). five-minute walk away. Savills (020 3858 3432). Braithwait Estate Agents (020 8012 6294).

To find a home in Maida Vale, visit rightmove.co.uk For more area guides, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/area-guides EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018
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STATS CHECK What homes cost

Buying in Maida Vale (Average prices) One-bedroom flat £534,000 Two-bedroom flat £816,000 Two-bedroom house £1.25 million Three-bedroom house £1.51 million Four-bedroom house £2.98 million 5

Renting in Maida Vale (Average rates) One-bedroom flat £1,614 a month Two-bedroom flat £2,882 a month Two-bedroom house £3,055 a month Three-bedroom house £5,000 a month Four-bedroom house £7,681 a month

Source: Rightmove

Maida Vale in 4 pictures: TRANSPORT 1 Formosa Street shops; 2 stone WARWICK AVENUE, Maida Vale and run through the heart of Maida Vale lions guard the Edgware Road (Bakerloo) Tube along Shirland Road. The No 6 goes to entrance of stations are all on the Bakerloo line Aldwych via Piccadilly Circus and the stucco-fronted with trains to Oxford Circus. Edgware No 414 goes to Putney Bridge via houses 3 Jamie Road (Circle) station is on the Circle, Marble Arch and Knightsbridge. Thorpe, assistant District and Hammersmith & City lines. manager at Paddington main line station Everyman Cinema connects with the Bakerloo, District, in Sutherland Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. Avenue 4 Muji Warwick Avenue and Maida Vale are in Chipperfield, Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to owner of Elgin Zone 1 costs £1,364. Edgware Road Blooms traditional and Paddington are in Zone 1 and an florist in Elgin annual travelcard also costs £1,364. Avenue; 5 as well The Elizabeth line — Crossrail — as painted barges, arrives at Paddington in December. tranquil Little Trains will run from Paddington to Venice is now Abbey Wood and also to Heathrow home to canalside airport before the full service starts a cafés year later. Two useful commuter buses

PROPERTY SCENE

THE local housing stock is mainly swimming pool and private cinema. Elgin Avenue, 12 Elgin is a scheme of AFFORDABLE HOMES white stucco houses, villas and The other four buildings are being 15 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, Westminster City council operates terraces and red-brick Edwardian built in mansion block style to mirror ready to move into. One-bedroom the Westminster Home Ownership mansion flats. The most expensive the local architecture. A new phase flats start at £525,000, with two- Accelerator with housing charity Maida Vale house currently for sale is launches on April 7 with prices from bedroom homes at £650,000 and Dolphin Living, offering up to 50 a seven-bedroom double-fronted £749,500 and the whole scheme three bedrooms at £1.27 million. households a deposit of £21,800- white stucco property in Randolph completes in summer 2021. Call 020 Visit12elgin.com or call Goldschmidt £54,500 to buy a home anywhere in Road, at £25 million. However, there 7720 4000 for more. and Howland on 020 7289 6666. Greater London after living for three are 13 times more flats than there are On the northern edge of Maida Vale Westbourne Place is a Redrow years in local intermediate rental houses for sale locally. Prices fall in opposite Paddington Recreation development in a converted Victorian homes. In Maida Vale, Westminster Maida Hill off Harrow Road, with one- Ground in Kilburn Park Road, police station on the corner of Harrow has studio flats at £719 a month, one- bedroom flats from about £425,000. Network Homes housing association Road and Woodfield Road. One three- bedroom flats at £901, two-bedroom has built Park Terrace, a block of 52 bedroom flat remains, at £850,000. flats for £1,239 and three-bedroom NEW-BUILD HOMES one-, two- and three-bedroom flats. See westbourne-place.co.uk or call flats from £1,408. Call 020 3667 7876. The biggest development is Berkeley The project, part of the Kilburn 020 3553 3251. Group’s West End Gate, on a two-and- Quarter regeneration of the South Parker House, a period building in WHO RENTS HERE? a-half-acre former car park in Kilburn Estate, is three quarters sold Cuthbert Street off Edgware Road, has Chestertons lettings director Mags Newcastle Place at the corner of and the flats are move-in ready. One- been converted into 19 apartments by O’Grady says City workers, writers Edgware Road and Harrow Road, the bedroom flats start at £525,000, with the Linton Group. Nine remain, all and musicians enjoy the peace and edge of Maida Vale. The scheme of two-bedroom homes from £720,000 ready to move into, with one-bedroom quiet. Her bread and butter are two- 812 homes includes 169 affordable, in and three-bedroom flats at £789,000. flats priced from £570,000 and two- bedroom mansion flats that rent for five buildings by architects Squire Visit parkterracenw6.com or call bedroom homes starting at £875,000. £550-£700 a week. She thinks the and Partners. The tallest is Westmark, agents Stone on 020 7043 8888 or Blossom time: brightly painted boats of Call 020 3637 1800 for more Elizabeth line at Paddington will a 30-storey block that will have a gym, Marsh & Parsons on 020 7828 8100. In Little Venice moored on Regent’s Canal information. bring many more corporate lettings. 34
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Ask the expert Our new flat — and a puppy dog’s tale

and/or look at the marketing materials and sales brochures published by the developer which would have included plans showing the proposed layout of the development. Furthermore, once your offer for the property was accepted your solicitor would have received from the developer’s solicitor a contract pack containing a By Fiona McNulty variety of documents. OUR LAWYER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS One of these documents would have comprised a contract, draft transfer and a plan of the property. Usually such a plan would show not only the property being MY BOYFRIEND and I hope to sold but also any neighbouring land. buy our first flat. We also want a When buying a property, the principle Q puppy. My boyfriend’s mother More legal Q&As: “caveat emptor” applies — meaning buyer says we won’t be able to live in a flat with visit homesand beware. a dog, as landlords do not allow it. Surely property.co.uk Before you exchanged contracts and if we get a ground-floor flat with a garden subsequently completed the purchase you the dog will not be a problem? really should have ensured that you were property which would constitute a I HAVE just bought a new-build happy with the property you were buying ANY flat you buy will have a nuisance. If the puppy makes a lot of noise detached house on a new estate. and its surroundings. leasehold title. The lease should barking, that could amount to nuisance. In Q The house has two allotted Subject to planning and building A list restrictions, covenants and such circumstances the landlord is likely parking spaces but the developers have controls, the developer should be able to obligations by which you as the to revoke any consent for a dog. now put in another parking space which construct the parking space on its land — leaseholder would be bound. The lease WHAT’S At the outset ask the estate is close to my window and is for anyone to and indeed it may very well be a condition YOUR PROBLEM? may prohibit keeping a dog in the flat, or it agent to confirm the position park on. I feel that my privacy is being put of planning that visitors’ and/or Email legalsolutions@ may say one can be kept with the prior standard.co.uk or write to Legal regarding dogs and for a copy at risk. Are the developers allowed to do communal parking space has to be written consent of the landlord. It could Solutions, Homes & Property, of the lease so you can see this? provided. say the landlord’s consent may not be London Evening Standard, 2 Derry precisely what it says about In any event, most contracts for new- unreasonably withheld, but also that it Street, W8 5EE. Questions cannot be keeping pets. You do not THE parking space seems to be a build property allow the developer leeway may be revoked at any time. answered individually, but we will try want to commit yourself to communal or visitors’ parking to make changes to layouts, boundaries The lease is likely to include covenants to feature them here. buying a flat and then find A space for the development. Before and the like, provided the value or stating that the leaseholder must not do or Fiona McNulty is a solicitor that your puppy is not you purchased your new home, you would amenity of the property being sold is not allow anything to be done on or at the specialising in residential allowed to live there. have had the opportunity to visit the site affected. property. 36
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Inside story On board with anti-money laundering

from Singapore insists my colleague, arrived in our account. They are Simon, shows her around the flat via distraught as they are due to fly off on Diary of an Facetime. She is looking to buy for her a day trip tomorrow. Nicole, our head son and daughter who are coming to of accounts, is chasing the banks to study at University College London. find out where the money is and Estate Agent Neither flat she views from a when it is likely to arrive as cleared distance hits the mark on this funds. When 3pm hits and the occasion but this type of viewing is likelihood of it arriving today fades, I MONDAY definitely becoming more popular. step in to try to find a solution, but the NEW legislation seems to be coming Only yesterday a German couple tenants are upset at the thought of at us thick and fast. Fortunately, I sit came to London to see a lovely flat in missing their day trip. They will be on the Propertymark board for the the Hanway Gardens development, flying back late so they won’t be able National Association of Estate Agents having put down a rental deposit a to collect the keys, but I suggest they so I get to hear about what’s coming week earlier. Happily, they liked it should still go on their trip and we in advance. Anti-money laundering even more “in the flesh”. will get the keys to the airport as I has been with us for a number of don’t live too far away… assuming the years now but the new fourth WEDNESDAY monies arrive tomorrow. directive means there are even I’M meeting one of our property tighter controls on so-called “dirty developers today to run through the FRIDAY money” which historically has been final show suite on a new scheme of GREAT news — the monies arrive in used to buy property. flats. A video with information about our account first thing so we message I head to a meeting in Fitzroy Street the developer, commentary from the our tenants with the good news. They about the clever tech our client is architect and computer-generated are due back around 10pm so very putting into their scheme nearby. It images are all included. Samples of kindly the concierge at the Charlotte lets you operate heating, cooling, the carefully chosen finishes are Street Hotel near our office agrees to lighting, music, entry-phone and expertly displayed to give buyers as hold the keys for them and will blinds from a tablet, either inside the much detail as possible before they release them on proof of ID. The property or on an app from anywhere are able to get on-site. Many flats will tenants are delighted. in the world. It’s what discerning be sold before that stage, so it’s great Now I’m finalising everything before buyers want now in a West End flat. to have plenty to show them. I go away skiing. The clock is ticking, so At the moment the sales market is I have a takeaway at my desk, write a TUESDAY relatively slow. People are still keen to list for my colleagues, put the “Out of AFTER all the snow disruption, buy but some sellers are holding out an impasse. We are finding that the THURSDAY Office” on, and head for France. buyers and tenants are back out for prices that often are not only people moving home right now WE have a problem today with viewing again this week. We’re achievable at this time. With interest are those with motives, such as a job tenants due to move into a property. ⬤ Jonathan Hudson is founder of noticing a growing theme that we call rates still historically low and stamp move, a break-up or probate sales They sent the money two days ago Hudsons in Charlotte Steet, Fitzrovia “Facetime viewing”. This time a buyer duty so costly, we are at something of where family are selling. from Germany but it still hasn’t W1 (020 7323 2277). 40
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | Letting on

£650 a week: a two-bedroom, two-bathroom flat You’re dead — so with two winter gardens, on the eighth floor of what? You are still Halliday House at Battersea Power Station, is available to rent through liable for the rent John D Wood (020 3151 5710). Residents’ facilities include a happy to guarantee their rent if only 24-hour concierge, to get them to leave home, it can be on-site gym, The accidental awkward for those who don’t have swimming pool relatives who can help. and spa, cinema, games room, landlord I recently had a low-waged nanny meeting room and whose employer offered to act as her all-day restaurant. guarantor, until she scrutinised the A boss offers to tenancy agreement and realised she could potentially be locked into the guarantee her deal for the rest of her life. The agreement, supplied by the online nanny’s rent but letting agent I was using, stated the guarantee was “not limited to the there is a problem term specified” and would apply “during the initial term or any — the contract extension, renewal or continuation of the agreement”. She couldn’t even get legalese locks her out of it by dying: a clause said the guarantee would continue after that. in forever. Who’d The guarantor wasn’t comfortable signing an agreement that might last agree to that, asks long after the nanny had left her. I didn’t blame her. I’d naively assumed Victoria Whitlock all guarantors were automatically released from their obligations at the end of the initial fixed term, but I’ve since discovered that the agreement HE phone rings. It’s a self- my agent provided was not at all employed taxi driver who unusual. Many deeds of guarantee wants to know if I accept continue until the tenant leaves or tenants — ie him — claiming the landlord changes the terms of the housing benefit. He tells me contract, such as by increasing the he’sT “good for the rent” because he rent. Who’d agree to that? earns more than £40,000 a year, but as he only declares less than half his The nanny’s employer was happy to income on his tax return, he’s act as a guarantor for the initial 12- “entitled” to benefits. month contract, after which she “So you’re a tax dodger and a wanted the option to say yes or no to benefits cheat?” I ask him. He replies: an extension, so I asked the agent to “You get what you can, everyone does amend the agreement. Not possible, it.” I tell him not to bother coming to they said. It was a standard contract view my flat, as I don’t want to get and any changes they made might not embroiled in someone else’s fraud. be legally sound. Mind you, so many people are now Their attitude was, if the guarantor part of the so-called “gig economy” couldn’t trust the tenant to guarantee that most of my tenants tell me their their rent indefinitely, I shouldn’t actual earnings are higher than trust her either. This was naïve and indicated on their tax returns. I don’t unhelpful. In the end, I added my own know if this means almost everyone is clause releasing the guarantor from cheating the system, or they’re just her obligations at the end of the bigging themselves up. initial term. Let’s hope we never have Whatever, many of my tenants don’t to find out whether it’s legally sound. earn enough on paper to pass a credit check, so I usually ask them for a ⬤ Victoria Whitlock lets four guarantor. While this isn’t generally a properties in south London. problem for students and young To contact Victoria with your ideas professionals, whose parents are and views, tweet @vicwhitlock

£595 a week: a three-bedroom flat in Castellain Mansions, Castellain Road, W9, an easy walk from Maida Vale Tube, is available through Marsh & Parsons (020 8012 1023) 44
WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018 EVENING STANDARD Homes Property | New homes How cool, a camera in the fridge

THE so-called “internet of things”, a can message your fridge stocks to network that allows digital devices, your mobile phone. With a Smart moves gadgets and domestic appliances to “connected” fridge, residents can remotely “speak” to each other, is also order groceries directly from a making its mark in new housing panel on the appliance door. By David Spittles developments for the computer- About a third of the 5,000 homes savvy generation. here are for private rent through a Homes at Wembley Park, below, a company called Tipi. Rents start at new neighbourhood ringing the £1,650 a month including utility bills, famous stadium, now have state-of- plus there is free fast broadband and the-art appliances such as Samsung shared social spaces such as a cinema fridges with a built-in camera that screening room. Call 020 3151 1927. Best Boat Race seats guaranteed

HE Oxford-Cambridge Boat race from the riverbanks, but this Race, this year on March 24, stretch of the Thames is usually will take place against a tranquil. Prices range from £595,000, backdrop of head-turning up to £2.35 million for a penthouse housing schemes that have with a wide, sheltered terrace. Call Tsprung up along the banks of the 020 8115 7109. Thames between Putney and Mortlake with big terraces offering wide river vistas, while new promenades with bars and brasseries, Looking for a boutiques and galleries have made new-build the waterfront a more convivial place. Riverbank regeneration has created home? Start a new homes sub-market, one of the most resilient sectors says estate your search on agent Knight Frank, which has launched Boat Race House, right and far right, a block of understated design with 16 flats overlooking the finishing line at Mortlake. More than 250,000 people are set to watch the EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 14 MARCH 2018
45 homesandproperty.co.uk powered by New homes | Homes Property Get Help to Buy the best in the block at Deptford Foundry

HELP TO BUY homes are often the less attractive flats in a development in terms of size, floor plan and position within the scheme — but they are acceptable to cash- strapped buyers desperate to get on the property ladder. So full marks to developer Anthology for launching Casting House, an entire block of 40 Help to Buy apartments priced below £600,000 that are as good as any at its Deptford Foundry scheme of 316 homes, right. With Help to Buy, first-timers need only a five per cent deposit as they can use an interest-free government loan of 40 per cent, making it easier for them to get a mortgage for the remaining 55 per cent. So here is a good chance to buy into improving SE8 from an affordable £375,000. Deptford is raw and arty, with enviably quick transport connections to central London and Docklands. Call 020 7526 9229.

RUST IS ON A ROLL

GETTY Dramatic lateral homes in SW18

ON-TREND Corten steel has made an appearance in the unsung Wandsworth suburb of Southfields. In Revelstoke Road amid a terrace of Victorian bay- fronted houses, this scheme of nine homes, pictured, is a dramatic architectural intervention. What looks like a row of modern townhouses with front gardens is in fact a scheme of five duplexes and four laterals with double-height glazing, white-walled interiors and winter gardens. Prices from £779,000. Call Dexters on 020 3463 2682.