styled up property - homes and property · pdf fileconvoys wharf in deptford, one of the...

Styled up for summerJohn Lewis celebrates its 150th birthdayPage 28

NEW HOMES ON THE RIVER P4 GETTING EBBSFLEET RIGHT P6 SECRETS OF SHADY GARDENING P29 SPOTLIGHT ON HARROW P34

Homes&Property

Wednesday 9 April 2014

The Feeling frontman’s Hackney home Page 26

London’s best property search website: homesandproperty.co.uk

Get the lads round

THO

MA

S O

XLEY

2 WEDNESDAY 9 APRIL 2014 EVENING STANDARD

By Faye Greenslade

This week: homesandproperty.co.uk

VISIT homesandproperty.co.uk/rules for details of our usual promotion rules. When you respond to promotions, offers or competitions, the London Evening Standard and its sister companies may contact you with relevant offers and services that may be of interest. Please give your mobile number and/or email address if you would like to receive such offers by text or email.

Editor: Janice Morley

Editorial: 020 3615 2524 Advertisement manager: Mark WoodAdvertising: 020 3615 0527Homes & Property, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT.

news: Richard Rogers plans to build Lego-style homes in Stratford

Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/jubilee

Casillero del Diablo wines and Weber BBQs for two readers

hot homes: discover the city’s NEXT property hotspots

ARCHITECT Richard Rogers has designed “pod” homes for low-cost private renting in east London, aimed at easing the capital’s housing shortage. The 36 two-bedroom flats will be built off-site and then transported to Newham, which has a housing waiting list of 24,000.

The homes will slot together Lego-style into low-rise blocks in Stratford, and it is hoped the first residents can move in by the end of the year. The project is a joint initiative between Newham council, which owns the land, and “starchitect” Lord Rogers, whose credits include the British Museum’s courtyard enclosure and Terminal 5 at Heathrow. One in three flats will be let at a subsidised rate.

Win a red-hot barbecue party

£750,000: get plenty of bang for your buck in Wales at Chapel House, a former vicarage in more than five acres of the beautiful Upper Wye Valley at Alltmawr. The drawing and dining rooms are elegant, the spacious kitchen/breakfast room has an Aga, and there’s a library and nine bedrooms, easily split into guest and private living space. Another £250,000 buys a separate three-bedroom cottage, barn/office and paddocks. Through Carter Jonas.

£775,000: in a quiet SE17 mews, close to Kennington Tube, reinvention has taken place. A bright, Scandi-style home with two double bedrooms, including one en suite, has been created out of what was once a rather gloomy house. Now it has an open-plan living space with walls clad in pale wood, plus a kitchen area of brilliant white gloss cabinets, lit by skylights. There’s also a secluded courtyard garden to enjoy. Through KFH.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/buyoftheweekken

OUR exclusive research into average property values along the Tube network reveals dramatic price savings of up to 60 per cent when travelling only three stops beyond central London on the Jubilee line (see Page 6 today).

The Jubilee line service is the best-connected in the capital — the only route that links to every other line on the network. Join us online for a property tour as we track down homes at every stop, from Stanmore to Stratford.

TO ENTER For a chance to win, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/offers before the end of April 21 — you must be 18 or over. Usual rules apply, see homesandproperty.co.uk/rules for details. Enjoy alcohol responsibly (drinkaware.co.uk)

London buy of the week Scandi with wood is good

Out of town buy of the week sweet chocolate box will find your soft centre

Life changer a heavenly country retreat in Wales

£550,000: a three-bedroom Bermondsey penthouse on the Jubilee line with city views

Visit homesand property.co.uk/penthouse

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/outwarninglid

£799,995: if an Arts & Crafts home tops your wish list, this Thirties cottage in the West Sussex village of Warninglid is a must-see. A sweeping gravel driveway leads up to the chocolate-box thatched home, set in an acre of well-stocked gardens. Beams galore can be found in the dual-aspect sitting room and the dining room is an impressive 26ft,

with doors to a sun room and kitchen/breakfast room. Seven bedrooms can be found on the first floor, taking full advantage of the pretty views. Cuckfield village with its tea rooms and boutiques is just a few miles away. Through King & Chasemore.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangeralltmawr

Property search

Simple: homes will be built off-site then slotted together “Lego-style” on land owned by Newham council

Homes & Property Online homesandproperty.co.uk with

THE vineyards of Casillero del Diablo in Chile are home to some of the finest wines in the world, though few outsiders know their dark secret. Locals say that in the depths of the cellars lives Satan himself — the brand name Casillero del Diablo even translates as The Devil’s Cellar.

Casillero del Diablo is offering readers the chance to stoke their own fires and revel in the power of its Casillero del Diablo wines by winning one of two Red Hot Summer BBQ Parties.

Two lucky readers will each receive a top-of-the-

range MasterTouch Premium Weber barbecue in crimson (worth more than £200), a Weber stainless steel two-piece BBQ tool set, a mixed case (six x 750ml) of Casillero del Diablo wines plus two Casillero del Diablo Wine Legend wineglasses. To enter, see panel below.

Casillero del Diablo is available in all major supermarkets — just look for the devil on the bottle. To find out more, visit Facebook.com/diablo winelegend or follow on Twitter @DiabloLegendUK.

EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 9 APRIL 2014 3

Homes & PropertyNewshomesandproperty.co.uk with

ROBBIE WILLIAMS has sold three acres of undeveloped land in Beverly Hills to venture capitalist Eddy Aslanian for £4.2 million.

The singer, right, put the California plot — in upmarket Mulholland Estates, where Christina Aguilera, Paris Hilton and Charlie Sheen own homes — on the market at £5.1 million two years ago but finally found his buyer after dropping the price.

Williams last year bought late film director Michael Winner’s Holland Park mansion for £17.5 million to live in with actress wife Ayda Field and their toddler daughter Teddy. Touring in Europe, he comes to the O2 in July.

Robbie lands £4.2m sale after two years

MERYL STREEP, right, has been leading a rally on Myddelton Square in Islington, fighting for women’s right to vote alongside British actress Carey Mulligan.

The A-listers were in town to film Suffragette, starring Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst and Mulligan as a fictional “foot soldier of the movement” called Maud. Film location manager Harriet Lawrence said: “Myddelton Square had the right historic look.” If you’d like a piece of the film action, No 59, right, one of two beautifully restored Georgian gems in the square, is for sale at £4.25 million with joint selling agents Knight Frank and Savills.

See homesandproperty.co.uk/mydd

This is the headline that goes like this

THE Royal Ballet will showcase a piece based on the works of Virginia Woolf in its 2014/15 season at Covent Garden. The first full-length ballet for the company by resident choreographer Wayne McGregor, right, it will be partly based on the novel Mrs Dalloway.

With the location entirely in and around Westminster, set designers could draw inspiration from a period townhouse for sale in Wilfred Street. The three-bedroom home, far right, listed with Hathaways for £2.5 million, is conveniently located next to popular small Georgian pub The Cask and Glass, and is a fine example of traditional features blending with modern design. McGregor and his team will no doubt strive to fuse classic and cutting-edge in their highly anticipated production.

Homesandproperty.co.uk/wilfred

This Islington square gets Streep’s vote

By Amira Hashish

An inspiration for Wayne’s fancy footwork

The neighbour’s a treasure. . . it’s Woburn

Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews

WOBURN ABBEY in Bedfordshire, one of England’s 10 finest historic Treasure Houses, is a popular setting for TV shows including MasterChef and Escape to the Country.

With the First World War centenary this year, Woburn is commemorating its role with an exhibition, Valiant Hearts. Opening on Friday, it includes tributes to the 11th Duchess of Bedford who turned the house into a military hospital and nursed the injured.

Be a stately neighbour by buying this four-bedroom Woburn Georgian townhouse, for sale at £680,000 with Jackson-Stops & Staff. Tastefully renovated, it has a roof terrace and a circular domed skylight, and is just a 30-minute train journey away from London Euston.

For more celebrity news, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/celebrityhomes

AP

REB

ECCA

REI

D


Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with

With today’s buyers clamouring for homes beside the Thames, the Mayor’s lighting a fire under council planners, says David Spittles

Boris is backing the new riversiders

MAYOR Boris Johnson has in ter vened to end squabbles over plans for new homes along the Thames. He is to use

special powers to bypass local councils when he thinks they are taking far too long to approve new riverfront devel-opments.

Many planning experts believe that

waterside park and new pier for the river taxi service. It will also link up with and enhance Deptford High Street, itself getting a facelift with a showpiece new train station project. To register, call 0845 460 6011.

A LIFESTYLE CHOICEDespite the waterfront boom of the last 20 years, there are still dozens of ready-and-waiting sites along the stretch of Thames from Richmond to Barking.

Several key projects are close to launching, while those for the future include Stag Brewery in Mortlake, Lots Road Power Station in Chelsea, 767-home Chambers Wharf near Tower Bridge, and Sugar Quay, a Candy & Candy project next to the Tower of London.

While the London-wide housing shortage is driving development activ-ity, a rekindled fashion for riverside living is giving the trend extra impetus. Demand for “Property-upon-Thames” has never been so strong, according to Matthew Smith, who has even coined

a new term — riversiders — for those who crave a home on the Thames.

“People have always gravitated towards the river but what might be called the riverside lifestyle only really took off about five years ago when developers started to provide ameni-ties such as restaurants, spas and

the many acres of derelict land on the riverbank could go a long way towards meeting the target of building the 70,000 new homes a year the capital needs.

The Mayor has been frustrated by delays in approving plans for 40-acre Convoys Wharf in Deptford, one of the largest London development opportunities. It could provide 3,500 new homes but has been left derelict for 14 years by planning delays.

The land occupies a dramatic, deep-water bend of the river — one reason why Henry VIII decided to site his first, and most important, royal dockyard there in 1513. It is where his flagship Mary Rose and the Golden Hind were built, and where Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. It is also where Peter the Great of Russia spent three months learning the art of ship-building in 1698.

Stand on the riverfront and the domes of Greenwich Naval Hospital and the glittering skyscrapers of Canary Wharf are in full view. In recent decades, the

land was blighted by ugly industrial sheds blocking off access to the river, while the listed Olympia Building at the heart of the site fell into disrepair. Hong Kong-based developer Hutchison Whampoa faced stiff opposition from local campaigners and archaeologists over its failure to include a plan to pre-serve the remains of the former dock-yard, described by MP Joan Ruddock as “London’s best-kept secret”.

However, when Lewisham council failed to consider the developer’s plan-ning application within the statutory time period, the Mayor stepped in to give the £1 billion scheme approval.

Building work is expected to start later this year after the heritage aspects and community benefits have been agreed. About 500 of the properties will be affordable homes. The rest, including apartments in high-rise blocks, will be for sale on the open market. The masterplan by architect Sir Terry Farrell promotes Convoys Wharf as a destination as well as a place to live, with shops, restaurants, a

INCREASING THE BERTH RATE MORE PIERS AND RIVER TAXISTRANSPORT for London estimates that 100,000 homes will be built in riverside districts during the next decade, justifying an improved river taxi service. Plans have been unveiled for more piers and extended routes to double the number of passengers by 2020. Annual passenger numbers have increased from 5.3 million to 6.6 million over the last five years.

After piers open at Imperial Wharf in Fulham and St George’s Wharf in Vauxhall, more are planned at Enderby Wharf in Greenwich, Plantation Wharf in Wandsworth and at Battersea Power Station, making it easier for residents to get to and from

work. Currently, river services operate along three sections of the Thames: Wandsworth to Westminster via

Chelsea Harbour; Embankment to Tower Bridge via Blackfriars, and Docklands to Woolwich via Greenwich.

Oyster card travel has been extended to the Thames Clipper river bus service, whose recently lengthened route from Riverside Quarter in Wandsworth to Blackfriars, a 30-minute commute, has introduced a whole new group of City buyers to the area.

Five Riverside, a tower with 99 apartments, is the latest local addition. Prices start from £475,000 for a one-bedroom home. Call Savills on 020 8877 2000.

Water bus: Thames Clippers joined the Oyster card set

Masterplan: the Mayor is determined to drive through a scheme for 3,500 new homes at Convoys Wharf, above, the Deptford site where Elizabeth I knighted Francis Drake, above left. Right, Royal Albert Dock, where 35 acres are earmarked as a gateway for Asian and Chinese firms, part of the plan to bring homes and jobs back to London’s waterways

Target: Boris Johnson wants Thames-side development to help ease the homes shortage

ALA

MY


Homes & PropertyNew homeshomesandproperty.co.uk with

shops, and upgrade river paths and promenades, all of which have made the waterfront a far more convivial place.” Schemes such as One Tower Bridge are about the urban realm as much as river views and head-turning architecture. Rather than being a gated compound, the nine riverside blocks integrate seamlessly with the Thames Path and a park alongside City Hall. A performance space is also being created amid the high-quality landscaping.

With extras including underground parking, gym, concierge and security, the 356-home scheme is enticing people from Chelsea and Kensington. Prices from £1.1 million Call 020 7871 0011. Improved transportation and the pros-

pect of Crossrail is boosting the allure of less central riverside districts such as Canary Wharf, where the giant Wood Wharf complex, designed by Tate Mod-ern architects Herzog & de Meuron, is due to start at the end of the year. This will bring 3,100 homes including park-side townhouses, affordable homes and luxury flats, plus 100 shops and new offices within a network of streets and squares, public spaces and water’s edge boardwalks — “the glue that holds the neighbourhood together,“ says project director Robert Maguire.

Waterfront homes always carry a pre-mium — up to 35.4 per cent, according to analysis by Savills. As a rule of thumb, homes east of Tower Bridge are cheaper

than those to the west. Prices decline beyond Putney before rising again at Richmond. River-view flats start at about £450,000 in Limehouse and Rotherhithe, while values generally range between £600 and £3,000 a square foot. Woolwich and Brentford are among the lower-priced riverside addresses. The South Bank and Cheyne Walk in Chelsea are most expensive.

London Dock, launching in early summer, is a redevelopment of the former News International printworks in Wapping. The 15-acre, high-fenced compound is being transformed into a “quarter” with 1,800 homes, new pedestrian routes to the river, a civic square, cafés, restaurants and a new

secondary school. Contact St George on 020 8917 4040. Fulham’s waterfront is another new homes hotspot, with industrial estates and retail parks changing into smart new apartment schemes. A 2.5-acre patch between Hurlingham Park and the Harbour Club is getting 242 river-hugging homes. Call Londonewcastle on 020 7534 1888.

Vista, at the foot of Chelsea Bridge, is a redevelopment of the former QVC shopping channel offices bringing 350 homes priced from £826,000. Call 020 3053 6900.

From £1.1 million: for apartments at One Tower Bridge’s nine riverside blocks

Key to the future: a £1 billion flats and jobs project is under way at the old Lots Road Power Station site, Chelsea


Homes & Property Garden cities

Think outside the little boxes

Dormitory suburb or garden city — why don’t we try to get it right from the start in Ebbsfleet’s case?

Jonathan GlanceyARCHITECTURE CRITIC

APPEARING on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show days ahead of the recent Budget, Chancellor George Osborne

announced that for “the first time in 100 years we’re gonna [sic] build a garden city in Ebbsfleet in the Thames Estuary”. Gonna build what? You could have knocked a music hall of Cockney comedians down with a feather.

Plans to build thousands of homes in and around the Ebbsfleet Valley, between Bluewater Shopping Centre and Ebbsfleet International, have been doing the rounds since the heyday of Tony Blair’s first New

Labour government and its promise of an “Urban Renaissance” — all pavement cafés, trams and beautiful people — here, on the site of former Kentish chalk quarries.

Even before Bluewater opened its many doors and 330 shops in 1999 to what quickly became half a million “guests” a day, Texan-born architect Eric Kuhne was “bigging up”, as Mr Osborne might say, a new town of thousands of executive homes as a chorus to his operatic shopping mall. Here, as I wrote at the time, would be “a city with no gods other than Prada, Gucci and Starbucks, with no cathedral and temple beyond the naves and domes of the mall itself, and with no ultimate purpose beyond stupefying consumption.”

It never happened. Gordon Brown’s government talked of building 10,000 new homes here from 2007 as the high-speed rail link from St Pancras to Kent and the Continent arrived at Ebbsfleet International. Just 150 have been built between then and Mr Osborne’s breezy proclamation of a new urban development corporation charged with creating, between now and 2020, Ebbsfleet Garden City.

Promised land Londoners and others hopeful of a dreamy new home here have every right to be sceptical of this latest scheme. Planning permission was granted for thousands of new homes several years ago but recession hit soon afterwards, and precious little has happened.

George Osborne’s garden city is simply the latest promise to build lots of new homes. The term garden city might evoke visions of genteel, arty-crafty Kentish folk tending allotments, yet what is proposed between Bluewater and Ebbsfleet is really a clutch of four dormitory “villages”. Why dormitory? Because of the rail link to London — St Pancras in just 17

minutes — and because a city is a much bigger entity than 15,000 new houses can ever be. And, short of building a contemporary interpretation of a many-tiered and densely packed Italian hill town between Northfleet and Swanscombe, there is not the space here to build anything like a true city, especially if, as promised, 40 per cent of this new settlement is given over to green space. More than this, a city needs a purpose beyond that of a home to live in and a shopping mall at Bluewater. It is very hard not to think of the latest “garden city” as anything other than a tag for what in reality is a rushed housing development.

Raise the profile When Victorian social reformer Ebenezer Howard conjured the idea of garden cities more than a century ago, he was thinking of polite, self-sustaining towns of no more than 30,000 people, surrounded by green belt. People would walk to work and, yes, grow their own sunflowers and beans. What they would not do is commute. Despite certain degrees of success, many residents of the garden cities that were built — Letchworth and Welwyn — do commute to London. People need jobs as well as homes, and some want the kind of careers and a share in a way of life only a city like London offers.

So what would make a major new settlement at Ebbsfleet work better than a politically expedient “garden city”? It might be better to think in terms of several smaller developments adding thoughtfully to existing towns and “villages”, from Gravesend to Swanscombe via Northfleet and Ebbsfleet. At the same time, huge improvements could be made to Thamesmead, a new town of sorts in need of love, care and investment a few miles west along the Thames. Meanwhile, a cluster of city-style streets, squares, shops, a school,

places to eat and places of entertainment could be built around Ebbsfleet International itself. At the moment, the station is isolated like some Tsar-forsaken halt on the trans-Siberian railway. Trams could connect this new Ebbsfleet settlement to nearby towns and to Bluewater.

While this was happening, the economic and cultural profile of the area could be raised. Currently, all government and planners seem to think of when they locate Ebbsfleet on the map is a blank canvas intersected by a fast railway and arterial roads, ripe for cul-de-sac housing. Yet here is a place intimately connected with the River Thames, with town centres, like Gravesend, that are special. While it is true this is also an area that has long served London and done its dirty washing — there are several sewage treatment plants as well as Kimberly-Clark’s Andrex factory — this is nothing to be ashamed of.

At the German-owned Littlebrook Power Station on the banks of the Thames, magnificent Rolls-Royce Olympus gas turbines, the engines that powered Concorde, remain at work. Imagine if this area was well landscaped and joined by new engineering-led factories offering skilled jobs to those choosing to live in and around Ebbsfleet.

IMAGINE the Ebbsfleet area as an economic powerhouse of the future and not just a dormitory suburb, an Ebbsfleet rejoined to the Thames brimming with new

industry and a mix of city and village streets, rather than a government-approved settlement of thousands of little box homes for people doomed to commute and further clog crowded transport links. It could happen. Before we are bamboozled into a questionable “garden city”, we need to explore this area afresh, and to think before we build.

Big future: the Government proposes 15,000 new homes in Ebbsfleet “Garden City”

*Travel times represent the quickest journeys via public transport

from Canning Town station. Source: Transport for London.

Beyond your expectations

Stylish 1 bedroom suites,1 & 2 bedroom apartmentscoming soon

Sales & Marketing Gallery launching26th April, 11am - 4pm.

0207 758 8449 Hurry spaces are going fast!


Homes & PropertyAffordable homeshomesandproperty.co.uk with

Drop anchor in top-value Kent ‘Docklands’

Ebbsfleet has been earmarked for 15,000 new homes. Nearby Chatham is a North Kent happy hunting ground for young London families, says David Spittles

is forecast to double during the next 25 years. Local developer Pentland Homes is trying to entice young fami-lies from London to its Bluebells scheme of 61 two-, three- and four-bed-room houses.

They are priced from £199,995. Call 01303 893080 for more information.

NORTH-EAST Kent is among the best-connected parts of the country — one reason why the Govern-ment has chosen to build

15,000 homes and a garden city at Ebbsfleet, from where it’s as easy to get to Paris as it is to St Pancras.

The area is also one of the best-value in the home counties, making it worth-while hunting ground for first-time buyers.

Property prices remain relatively low due to local industrial demise dating back to the Seventies, but a catching-up process has kicked in with ambitious

Ashford and Ebbsfleet transport hubs. Blossom Park is a new scheme of flats and houses in the riverside town of Hoo St Werburgh, near Strood. Prices start from £169,995 for a two-bedroom

coach house. Call Bellway on 0845 548 3009 for further details.

Ashford is a key growth area with a £2.5 billion development strategy in place. It is an ancient market town and becoming a regional business hub on the back of freight and transport improvements. The town’s population

£268,000: for three-bedroom houses in The Fishing Village at St Mary’s Island, Chatham, left

From £339,950: four-bedroom houses with conservatories and open-plan rooms at Horsted Park, Chatham

waterfront regeneration. At smart Docklands-style developments such as Victory Pier in Gillingham, two-bed-room flats cost from £172,000.

Journey times have also been dra-matically reduced making the trip to London about 40 minutes in general — or just 17 minutes on the high-speed train from Ebbsfleet.

Chatham is at the centre of the action, where apartments and family houses are being built alongside a protected Georgian quarter, a new 358-berth marina, a retail complex and leisure attractions including Dickens World.

LIVE IN A FISHING VILLAGEThe Quays is a group of waterfront buildings with 332 flats including penthouses in two eye-catching glass-clad towers. Byrne Estates, the devel-oper, has punched above its weight to deliver good-value homes starting at £141,000 and rising to £650,000. Call 01634 890 594.

Affordable family houses are for sale at St Mary’s Island, a former part of Chatham naval base that has been transformed into a 150-acre eco-friendly estate with a school and a GP surgery. Traditional Kentish-style designs are mixed with contemporary architecture — bold colours, timber cladding, sun decks and steeply pitched roofs. And there are splendid water views.

The Fishing Village is the latest phase. Prices start at £268,000 for a three-bedroom house, and Help to Buy,

the Government’s low-deposit scheme, is available, meaning a 75 per cent mortgage is required. Call Countryside Properties on 01634 891200.

At Horsted Park, Chatham, the same developer is selling four-bedroom houses, each with an open-plan family room connected to a fully glazed con-servatory that has double doors to the garden. Prices from £339,950. Call 01634 406491. Help to Buy is on offer here, too.

Together the five Medway towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gilling-ham and Rainham have 780 listed buildings and 26 conservation areas and are lobbying for Unesco World Heritage status. A co-ordinated £1 billion project is under way to turn eight miles of river frontage into an 8,000-home “linear city”.

LOCAL JOBS AND HOMES BOOSTVictory Pier in Gillingham is a mixed residential and retail scheme on the site of a former chemical works, offer-ing 775 homes, a hotel, a marina, a restored paddle steamer and a floating art gallery.

The Boardwalk is the latest phase and has one-bedroom apartments priced from £135,000. Call Berkeley Homes on 01634 565000.

Locate in Kent, the county’s inward investment agency, says better road and rail links are encouraging compa-nies to relocate from London, which is boosting the local economy and hous-ing demand, particularly around the

From £141,000: for new apartments alongside Chatham Maritime Marina

To book your advert or for additional information call 0845 268 9250 and quote LEVS14 *Introductory offer. Annual subscription inc.

13 images and weblink

Advertise with the experts for only £179 +VAT* (usual price £234 + VAT)

At Stilwell’s Cottages Direct we have spent 20 years

building up an excellent reputation in the UK and

Irish property listings market. We have thousands of

potential customers on our database, and our website,

cottagesdirect.co.uk received over 1.7 million visits

in 2013, which is why we’re perfectly placed to

advertise your property.

• Deal direct with customers

• No long term contracts

• Full marketing plan

• Manage your ad online

With us, you’re in control


Homes & Property Architecture homesandproperty.co.uk with

Sharing and caringglass-clad, bamboo-lined modernist box with a towering atrium — rejected by planners when first submitted last year — will cost five times as much. Sir Marcus says: “The Great Hall and the rooms around it are a unique part of modern medical history. They are beautiful, and the public deserves to have better access to them.”

A RICH HISTORYSt Bartholomew’s Hospital and priory were founded in 1123 by a courtier of Henry I called Rahere, whose life was saved in Rome by monks in a small hos-pital dedicated to the saint. Once home, with the king’s support Rahere built the priory and hospital in Smooth Field (now Smithfield). The hospital became independent of the priory in 1420. In 1539, Henry VIII dissolved the priory, and in 1546 gave the hospital to the City of London. Uniquely, the hospital is a parish in its own right, with its own church, St Bartholomew-the-Less.

In 1729 a new hospital was designed by Gibbs. Its North Wing was for recep-tions and a magnificent banqueting hall was built, reached by a stairway with two huge murals, The Good Samaritan and The Pool of Bethesda, painted free of charge by William Hogarth between 1734 and 1737. Gibbs, too, worked on the wing for nothing.

A GRADE I*-listed wing of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, with a magnificent Great Hall and Hogarth murals, is under threat, claims a band

of Friends who have vowed to save it.They are led by retired royal gynae-

cologist Sir Marcus Setchell, 70, recently knighted after delivering Prince George. His new baby, he says, is the task of preserving the hospital’s North Wing, designed in 1738 by James Gibbs, who also designed St Mary le Strand church.

The future of the wing in Smithfield, EC1, he argues, is under threat from an NHS Trust-backed scheme to attach at one end a Maggie’s Centre for cancer care and support, designed by acclaimed American architect Steven Holl. Sir Marcus and The Friends of The Great Hall and Archive of St Bartholom-ew’s Hospital have their own ideas to develop the heritage site and re-use the wing, which they will present to City of London planners on April 29.

Time and neglect have mistreated Gibbs’s Great Hall. Clumsy, mismatched 20th-century buildings have been jammed on each end, while the win-dows of the banqueting hall are rotting and the plumbing in the lavatories is

failing. With little disabled access, the building is used to less than 30 per cent capacity. Its future is part of a big Lon-don debate: can the city’s historically important architecture be preserved and maintained while also contributing fully in the 21st century?

The Friends are adamant that they can secure the wing’s future, but not if the Holl-designed Maggie’s Centre is attached. They say this would render the building unviable by making it impossible to provide sufficient access and lavatory and catering facilities to bring it up to standard.

The Friends’ plan is based on the ideas of London architect Michael Hopkins, who designed the 2012 Olympics “Pringle” Velodrome. Under his scheme, the ugly 20th-century addi-tions would be demolished and two slim extensions put at each end of the wing to carry lifts and other facilities to make the building fully accessible.

The Friends say they fully support the building of a Maggie’s Centre at Barts, and that a possible site has been identi-fied only yards away. Hopkins has sug-gested a modest two-storey structure, in keeping with the original Maggie’s concept of building homely places for rest and recuperation. The Friends claim this alternative building could cost about £1 million, whereas Holl’s

‘We just want to do the best thing’

Marcus Setchell, the doctor who delivered Prince George, wants to save a historic hospital wing. Philippa Stockley reports

New look: how American architect Steven Holl envisages the entrance to Maggie’s cancer centre at Barts in Smithfield

NHS Trust backing: left, the Maggie’s Centre by Holl would be joined on to one end of the North Wing

Stunning: the Great Hall in Barts’ 18th-century North Wing. Architect James Gibbs and Smithfield-born artist William Hogarth worked on it for free

LAURA LEE, chief executive of Maggie’s cancer care centres, says: “From our perspective, we are honoured to be working with Barts to help fight cancer and we spent a lot of time working with them to find the right place.

“You can’t escape the fact that the Great Hall is an amazing piece of architecture, and the NHS Trust understands it has a commitment to the Great Hall. It has been working with a leading conservation architect, Donald Insall Associates, to make sure it is maintained.

“The trust decided it wanted to work with the firm to appraise the needs of the Great Hall, and we appointed Steven Holl as someone with empathy who would achieve a positive effect and wouldn’t harm the Great Hall in any way. My understanding is that Insall has developed a scheme that will ensure the building can have all the access it needs to work in the future.

“We have met with the Friends, and the trust board has met with them, and I know that the board is committed to the heritage of the hall. Using Donald Insall, I believe that the Great Hall can thrive.

“The site the Friends propose would blight light from another trust facility and doesn’t provide the space that the Holl design does. Barts sees 5,500 new cancer patients each year so it is important that the Maggie’s Centre isn’t sandwiched into a corner.

“I understand the Friends’ passion. I trained at Barts, I’m a Barts cancer nurse, and I feel positive that Barts is acting in the best interest of the estate, and of its patients. I just want to do the best thing and think this meets the needs of the patients and of the Great Hall.”

For more on Maggie’s cancer centres, visit maggiescentres.org

View the detailed proposals at planning2.cityoflondon.gov.uk (ref 13/01227/FULL). For more information on the Friends see bartsgreathall.com

To see more pictures and to comment, visit homesand property.co.uk/barts

DAV

ID B

UTL

ER


Homes & Property Hotspots homesandproperty.co.uk with

Map out your

THE JUBILEE LINEfutureIn part three of our series finding great homes for Tube commuters David Spittles puts the Underground’s newest route to the test

THE Jubilee line, London’s youngest Tube route, has two big advantages over the others — it is the only line that cuts through the centre

of the capital to the major employment hub of Docklands, and it is the only one to connect with all the other Underground lines.

If Canary Wharf is important in your life, as it is for the 100,000 people who work there, the Jubilee line is a vital link. Quick and efficient direct trains from north-west London mean you do not have to live in Docklands to be early into the office, which is why the leafy avenues of St John’s Wood are stuffed with invest-ment bankers and corporate lawyers.

Junior white-collar workers have cheaper well-connected options such as Willesden and Wembley.

The Jubilee line has another distinc-tion. Since its extension eastwards 15 years ago, it is the only Tube route that crosses the river four times, first from Westminster to Waterloo, then from Canada Water to Canary Wharf, back south to North Greenwich, then back north to Canning Town. This has propelled Bermondsey forward as a buzzing Zone 2 address and put once-rough but now improving East End areas such as Canning Town and West Ham on home buyers’ radar.

A station at previously unconnected North Greenwich, where a new district is emerging around the O2 arena, has also plugged that neighbourhood into the Tube network, transforming its for-tunes. “Inevitably, there’s a premium to pay in a central location but buyers can get better value quite quickly further along the line,” says Lucian Cook, direc-tor of Savills Research.

Travel three stops in Zone 2 from St John’s Wood to West Hampstead and the average house price drops from about £1,615,000 to £650,000, a 60 per cent difference. Even in Zone 1, between Westminster (£1,332,000) and London Bridge (£446,000) there is a similar price gap.

Prices are lower the further east and north you travel, but Zone 2 locations on the southern section of the Jubilee line are noticeably cheaper than those on the northern side — for the time being. Property experts point to the impact of the new business district at London Bridge, dominated by the Shard, and say a catching-up process is

under way, so buying into the lower-priced SE postcodes today could pay dividends later.

GOING SOUTH Canada Water is a key midway point between Canary Wharf and the West End, and also an interchange on the

East London line. A fresh wave of regen-eration is creating a bustling new water-front zone next to the Jubilee line station. It is a new town centre for

Southwark, with a head-turning new library in the shape of an inverted pyramid, and smart apartment schemes. Sellar Property Group, the Shard developer, is soon to start a scheme of 1,046 flats alongside restau-rants, shops, a public square and dock basin. Call 0800 011 3394.

Nearby South Dock Marina, London’s largest, with 200 berths and a water-sports centre, is a hidden gem. Regen-eration came to a halt some years ago but the builders are back. Four-bed-room townhouses are part of the mix at the 529-home Marine Wharf devel-opment. Prices from £470,000 to £915,000. Call 020 8694 3100.

Greenwich Peninsula is the name of the neighbourhood rising up around the O2. Though it is in a slightly raw location, alongside the busy Blackwall Tunnel approach road, it occupies a dramatic riverside position and up to 10,000 people may live there one day.

Greenwich Millennium Village, the first residential project to be built on the land 14 years ago, has set the stand-ard for thoughtful architecture. The latest scheme there is The Überhaus Collection, comprising contempo-rary-design, three-bedroom duplex apartments with full-height glazing and big terraces to maximise the spectacu-lar views. Prices from £645,000 to £795,000. Call 020 8305 2712.

The Peltons, located between the Peninsula and Greenwich town centre, butts up against a Victorian conserva-tion area with a primary school and church. Flats and terrace houses are for sale. Prices from £305,000. Call DTZ on 020 3296 3895.

GOING NORTH St John’s Wood offers the nearest thing to village-like urban bliss in central London. While in other districts there are reminders that you are in a big city, in St John’s Wood there is a slower pace of life and a sense of belonging.

It has a single high street with cafés, boutiques and bistros which is sur-rounded by an unblighted residential district. Regent’s Park is a giant garden on the doorstep. The feisty local conservation society keeps “vulgar” developments at bay, and Lord’s, the home of cricket, adds a certain English eccentricity. Americans love the place, which has reinforced the axis with Canary Wharf. St Edmund’s Terrace

is a rare modern-design scheme of 36 flats in three blocks set around court-yard gardens backing on to Primrose Hill park. Architecture is by award-win-ning Squire and Partners, and comple-tion is due in spring next year. Prices from £3.7 million. Call Savills on 020 3043 3600. West Hampstead is an area

From £3.7 million: flats in St Edmund’s Terrace, in the “London village” of St John’s Wood. Through Savills


Homes & PropertyHotspotshomesandproperty.co.uk with

Stanmore

Canons Park

Queensbury

Kingsbury

Wembley Park

Neasden

Dollis Hill

Willesden Green

Kilburn

West Hampstead

Finchley Road

Swiss Cottage

St John’s Wood

Baker Street

Bond Street

Green Park

Westminster

Waterloo

Southwark

London Bridge

Bermondsey

Canada Water

Canary Wharf

North Greenwich

Canning Town

West Ham

Stratford

£434,840

£434,840

£317,231

£405,191

£312,301

£230,872

£454,499

£454,499

£507,882

£648,997

£894,476

£894,476

£1,615,874

£1,382,797

£2,173,142

£1,331,977

£1,331,977

£537,962

£790,956

£446,171

£628,662

£358,773

£423,852

£431,790

£234,967

£226,044

£240,413

3

2

45Zone

JUBILEE LINE

Source: Savills

2

3

1

Average house prices

of hidden value waiting to be unlocked, says Savills. The local train station is a main hub, with the Jubilee line, London orbital and Thameslink, and direct connections to Stratford and Stansted airport. Another plus is that the neigh-bourhood is buzzy and cosmopolitan. An inspired piece of urban planning is

transforming a former business estate in West End Lane, the area’s spine, into a new neighbourhood, with apartment blocks grouped around courtyard gar-

dens and a new public square with cafés and restaurants. Called West Hampstead Square, the scheme also has a gym, dance studio, spa and hotel-style reception with concierge. A Marks & Spencer is coming, too. Show flats are open for viewing. Prices from £595,000. Call Ballymore on 0808 1182027. Dollis

Hill is a solidly suburban enclave now being discovered by smart singles and young couples. Shortcroft Mead Court, a conversion of a listed Victorian school in Cooper Lane, has brought affordable flats with a difference. Prices start at £275,000, or £68,750 for a 25 per cent shared-ownership stake. Call

Genesis housing association on 0800 542 7243. Also in Dollis Hill is the first project funded by the Mayor’s Housing Covenant, a low-cost homes initiative. The scheme at Langhorne Place is close to revamped Gladstone Park, the area’s main green space, and offers 160 flats for private sale, shared ownership and rent. From £235,000. Call Network Living on 0300 373 3000.

Stanmore, at the end of the Jubilee line, has prosperous pockets of execu-tive housing, including Bentley Priory, where Barratt is building new homes in the grounds of a listed mansion. Prices from £840,000. Call 020 8950 5079.

Stanmore Place, nearer to Canons Park Tube station, is on a bigger scale — 798 homes in award-winning land-scaped grounds with lake, cycle paths and play areas. There is a gym, car club and 24-hour concierge. Prices from £435,000. Call 020 8952 2853.

From £305,000: The Peltons, between Greenwich Peninsula and the town centre, offers flats and terrace houses

From £645,000: for Überhaus Collection apartments, above, the latest scheme at Greenwich Millennium Village. Call 020 8305 2712

From £235,000: flats at Langhorne Place near Gladstone Park in Dollis Hill. Call Network Living (0300 373 3000)


Homes & Property Homes abroad homesandproperty.co.uk with

A Bordeaux

CLASSICAL architecture meets urban renewal with s p e c t a c u l a r e f f e c t i n Bordeaux, a Unesco World Heritage city on the banks

of the Garonne river.A tenth the size of Paris and with some

5,000 listed buildings, Bordeaux is a perfect city in which to wander, awash with grand, 18th-century traffic-free squares and Europe’s longest pedestri-anised shopping street. The city’s wine heritage only adds to its dizzying elegance. This is the capital of France’s largest wine-producing region and the names associated with it — Margaux, Latour, Pétrus — are legendary.

Bordeaux’s urban regeneration is thanks to its long-term mayor, Alain Juppé. The former French PM lovingly strong-armed the city into the 21st cen-tury, obliging residents to clean centu-ries of grime off their buildings, tearing down the warehouses that blocked the city from the Garonne to create inviting pedestrian areas, and introducing quiet and clean modern trams.

The Bordeaux population boomed in the past 20 years, making it France’s sixth-largest city. What’s more, the extension of the Paris-Tours TGV line will shave a third off the train journey to the French capital, putting it just two

hours away by 2017. So with property prices two fifths of those in Paris, is it time to consider a Bordeaux weekend bolt hole?

A CITY-CENTRE HOME “Bordeaux is an affluent university city where property represents good value compared with many other French cities,” says Doug Storrie of Maxwell Storrie Baynes. “It’s well placed for day trips to the Atlantic coast around Arca-chon, Cap Ferret and the Pyrénées.”

Two-bedroom flats of 900sq ft in the city centre start from £300,000. Grisel Immobilier has a studio in trendy Chatrons for £241,000 and a beautiful 2,220sq ft three-bedroom flat with high ceilings for £737,000. A grand three-bedroom flat on the second floor of an 18th-century building facing the river is £1,121,000 through Home Hunts.

TAKE THE TOURBordeaux’s location on the Garonne created economic prosperity from the 16th century, built largely on the wine trade. Now, just like the city centre, the notoriously secretive world of Bordeaux wine production is being revitalised.

Under pressure from the New World, producers are adding modern architec-ture to their historic estates and opening their doors to wine tourists.

“Bordeaux city has literally cleaned up its act and now wine tourism is steadily improving,” says Alex Hall, a Briton who moved there in 2004. “There’s the Fête le Vin, the world’s largest wine tourism event, held on the river quays in June, and the Grand Crus weekend in May, the only time the general public can taste wines from 100 top producers in one place.”

Hall’s company, Vineyard Intelli-gence, advises people buying vineyards in Bordeaux. Hall is also a tutor at L’École du Vin, the central Bordeaux wine school which offers lessons and tastings to keen amateurs and knowl-edgeable professionals alike.

WINE AND DESIGN To highlight Bordeaux’s current obses-sion with modern architecture, Hall points out the Norman Foster-designed cellars that are under construction at Château Margaux and the dramatic, curvaceous cellar designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Christian de Portzamparc at Château Cheval Blanc.

Next to Cheval Blanc on the borders of Pomerol and Saint-Émilion, Château La Dominique, an acclaimed vineyard owned by French producer Clément Fayat since 1969, unveiled its own won-derful new cellar this spring.

Designed by Jean Nouvel and covered with concave metal strips in graduated shades of red that reflect the vines, the audacious building puts a new mark on the rural landscape, without dis-turbing it.

Above the shining steel vat room is a public restaurant and tasting room, with an open kitchen facing simple refectory tables and chairs made of horse chestnut bark. The outside deck-ing area has a vast carpet of small red glass stones imported from Shanghai.

Château La Dominique has a daily tour in English from June to September (otherwise Tuesday to Sunday only) including tastings.

The restaurant opens from the begin-ning of April at weekends, then every day for lunch and dinner in the summer season. Prices for lunch start at £20.

Homes are a fraction of Paris prices and rail times are about to be slashed. It’s time to buy in the wine capital, says Cathy Hawker

£1,121,000: a three-bedroom apartment in an 18th-century building facing the river at Chartrons (homes-hunts.com)

£785,000: a renovated six-bedroom house in a quiet, rural spot near Saint-Émilion, through Maxwell Storrie Baynes

Unesco World Heritage Site: historic Porte Cailhau city gate and Place du Palais, with modern stepping stone fountain, in the heart of Bordeaux1, 2 and 3 bedroom

apartments available on a part buy, part rent basis T H E S P I R I T O F B O W

Large sofa £1529

THE CANDLE FACTORY, 100 YORK ROAD, BATTERSEA, SW11 3RD


Homes & PropertyHomes abroadhomesandproperty.co.uk with

château? We’ll drink to that ‘Life is good in easy-going wine country’

A PLACE TO STAY Relais & Châteaux Hotel Le Saint-James, just four miles from Bordeaux in the sleepy, golden limestone village of Bouliac, has the region’s smallest vineyard. A few dozen straight lines of vines are visible from all 18 spacious, light-filled guest rooms, setting the tone of this hotel where the wonderfully informal sommelier, Richard Bernard, can give you a quick and simple, informative lesson on French wine routes and grapes.

The French family-owned hotel led Bordeaux’s current interest in design when it commissioned architect Jean Nouvel in 1989.

“This was the first hotel Nouvel com-pleted and his design was revolutionary at the time,” says general manager Anthony Torkington.

“He put in a black-lined swimming pool and employed an open-plan, minimalist style around a traditional take on a tobacco barn.”

Le Saint-James is a notable gastro-nomic destination with a Michelin-starred restaurant. Last year a modern cookery school opened where a dedi-cated chef offers classes, including shopping trips to Libourne’s bustling weekly market.

“Most of our guests are French but we want to welcome more British to the area. Bordeaux is easy to reach from London,” says Torkington.

“Le Saint-James combines world-class food and wine, country views and access to Bordeaux city centre and wine region.”

And being 10 minutes from the town, it also offers a peaceful respite on hot summer evenings.

CONTACTS

Le Saint-James, Bouliac: double rooms from £160 a night (+ 33 (0) 5 57 97 06 00; relaischateaux.com/stjames).

easyJet: daily flights from Gatwick and Luton to Bordeaux, from £25.74 single fare including all taxes (easyjet.com).

Maxwell-Storrie-Baynes: through Savills (savills.com; 020 7016 3740)

Home Hunts: home-hunts.com (020 8144 5501)

L’École du Vin: +33 (0) 5 56 00 22 85 (bordeaux.com)

Vineyard Intelligence vineyardintelligence.com

LE PAVILLON VILLEMAURINE, right, a lovely 1860s limestone manor house surrounded by vines on the edge of Saint-Émilion, was once owned by the Pétrus family, an illustrious name in Bordeaux wines. Nikki and Julian Garofano, left, bought it in 2010 when it was split into cramped flats. They restored it, creating five suites to rent.

The couple had previously owned vineyards, producing a red wine and a delicious, crisp white but now are happy to simply serve it from their extensive cellars. They have lived in France since leaving the UK in 2000. “Nikki worked in film location on programmes like A

Touch of Frost and I was training to be a lawyer,” says Julian. “One day I asked her how she felt about taking six months off. She said yes and 14 years on we are still here .” The couple will collect guests from Libourne TGV station and lead a complimentary personal tour of their favourite vineyards. “Guests come because Bordeaux is the holy grail of wine routes,” says Julian. “And wine people are generally a fun, easy-going bunch. Life is good here. That’s why we stayed.”

Le Pavillon Villemaurine: pavillon-villemaurine.com. From £145 a room per night with breakfast.

Go with the wine-red glow: the carpet of red stones imported to Bordeaux from Shanghai outside Château La Dominique’s restaurant

ALA

MY


So pretty — don’t let it flutter by

Homes & Property Reader promotion homesandproperty.co.uk with

Alison Cork

The companies listed here are wholly independent of the Evening Standard. Care is taken to establish that they are bona fide but we recommend that you carry out your own checks prior to purchases and use a credit card

where possible. To offer feedback on any of these companies, email [email protected] with “Bargain News” in the subject line. For more bargains, visit alisonathome.com or homesandproperty.co.uk/offers.

THE Colette nest of tables makes a charming addition to any living space.

This smart trio is £145 from Alison at Home, and the large table measures w48cm x d31cm x h45cm, with the medium and small tables slotting neatly beneath.

Extremely versatile, these beautiful, hand-carved pieces will add a

truly authentic touch of French flair to your home. To purchase, visit alison athome.com/colette or call 0800 472 5533. And to be

in with a chance of winning vouchers

worth £500, use code WIN3 at checkout before April 16.

Only 23 Colette nests of tables are available for delivery in June.

Sofas as comfy as your favourite pair of old boots

HANDMADE in the Far East using traditional techniques, this solid wood cabinet features hand-painted butterflies and flowers and antiqued distressed metal handles, as well as two removable shelves.

Oriental furniture expert The Nine Schools is offering readers a 20 per cent discount across its Butterfly range, reducing this piece from £325 to £260. Visit thenineschools.co.uk to claim the offer or call 0117 332 3673 and use code esnine20. While stocks last. Delivery within two weeks.

SLEEK Scandinavian design together with easy functionality make the contemporary Pablo sofa bed from Onedeko an attractive addition to any home.

Available as a three-seater sofa and chair with wood or chrome legs, in a choice of fabric or faux

leather upholstery, the Pablo can also be ordered with or without arms and is currently reduced from £1,329 to £995.

Call 020 7377 5900, order online at onedeko.co.uk or visit the showroom at Spitalfields and quote “pablooffer” before April 30

Versatile and Scandi-styleTHESE delightful, solid bronze cats are two of a range of limited-edition sculptures by wildlife artist Sue Maclaurin. Leaping Cat, left, (15cm in length) and Bounding Cat, right, 17cm), are handmade in Britain by Nelson & Forbes. Each numbered sculpture arrives beautifully boxed

with a certificate, and readers receive 15 per cent off any order. Both editions of 250 are reduced from £240 to £204 each. See the full collection at nelsonand forbes.co.uk or call 01442 256290 to order or request a brochure, quoting BN324 before April 24 to claim your discount.

Feline grace in solid bronze

OLD BOOT SOFAS makes quality leather seating that combines traditional style with a modern twist. The leathers are soft, warm, and comfortable and the sofas are handmade in the UK. This classic three-seater Chesterfield measuring w210cm x d88cm x h79cm is currently reduced from £1,590 to £1,390.

Featuring a solid beech frame and sumptuous vintage leather, it is available in tan, brown (pictured) or black.

Readers receive a further £50 off the price of the Chesterfield. To claim, visit oldbootsofas.com and use code Standard50 before April 15. Free UK delivery, within three to four weeks.

Get a touch of French flair and the chance of £500 vouchers

Bargain news


Homes & Property My home homesandpropertyhomesandproperty

A FEELING FOR QUIRKY STYLE With his eye for eclectic interior design, Dan Gillespie Sells, frontman of indie band The Feeling, turned an old Hackney pub into his home, says Amira Hashish

CHARMING, stylish and with a healthy whiff of self-confi-dence, Dan Gillespie Sells, lead singer of indie band The Feeling, makes for a

likeable frontman.The group first hit the big time in 2006

when their singles Fill My Little World and Never Be Lonely made a big dent in the pop charts. Brit and NME award nominations followed, along with a songwriters of the year accolade at the Ivor Novello Awards. They played everywhere from London to LA, even fitting in a celebrity wedding on the way when bassist Richard Jones — Gillespie Sells’s best friend — married singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

After a quiet few years The Feeling are back with their best album to date. Featuring sophisticated melodies and quirky lyrics, Boy Who Cried Wolf is a smart pop package that has thrust the five-piece band into the spotlight once more.

So when I get an email inviting me to meet Gillespie Sells, 35, at his Hackney home, I assume it is to talk about music. Not on this occasion. Beyond the records and gigs lies another burning passion... a rocker who can turn his hand to interior design? This has to be seen to be believed.

Gillespie Sells lives on a tree-lined street in a former pub, its original tiles still in place. A tower block on an estate

stands on the opposite side of the street. He greets me at the front door which sits behind a gate and next to a giant Holly-wood sign in his private “beer garden”. It is a deliciously glamorous and grungy entrance.

“Welcome to my bloody great big Vic-torian lump,” he says before leading me up the first flight of stairs, decorated with an array of paintings and posters, and into the kitchen for a cup of tea.

“I bought this place in 2010. It had been a gay bar and then it was empty for a while. I spotted it online and fell in love with it. It’s insane how much space there is.”

He bought the three-storey, semi-detached property for £1 million which, considering the £500,000 average price of a home in Hackney, makes it a relative bargain. “There are houses a third of the size going for more now.”

With four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two kitchens, an enormous basement — now converted into a recording studio — and a garden with a separate terrace, this is a strikingly generous property.

Gillespie Sells is very much a people person so there is no danger of this vast space feeling empty. He is currently single but is forever hosting parties “that start off being civilised but descend into madness”, inviting friends to cinema nights in his “projector room” or to drink “gallons of coffee” in the kitchen. “For me a home is not only a place where you

feel safe but a place you share with the people you love. I have a great group of housemates. They are all really bright, interesting people and I love coming home from touring to a lively house.” The star’s dog, Ted, “is man of the house, of course”.

Should any of the housemates move out, I get the impression the room would be filled very quickly, as Gillespie Sells likes to be as economical as possible: “The more of you that share a property, the cheaper bills are and the greater the use of facilities. I think Londoners make the most of their space. There are some beautiful homes in the country that are empty and going to waste but we are good at working with what we have. It is a better, greener way of living.”

WHILE he enjoys sharing his space, he has put his stamp on it. From the family photographs to retro-effect kitchen

equipment, every inch of this home oozes Gillespie Sells. “I like to think it’s the kind of house in which James Bond would live if he were gay,” he says.

The majority of his furnishings are second hand, sourced from flea markets and charity shops he has visited on his travels. Armchairs don’t match, cushions clash with sofas and old maps have been given a new lease of life as wallpaper. This happy home breaks all the rules but Cool home, city street: the star loves his lively neighbourhood

Comfortable yet spacious: the living room at Dan Gillespie Sells’s Hackney home, a former Victorian pub

Photographs:: Thomas Oxley

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO TOURWatch Dan Gillespie Sells give Amira Hashish a tour of his home for London Live at homesand property.co.uk/thefeeling


y.co.uk with Homes & PropertyMy homey.co.uk with

10 WAYS TO STEAL DAN’S STYLE1 House of Hackney’s floral Poppium wallpaper (£148 a roll, houseof hackney.com) in ivory, or pick the Wild Card option (£72) in butterscotch for the leopard-print look.

2 Enamel lampshade (£45, labourandwait.co.uk) and Linea Clarence antique brass chandelier (£100, houseof fraser.co.uk)

3 Buy the Sixty Six sofa (£900, atomicinteriors.co.uk) or the Sixty Seven sofa (£1,400, johnlewis.com) by G Plan Vintage in tonic mustard or marl green.

4 Chiltern accent chair (£899, dfs.co.uk)

5 Wimbourne extra-large pink footstool (£499-£949, marksandspencer.com)

6 Oka plain velvet cushions in jewel colours (£45 from okadirect.com)

7 Stag clock by Studio Thirty Two (£40, notonthehighstreet.com)

8 Grease 1978 print (£16.99) or Chinese Girl print by Tretchikoff (£29.99) both available from allposters.co.uk.

9 Taj Agra rug (£200, plantationrugcompany.co.uk)

10 Monty extendable dining table (£299, made.com)

Shop the look

reaps the rewards for doing so. Gillespie Sells is a big fan of House of Hackney, and the quirky British interiors brand blends in well with his eclectic finds. He uses its prints to make a statement with the walls, incorporating leopard print on the top floor and floral patterns in a hallway that leads to the living room.

Fittings from Labour and Wait and seating from Sofa.com also tie in neatly. “Plus, I buy tons of stuff on eBay. It has kept me busy on many a boring tour bus journey.”

He is big on artwork — the more vibrant the better. A Mona Lisa-style painting of Madonna, a poster of John Travolta in his Danny Zuko years and a Baroque-type tapestry stand out. But his most prized pieces are original Tretchikoff test prints made by his grandfather, who worked for the artist. Memorabilia close to his heart is dotted around each room. He says there are very few things in his house that don’t put a smile on his face or even make him laugh out loud. “I think even practical things should be pretty. If they’re not, I hide them.”

He is proud of his Ivor Novello Award and cannot resist displaying it — “it pro-vides an insecure artist such as myself the odd brief feeling of validation. It’s pathetic, I know.”

A picture of his grandfather playing a piano sits atop the piano Gillespie Sells plays when entertaining friends in the living room. “I have several pianos but

the one I treasure the most is the old honky-tonk I learned on at the age of five. I have also restored a 1911 Bechstein which a school gave me because they ran out of space to store it. When you’ve got the space, you get the stuff.”

Much of the “stuff” can be found in the lower ground-floor studio, on the original pub floor. Unlike many recording studios it has huge windows. But Gillespie Sells likes to think of it as “a bit of a man cave” where he hangs out with his mates. “We can lock ourselves away in there for hours.” What is left of the bar has been converted into a kitchen and there is also a shower room “so there is no reason to leave once you get down here”.

A giant mixing desk which he is looking after for indie band The Magic Numbers takes up a decent proportion of the space and an old-school video game, from the days before tablets and smart-phones, stands in the corner. “It actually belongs to Richard [ Jones] but Sophie wouldn’t let him keep it at their home so he comes here to play it.”

Beyond his little palace, he likes to stroll around the friendly local area which “has been buzzing for the last few years.” He can often be spotted in his nearby coffee shop, hairdressers or wine store. Hackney Picturehouse and the restaurant Lardo are regular stop-offs, and he thinks Lon-don Fields Lido is “awesome”. He loves the sense of community. His enthusiasm for his neighbourhood and his home is

infectious so it isn’t surprising that he is frequently asked if he will sell.

ACTOR Idris Elba is among those who are keen to call the property their own but each offer has been declined. “If I sold it I would never be

able to replace it. There is nothing else out there quite like it.” Gillespie Sells knows he could sell up at an ample profit and buy an even bigger retreat out of town, but says you can’t put a price on London life.

“I want to live in the heart of London when there is stuff going on and I can go to the theatre or a gig when I want to. Our city is amazing.”

Good spot for a catch-up: Gillespie Sells and housemates chew the fat over “gallons of coffee” in the kitchen

Contrasts work: left, Gillespie Sells is adept at teaming cutting-edge fixtures and fittings with older pieces. “I buy tons of stuff on eBay”

The boys in the band: Dan Gillespie Sells, centre, at home with The Feeling bandmates, from left, Ciaran Jeremiah, Richard Jones, Paul Stewart and Kevin Jeremiah

Take your pick: left, one of three bathrooms at the singer’s home. “The amount of space here is insane,” he says

Eclectic mix: right, there’s ample room for vintage pieces and favourite memorabilia

Party central:Gillespie Sells has several pianos and likes to play for visitors

Jewel shades: OKA velvet cushions in Crimson and Mustique Turquoise (£45)


You’ve come a long way, babyJohn Lewis is 150 this year. Katie Law charts its history in a story never knowingly undertold

Homes & Property Shopping homesandproperty.co.uk with

JOHN LEWIS began life 150 years ago this year as a small linen drapers shop in Oxford Street. Today the company founded by Somerset-born

John Lewis is an iconic brand, a trusted household name and a shopping destination loved by millions. Retaining its long-standing “never knowingly undersold” slogan, its retail success is thanks in large part to its ground-breaking initiative of making partners of its employees, who share in the profits.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGSLewis, born in Shepton Mallet, was orphaned at eight and brought up by his aunt. He came to London to seek his fortune at 20 and worked as an apprentice silk buyer for Peter Robinson, also in Oxford Street. Lewis turned down the offer of becoming a partner and instead opened his own shop in 1864 selling silks, linens and haberdashery at prices that undercut his competitors. On his first day of trading he took 16 shillings and fourpence.

In 1884, Lewis married Eliza Baker, a schoolmistress, and in an age when women’s education was not encouraged, paid for her to go to Girton College, Cambridge. The couple had two sons, John Spedan and Oswald.

John Spedan Lewis joined the family firm at 19, and on his 21st birthday was given a quarter of the company’s shares by his father, valued at the time at £50,000. Spedan Lewis became increasingly uncomfortable earning a large income while the 300 company employees earned so much less — £16,000 between them, equivalent to £53 each a year to his £26,000. He decided that sharing the profits would give staff an incentive to work harder. In 1914, when he took over

Peter Jones, the other London shop that his father owned, he shortened the working day, launched an in-house magazine and encouraged direct contact with all his staff. When one of his fashion buyers had to go into hospital, he insisted she have six weeks off to recuperate in the West Indies. He engaged all the buyers himself and personally reviewed them every six months. His experiment worked and in 1919 he laid the foundations for the partnership structure.

MASTER STOCKISTPart of this democratic partnership is a commitment to encourage young designers. It continues today with the Design Collective, a group of designers commissioned to produce work exclusively for John Lewis. Millions of pounds have been poured into store revamps and, to celebrate this year’s landmark anniversary, big-name designers including Ercol, Vitra, Smeg, Kenwood and Dualit have produced limited-edition pieces.

House, the in-house designer home collection, is updated seasonally, while the store continues to be a master stockist of the essentials in life. Where else would you find 80 different types of duvet online and a Basics range ironing board for £15? And for time-poor Londoners, it offers a seven-day service for made-to-measure curtains, blinds, bespoke sofas and chairs, a white goods delivery and removals service, and TV and tech delivery and installation.

John Lewis’s Christmas TV commercials have gained national treasure status, eagerly awaited each year thanks to a combination of celebrity singers and slick marketing. Quite some progress for a company whose founder refused to advertise.

Above: John Lewis bought Peter Jones in Sloane Square after the death of the eponymous founder in 1905, and acquired the Waitrose chain in 1937, above right

Right: the present Peter Jones store, built from 1932-36, became a mecca for middle-class shoppers. A £100 million renovation was completed in 2004

Left: John Lewis Hydrangea floral bed linen, £10 to £60, and Expressions framed print, £200

Right: John Lewis Croft Collection cushions, from £28, and throws, £80 to £159.99

Left: John Lewis Heming sofa in Porto Grey, Canvas Cushions, £30, and Brushstrokes wallpaper, £12 a roll

Orphan boy: John Lewis opened his first drapery shop in London in 1864

Below: House by John Lewis new season picnicware includes plates from £3.50 and glasses from £2

TIMELINE1864: John Lewis’s Oxford Street drapers shop takes 16 shillings and fourpence (about 82p) on day one.

1906: the founder’s son, John Spedan Lewis, is given a quarter of the company’s shares for his 21st birthday — then worth £50,000.

1925: The slogan “never knowingly undersold” is adopted.

1929: Spedan Lewis signs the First Trust Settlement, a major step towards what will become the John Lewis Partnership.

1937: John Lewis acquires Waitrose Ltd and “Jonelle” is used for own-brand merchandise for the first time.

1954: Raymond Loewy is commissioned to design the interiors of the new postwar store.

1983: John Lewis Oxford Street celebrates £100 million turnover.

2001: John Lewis online launches.

2013: johnlewis.com hits £1 billion sales.


buy itSee it: half-term fun at the Geffrye Museum Buy it: the best pots and planters

Pattie Barron

The spring garden stars that will shine in shade

No need to wait for the sun. Get glorious colour now with these woodland wonders

TOMORROW and Friday, the Geffrye Museum, Kingsland Road, Hoxton, is holding fun workshops for kids, ranging from making springtime wreaths and decorating pinafores to brewing herbal potions and exploring a garden trail. Workshops are from 10.30-12.30pm and 2-4pm, are suitable for children aged from five to 16 and places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis 30 minutes before they begin. Meanwhile, adults can enjoy the newly reopened walled herb garden, with 12 beds of more than 170 types of herbs, divided into culinary, cosmetic and medicinal, as well as the series of period gardens highlighting key styles over the past four centuries.

The RHS Horticultural Halls, Vincent Square, SW1, hosts

the RHS Orchid & Botanical Art Show this Friday and Saturday. For details, see rhs.org.uk.

CAPITAL GARDEN PRODUCTS sells planters, urns, window boxes and wall fountains in lightweight fibreglass that cleverly replicates lead, bronze, copper and terracotta. Capital’s products are popular at the Chelsea Flower Show but although you can buy online, the showroom in Ticehurst, East Sussex, is usually open only on weekdays. However, this Saturday, and the following two Saturdays this month, it will open from 9am to 5pm. As well as containers, it’s a great chance to buy garden and conservatory furniture, hand-woven rugs and a large range of artificial trees and plants. If you’re not familiar with the merchandise, check it out on capital-garden.com.Spring frolics: four young artists at a Geffrye workshop

Homes & PropertyOutdoorshomesandproperty.co.uk with

SPRINGTIME is when shady borders can look sensational, packed with plants that are exceptional in colour, form and texture. Most are wood-

landers by origin, such as the exquisite dog’s tooth violets, the erythroniums. They produce, on slender stems, starry flowers resembling Japanese parasols in shades of cream, pink, lilac and a luminous sulphur-yellow, as in variety Pagoda.

Heucheras are tolerant of both dry and moist soil, and although the flow-ers are tiny, the leaf colours of the many hybrids available are simply stunning, and range from palest russet-pink and vibrant lime greens to maroon and mahogany. Add some furled green shuttlecock ferns and quilted-leaved hostas to the mix — as well as slug pro-tection — and the shade garden, even with foliage alone, really starts to sing.

Lamprocapnos spectabilis is a star turn. Commonly known as bleeding heart and formerly known as Dicentra spectabilis, the perfect, locket-like flowers in rose pink and white hang all in a row on elegantly arching stems. Arguably more beautiful is the pure

white version, L spectabilis Alba. For such a sublime plant, bleeding heart is surprisingly accommodating, but does need moist soil that will not dry out.

Pulmonaria is a real hero of full shade, and will bring cottage-garden charm to the most urban patch. Clus-ters of funnel flowers in shades of pink and blue, often on the same plant, bloom above deep green leaves, some-times mottled with white. Growers have managed to produce the deepest blue flowers such as in Blue Ensign, but in dark corners, the classically beauti-ful pulmonaria Sissinghurst White, with silvery-white spotted leaves and masses of pure white flowers, is the stand-out winner.

You might need to peer closely to fully benefit from the beauty of a corydalis, so plant it right at the front of a border, or better yet, grow it in a container for all to admire. The tubular, spurred

flowers are a knockout shade of icy sky blue that deserve their own showcase. Corydalis obligingly will grow in both clay and sandy soils.

Most groundcover geraniums will flower in part or dappled shade, but Geranium phaeum is just made for shade and, with two-foot stems topped with maroon flowers, is the ideal and covetable plant to romp over a site that receives no sun whatsoever. Variety Samobor has deep purple blotches on the divided leaves, but Album is the white-flowered one to choose if you want to brighten a dark corner.

In trickiest areas of dry shade, where nothing seems to succeed, evergreen periwinkle Vinca minor will turn up trumps. Just because it is tagged “minor” does not make this trailing groundcover, dotted with the prettiest lavender-blue flowers, anything less than invaluable in full shade. Seek out

variety Vinca minor f alba for white flowers that will light up a gloomy site.

All these plants perform best in good rich soil, so working in as much humus — compost, manure, whatever you can lay your hands on — is vital before planting. After planting, mulch with bark chippings to fake a woodland floor, as well as cut down on weeding. You could further lend the lie of a woodland glade by planting a trio of white-barked birches or the evocative shrub Corylus avellana Contorta, the hazel that has catkins dangling from wonderfully twisted branches.

Later on in summer, you can keep up the momentum with, say, a glade of Lilium martagon, the beautiful Turk’s cap lily, as well as all manner of fox-gloves and non-stop flowering fuchsias, but it is this magic moment in spring that will deliver the finest show that shade has to offer.

From above left to right: the beautiful bleeding heart Lamprocapnos spectabilis Alba loves moist soil; primroses and periwinkle Vinca minor La Grave make a simple, sumptuous combination; Erythronium Pagoda, a springtime showstopper

JOA

NN

A K

OSS

AK/

GA

P PH

OTO

S

RIC

HA

RD

BLO

OM

/GA

P PH

OTO

S

VIS

ION

S/G

AP

PHO

TOS


TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGEChickens were useful on a Harrow factory floor, but where and why? Find the answer at homesandproperty.

co.uk/spotlightharrow

£1,595,000SIX-BEDROOM White Cottage in Sudbury Hill is a large, listed Arts & Crafts house by renowned architect Baillie Scott. Through Savills.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/sudbury

SpotlightHarrow

To find a home in Harrow, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/harrowFor more about Harrow, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightharrowF

£589,950A SHORT walk from Harrow & Wealdstone station, Gibbs Gillespie has a five-bedroom house for sale with a large garden in Torver Road.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/torver

£639,950THIS five-bedroom house in Hazelwood Close, North Harrow, has a separate reception room and kitchen, and a lovely garden. Available through Foxtons.

homesandproperty.co.uk/hazel

£450,000GIBBS GILLESPIE has a two-bedroom ground-floor flat with a back garden for sale in Kenton Road, near Harrow on the Hill train and Tube stations.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/kenton

STUCK in a traffic jam on the A404 heading north-west out of London, you have time to reflect that the Harrow Road stretch, which starts from

Maida Vale, was once an uncrowded country lane passing through open farmland and up to the little village of Harrow on the Hill.

The village was where wealthy 16th-century farmer John Lyon obtained a charter from Queen Elizabeth I to found a Free Grammar School. He turned property developer and invested in land in what is now Maida Vale, using the rents he earned to maintain the road from London up to Harrow.

Today Harrow Road passes through the built-up suburbs of Kensal Green, Harlesden, Stonebridge Park and Wem-bley before arriving at the playing fields of John Lyon’s school — Harrow School, among the country’s leading public schools, and one of only a handful that has held to the tradition of educating boarding pupils only. The John Lyon’s Charity, meanwhile, has donated over £50 million to educational causes in nine London boroughs since 1992.

Harrow — oddly there is a South, West and North Harrow but no East — occu-pies a large suburban area north-west of the capital. The jewel in the crown is Harrow on the Hill, with its pretty, winding High Street, imposing school buildings and lanes of cottages perched on the hillside.

St Mary’s Church spire is a local land-mark and the churchyard is where Byron, a former Harrow School pupil, contemplated his own burial in the poem Lines Written Beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Harrow. In the end it was his daughter, Allegra, who was buried there in an unmarked grave. Byron ended up in Nottinghamshire, his body having been turned away from Westminster Abbey.

BIRTH OF METRO-LANDHarrow town centre lies to the north of Harrow on the Hill and 12 miles from central London, and in modern times the Metropolitan Tube line, rather than Harrow Road, has shaped the area. The poet Sir John Betjeman came up with the name “Metro-Land” for the large swathes of north-west London that were developed after the arrival of the line, and in the Twenties and Thirties areas such as Harrow became commuter suburbs with streets of semi-detached and detached three- and four-bedroom houses, some influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement, others in mock Tudor or Art Deco styles.

Boaters and Byron in the heart of Betjeman’s Metro-LandGood-size homes, parks aplenty, outstanding state and private schools — it’s the perfect family package, says Anthea Masey

Jewel in the crown: Harrow on the Hill’s pretty High Street

WHAT THERE IS TO BUYWhile Harrow has plenty of these Metro-Land family homes, it also boasts pockets of Victorian terraces and modern town centre flats, while on the southern slopes of the hill there are large, detached Edwardian houses on spacious plots in private roads. The

most significant house currently for sale is the White Cottage in Sudbury Hill. Designed by distinguished Arts & Crafts architect Mackay Hugh

Baillie Scott, it has six bedrooms, a 46ft drawing room and over 3,700 square feet of space. With its sweeping red-tiled roof, three gable ends, leaded

Boarders in boaters: Harrow, right, among the leading British public schools, has its roots in Elizabethan history

Shopping centre: Harrow on the Hill High Street, left, is convenient for the Tube

Homes & Property Property searching homesandproperty.co.uk with


CHECK THE STATS

The best schools in the Harrow area

The latest housing developments in and around Harrow

A breakdown of the local renting scene

How this area compares with the rest of the UK on house prices

Smart maps to plot your property search in and around Harrow

How to interpret local postcodes

GO ONLINE FOR MORE

For all this and more, visit homesand property.co.uk/ spotlightharrow

■WHAT HOMES COSTBUYING IN HARROW (Average prices)One-bedroom flat £181,000Two-bedroom flat £255,000Two-bedroom house £348,000Three-bedroom house £428,000Four-bedroom house £653,000

Zoopla.co.uk

RENTING IN HARROW (Average rates)One-bedroom flat £939 a monthTwo-bedroom flat £1,240 a monthTwo-bedroom house £1,247 a monthThree-bedroom house £1,556 a monthFour-bedroom house £2,136 a month

Zoopla.co.uk

NEXT WEEK: Notting Hill. Do you live there? Tell us what you think @HomesProperty

lights and beams it featured in Ideal Homes magazine in 1929, has all the Arts & Crafts attention to detail and is on the market with Savills (01923 824225) for £1,595,000. The area attracts: estate agent Kane Lennon from the local Savills office says Harrow is one of London’s most ethni-cally diverse areas and for many people, in the Asian community in

particular, is seen as an aspirational place to live. Harrow Garden Village close to Rayners Lane Tube station is particularly popular. In these tree-lined streets with grass verges, semi-detached houses sell for between £400,000 and £450,000, while a detached house will cost £550,000 and upwards. Staying power: Harrow is a strong and stable family area where people like to

stay long term, often making improve-ments and extending their houses in preference to uprooting.Shops and restaurants: the busy shopping area sits next to Harrow on the Hill Tube station. There are two covered shopping centres — the St Ann’s and St George’s Centres. There is a pedestrianised area, and in Station Road the Debenhams department store is undergoing public realm improve-ments to the tune of £2 million, funded by the Mayor’s Outer London Fund.

Dominated by mid- and lower-end high street chains such as Primark, TK Maxx, Wilkinson, River Island and Next, Harrow town centre has nothing to set it apart from hundreds of others that are similar, and some might think it a pity that the fine Edwardian build-ings housing the shops along Station Road are not being smartened up and made a more encouraging pros-pect for interesting independent retailers.

Incanto, an Italian restaurant in the High Street in Harrow on the Hill, is widely considered to be the best local restaurant.

OPEN SPACEHarrow has plenty of small parks and recreation grounds but one of the larg-est locally is 13-acre Pinner Memorial Park which has a bowling green, a children’s playground, a café, an aviary and a flower garden. There are plans to restore and extend West House, the former home in the park of the grand-son of Admiral Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, to enlarge the museum there featuring the work of artist and illustra-tor William Heath Robinson.

Harrow’s modern side: College Road offers a bustling commercial mix of offices and a lively shopping centre, plus flats

Stay smart: store manager Renata Bartnick at Billings & Edmonds, supplier of Harrow School uniform, in Harrow on the Hill High Street

Homes & Property Property searchinghomesandproperty.co.uk with

LEISURE AND THE ARTSHeadstone Manor in Victor Road is among London’s most historic build-ings. The 14th-century farmhouse, one of the earliest surviving timber-framed structures in the capital, is open for tours on summer weekends. Two nearby barns and a granary contain the Harrow Museum which opens in summer from Wednesday through to Sunday.

The Harrow Arts Centre in Uxbridge Road, in nearby Hatch End, is housed in a listed Edwardian former school hall and stages a varied programme of plays, musicals, youth and school theatre productions, jazz, dance, children’s events, comedy, films and exhibitions. Usurp in Vaughan Road, West Harrow is an artist-led gallery and studio that punches above its weight. It is currently touring a show with comedian Stewart Lee in the role of avant-garde musician John Cage.

St George’s shopping centre houses Vue, a nine-screen multiplex cinema. The Harrow School Sports Club is a private members club run by the school and using its gym and swimming pool. The nearest council-owned swimming facilities are at Harrow Leisure Centre in Christchurch Avenue, which has a 33-metre pool and a training pool. Travel: Harrow is served by the Tube and Overground trains. From Harrow & Wealdstone, trains to Euston take 14 minutes, while trains from Harrow on the Hill take 16 minutes to Maryle-bone.

Harrow & Wealdstone is on the Bak-erloo London Underground line with trains to Oxford Circus taking 37 min-utes. North Harrow, Harrow on the Hill

and West Harrow stations are on the Metropolitan line, with the trip from Harrow on the Hill to Baker Street tak-ing 21 minutes, and a scheduled 33 minutes to Moorgate. South Harrow and Sudbury Hill are on the Piccadilly line with trains from South Harrow taking 40 minutes to Piccadilly Circus. All of the stations except for Sudbury Hill are in Zone 5 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £2,136. Sudbury Hill is in Zone 4 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,800. Council: Harrow is a minority Tory administration and Band D council tax for the 2014/2015 year is £1,509.28.

Photographs by: Graham Hussey

Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with


MONDAYIt’s a bright and crisp morning — my favourite kind. With the gym ticked off already, I stroll to work. Each day I vary the route, in case I see any develop-ments on the way.

I am in the office just before 8.15 for our team meeting to make sure every-one has a clear focus for the week ahead, while celebrating the deals agreed from last week. I show the staff the new Qigong energy pose I learned last week. Yes it looks a bit weird — imagine John Wayne just about to grab his guns and hold that pose with your fingers outstretched. It provides a flow of positive energy for the week ahead. Or raises a laugh, depending on who is watching.

My colleague Simon is off to show a selection of flats to a lady who is ada-mant she doesn’t want to see one we have near Great Portland Street. He takes the keys with him anyway and lo and behold, she absolutely loves it. Unfortunately, so do many others. But it’s a prime example of a great agent sometimes knowing what a buyer wants more than they do themselves.

TUESDAYWe are getting many disgruntled would-be buyers ringing up about the lack of homes on the market, and ask-ing why so many new-build properties are being sold abroad. I have to say I do believe many UK-based buyers

would be willing and able to purchase these flats, given the opportunity. Many of these properties are going to be “buy to leave” flats, where no one lives, whole developments with the majority of homes unlived-in, no lights on at night. With such a shortage of available property for Londoners, it is surely wrong. I should start a campaign. Maybe everyone who wants to buy a new-build flat can contact me and we can go to the developers and buy in bulk, to secure some of these great homes for all of us to live in.

WEDNESDAYI have some good news from my sales director. He has just secured three new-build properties which are not being offered abroad first, so it’s a double win. Now we can start calling our database of disgruntled buyers and offer them these very nice apartments. They are in a lovely cobbled mews very close to Charlotte Street, the mecca for foodies with Michelin-starred restau-rants mixing with some chains and one-offs. It’s fair to say that no one

struggles for choice at lunchtime around here.

This afternoon I am off to visit a com-pany based in Cambridgeshire that offers an innovative package to estate agents for marketing. We are always aiming to be different and forward-thinking, and to stand out from our competitors and the big corporates. The traffic is bad heading out of town — when will I ever learn that I should sometimes catch the train? However, the meeting is incredibly thorough and they have an amazing set-up and atten-tion to detail. Watch this space...

THURSDAYMy PA, Jane, and I are practising some more Qigong. We’ve moved on from the John Wayne pose to stamping our heels on the floor. Who needs caffeine?

We’ve read some interesting statistics from around the country today show-ing that homes outside the London hotspots are finally seeing price increases. So the ripple effect is hap-pening. It could be a good time for some people to sell up in London and live mortgage-free outside, getting a new lifestyle into the bargain. It’s a

busy day for news. My mortgage broker calls and tells me that due to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, many banks here have suspended lending to Russian nationals. Could this slow the market in some of the über-wealthy boroughs of London?

I am working on some valuations and with the market moving so fast, we have to be careful not to overvalue. But we have a lot of evidence we can draw on and we know our buyer database well. We have 21 buyers for every property.

FRIDAY I can’t believe how quickly this week has gone. I am on a train first thing to Leatherhead to listen to a great guest speaker, a former SAS guy who explains how they make decisions and lead. This is followed by an afternoon of sharing ideas. Heading back to London, I need to make a mobile call but with limited reception I wait until we get to Water-loo. It’s 5.30pm and as I get off the train and walk towards the exit, I spot the customer I was due to call. He says: “You didn’t call me.” I tell him: “The day’s not over yet.” He laughs and we discuss matters in the upstairs bar before he heads off on his train to Surrey. That’s everything ticked off.

Diary of an estate agent

Targeting deals and channelling John Wayne

Jonathan Hudson is director of Hudsons Property, based in Charlotte Street, W1 (020 7323 2277).

Inside story

DISCOVER CENTRAL LONDON’S GREENEST NEW PLACE TO LIVE

www.elephantpark.co.ukAll images used are for illustrative purposes only. Furniture and landscaping are also shown for illustrative purposes only. Detail design of facades and landscaping subject to planning agreement, it is anticipated that there will be changes in landscape design. Individual features such as windows, brick and other materials’ colours may vary, as may heating and electrical layouts. These particulars should not be relied upon as accurately describing any of the specifi c matters described by any order under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Business Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. This information including images and dimensions is not intended to form part of or constitute a contract or warranty. March 2014.

Contact our sales team: 020 3675 9955 [email protected]

Presented by Lend Lease and at the heart of the regeneration of Elephant & Castle, Elephant Park is a new residential quarter surrounding Central London’s largest new park in 70 years. Just a fi ve minute walk from a Zone 1 tube station and featuring world leading energy and water effi cient homes set in a rich bio diverse landscape designed for walking, cycling, relaxation and play.


Smart moBy David Spittles

Mad Men flats are a Games legacy

GYM bunnies who want to rent can live a javelin’s throw from the splendid Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which has just

reopened fully to the public along with other Games venues in Stratford that captured the world’s attention two years ago.

A new batch of homes has been unveiled, right, with Sixties Mad Men-style interiors by designer Wayne Hemingway, inset right, and they come with fee-free lettings contracts.

The park is a giant back garden for residents at East Village, London’s newest neighbourhood, a purpose-built “rental estate” that even has its own postcode, E20. Rents start at £310 a week for one-bedroom apartments and rise to £550 a week for four-bedroom townhouses for

sharers and families. There are no service charges and the only extras are utility bills.

Tenants can sign up for three years, rather than the customary 12 months, and there are rent discounts for longer-term residents. The package includes free broadband and evening and weekend phone calls plus half-price offers on Sky TV.

The Hemingway interiors focus on British manufacturers and vintage brands such as G Plan, with the aim of supporting the Olympics legacy.

East Village is owned and managed by Get Living London, which says renters in the 20-40 age bracket are the mainstay of this new community, with City, West End and Canary Wharf commuters looming large.

Stratford has great connections, with Jubilee and Central Tube lines,

the Docklands Light Railway and Overground trains, plus the high-speed service linking to St Pancras in seven minutes, and to the Kent coast. Call 020 3701 7900. There are short

FAMILY FRIENDLY LEAVE THE CITY STRESS BEHIND

WITH ponds and a common, a village high street, highly praised schools, riding stables, golf courses and a 20-minute commute to London Bridge, Chislehurst in Kent appeals to families keen to de-stress.

For City and Canary Wharf workers, the A20 takes you straight into Docklands in less than 30 minutes on a good day.

A show home opens this weekend at Roxburgh Place, one of several large new traditional-style detached houses with up to 5,349sq ft of space and a separate garage. Prices

from £1.95 million Call estate agent Langford Russell on 020 8295 4900.

Bromley town centre, the local commercial hub for Chislehurst and neighbouring Bickley, is getting a makeover. St Mark’s Square, being built on a former car park, is a £90 million scheme set around a new public square and performance space with 200 private and affordable flats, a Vue multiplex cinema, a hotel, cafés and restaurants. Completion is due in autumn next year. Call Cathedral Group on 020 7939 0800.

£1.95 million: Roxburgh Place family homes, Chislehurst

Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with

The Life, The Heart, The Elephant


It’s Super to B beside the sea

footpaths from East Village to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which has parklands and play areas, promenades and wetlands, along with cafés and new “interactive trails”.

Catch the Crossrail buzz with affordable homes near the stationATTENTION is focusing on stations outside London due for a property boost when Crossrail opens in 2018. Kings Park is an estate of affordable apartments and family houses being built next to Harold Wood station in Essex, on the fringe of the Oyster zone.

Crossrail will cut the journey to Bond Street to 42 minutes and knock 20 minutes off the trip to Heathrow. The station already provides 35-minute links to Liverpool Street. Flats cost from £190,000. Townhouses and villas are to come. Call Countryside Properties on 01708 348578. From £190,000: flats in contemporary-design blocks at Kings Park, Essex

LIVELY, cosmopolitan Brighton continues to entice commuters to the Sussex coast. But with sea-front sites hard to unlock, builders are scouring the back streets, away from the protected Regency architecture, where there are pockets of industrial land ripe for high-density schemes.

Super B is the latest phase of New England Quarter, lifting the run-down area around the train station. It offers 147 low-energy homes and a public plaza, a hotel, shops and restaurants. Prices from £265,000, with shared-ownership options available. Call Currell on 01273 964604. From £265,000: low-energy homes at Super B, just a step from Brighton station

Homes & PropertyNew homeshomesandproperty.co.uk with


Find many more homes to rent athomesandproperty.co.uk/lettings

The accidental landlord

Life is sweet and sour if your flat’s over a takeawayVictoria Whitlock has a few tasty tips for a landlord pal who is sick of trying to make her rental pad above a Chinese pay its way

£400 A WEEKA one-bedroom flat on the first floor of a period building in Glazbury Road, West Kensington, is available to rent through John D Wood.

Visit homesand property.co.uk/rentglaz

A FELLOW landlord is going to sell her rental flat in south-east London because she’s sick of dealing with tenants and

even though she bought it several years ago, she still isn’t earning enough rent to cover the mortgage. I think this is a shame, but I am not surprised she is finding it a slog. It is a large flat and she’s been letting all four bedrooms individually, which is generally more lucrative than letting to a family or a ready-made group but it can be hard work.

Also, if you don’t buy the right property in the right area it’s easy to make a loss. Rental yields in London are generally quite low — if you get seven per cent you are doing well — so by the time you have paid the interest on the mortgage you won’t have much left over for other costs such as letting agents’ fees, service charges and maintenance.

My colleague’s flat is in a good part of town, but it’s above a takeaway. There is less demand for properties above shops and it’s even smaller for those above restaurants of any kind, especially fast-food outlets. Think of the noise, the smells, the potential fire risk and you can see why it’s not everyone’s idea of the perfect pad.

To let a place like this, you need to make it really stand out from the other properties in the area so tenants might overlook the fact that they are above a takeaway. With a lick of paint and a new bathroom and kitchen, I think my pal could squeeze

a good income out of it. I think she’s making extra work for herself by taking responsibility for utility bills and trying to work out every quarter which tenant owes what, which inevitably leads to niggles and means she is sometimes out of pocket.

When I let properties by the room, I make the rent all-inclusive so I don’t have to divide up the bills between the tenants. Obviously, if you do this you have to calculate how much

energy the tenants are likely to use to work out how much rent to charge, which can be difficult. So I state in the tenancy agreement that if the bills go above a specified amount the tenants will have to pay the surplus.

If you want to let a property by the room, you need to buy in an area where there is high demand for multi-lets. Data from Spareroom.co.uk, a website which advertises rooms to let nationwide, shows that demand is highest in east central London and south-west London.

Every month, Spareroom looks at the total number of people clicking on its 80,000-plus rental ads to see which areas are the most popular. Those which attracted the most interest last month were Angel,

Borough, Clapham, Chelsea, Dalston, Islington, Knightsbridge, London Bridge, South Kensington and Waterloo.

Average weekly rent was highest in places such as The Strand (£255), Soho (£229), South Kensington and Knightsbridge (£238) and Chelsea (£225), but given that properties in all of these areas are expensive to buy, rental yields might still be low.

Outside London, the demand is lower, but it is still very strong in places within an easy commute of the capital, including Brighton, Slough, St Albans, Kingston upon Thames,

Redhill, Twickenham, Watford and Reading, where rental properties are more affordable so the yields could be better.

This is only one survey, but it’s worth looking at statistics like these when deciding where to invest.

In the meantime, if anyone fancies a four-bedroom flat above a Chinese takeaway in south-east London, I know just the place

Victoria Whitlock lets three properties in south London. To contact Victoria with your ideas and views, tweet @vicwhitlock

Homes & Property Letting on homesandproperty.co.uk with

LAUNCH

020 8680 0283from £315,000

ST JAMES ROAD CROYDON CR0 2AJ

5% DEPOSIT

SECURE GATED DEVELOPMENT

BALCONY/TERRACE TO EVERY APARTMENT

LONDON OVERGROUND LINE 4 MINS WALK

100% PRIVATE

RESIDENT’S GYM

SPECTACULAR VIEWS

24 HOUR CONCIERGE

EAST CROYDON 12 MINS WALK

CROYDON REGENERATION/WESTFIELD


WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?IF YOU have a question for Fiona McNulty, please email [email protected] or write to Legal Solutions, Homes & Property, London Evening Standard, 2 Derry Street, W8 5EE.We regret that questions cannot be answered individually but we will try to feature them here. Fiona McNulty is a partner in the residential property, farms and estates team at Withy King LLP (withyking.co.uk).

These answers can only be a very brief commentary on the issues raised and should not be relied on as legal advice. No liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar issues, you should obtain advice from a solicitor.

More legal Q&As Visit: homesand property.co.uk

How can I shift tenant who won’t budge?

Q I MADE an offer last July on a property I want to live in. It was being let to someone. We still haven’t

exchanged contracts but the survey and all the searches have been done and I told my solicitor about the tenant when he asked me for the deposit. Now I am at the end of my tether because the tenant is refusing to leave, my mortgage offer is about to run out and I have had all these costs. My solicitors and the agent have been useless. What can I do?

A YOUR solicitors should have asked you whether the property was occupied when they first took instructions

from you. However, when they received the contract papers from the seller’s solicitors they should have checked carefully to see if it was being sold with vacant possession.

There are two places in the contract where this is covered. Firstly, there is a special condition dealing with occupation which should specify

either that the property is being sold with vacant possession or that it is subject to a tenancy, in which case a copy of the tenancy agreement should be annexed to the contract.

There is also an enquiry about occupiers in the property information form that the seller completes as part of the contract bundle. Full details should be given in reply to this question. If the contract and the form disclosed an occupier/tenant, your solicitors should have checked the

tenancy terms and ensured notice to quit had been given. Your solicitors must now establish from the seller’s solicitors whether the tenant has had the required notice to quit. If the tenant ignores the notice, the seller will have to take court action against them, which could be a long process.

You may wish to withdraw from the purchase and look into whether your solicitors dealt with the tenancy correctly, if its existence was indeed disclosed in the contract papers.

WE ARE considering buying a new-build holiday flat in Cornwall in a very smart development where there will be a tennis court, spa, gym and landscaped grounds.

The site office/agents are being very vague about service charges, which we realise are likely to be high in view of the facilities. Friends recently bought a new-build flat for their daughter and have ended up paying a huge service charge which they were not anticipating. Does everyone pay the same service charge? It’s just that the apartments all vary in size.

A A LANDLORD can levy a service charge in return for services they provide. The proposed new lease should contain provisions regarding the service charge, such as covenants on the part of the

landlord to maintain the spa and other facilities, and for the general maintenance and upkeep of the whole development. The lease should set out how the charge should be paid, and whether the landlord can appoint managing agents.

These provisions should confirm how the service charge is calculated. It may, for instance, be by reference to the number of bedrooms or according to the floor size, and so will vary according to the type of apartment.

As this is a new build, the costs of the services to be provided are not yet known but will be anticipated by the landlord, so you should ask to see the budget for the provision of services. After all, on an older property you would be able to look at the previous year’s accounts and see what was paid.

Fiona McNultyOUR LAWYER ANSWERSYOUR QUESTIONS

Homes & Property Ask the expert homesandproperty.co.uk with

CONTEMPORARY.STYLISH. SPACIOUS.

Contact us

millhillplace.com

Visit our show apartments

OVER50%SOLD

Prices from £1,050,000 subject to contract

Mill Hill PlaceKey Travel Distances

styled up property - homes and property · pdf fileconvoys wharf in deptford, one of the...

Documents