1. Art and Diseño

Homes&
Property
Wednesday 28 January 2015
How to
handle
Mr Grey
in more than
50 shades
Page 12
NEW HOMES: DOES SMALL WORK? P4 COMMON PEOPLE P6 WEIRD AND WONDERFUL P17 SPOTLIGHT ON BECKENHAM P36
Living with design
LUCAS ALLEN
Page 22
London’s best property search website: homesandproperty.co.uk
2
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Online
homesandproperty.co.uk with
This week: homesandproperty.co.uk
Property
search
Trophy buy of the week
into the woods in Cornwall
£15 million: at The Heron, EC2, enjoy 6,000sq ft with tripleaspect views, four bedrooms, four black-marble bathrooms
and a retractable roof (homesandproperty.co.uk/heron)
hot homes: 10 of London’s
most luxurious penthouses
THERE are penthouses — and then there are sky-high
homes that take city living to a whole new level. We take a
tour of the capital’s most exclusive homes in the clouds,
where we discover designer interiors, double-height
ceilings, touch screen-controlled lighting and state-of-theart wireless entertainment systems. . . all outshone by
spectacular panoramic views over London.
£1.25 million: this minimalist new build in St Mawgan,
Cornwall is designed to the highest spec in a woodland
location, with vast sliding glass walls in open-plan reception
and dining areas, and a sleek kitchen/breakfast space lit by
a glass roof. The first-floor master suite opens to a decked
terrace. The main house has two more bedrooms, with a
fourth in a lower ground-floor annexe. Manicured lawns and
two pools complete the picture. Newquay airport is near for
flights to London. Through Country & Waterside.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/trophymaw
London buy of the week a stylish flat
in the heart of all the Hackney action
£387,500: you’ll need to move fast if
you fancy a flat in the smart new
Hackney Square development,
minutes from lively Mare Street with
its great selection of coffee shops,
traditional East End pubs and new
gastropubs. This one-bedroom home
on the third floor has under-heated
floors, sliding wardrobes, bespoke
O Find 10 of the best at homesandproperty.co.uk/penthouses
HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury
£695,000: 24 green acres are yours with this 17th-century
farmhouse in Bilsdale, deep in the North York Moors. It
comes with a one-bedroom holiday cottage for your paying
guests, plus stables, paddocks, an agricultural barn and a
two-storey stone barn ripe for conversion. The main house
offers beams and cosy open fires in charming reception
rooms, and three bedrooms. Through Carter Jonas.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangerbil
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O homesandproperty.co.uk/buymare
Life changer farmhouse in
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cabinetry and a sleekly tiled
bathroom, while the kitchen — fully
fitted with Smeg appliances and stone
worktops — is open-plan to a spacious
living/dining area with a private
balcony. Through Telford Homes.
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@HomesProperty
Is building to rent the way
to beat the housing crisis?
LONDON is one of the richest cities in
the world and its shortage of housing
is a disgrace. That was the view at
London’s first private rental sector
forum, held in Bishopsgate in the
City yesterday. Experts agreed that
building homes specifically for rent is
likely to be the only way to meet
housing demand as London’s
population continues to grow.
John Dickie, of London First — a
not-for-profit group which promotes
the capital as a business destination
— said that at a record 8.7 million
residents, London is now growing by
100,000 people a year and by 2025
will have added a population the size
of Birmingham.
O Read Philippa Stockley’s full forum
report at homesandproperty.co.uk
■Twitter: @stockleyp
Built to rent: The Collective launches
322 furnished flats at a scheme in Old
Oak, Willesden, in September with
typical all-in rents of £220 a week
3
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
News Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Got
some
gossip?
Tweet @
amiranews
£4m? That
twerks. . .
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/black for full details
By Amira Hashish
Enjoy Hugh’s view
pop star Miley Cyrus,
right, is on the market for a
shade under £4 million in Los
Angeles.
Cyrus, 22, famed for her
provocative “twerk” dancing, grew
up in the six-bedroom house,
above, with her country music star
father Billy Ray Cyrus and her
mother, Tish, moving out when she
was 18. In 2013, she moved back in
during her engagement to The
Hunger Games actor Liam
Hemsworth, which ended that year.
The 8,700sq ft house in affluent
Toluca Lake neighbourhood
boasts an outdoor skating
ramp, a cinema and a pool,
and is on the market with
Dilbeck Real Estates. A quick
sale could be on the cards:
“We anticipate an extremely
successful 2015 in LA real
estate,” says Billy Rose,
president and founder of the
Savills international associate.
É HUGH GRANT’S former South
Kensington bachelor apartment,
above, is for sale again, after being
taken off the market late last year.
The penthouse, where the actor,
below, lived while starring in hit
films About a Boy and Love
Actually, first went up for sale
in November, but was
removed shortly afterwards.
Now being marketed with
Knight Frank for £1,595,000,
the property occupies the entire
top floor of Petersham House and
has three en suite bedrooms, a
master dressing room, direct entry
lift, hot tub and gym.
Panoramic views of the London
Eye, the Shard and Battersea
Power Station are breathtaking,
and the interiors are immaculate.
This is the ultimate home for those
enjoying the high life.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/hugh
Next act for Dame Ellen’s theatre
É THE former Stratford Rex nightclub,
far left, in east London is in the market
for a new tenant.
Dating from the Victorian era, the
five-floor, 40,000sq ft property opened
in 1896 as the Borough Theatre & Opera
House, and huge stage stars of the day
who appeared there included Herbert
Beerbohm Tree, Henry Irving and
Dame Ellen Terry, left. The venue was
later run as a cinema for 40 years.
More recently, acts such as Kiss FM’s
DJ Neev have hosted club nights at the
venue in Stratford High Street, E15,
operating under the club name of Sync.
Specialist agent Fleurets is now seeking
a tenant to take a new lease.
There is an auditorium with tiered
seating and a stage, bars, lounges and
a large dance floor — so the space works
well as a performance venue, theatre
or nightlife destination.
“This property is so rich in history
and we are confident that its proximity
to the Olympic Village and the University of East London, Stratford Campus
will be a great benefit,” says agent Rosie
Hallam.
Call 020 7280 4700 or visit fleurets.
com for more information.
REX
É THE former Surrey home of retired athlete-turned-TV
sports commentator Roger Black MBE is on the market
for £1.2 million with Hamptons International. The fivebedroom Edwardian retreat is part of a country house in
Farnham, above, designed by notable Arts & Crafts
architect Harold Falkner. It was home to the British
Olympic silver medal-winning runner, 48, inset, his wife
Julia and their twin sons until 2010. The master bedroom
has a walk-in-wardrobe, along with a private balcony
giving elevated views across woodland.
É THE family home of
REX
Live like a sporting hero
4
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property New homes
homesandproperty.co.uk with
THINKING
SMALLER
THE CRISIS
E
VERYONE agrees London is
in the grip of a housing crisis,
but it may prove that recognising that fact is the first
step towards solving the
problem. Building many more homes
is clearly part of the answer — but so is
building more types of homes, lots with
lower prices, that Londoners who are
bringing in average salaries can afford
to buy.
Obvious solutions include rental and
shared ownership, while community
building — where a group gets together
to build a development that they will
all live in — is also gaining ground in the
UK. But there are other ingenious solutions out there, adding to the bigger
picture. One of these is Pocket Living,
backed by Mayor Boris Johnson.
Pocket Living designs and sells onebedroom flats for the “intermediate”
market — singles or couples earning
about £30,000 to £66,000, which is
too much to qualify for social housing,
but too little to buy outright on the
open market. These would-be buyers
find it increasingly difficult to get on
the housing ladder. The average Pocket
Living buyer’s income is £40,000.
Compact: flats for young Londoners
created by Camden’s thecollective.co.uk
Small, beautifully formed — and affordable
POCKET LIVING’S
STORY
Pocket Living was founded 10 years
ago by former investment banker
Mark Vlessing and his partner Paul
Harbard, former finance director at
social housing provider the Peabody
Trust. Since Londoners or couples
earning £35,000 to £40,000 still could
not afford to buy on the open market,
Vlessing’s idea was to build a flat they
could afford — a smaller but welldesigned home in a block.
These flats are smaller than the existing minimum space standard for a
one-bedroom new build, which is
50 square metres, or 550sq ft.
This is Pocket Living in a nutshell.
Stylish, carefully designed one-bedroom apartments of 38sq m (418sq ft),
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: MICRO-LIVING
Is building smaller homes the key to housing London’s first-time buyers
— or a matter of concern? Nineteen of the capital’s high-profile architects
competed to find the right size for city living, says Philippa Stockley
in blocks with outside space that’s
often a roof terrace. There is no parking and the company does not offer
social housing. The flats have big windows, under-floor heating, and suit
singles or a tidy couple.
To be eligible, you have to live or
work in the borough, and Pocket Living
homes are not sold to investors —
checks are made. Buyers must also
earn less than the maximum household limit set by the Mayor, currently
£66,000. The Mayor has supported
Pocket Living through his 2012 Housing Covenant Fund, awarding it a
£21.7 million equity loan for 10 years.
With the help of this loan, Pocket Living aims to house 5,000 Londoners
over the decade, and 350 more by the
end of next year.
Pocket Living homes are sold at 20
per cent below the local equivalent
price, which means prices in different
areas can vary. Only just over 200 have
A space race: HAT Project’s two-bedroom Pocket Living flat was one of five contest-winning designs
been built so far, but developments
coming up for sale soon include 13 flats
in Oak Grove, Cricklewood, NW2, by
architects HTA, due to become available later this year, and 25 flats in
Wynne Road, Brixton, SW9, by HKR
Architects, coming to the market next
year. Prices will not exceed £231,000.
Other developments are being built in
Ealing and Lewisham.
Visit pocketliving.com to find out
more and to register.
THINKING
BIGGER
THE COMPETITION
Pocket Living’s ambitious plans to build
a lot more flats include a two-bedroom
version, nicknamed the 2B2P — twobedroom, two-person, or two people
and a child. Though the size is not yet
set, these flats will be bigger. Pocket
Living recently held a competition with
19 high-profile architects to design
these bigger flats, and the range of layouts and ideas has been wide and
ingenious, with some homes having
little balconies. The architects designed
between about 50sq m and 61 sqm.
That top figure of 61sq m, or 671sq ft, is
the current minimum space standard
for a two-bedroom new-build flat.
£231,000 limit: Pocket Living flats at Oak Grove, Cricklewood, 20 per cent below local equivalent prices
5
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
New homes Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
DOWNSIZING: WHAT’S OUT THERE
ON THE MARKET NOW?
GIVEN that Pocket Living flats are
limited in number, Homes &
Property checked to see what is on
the open market of about the same
size, both one- and two-bedroom
homes. They cost more, but come
with more variety and perks —
some with gardens or really
gorgeous balconies. One is even in
a historic building in a wonderful
location on Strand, and all are
available now.
St Stephen’s
Gardens, W2:
this 467sq ft flat
with wooden
floors is in a
stucco building,
with lots of
storage and a
good bathroom.
It’s £615,000
through John D
Wood.
O For more details, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/ststeph
One-bedroom wonder: a Pocket Living
home in Weedington Road, Camden
S
INCE the UK already has some
of the smallest space
standards in Europe for flats,
there are those sounding a
note of caution about building even
smaller. They welcome well-designed
homes that young Londoners can
afford but they also have serious
concerns about building this small.
JULIA PARK
Head of housing research at architects
Levitt Bernstein
Because of the scale of the housing
crisis, there probably is now a case
for micro-flats, says Park. But she
warns: “Smaller homes lead to
higher densities; higher densities
lead to higher land prices, and
higher land prices lead to crazy
purchase prices. Each time a
micro-flat is sold, it sets up a chain
reaction that nudges up the price of
Mole architects
Bassett Road, NW10: this high-spec,
sleek, 382sq ft apartment in a
Victorian building comes with a share
of the freehold and communal garden
— £470,000 through John D Wood.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/bassett
Marconi House, Strand, WC2: on the
seventh floor of this historic building, a
400sq ft flat with concierge, lift and
private parking is for sale at £920,000.
Through H udson Property.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/marc
“The Government should have taken
a lead on the housing crisis years
ago,” says Bowles. “You can’t expect
developers to fix it.
“The cost of land is the root of the
problem. The only way you can get
flats cheaper is to make them smaller.
Pocket Living saw a gap in the market,
using good architects, and it should be
celebrated. But in my view, if you
permit people to build below current
space standards, you don’t know who
will squeeze into them after they are
sold. Also, not everyone lives a
monastic life. There’s no room for the
boiler, the pram, the ironing board or
books. If we are not careful we could
slide into a position where we open
the door to substandard building.”
Burns Road, Battersea, SW11: this
charming two-bedroom flat, about the
size of a Pocket Living two-bedroom
home, has a private garden. It’s
£575,000 through John D Wood.
O homesandproperty.co.uk/burns
Lillie Road, SW6: this pretty, 377sq ft
one-bedroom apartment with wooden
floors comes with a south-facing
communal garden, and is on the
market priced £395,000 through
Strutt & Parker (020 7731 7100).
WHAT THE CRITICS HAVE TO SAY
everything else.” Park argues that
when couples choose to live in small
flats, that’s fine. But she is concerned
when economics force young
families to live in small flats with little
space for play or storage.
She adds: “Pocket Living’s recent
design competition is a worrying
preview of where things seem to be
heading.” In one “family” home,
“you had to choose between a bath
and a wardrobe”.
Park concludes: “The current space
standards exist to ensure decent
storage and to require that rooms
have space for furniture, and get
natural light and a view. Interestingly,
by the time the most serious
shortcomings in these plans have
been corrected, they will be close to
the 61sq m minimum anyway.”
MEREDITH BOWLES
6
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property London life
homesandproperty.co.uk with
The cost of joining the common people
There is a premium to pay to live
close to London’s green open
spaces — but Ruth Bloomfield
knows where the bargains are
H
TOP-DOLLAR COMMONS
The most expensive common in the
survey is Clapham. Buyers wanting to
live within 100 yards of its perimeter
must pay an extra 20 per cent — or well
over £100,000 — for the privilege.
£250,000: a smart one-bedroom flat
with terrace near Plumstead Common
O homesandproperty.co.uk/plum
BARRY PHILLIPS
OMES in the grid of streets
between Clapham and
Wandsworth Commons
are so sought after that
“between the commons”
has become a microsuburb in its own
right, with a boutique-laden high street
— Northcote Road — and local residents
who include celebrity chef Gordon
Ramsay and his cookery writer wife
Tana, actor Jack Davenport and comedian Jack Dee.
A new study has established the cost
of living within an easy hop of the wide
open spaces of some of London’s best
known commons, as well as some more
discreet gems. The exclusive report by
Savills compares house sale prices close
to eight key London commons with
prices in their surrounding areas.
Homes close to Ealing Common also
command a premium, as do homes
close to lesser-known Well Street
Common in Hackney.
BARNES IS A FAMILY AFFAIR
Living beside Barnes Common tends
to be a family affair because most of the
properties are sprawling Victorian
semis and terraces with five or six bedrooms, measuring around 3,000sq ft
and priced from about £2.5 million.
Trains from Barnes to Waterloo take
about 20 minutes, making it an ideal
commuter location, with an annual
season ticket costing £1,472. Barnes
Primary School is rated “outstanding”
by Ofsted. Throw in some lovely shops,
restaurants, cafés and bars and it is
easy to see why this area commands
such a hefty premium.
South Bank to Clapham and Brixton
have inflated prices borough-wide.
Trains from Streatham Common to
Victoria take less than 20 minutes and
an annual season ticket costs £1,472.
But Streatham’s competitive prices
may not last forever, because buyers
are starting to learn of its quality housing stock and good transport links.
“I wouldn’t have dreamt of recommending buyers look in Streatham
until about two months ago, when it
suddenly came into its own as a bit of
a hotspot,” says Samantha Anderson,
of Heaton and Partners buying agency.
“But I have agreed a sale of a two-bedroom flat for under £400,000 in
Streatham, and at the same time agreed
a small one-bedroom flat in Battersea
at £430,000. Now is the time to buy in
Streatham before it gets too popular
with the yummy-mummy crowd.”
GOOD-VALUE STREATHAM
£5.85 million: its closeness to Barnes Common probably
adds nearly 14 per cent to the price of this splendid
six-bedroom house in Mill Hill, SW13. Through Marsh
& Parsons. Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/barnmill
For those on a tighter budget, the average property around Streatham Common costs just over £340,000. This is
almost a third cheaper than the average
for Lambeth, where areas from the
PLUMSTEAD FOR REAL BARGAINS
London’s biggest common-side bargains are to be found around Plumstead Common, in south-east London,
where average prices are just £235,164,
Price premium:
popular Clapham
Common, above
more than 30 per cent less than the
borough average of £337,197. The common is ringed with streets of Victorian
terraces and Mark Sallnow, manager
of David Evans & Co, estimates that a
four-bedroom house would cost
between £350,000 and £380,000,
while a two-bedroom flat would typically cost £200,000 to £225,000.
The reason this area is relatively inexpensive is that it lacks transport links on
the doorstep. Commuters hop on a bus
for the 10-minute journey to Woolwich
Arsenal, where they pick up the Docklands Light Railway or mainline services
to Cannon Street and Charing Cross.
PREMIUM OR
DISCOUNT?
Average borough price:
£452,066
Premium: 10 per cent
Clapham Common
Average price: £666,451
Average borough price:
£548,800
Premium: 21.4 per cent
Tooting Bec Common
Average price: £582,636
Average borough price:
£616,902
Discount: 5.4 per cent
Ealing Common
Average price: £518,235
Average borough price:
£448,286
Premium: 15.6 per cent
Peckham Rye
Average price: £345,508
Average borough price:
£457,521
Discount: 24.5 per cent
Barnes Common
Average price: £766,302
Average borough price:
£673,795
Premium: 13.7 per cent
Streatham Common
Average price: £340,194
Borough average: £481,697
Discount: 29.4 per cent
Plumstead Common
Average price: £235,164
Borough average: £337,197
Discount: 30.3 per cent
Well Street Common
Hackney
Average price: £500,169
the DUPLEXES
Living indoors and out, in the heart
of East London
Prices from £699,950
Final release 12 th February
CALL TO REGISTER:
OR VISIT:
A development by:
Featured:
Computer generated image
of an interior at Mettle&Poise
020 3376 7775
mettleandpoise.com
Joint selling agents:
7
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
First-time buyers Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
W
ORLD FAMOUS for
its football club,
Tottenham also has a
reputation among
London home
buyers for being a bit riot prone. This
rough image deters many property
hunters but the area is undoubtedly
good first-time buyer territory, being
cheap by the capital’s standards and
with good transport links to the
centre. Now, crucially, regeneration
is beginning to make a difference to
this part of north London.
Where else in the capital can you
buy a flat for less than £170,000 or a
decent three-bedroom Victorian
house under £350,000 — and still be
in the West End or City in 20 minutes?
Tottenham also benefits from fast
connections to King’s Cross and
Stratford, which are becoming
important commercial and business
zones in their own right.
The area evolved with the advent of
the railways and was an important
manufacturing base. Streets of
modest terraces were built up to the
Twenties. The Blitz prepared the way
for sprawling council estates —
including notorious Broadwater
Farm Estate — where improvements
are under way and new forms of
tenure are being introduced.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has
designated Tottenham a priority
zone to kick-start change. About
£1 billion is being invested over 10
years, with up to 10,000 new homes
planned and at least 5,000 new jobs.
Handsome municipal buildings
such as the former town hall have
been given a facelift, with new flats
and commercial space created.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’s
new stadium project will bring flats,
shops, a technical college and
primary school.
Lawrence Square, close to Seven
Sisters Tube, replaces an industrial
estate and has 260 flats and
townhouses from £249,950. Call
Bellway on 0845 676 0261.
Finsbury Park, which at 115 acres is
bigger than St James’s Park and
Green Park combined, has
undergone a £5 million Lotteryfunded restoration. Finsbury Park
Place is a recently completed
scheme of 42 flats on tree-lined
Queen’s Drive, which runs into the
park. Estate agent Currell says the
homes have attracted buyers and
renters priced out of Stoke
Newington and Hackney who want to
live where they can feel the beat of
the city. Call 020 7241 4111.
Shared-ownership flats priced from
£72,250 (full price, £289,000) are on
Flats for less
than £250k
20mins from
the West End
Finsbury Park
Place: new flats
are attracting
buyers and
renters priced
out of Hackney
and Stoke
Newington
Tottenham is shedding its rough
image with new homes for young
Londoners, says David Spittles
Mayor Boris
Johnson has
designated
Tottenham a
priority zone
— £1 billion
is being
invested,
with 5,000
jobs and
10,000 new
homes
planned
New community:
homes at Hale
Village are being
snapped up
by young
professionals,
with a fresh
phase being
released this year
offer at Woodberry Down, a former
council estate straddling Seven Sisters
Road that is being transformed into a
smart new neighbourhood. Call
Genesis on 033 3000 4000.
Heading north along the high road a
new community called Hale Village
is being built at Tottenham Hale next
to the train station, which is on the
Victoria line and is also a major
interchange between Liverpool Street
and Stansted. To date there are 870
new “green” homes, a 1,200-room
student campus, a supermarket, a
Diocese of London community centre
and a Royal Free Hospital specialist
kidney care unit. Still to come are a
residential skyscraper, private rental
homes, shops and offices.
The 12-acre site borders protected
parkland and the Lea Navigation, a
canal route running into Docklands.
Landowner Lee Valley Estates is
working with developer Bellway and
Newlon housing association to
deliver homes which are proving
popular with key workers and young
career professionals — among them
junior doctors and nurses — with
44 per cent of residents aged 16-29.
The next phase of apartments is
scheduled for release later this year.
From the top of the apartment
blocks at Hale Village, it is easy to see
why the area will function as a decent
place to live. The east-west vista takes
in Stratford’s Olympic Park, Canary
Wharf, the Gherkin, the BT Tower
and Ally Pally, and emphasises the
proximity to the centre. Along the
Lea Navigation, derelict factories,
mills and warehouses are being
redeveloped and integrated with
green spaces to form a regional
“country park”.
O Visit halevillagelondon.co.uk or call
020 8808 4070.
AVAILABLE SPRING 2015
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8
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Homes abroad
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Life doesn’t come any higher
N
EW YORK’S skyline is
changing rapidly. In the
world’s fastest-moving
city, developers are vying
to build ever-taller, everslimmer towers, with most activity
centred on Manhattan’s Midtown
between 53rd and 60th Streets.
“The higher the better seems to be
the mantra,” says property veteran
Howard Lorber, chairman of Douglas
Elliman. “There are no bad
neighbourhoods in New York City
any more. Midtown used to be an
office district but now has become
popular as a residential area. You are
close to Fifth Avenue, Museum Mile,
Carnegie Hall and Central Park.”
There are no bad
neighbourhoods in
New York City now
that Midtown offers
family-size flats in
super-tall towers, says
Cathy Hawker
EMERGING MIDTOWN
Lorber has flown in from his
weekend home in the Hamptons to
lead a tour around 135 West 52nd
Street, a relative minnow at only 48
storeys. The former hotel is being
turned into 109 one- to four-bedroom
apartments priced from £989,000.
Communal facilities include
restaurants, gyms, a pool and even a
golf simulator, but the six levels of
whole-floor apartments are the real
news. Loft-style living was previously
the preserve of former warehouse
districts such as Tribeca and SoHo
but the trend is moving uptown.
The most notable addition to the
Midtown skyline is 432 Park Avenue
between 56th and 57th Streets. This
1,396ft tower became the highest
residential building in the Western
Hemisphere when builders topped
out last year.
Slim and with striking 10ft-square
windows, 432 Park Avenue outdoes
the Empire State Building’s 1,250 feet
and the Chrysler Building, at 1,046
feet. Designed by architect Rafael
Vinoly with 103 flats over 96 floors,
the effusive marketing brochure
claims it “echoes masterpieces like
the Pantheon in Rome”. Well over half
the building is sold, mainly to
Americans, and the first occupants
will move in come autumn.
The prices are as eye-watering as the
views. A full-floor apartment starts at
£46 million. and the smallest flat for
From £989,000: 135 West 52nd Street
offers loft-style living in Midtown,
with on-site pool and golf simulator
in their careers, who would live there
before moving to the ’burbs to settle
down and raise a family.
According to Bluerock Real Estate
chief executive Ramin Kamfar,
however, that is no longer true. He
lives in the prime Upper East Side
with his young family and believes
city living is the way forward.
“Uptown Manhattan has schools,
hospitals and of course Central Park,”
he says. “Families would love to stay
here but there weren’t the larger
apartments for them. In addition
older people are coming back into the
city from the suburbs once their
children have left home.”
The Charles, Bluerock’s project
in First Avenue between 72nd and
73rd Streets, started in 2008 and was
mothballed during the recession.
Now building has begun again with
over 75 per cent of homes sold.
The final available units start from
£4.3 million for four bedrooms
across an entire floor.
“This is one of Manhattan’s
wealthiest neighbourhoods but east
of Third Street was relatively
undiscovered,” Kamfar adds. “A new
subway opens along Second Avenue
this year and US real estate has
always followed transport links.”
O 135 West 52nd Street: through
Knight Frank (knightfrank.com)
O 432 Park Avenue: 432parkavenue.com
O The Charles: charlesnyc.com
■Twitter: @cathyhawker
sale, at 3,600sq ft, is £10 million. The
£62.6 million penthouse sold early, as
did the £3.2 million entry-level flats.
Staff apartments start from £989,000
and 384sq ft.
This block will not be the tallest for
long, however. At 1,423 feet, 225 West
57th Street should steal its crown in
2018, one of four planned superslender neighbouring towers.
Tall order: slender new tower 432 Park Avenue’s smallest flats start at £10 million
A PLACE TO STAY
TWO British imports are making waves
in the competitive NYC hotel scene.
Soho House New York private
members club and hotel, left, opened
in the Meatpacking District 11 years
ago and was an instant hit with the
media crowd. It features a rooftop
pool with a “Hamptons in the City”
vibe and an industrial-chic Club Floor.
The hugely successful High Line, a
7.5-acre urban park on the site of a
disused railway line, has brought new
FAMILY-FRIENDLY LATERALS
Manhattan, never previously a family
favourite, used to be considered best
for young professionals starting out
Looking for the
right place...
Don’t miss out - last few remaining
A stylish selection of 11 contemporary one & two bedroom
apartments with parking. Wykeham Place is located on
Coles Green Road, just minutes from Brent Cross with
quick connections into central London.**
Prices from £255,000*
Show Home open Thursday - Monday, 10am - 5pm
0808 168 7900
Visit: networkliving.co.uk
Call:
*Prices correct at time of going to press. **6 minutes drive to Brent Cross
according to Google Maps. Internal images of Wykeham Place Show Apartment.
money to this gritty western side of
Manhattan with more than 20 new
high-end developments in the
planning. Further east among the
intimate boutiques and galleries of
SoHo, Crosby Street Hotel has
brought British style to the classic
red-brick warehouse district.
O Soho House: sohohouseny.com
O Crosby Street Hotel: firmdale
hotels.com
9
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
Design Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
DESIGN
SPY
By Katie Law
◄ GET FOXY
London designer Andy Hau’s debut soft
furnishings collection includes this
cushion cover, left, The Fox and the Lost
Soldier, printed on unbleached canvas.
Three other fox-related designs are
available, £30 each (ahadesignshop.
tictail.com)
▲ MASTER
CRAFTS
▲ SAY HAY
The DLM Table,
seen here in
yellow, is made
from powdercoated steel by
HAY, the
fabulous Danish
brand that
arrives on the
fourth floor at
Liberty in
Regent Street
next month.
Suitable for
indoors and out,
it costs £140 and
also comes in
black, grey,
lavender, mint,
powder, racing
green or white
(liberty.co.uk)
Four craftspeople will
turn The New
Craftsmen in
Mayfair into a
workshop from
February 3. See
the work of
Laura Carlin,
Stuart Carey,
Catarine
Riccabon and
Lola Lely, who
makes these
solid timber
Potluck stools,
above, £875 (the
newcraftsmen.
com)
!(#$)#
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)()
)
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'"
For an invitation to our exclusive launch, please
register your interest at:%$###%
Or contact the selling agents for more details
Hamptons:
DTZ:
▲ LIGHT UP
Latest lighting
from US
interiors chain
West Elm
includes droplet
glass pendants,
smart chevronpattern lamps,
and a range of
coloured Perch
table lamps,
above left, £59
(westelm.co.uk)
12
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Design
homesandproperty.co.uk with
How to
handle
Mr Grey…
(in more than
50 shades)
Above: lace-print
Conran bedlinen
sets from M&S
are £49.50 for
the double size
By Katie Law
D
ON’T wait until the
movie version of Fifty
Shades of Grey
premieres on
Valentine’s Day (that’s
February 14 if you need a prod) to
learn how to handle grey in the
bedroom.
The novel’s leading man,
Christian Grey, has a penchant for
S&M, but it’s M&S — and an orgy of
other retailers — who have fallen
for grey. Once dismissed as cold
and uninviting, the colour has
been reborn in an uplifting,
sophisticated, rich and versatile
palette of many more than 50
shades that can find a place in any
room in your home.
You could put it on your walls
and floors, choose it for sofas and
chairs, or combine with other
colours to highlight or soften the
look, according to whether you
want to create a warm, romantic
ambience or cool, restrained
Scandi style. Here’s how to do it...
Left: the Wilmot
two-seater sofa,
in grey with
multicoloured
buttons, is £995
(habitat.co.uk)
PAINTS
Little Greene’s Grey collection
includes 28 environmentally friendly
shades, which come in a range of
finishes and hues from almost white
through to charcoal and blue-black
(littlegreene.com; from £18.75 for a
litre of matt emulsion). For impact,
introduce a strong contrasting accent
such as citrine yellow or red on, say, a
stair riser. It’s cheap and easy to
change if you don’t like it. Painting
floors is a more challenging option.
Grey flooring won’t show dirt as
obviously as white or black. To avoid a
“chilly concrete” effect, go for
something like Farrow&Ball’s
Charleston Grey floor paint, which
will infuse even the whitest interior
with warmth (farrow-ball.com).
Dulux’s Light & Space paint contains
particles that reflect up to twice as
much light back into a room — check
out its Moon Shimmer matt (dulux.
co.uk; £26.49 for 2.5 litres).
Right: the Kilo
multicoloured
metal nest of
three side tables,
£70, will
complement
your grey sofa
from Habitat (as
before)
WALLS
FURNITURE
Tiling company Bert & May is
encouraging us to “do it in the
shower” with its new range of
geometric grey-glazed ceramic tiles,
in three finishes. Ideal for wetrooms
and kitchens, they’re eye-catching,
easy to keep clean and cost from £324
per square metre (bertandmay.
com). Eley Kishimoto’s debut
wallpaper collection comes in a range
of gloriously grey colourways, from
£160 a roll (darkroom.com).
If you use grey on your walls use a
contrasting shade on your
furnishings. Habitat’s sophisticated,
wool-upholstered Wilmot two-seater
sofa has multicoloured buttons and
costs £995. Its Hendricks grey wool
two-seater sofa is £1,400, the jazzy
Naoko grey-and-yellow armchair is
£550, while the Kilo multicoloured
metal nest of three side tables, £70,
will work well with any one of them
(habitat.co.uk).
13
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
Design Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Above: glazed
Churriana tiles,
£324 a square
metre from
Bert & May
(bertandmay.
com). Below, the
Naoko grey-andyellow armchair,
£550 at Habitat
(as before)
Above: Little
Greene’s Grey
collection
includes 28
environmentally
friendly shades.
From £18.75 for a
litre at little
greene.com
Above: designer
Eley Kishimoto’s
debut wallpaper
collection has a
host of grey
shades. This one,
Light & Lace, is
£160 a roll from
darkroom.com
Right: limegreen Trumpet
paint from Little
Greene (as
before) makes a
dazzling contrast
amid the subtle
greys of its latest
range
Right: the sleek kMix Zinc Blender
(£129.99 ) is part of a new grey range
from Kenwood (kenwoodworld.com)
TEXTILES
ACCESSORIES
For the softest of looks, Mark
Alexander has smart, paisley-pattern
artisan-dyed sheers and loosely
woven weaves in a gorgeous range of
greys, from £70 to £130 a metre
(markalexander.com). Claire
Roberts, new in-house designer at
M&S, has given the firm’s textiles and
ceramics a makeover. Grey lace
Conran duvet bed sets are £49.50 for
the double, with cosy herringbone
throws at £85 (mands.com).
Marble is also having a moment, and
grey-and-white marble chopping
boards from Bodie & Fou (£20/£35)
can also become seductive serving
platters when friends come round
(bodieandfou.com). Hay’s Scandirestrained Kaleido octagonal grey
trays, £27 at Future and Found, will
come in handy, too (futureand
found.com). Conran’s cosy grey
Gotland sheepskin throw, £395, is
made with shearling (mands.com).
Winter
50% Sale
OFF
UP TO
Enjoy an extra
20% off
for 4 days only,
starts Friday*
Chingford | Chiswick | East Sheen | Fulham | Hammersmith | Hampstead | Kingston | Tottenham Court Road
Beds, Furniture, Mattresses, Bed Linen, Bedding & Accessories
33 Stores Nationwide | 01243 380 600
www.featherandblack.com
*see
in store for details
16
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Auction
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Italian romance for sale
SOME GIRLS HAVE
ALL THE LUCK
O
H TO be a princess — or for
that matter, a prince — living a 20th-century fairytale life in a palazzo in
Rome, surrounded by
beautiful things, throwing marvellous
parties, mixing with glamorous film
stars... Richard Burton, Grace Kelly.
That has been the story for Princess
Ismene Chigi Della Rovere, who met
her second husband and love of her
life, the prince, on a park bench. Some
people have all the luck. Now aged 87,
the princess is streamlining, so we can
buy a bit of her fabulous lifestyle.
Born lucky, as Countess Ismene
Larussa in Milan in 1927, she was married to a journalist and living in Rome
when she met Prince Mario Chigi Della
Rovere on that park bench. They married in 1959. The Chigi family descends
from banker Agostini “the Magnificent”
Chigi who was a Renaissance patron of
the arts. Pope Julius II added the Della
Rovere to the Chigi name.
Chigi, the richest man in Rome, commissioned Raphael among others. His
imposing Palazzo Chigi was remodelled
in the 17th century, and it was here, and
in a castle south-east of the city, that
Prince Mario and his princess lived.
The princess also spent time in New
York, buying contemporary art and
partying at Studio 54. Back from the US
she mixed old and new with a light
touch. She was particularly interested
in decorative Art Nouveau glass, especially by pioneers Emile Gallé and
Antonin Daum. There are more than 80
pieces in the sale, many using the luminous carved-cameo technique. This sale
is a real treasure trove for collectors.
The couple bought unusual items with
charm and style, such as lot 2, an 18th-
A party-loving princess and a grand Genoese
family bring some of their gems to auction.
Get the palazzo look, says Philippa Stockley
century “verre églomisé” barometer,
the glass reverse-painted for a lustrous
effect, estimate £1,000-£1,500; a gorgeous part-set of gilded bronze dessert
ware, lot 32, which would titivate the
most tired trifle (£700-£1,000), and a
gorgeously gilded pair of “Mecca” 1820
armchairs (lot 77, £1,200-£1,800).
As well as all the collectable vases
there’s a sweet, lily pad-shaped “videpoche”, or coin tray, from 1920, decorated with nasturtiums, in glass-paste,
lot 94 (£1,000-£1,500).
So if you now fancy a Roman holiday,
pack your set of four monogrammed
Louis Vuitton suitcases (lot 125, £1,000£1,500) — and flit south.
Lot 125: four
soft-sided
Louis Vuitton
monogrammed
suitcases,
estimate
£1,000-£1,500
Clockwise from far left:
Lot 217: Italian silver library lamp by
Antonio Magrino, 1775, wired for
electricity, 70oz (£3,000-£4,000)
Lot 2: Charles X verre églomisé
barometer (£1,000-£1,500)
Lot 227: Italian Murano chandelier, late
19th century (£4,000-£6,000)
Lot 111: a Gallé cameo glass vase c1910
(right, £800-£1,200) with two more
Lot 116: one of two Erté c1925 costume
designs for Hollywood (£1,500-£2,500
for the pair)
Lot 77: a pair of Italian “Mecca” chairs,
gilt-varnished and silvered, in Fortuny
fabric, with swan arms (£1,200-£1,800)
A NOBLE BREED
T
HE auction doesn’t stop with
the princess’s prizes. Lots
150-248 are the possessions
of an unidentified noble
G enoese family, many
sourced through the respected Turin
antiques dealer, Pietro Ascorsi.
Serious Italian 18th-century rococo
furniture abounds, in beautiful fruit
woods such as tulip and amaranth,
inlaid or with marquetry, with a very
French feel — and weighty price tags.
There are also gilded mirrors, chandeliers and firedogs. To light up the furniture there is a beautiful polychrome
Murano chandelier — lot 227. While it’s
not a snip at £4,000-£6,000, it is certainly a jewel. But quirkier and cuter is
a lamp made in Turin that is the genuine
18th-century forerunner to greenshaded library desk lamps. In 70oz of
solid silver with an aquamarine glass
disc to shield the weary worker’s eyes,
this rare thing, lot 217, is estimated to
fetch £3,000-£4,000. Lot 219 is similar,
but Genoese.
There are good buys among the grandeur. Lot 189 is a green-and-white and
parcel-gilt 18th-century sofa with modern striped silk, for a fair £2,000-
£3,000. There’s also a useful extending
dining table from the Seventies or later,
at £600-£1,000 (lot 241).
Finally, for that palazzo look, as part
of a four-lot bedroom set, what about
a romantic late 18th-century bed canopy in blue and gilt, upholstered in
yellow silk, for £500-£800 (lot 246).
With that above your head, who needs
a coronet?
O Sale of the collections of Principessa
Ismene Chigi Della Rovere and a noble
Genoese family, February 4, Christie’s
South Kensington. Visit Christies.com
This Weekend
Only
*
*.+,/
NOW
£2395
*
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**
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17
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
Design Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
1
2
1
THE sweet face of a 19th-century
opera singer was the obsession of
Milanese artist Piero Fornasetti. By
the time he died in 1988, he had
drawn more than 350 versions of
soprano Lina Cavalieri and put them
on to hundreds of products in a
collection he called Tema e
Variazioni — Theme and Variation.
Now his son, Barnaba, has an atelier
in Milan where craftsmen add Piero’s
imagery to china, furniture, glass and
more. This is the Fornasetti Viso wall
clock, 30cm in diameter, with glass
face and black hands. Price is £240
from a wide selection of Fornasetti’s
surreal designs at Milk Concept
Boutique, Shoreditch High Street,
E1 (milkconceptboutique.com;
020 7729 9880).
2
MAKE a whimsical cornice with
this new wallpaper border called
Paddy & Louis. They’re the designer’s
two cats cavorting up high on a
Design
Desig
esig
esi
ign tre
tre
tr
e
simply bizarre
Escape from dark January days into fantasy
furnishings, where imagination, fable and art
collide, says Barbara Chandler
printed border, with a little mouse
making its escape to one side. Rolls
with three repeats of the design
measure 7m long by 34cm and cost
£72. From Cole & Son at Design
Centre Chelsea Harbour, SW10
(020 7376 4628). Or call customer
service on 020 8442 7180 (coleand-son.com).
3
4
in Amsterdam on to furniture, using a
new technology for printing on wood.
These stools arrive packed flat, with
three slot-together tapered legs. They
cost £169 each at shop.padhome.co.
uk. Call 020 7987 7341 for further
stockists.
3
NEATLY dressed in formal shirt
and tie is Ron the Koala, as
imagined by Jamie Mitchelle who cofounded the Ohh Deer illustrators’
“co-operative” to create amusing
quirky gifts and accessories by
talented artists. This cushion, one of
several with humorous images, costs
£34.95 and measures 43cm square.
It’s printed on washable faux suede,
with fibre insert. From ohhdeer.
com (01509 812075).
5
4
FRENCH brand Ibride has a cult
following for its surreal imagery
of aristocratic animals printed on to
wooden laminate trays, with new
6
editions every season. Collectors
hang them on the wall, as shown.
The large rectangular rabbit tray
measures 65cm x 47cm and costs
£120. The smaller Lion tray measures
54cm x 51cm and costs £85. Available
from Liberty, W1, or call Pad
Home on 020 7987 7341 for more
stockists (padhome.co.uk).
5
DUTCH interior designer Piet
Hein Eek puts fragmented images
of masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum
6
In a Nottingham workshop,
designer Philip Watts casts
metal into fanciful, dramatic largescale door handles such as this
striking Eagle Wing, which is 100cm
long. It costs £834 in aluminium,
£1,490 in brass or bronze, and £1,528
in aged brass or bronze. Other
designs include a Dali-esque pair of
lips, a skull, woodland twigs and a
somewhat sinister-looking gun.
Call 0115 9269756 or visit
philipwattsdesign.com
■Twitter: @sunnyholt
22
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Interiors
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Brothers — and neighbours — in design
In a family of architects and designers, it’s no
surprise that Richard and Antony Joseph have
created a cutting-edge kitchenware company.
Dominic Bradbury visits their homes
Photographs:
Lucas Allen
At home in Wandsworth: Richard
Joseph and his girlfriend Hannah
Jefferson at their front door
Close at hand: Richard’s twin, Antony,
with wife Amelia and children Isla and
Arthur, live just a dozen doors away
T
WINS Richard and Antony
Joseph come from a large
family of creative thinkers.
Along with their mother and
father, all six Joseph children are either architects or designers.
Richard and Antony are particularly
close, having grown up together and
then co-founded their kitchenware
brand, Joseph Joseph. They now live a
dozen or so houses apart on the same
street in Wandsworth, south London.
Since they founded Joseph Joseph in
2003, the company — best known for
innovative and colourful kitchen products, from waste separating bins to dish
drainers — has grown fast. Their collection is sold in Selfridges and John Lewis,
and in more than 100 countries. Their
Southwark design studio employs 40,
with a similar number working in satellite offices in Paris and New York.
The brothers grew up in Birmingham,
where their mother works as an architect and their father is a designermaker. Richard studied industrial
design at Loughborough University and
worked for Dyson, while Antony went
to Central Saint Martins, studying product design. Their father, Michael, gave
them £10,000-worth of glass chopping
boards made by his own factory and
told the twins any profit they made
selling them could help them start a
business of their own.
Now up and running, the sleek
Joseph Joseph kitchen bin called
Totem, in which different kinds of
home rubbish can be separated for
recycling, has become a best seller.
The brothers draw inspiration not just
from the world of industrial design but
also from architecture, art and interiors. They use their own products at
home, testing them daily, and share
an interest in mid-century and modern furniture.
Both brothers settled in Wandsworth
and it was Antony who first came
across a house in a Victorian street that
had been converted into bedsits and
was ripe for reinvention as a family
home. But the project looked a little
too daunting for him and his wife,
Amelia, as they were expecting their
first child. So it was Richard who took
it on with the help of his girlfriend,
Hannah Jefferson, a lawyer, and their
architect Daniel Adeshile.
R
ICHARD ended up rebuilding the entire house with the
exception of the façade to
the street. Most dramatic of
all is the kitchen and doubleheight dining space at the back of the
building, where 20ft-high glass doors
slide back to link with the rear
garden.
“The only company that could make
them that high with the thin frames was
in Portugal. There was this big hole at
the back of the house for three months
waiting for the windows to arrive, and
then we had to close the road and crane
them in. It was a bit of a nightmare.”
Antony and Amelia — who worked in
the fashion accessories department for
Patrick Cox and Alexander McQueen
— ended up buying a similar terrace
house just along the street, shared with
their children Isla, five, and Arthur,
THE VIEW IS
EVER CHANGING
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23
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
Interiors Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Simple elegance: the rolltop tub in
Richard’s bathroom is from CP Hart
Mid-century modern pieces: Eames
chairs round the Staffan Tollgard
table in Antony’s oak-floored
kitchen/dining area, left
three. They lived there for a year, then
with help from the same architect, the
back of the house came off and was
replaced with a large kitchen extension
that has the feel of an urban loft, again
with a strong sense of connection to
the garden.
“Richard and I both like mid-century
modern pieces that work well with the
backdrop we have, but my house does
feel a bit more lived-in — it is very much
a family house,” says Antony. “The
biggest problem was finding a pillar to
support the new extension. We must
have looked at 300 salvage pillars
before we found the right one.”
Antony and Amelia’s room: painted in
Mole’s Breath grey by Farrow & Ball
Read the
full version
of this
article in
the March
issue of
House &
Garden,
on sale
from
Friday
Spectacular: Richard slides back his kitchen doors leading out to the garden patio
28
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Our home
homesandproperty
A winning
formula
Their savings had to go a long way but this
couple got plenty of space, light and storage
for their money, says Philippa Stockley
M
OST Londoners juggle
work and tight budgets
but if you have children,
making major changes to
your home gets pushed
even further down the list. Busy couple
Rosa Moratiel, 47, and her husband, John
Cryer, 41, who both work in the film
industry, saved for years before finally
making dramatic and much-needed
changes to the house they’d bought.
“We met 20 years ago in Maidstone
working for a new satellite channel,”
says John. “I fell in love at first sight.”
Rosa arrived in England from Spain at
the age of one and grew up in Wood
Green — “not the loveliest part of London” she says — but took the bus to
school through Muswell Hill, and
thought it was beautiful.
Eventually she bought a flat in the area
and after courting for years, the couple
moved in there. But when Ines, now
nine, was born, they decided it was time
to find a house locally. “It’s easier to
move with one child than two,” Rosa
says, “and I was still on maternity leave,
so it was a good time to look.”
They viewed the split-level house on a
blisteringly hot day in early September
2006, exchanged in October, and moved
in just before Ines’s first birthday. Ruben,
now six, was born three years later.
This part of north London is adored by
its loyal inhabitants, who often stay for
decades or even generations. While Rosa
didn’t love the house they chose, she was
smitten by the street and the neighbourhood. “The street was wide and quiet,
and has a street party every year. The
neighbours know each other and look
out for each other’s children,” she
says.
John and Rosa’s house was built in 1910,
yet amazingly they are only its third owners. They bought it from the daughter of
the original owners when she decided
to move to the country. Its tired décor
was peach and wood chip throughout.
Rosa and John did necessary wiring,
DIY and painting, and knocked a bathroom and loo into one, but otherwise,
as money was tight, things stayed how
they were.
And things were dark. The brick terrace home has charming features,
including encaustic Edwardian hall tiles
and some original stained glass. However, the ground floor was divided into
four small rooms in a line running frontto-back down the side of a long hall. This
meant that while the front sitting room
and also the back living room, which
looked out on to the garden, were lovely
and light, the two middle rooms were
incredibly dark — and one of them was
the kitchen. Moreover, the floor of the
front sitting room was a metre higher
than the next room.
Both Rosa and John always hated the
dark old galley kitchen where they had
to spend so much time making food and
clearing up. “We’d be in there for two
hours but the children would just zip in,
and out to the garden — so we hardly saw
them,” says Rosa.
The final straw came in 2010. “The
winter was killing us and then the heating broke down.”
S
O THAT was the year the pair
set the ball rolling. Their neighbours had had their attic done
by architects Zminkowska De
Boise. “It was quirky, and
reflected their character,” says John.
“The architects, Hanna and Richard,
thought out of the box.” So the architects
came round, and the four hit it off at
once.
Rosa and John wanted a big kitchendiner where the family could connect
with each other. The architects gave
them three options, but even though
Rosa wasn’t sure at first about opening
everything up, they went for a plan with
zones in it. To unify the space they ran
parquet throughout, “which worked out
cheaper than engineered boards”, says
John.
Where the level dropped, the architects
solved it with “bookcase stairs”, which
are both attractive and practical.
Another clever idea was putting shelving
with bespoke concertina fronts either
side of the fireplace in the old dining
room, now the study area.
These hide not only tons of storage, but
the boiler too, while below there’s a snug
that the children love, with their own
storage bench. A built-in desk opposite
is useful for all the family.
The kitchen-diner area is a huge success. It has a glossy white island kitchen
The money
House bought in 2006 for £670,000
Money spent: £80,000
Estimated value now: £1.3 million
Get this look
Architects: Hanna and Richard at
Zminkowska De Boise (zdbarchitects.
com
Builder and joiner: Irek Maduzia
(07738 201830)
Juggling act: far left, John Cryer with
Rosa, Ruben and Ines. A makeover of their
Muswell Hill home, left, means Rosa can
now do three things at once “while also
keeping an eye on the children”.
from Wickes, with grey quartz tops, with
a family-size table near the French windows, and where there was once a dingy
side window peering on to the side
return, there’s now a full-height, opaque
picture window.
So light comes in from three sides and
the family spend most of their time in
this bright space, where it is easy now to
move around.
“Like all working mums I spend a lot
Parquet flooring: stained by the
contractor, from Havwoods (havwoods.
co.uk)
Handleless white gloss kitchen
units: from wickes.co.uk
Ceniza Compac quartz worksurfaces: installed by Blue Pearl
Granite (bluepearl-granite.com)
Concert P1 lamp (over kitchen
table): designed by Jørn Utzon from
suppliers including hauslondon.com for
£235.70 (Prices may vary)
Clara O’Neill Spine pendant lamp in
living area: £250 from johnlewis.com
O Rosa and John’s house won second
place in the interior design category of
New London Architecture’s Don’t Move,
Improve! awards (newlondon
architecture.org)
29
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
Our home Homes & Property
y.co.uk with
Transformation:
a glossy white
kitchen-diner
with a useful
island, right,
replaced the
gloomy old galley
kitchen which was
heartily disliked
by parents and
children alike
■Twitter:
@stockleyp
Photographs::
David Butler
Period meets
contemporary:
the back of the
1910 house in
Muswell Hill,
right, with
characterful
doors leading out
to raised decking
and patio seating
of time doing three things at once,” says
Rosa. “But now I can also keep an eye on
the children at the same time.
“We’re just a normal working family
Bright idea: Ines
and Ruben on the
attractive, practical
bookcase stairs
trying to keep all the balls in the air. This
has really improved life for all of us. It
makes us much more cheerful, and it
makes everything more fun.”
Homework — no
excuses: a study
desk sits in a
cheerful, well-lit,
child-friendly
corner, far right
32
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Reader promotion
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Bring summer into
your home with
bespoke wall art
Alison
Cork
SURFACE VIEW is offering readers
up to 50 per cent off until the end of
its new year sale on February 2. For
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readers receive an extra 10 per cent
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HAPPYNEWHOME at the checkout.
The company creates bespoke wall
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inspired by designs in its extensive
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Pictured is a retro framed print,
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Order online or call 0118 922 1327
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THE fun and funky Space Invaders
rug from I Love Retro is reduced by
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£76.30 — including free UK delivery.
Additionally, readers benefit from a
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gifts by using code LES10.
This colourful rug measures 120cm
by 160cm. To claim your 30 per cent
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07909 841244 and use code RUG30
before February 10. Limited stock.
Bargain news
O The companies
listed here
are wholly
independent of
the Evening
Standard. Care is
taken to establish
that they are
bona fide but we
recommend that
you carry out
your own checks
prior to purchases
and use a credit
card where
possible. To offer
feedback on any
of these
companies,
email homesand
property@
standard.co.uk
with “Bargain
News” in the
subject line.
For more
bargains, visit
alisonathome.
com
or homesand
property.co.uk/
offers.
Pay less for wireless
Bluetooth speaker
Chic table is a winter sale snip
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The service includes
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For a free brochure or
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and use code 28/01/ES/
BH before February 25.
TREAT yourself to an
Alison at Home winter sale
bargain, with discounts of
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delivery on orders over
£400. Look out for dining
ware and side tables,
including the chic Lyon
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finish, above. Hand-carved
in India, it’s down from
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clearance. Order online or
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Order at oneregentplace.co.uk
before February 2. While stocks last.
33
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
Outdoors Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Grow all you can eat in a few square feet
Harvest food galore
from a tiny city plot
with creative planting
Pattie
Barron
Y
OU need to be inventive to
grow edibles in the city. This
is the message from urban
gardener Naomi Schillinger,
who makes the most of her
small Finsbury Park plot by creating
herb planters from wooden pallets,
using cycle wheels as a trellis for cucumber vines and hanging up kitchen colanders to grow strawberries on high.
She has packed her ideas into a book,
Grow All You Can Eat In Three
Square Feet (DK, £14.99), which
proves conclusively that you don’t
need an allotment or kitchen garden
to produce a bumper harvest. A dim
stairwell can be painted white to reflect
light and shelves fixed on walls to hold
a series of window box planters.
A pair of sturdy stepladders will give
you double the display space and ensure
every potted plant gets its share of light.
Balcony railings can be put to good use
by attaching long lengths of plastic guttering to hold quick crops of salad
leaves, radishes and dwarf peas. The
enterprising Schillinger makes planter
saddlebags from heavy-duty black
fabric so she can grow trailing tomatoes
on both sides of her balcony.
Clockwise from left: containers grouped on display shelves
or stepladders make the most of vertical space; old cycle
wheels form an inventive trellis; a wooden pallet, with a
few tweaks, holds several layers of crops
CREATE CROP CIRCLES
Raised beds are her response to utilising
any spare patch of concrete or paved
ground, and they can be decorative, too.
She suggests making crop circles by
sowing rings of mixed salad leaves and
edible flowers such as violas, and planting tumbling tomatoes to fill in the four
corners. Raised beds have many advantages — plants are easy to access and to
protect from pests or frost, they warm
up faster in spring so you have a longer
growing season, and they provide ideal
growing conditions, because you can
create the dream compost mix. Schill-
inger’s is 45 per cent topsoil, 45 per cent
peat-free compost and 10 per cent
coarse grit. You don’t have to buy special kits, either. She suggests knocking
a raised bed together from old bricks,
metal sheets or scaffolding boards — call
them fashionably distressed. Copper
tape wrapped around the edges will also
deter slugs and snails. Just be sure that
the beds are deep enough — six inches
for shallow-rooters such as lettuce and
radish, at least a foot for deep-rooted
courgettes and beetroot as well as potatoes — and that water can drain away
from the base. A small terracotta pot
will show off a pepper plant a treat, but
if you want decent crops from containers, consider buying a series of deep,
stackable rubber trugs in different sizes
and an array of bright colours that will
give you an instant portable veg patch
and allow you to use every corner of
floor space. Visit tubtrugs.com. The
largest size, 75 litres, is ideal for growing
From far left:
saddlebags made
from sturdy
fabric can be
hung over both
sides of railings;
herbs thrive in
hanging baskets,
relishing the
free-draining
compost;
reclaimed oil
drums, stacked
together, provide
the perfect place
for growing
herbs, chillies
and tomatoes
potatoes, sowing a carrot harvest or
training runner beans up a wigwam.
Where else would you grow corn on
the cob but in a corn oil drum? Sweetcorn plants need to be grown in a
block, not a row, for good pollination,
so a large drum is ideal. They grow
slowly, so Schillinger suggests sowing
or planting fast crops of salad leaves,
parsley or beetroot in between, to use
every scrap of space.
SHADE-LOVING BERRIES
Most edibles thrive in warm, sunny
conditions, notably tomatoes. No sunlight? No problem. You can still grow
three staples: peas, runner beans and
spinach, points out Schillinger. Leafy
crops tend to wilt and wither in hot,
bright positions, preferring cool shade,
so you could also grow Swiss chard, the
wide range of mustard leaves, lettuces,
rocket and sorrel, which once sown,
will forever flourish, adding a luscious
lemony tang to soups and salads.
Shady sites also produce the best berries, including small, flavourful Alpine
strawberries — which will self-seed
along paths and in gravel — and easygrowing, heavy-cropping autumn
raspberries. Your deliciously rewarding growing year starts here.
36
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Property searching
REX
N
Star link: David Bowie lived in Beckenham and started a folk
club at the Three Tuns pub, where a restaurant now stands
OW a densely populated
suburb, Beckenham in
south-east London is a far
cry from the quiet Kent
village of the 19th century.
With it’s busy high street, good local
schools and fantastic transport links — it
lies just eight miles from central London
— there is much for Beckenham to celebrate, including local heroes Enid
Blyton and David Bowie.
Prolific children’s author Blyton,
creator of Noddy, The Famous Five and
Malory Towers, spent her early life in
Beckenham, and while Bowie was born
in Brixton, Beckenham has better reason to claim him as its own. Between
1969 and 1973, the pop icon lived in
Foxgrove Road and then Southend
Road, and started a folk club at the
Three Tuns pub in the high street that
became the Beckenham Arts Lab.
Today, a Zizzi restaurant occupies the
site but the Bowie magic is being
hitched to an annual free festival at
Croydon Road Recreation Ground in
the town centre, with profits going
towards the restoration of the fine Victorian bandstand where Bowie performed in 1969 on the same day as
Woodstock.
Blyton, whose books have been world
bestsellers since the Thirties, arrived in
Beckenham aged three months and
lived at seven separate local addresses,
the first of which was in Chaffinch
Road, where the Enid Blyton Society
has erected a blue plaque. She went to
nursery school in Cedars Road and on
to a small private school, St Christopher’s, which still exists. She was head
girl there in 1913-14. Blyton’s life was
disrupted at age 13 when her muchloved father ran off with another
woman but the family remained in the
area, and as a young married woman,
the writer returned from living in
Chelsea to set up home in Elfin Cottage,
Shortlands Road. Blyton went on to live
in Beaconsfield, in a house called
Green Hedges, from 1938 until shortly
before her death in 1968.
WHAT’S THE ATTRACTION?
Beckenham offers a diverse range of
architecture and homes, including a
large stock of Victorian properties of
all sizes. There are both purpose-built
and Victorian conversion flats, threeand four-bedroom terrace and semidetached houses, along with larger
Thirties houses.
Estate agent Munsoor Khan at the local
branch of Alan de Maid says the area is
popular with young professionals for
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Spotlight
Beckenham
Where Bowie
and Blyton are
local heroes
Young professionals and families love the cool
shops, cocktails, village vibe and great schools
just a hop from the City, says Anthea Masey
its excellent transport links to the City,
and with families looking for good
schools. “Recently we have seen a large
influx of buyers from Dulwich, Forest
Hill and the surrounding areas looking
for Victorian family homes.”
Up and coming: Khan tips Elmers End
where there are smaller, more affordable houses. The area is seeing a transformation with several smart
restaurants, while some run-down
shops are being turned into homes.
SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS
Busy Beckenham High Street snakes
through the town and ends up by St
George’s Church with its ancient lych
gate. There are branches of Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and M&S Simply Food.
Villagers Fine Sausages sells specialist
sausages and other meats, while the
fishmonger is called Pearl Fisheries.
Jumping Bean is good for gifts, Gallery
Seventeen sells limited-edition Quentin
Blake prints and there is a thriving independent bookshop. Opposite the
church, a row of independent coffee
shops includes Deli Nene, Fee & Brown
and Em and Lou’s Kitchen. Branching
Out in Croydon Road is a florist and gift
shop with a café that’s popular with
young mothers. Friends of Mine is good
for cocktails and serves Sicilian tapas.
La Rascasse is a modern French bar
and restaurant, with the emphasis on
fish. The Jolly Woodman in Chancery
Lane has the kind of atmosphere you’d
find in a country pub.
LEISURE AND THE ARTS
There’s a six-screen Odeon multiplex
cinema in Beckenham High Street.
Beckenham Theatre Centre in Bromley
Road is one of the UK’s smallest theatres, with 47 seats and a busy amateur
programme. The Beckenham Festival,
held each November, is a leading competitive performing arts event.
Club Langley in Hawksbrook Road is
a sports club with football pitches,
bowls, indoor archery, pool and darts,
and a remote control car racing track.
Breeze Yoga in Albemarle Road offers
yoga, Pilates and meditation classes in
a modern studio. The David Lloyd club
in Stanhope Grove has a swimming
pool, and there are two at councilowned The Spa at Beckenham, in Beckenham Road.
Travel: eight train stations serve the
area — Beckenham Junction, Beckenham Hill, New Beckenham, Clock
Grade II-listed:
18th-century
Beckenham
Place mansion is
now a golf
clubhouse
Photographs::
Graham
Hussey
HAVE YOUR SAY BECKENHAM
@sashiotis Kelsey Park is the gem in
Beckenham. Great lake, children’s
play area & crazy golf
@sashiotis new independent
gastropub @ChanceryBeck serves a
great pint & amazing food
ENDS SATURDAY
@sashiotis gut-busting authentic
pizza @SaporeV with traditional
wood fired oven
UP TO 30% OFF
@winkworthant Kelsey Park
#Beckenham is ideal for a brisk
walk with friends on winter
mornings
SHOWROOMS
Battersea T 020 7819 2300
Islington T 020 7354 7000
Surrey
T 020 8481 9588 (featuring the Outlet)
@handyhughie big paddling pool
in #Beckenham Recreation Park
very popular spot with parents with
youngsters
SURFACETILES.COM
Historic: St George’s Church has a 13th-century lych gate
@handyhughie this café/florist is
ALWAYS packed with locals
@BranchingOutBR3 & the town
features in three novels by
@LindaMac1
@winkworthant a visit to
@LaRascasse_Beck is a must for super
food and drink with a great
atmosphere
@DickiesTicker you can’t visit
@Beckenham without visiting
the true coffee shop @Feeandbrown
(it serves @CaravanRoastery)
NEXT WEEK: Bushey. Do you
live there? Tell us what you
think @HomesProperty
37
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
Property searching Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
Family favourite:
popular Kelsey
Park, right, has a
café, children’s
playground, a
large lake and
mini golf
CHECK THE STATS
■WHAT HOMES COST
BUYING IN BECKENHAM
(Average prices)
One-bedroom flat £231,000
Two-bedroom flat £358,000
Two-bedroom house £372,000
Three-bedroom house £510,000
Four-bedroom house £770,000
Source: Zoopla
RENTING IN BECKENHAM
(Average rates)
One-bedroom flat £959 a month
Two-bedroom flat £1,283 a month
Two-bedroom house £1,337 a month
Three-bedroom house £2,056 a month
Four-bedroom house £2,304 a month
All aboard:
Beckenham
Junction, right,
is on the
Tramlink
network, which
runs services to
Croydon and
Wimbledon
Source: Zoopla
GO ONLINE FOR MORE
O The best schools in and around
Beckenham
O Where to find homes near
Beckenham’s open spaces
O The latest housing developments
in the area
O How Beckenham compares
with the rest of the UK on
property prices
O Smart maps to plot your home
search
Great local
shopping street:
snaking up to St
George’s Church,
Beckenham High
Street has
big-name
supermarkets,
established
independent shops
and cafés
House, Kent House, Ravensbourne,
Eden Park and Elmers End. Beckenham Junction has trains to Victoria,
London Bridge and on Thameslink to
St Pancras; New Beckenham, Clock
House, Elmers End and Eden Park have
trains to Cannon Street and Charing
Cross; Kent House services go to Cannon Street, Charing Cross and St Pancras; Ravensbourne is on Thameslink.
GETTY
■Twitter:
@antheamasey
There are Tramlink stations at Beckenham Junction, Beckenham Road and
Elmers End with services to Croydon
and Wimbledon. Eden Park is in Zone
5 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1
costs £2,188. The rest are in Zone 4 and
the price is £1,844.
Council: Bromley council is Tory controlled and Band D council tax for the
current year is £1,309.07.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Who is this author and what is his
connection to Buddha, Bowie and
Beckenham? Find the answer at
homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightbeckenham
For more about Beckenham, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightbeckenham
F
To find a home in Beckenham, visit:
homesandproperty.co.uk/beckenham
£1.8 MILLION
£1.5 MILLION
£725,000
OFFERS ABOVE £380,000
A five-bedroom house with impressive
reception room and an extensive garden in
Kelsey Lane, Beckenham (Foxtons).
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/kelbeck
An immaculate six-bedroom detached house in
Whitecroft Way, Beckenham, with a Poggenpohl
kitchen and steam room for eight (Alan De Maid).
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/whitbeck
This spacious four-bedroom Victorian house in
Cromwell Road, Beckenham, comes with a goodsized garden and a garage (Tepilo).
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/crombeck
A two-bedroom, two bathroom top-floor flat in
Birkbeck Road, Beckenham with off-street
parking and no chain (Barnard Marcus).
O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/birkbeck
38
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Ask the expert
homesandproperty.co.uk with
That wooden floor is a noise nightmare
Q
Q
A
Fiona
McNulty
WHAT’S
YOUR
PROBLEM?
OUR LAWYER ANSWERS
YOUR QUESTIONS
AS SOON as we moved
into our new, recently
converted ground-floor
flat we knew we had made
a mistake. The noise from upstairs
is terrible. We can hear them
talking, walking, their television
and their baby playing with her
toys on the wooden flooring.
The freeholder says that the lease
for upstairs mentions nothing
about floors having to be carpeted
and therefore he can’t do anything.
I have tried speaking to the people
above, inviting them down to listen
to the noise, which they did, yet
they haven’t done anything. The
noise is endless. What can we do?
A
BECAUSE the flat is newly
converted, it would be
worthwhile looking at the
planning consent for the
conversion to see if soundproofing
was a condition of planning. If it was,
speak to the freeholder. Even if
soundproofing was installed when the
flats were constructed, perhaps the
specification was not good enough.
Even if there is no covenant regarding
carpets there is likely to be a covenant
in the lease that lessees do not allow
noise between certain hours, or cause
nuisance, and you can ask the
freeholder to enforce it.
You may also have a private
nuisance claim against your
neighbour. It is tricky to decide when
noise constitutes nuisance and the
courts will consider reasonable use.
You could ask the local environmental
health department to investigate
whether the noise is at nuisance
levels. If you win a claim for nuisance
the court may order the neighbours to
stop the nuisance and/or award you
damages. Finally, you could consider
soundproofing your flat, which may
need the freeholder’s consent.
IF YOU have a
question for
Fiona McNulty,
please email
legalsolutions@
standard.co.uk
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
legal director in
the real estate
group of Foot
Anstey LLP, Exeter
(01392 411221;
Fiona.mcnulty@
footanstey.com)
More legal
Q&As
Visit: homesand
property.co.uk
MY FATHER recently passed away and my
mother is living alone in their home. There is
£23,000 left outstanding on the mortgage
and I am considering buying the property
from my mother for £30,000. It was last valued at
£90,000. I intend to move in with my mother if we can
legally do this. Is it possible?
YOUR mother presumably became entitled on
your father’s death to their home, either as the
surviving joint tenant or under the terms of your
father’s will, or under the laws of intestacy if he
did not leave a will.
The mortgage will have to be redeemed when you buy
the property, although you may be able to take over the
mortgage from the lender if you can satisfy their lending
requirements.
If your mother accepts £30,000 from you and redeems
the mortgage, she will be gifting you £60,000 — so do
remember that this gift from her may have tax
implications for you.
Sometimes people enter into a deed of variation in
order to save tax. Your mother could enter into a deed of
variation to vary the terms of your father’s will if she
wished to gift the property or part of it to you — although
considering the value of the property there may be no
tax consequences.
Finally, a sale at an under value may be seen as
deprivation of assets should your mother wish to apply
for means-assessed benefits at some stage.
O 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.
39
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
Inside story Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
MONDAY
Lots of fresh enquiries are coming in
lately from buyers and tenants looking
to move into Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury,
Covent Garden, Soho and Marylebone,
the five areas we cover. All five are very
close to each other, but at the same
time very different.
I walk to work in Fitzrovia every day
from my home in Marylebone — an area
that’s a little more family-orientated
and certainly has a feeling of space
compared to Fitzrovia, which is cutting
edge and trendy, with an increasing
number of new residential developments such as Fitzroy Place and Rathbone Square.
I meet up with an old buyer of mine
in Soho. We grab a coffee in Fernandez
& Wells after looking at a property, and
we talk about the market as he is thinking of upsizing. I love going back and
seeing what our buyers have done to
the properties we helped them to purchase. I walk back to my office via the
back streets to miss the crowds in
Oxford Street and notice a few new
shops have opened in less than a week.
Really, this place moves so fast.
TUESDAY
Today I have a few meetings at a new
development we are involved with.
I cut through Store Street, which has
become a new “destination” since
The Bedford Estates has been busy
making improvements. Even the old
petrol station there is now a branch of
Byron burgers. I love Bloomsbury, a
big area for students, families and academics. The beautiful Georgian site we
And. . .action!
The location is
star of our show
Diary of
an estate
agent
are involved with is located just off
Russell Square, so it will sell quickly.
Close by is the Brunswick Centre and
Lambs Conduit Street, which is a mustsee street with a growing reputation as
a fashion destination.
From Bloomsbury you can walk to
the City but you also have the West End
on your doorstep, with some of the
world’s best shows and restaurants.
WEDNESDAY
Covent Garden calls today. I’m finalising
my area video with the help of my video
team — there are so many places here
to talk about in under two minutes.
The Royal Opera House and the
Piazza roll off the tongue with ease, but
there is so much more to this area. Flats
are snapped up quickly and are often
used as pieds-à-terre for out-of-town
parents looking to experience the
shows and the foodie indulgences.
Balthazar is just off the Piazza, but I like
Clos Maggiore in King Street — a truly
great French restaurant — and Café
Koha opposite J Sheekey. The list goes
on. . .
We finish the video, getting in as many
landmarks as we can, to give our new
customers a better idea of what is going
on in the area. I can’t wait for the result
so we can share it with everyone.
THURSDAY
With a morning full of meetings
arranged, there’s no chance for me to
stop off at the Algerian Coffee Store in
Old Compton Street, where you can
get a seriously good espresso for less
than all the flashy places. When I arrive
back at the office, one of my colleagues
mentions he valued a property today
and the owner sends me his regards
along with a message that when he
bought the flat some 13 years ago, I had
more hair. We have been renting the
property for him ever since, and what
a great investment it has been. I recall
he bought the place after a really great
year for his business — just another
example of how good property is as an
investment. My colleague mentions the
flat’s value has risen 350 per cent over
the 13 years.
FRIDAY
My morning is spent catching up with
contacts in Asia who supply us with
buyers for some of the properties we
are selling off-plan. I have to start early
as they are eight hours ahead of us. UK
buyers get the option to buy, too, but
there isn’t as much interest from them
for new properties with a two-year
build and large deposit tied up. I think
this will change in time as the world
gets smaller, buyers get wiser and the
shortage of London property becomes
more evident.
The day finishes happily, with a great
telephone call with instructions
to proceed on the sale of our client’s
property in Soho.
O Jonathan Hudson is director of
Hudsons Property, based in Charlotte
Street, W1 (020 7323 2277).
42
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property New homes
homesandproperty.co.uk with
By David Spittles
Smart mo
S
mo
Coming soon: The Old Vinyl Factory scheme is set to transform Hayes’s image
Buy in Hayes, commute by Crossrail
HAYES in west London is part of
the all-important Heathrow
commercial zone, the group of
areas that feed off the airport.
Traditionally it has been a place
to work or set up business rather
than a desirable residential
district, but such cheaper outerLondon areas are becoming
increasingly sought after,
especially those such as Hayes
that are on the Crossrail route
scheduled to open in 2018. The
capital’s new east-west rail route
will bring central London — and
even Canary Wharf — within a
comfortable commuting distance.
Trident House, right, a towncentre scheme of 98 flats from
builder Galliard and property
company Hurlington, is launching
in Hayes next weekend with prices
starting at £175,000. The developer
is offering to pay stamp duty and is
providing free furniture packs. Call
020 7620 1500.
Coming soon is The Old Vinyl
Factory, a showpiece project
which could transform Hayes’s
image. The 18-acre site was once
home to EMI headquarters and
many of the company’s classic
records were produced there.
Redevelopment is creating a new
“quarter”, with 630 homes
alongside restored Art Deco
buildings set to become boutique
shops, work studios, bars and
cafés, a cinema and a museum.
Heavenly new
Angel homes
A
S THE gateway to
Islington, Angel is a
bustling commercial hub.
But tucked away just
moments from the busy
shopping precinct and transport
interchange are quiet conservation
areas with glorious, flat-fronted
Georgian and early Victorian
terraces, some set around pretty
garden squares.
A fresh crop of homes has arrived
on this fashionable patch, offering a
choice of refurbished traditional
architecture or striking
contemporary design. River Street
Mews, a scheme of six new
townhouses, forms a stunning
architectural intervention in a
village-like pocket just south of
Angel. The homes are reached via a
gated entrance that opens on to an
L-shaped plot enclosed by a listed
boundary wall. Brick has been used
to complement the surrounding
heritage buildings, while modern
design elements such as projecting
bay windows with grey-black
aluminium frames and glass louvres
are a crisp counterpoint and add
rhythm to the façade. Light-filled
open-plan interiors link with outside
space. Prices from £2.35 million.
In nearby City Road, a pair of listed
Georgian townhouses has been
tastefully restored. Set over five
storeys, each has five bedrooms plus
front and rear gardens. Prices from
£3.2 million.
Likely to strike a chord with City
workers is 364 Goswell Road, right,
a classic Angel infill development of
stylish boutique apartments. Prices
from £599,000. For details of all
these schemes, call estate agent
Thomson Currie on 020 7226 0000.
Shared-ownership
deals in the heart
of Zone 1 Fitzrovia
!%%!%
%!
A RARE chance to buy into Fitzrovia at
a low price is being offered by Origin
housing association. Suffolk House,
above, is a scheme of two-bedroom
duplex apartments in Whitfield Place,
in the heart of this Zone 1 area.
Prices start at £198,750 for a 25 per
cent share of a property with a full
price of £795,000. Combined monthly
costs, to include rent, mortgage and
service charge, are expected to be
£1,590. Call 0800 068 8990.
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43
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015
New homes Homes & Property
homesandproperty.co.uk with
From £615,000
apartments at
Manhattan Loft
Gardens, above,
top right and
right, at the
Olympic Park in
east London.
A pop-up shop
for the block
has opened at
Harrods, left, in
Knightsbridge
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,%1%*0%+(3
LOFT LIVING
PUT A FLAT ON
YOUR HARRODS
SHOPPING LIST
STRATFORD meets Knightsbridge at
Harrods, where a pop-up shop for a
sleek new skyscraper being built at
the Olympic Park in east London is
turning heads of passers-by.
The display occupies prime
window space normally reserved
for luxury jewellery at the famous
department store in Brompton
Road, SW1.
It is the idea of developer Harry
Handelsman, chief executive of
Manhattan Loft Corporation and
the “king of Clerkenwell cool”.
Handelsman made designer loft
livng a genre in the UK and saved
and transformed the now-stunning
St Pancras station.
Manhattan Loft Gardens, his
latest project, is a shimmering,
cantilevered 42-storey tower with
248 apartments, also incorporating
a hotel and three open-air sky
gardens. The object of the pop-up
exercise is to infuse the
development with some Harrods
cachet and attract buyers to a
part of London they are unlikely
to know well.
The high-quality development
raises the bar for Stratford.
Apartments are priced from
£615,000. Call 020 7225 6700.
Read more: visit
our new online
luxury section
HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury
+#
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44
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY 2015 EVENING STANDARD
Homes & Property Letting on
M
UCH to my teenage
daughter’s horror
I have been concocting
a plan to turn her into
a student landlord — if
and when she leaves home and goes
to university.
This planning is a bit premature as
she hasn’t yet decided where, or
even if, she will study for a degree.
The cost of university is so high,
however, I am already fretting about
how she is going to afford the fees, let
alone rent and other living expenses.
I have come up with the idea that I
should remortgage one of my buy-tolets to release equity for her to use as
a deposit to buy a property large
enough to rent rooms to other
students. She would then be able to
live rent-free. When she leaves uni
she can sell the property and release
any equity to pay off her student
loan, or continue to let it to receive
an income.
My ungrateful daughter thinks this
is the worst idea I’ve ever had. Still,
I discuss the possibility with Martin
Stewart, my financial adviser at
London Money, of helping/coercing
her into buying a rental property for
her second year of studies. I am
surprised when he tells me that very
few of his clients consider such a
thing.
Aside from the considerable burden
it will place on my daughter’s very
young shoulders, Stewart quite
rightly points out that there is the risk
that any property she buys won’t rise
in value in the short time she will
homesandproperty.co.uk with
My girl is facing
a big university
cash challenge
Victoria Whitlock tells her daughter that
becoming a landlord is the way to fund her
studies — then uncovers big financial pitfalls
The
accidental
landlord
have remaining at university — or at
least, not by enough to claw back the
considerable buy-to-let start-up costs
such as legal fees, surveyor’s report,
stamp duty and furniture.
Also, he says it would be hard, if not
impossible, to find her a mortgage
with a reputable lender, even with a
25 per cent deposit, and even if the
anticipated rent would easily cover
the loan repayments. Most buy-to-let
lenders insist on borrowers having
an additional income, usually at least
£25,000 a year. Many don’t lend to
first-time buyers and most have a
minimum age of 21 for borrowers.
However, Stewart tells me there are
a few “guarantor” mortgages, one of
which is Bath Building Society’s Buy
for Uni product, which provides buyto-let loans to students as young as
18. It will lend up to 100 per cent of
the value of the property, up to a
maximum of £300,000, depending
on the amount of rent it will achieve.
If the rent won’t cover the mortgage,
the society will take parents’ income
into consideration, after deducting
their financial commitments. For
loans greater than 80 per cent of the
value of the property, it also requires
a collateral charge over the parents’
£577 A WEEK
John D Wood has this smart three-bedroom flat available to rent at Ridgway, in
Wimbledon Village, SW19. Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/rentridgway
home. There are several conditions,
however. The loan must be for a
minimum of £50,000 and the
property must be worth at least
£100,000 and within 10 miles of the
university, while Bath won’t consider
lending for certain types of property
such as ex-local authority flats, or
apartments in blocks of more than
six storeys. Plus, the lending is for a
minimum of five years and the
interest rate is steep. It currently
charges 5.29 per cent, discounted by
0.25 per cent for up to five years,
whereas it’s possible to get an
interest rate of less than three per
cent on standard buy-to-let deals
with other lenders. It has given me
something to chew on.
O Victoria Whitlock lets three
properties in south London.
To contact Victoria with your ideas
and views, tweet @vicwhitlock
Find many more homes to rent at
homesandproperty.co.uk/lettings
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Find out mor e at eastvillagelondon.co.uk
Call for entries
The 24th annual London Evening Standard New Homes Awards
will celebrate and commend innovation and excellence
in today’s new homes.
For more information and to request an entry form email [email protected] or call 01568 708 163.
Closing date for entries: Friday 6 February 2015
www.homesandproperty.co.uk/nha