Now this house is a beauty. It’s a proper Victorian doer-upper that is practically intact and is full of such charming period details that I hope whoever buys it really tries to preserve it and just updates the heating and electricity and adds a lick of paint. Come with me and have a look:
The classic knock through sitting room gives no hint of the treasures that are to be found in this six bedroom house in Tottenham, north London. It’s on the market with Brickworks for £1,200,00 and I’m not hazarding a guess as to how much it would need spending on it.
Because this conservatory probably needs a new roof, but instead of knocking it down and replacing it with something modern it would be lovely to just repair it. Although I grant you it’s an awkward shape. Perhaps it could be an office. But then there’s this – a sort of first floor conservatory/studio. Just look at that floor and imagine working there…
Now yes you would need to do something about the kitchen but when you see this pretty window and vintage brass taps it would be tempting to do the bare minimum wouldn’t it? There are currently three rooms making up the kitchen with a separate utility. There are also three reception rooms so there’s lots of space to be filled. Now that my children are older I feel the need for open plan much less and wouldn’t knock all the walls down which does retain some character and private spaces for everyone.
And wallpaper in the bathroom. This is so old it’s come back round again. Check out Malin Black from Sandberg and yes I concede that this room definitely needs an update. I’ve never even seen a boiler that looks like that. I’m assuming it even IS a boiler and not some weird bird house. Mind you there is only one bathroom for the whole house apart from the loo and basin below, which is open plan to one of the bedrooms so you might want to put a wall up there.
Mind you, you could keep the fabulous basin couldn’t you? And that little cubby hole by the loo is so sweet – although just out of arm’s reach which might be really irritating! This is the one that is open to one of the bedrooms.
Finally, as if there weren’t enough details already – look at these lights and the servants’ bell. I want this house. The owner/seller says it has been curated like a gallery over the years and although it hasn’t been modernised it has been looked after – the roof is new, for example so that’s a few grand you haven’t got to spend.
And now for something completely different. Hedge House, in Solihull, is an extraordinary design which is nearly 200ft long and 33ft wide covering over 10,000 sq ft. The instruction to sell has been won by a cool boutique agency Mr and Mrs Clarke, who have valued it at £3,200,000. Now don’t dismiss the outside before you’ve been in…
It’s set in six acres and arranged over two storeys on the outskirts of Knowle, near Solihull. The brick was locally sourced and the wood is from a local forest. It has high ceilings and combines a sense of traditional house-building values with modern techniques.
So you go in through the carport at one end and come immediately to a 10m high glazed atrium and an internal garden. Like it yet?
All these rooms can be opened onto the terrace to combine both inside and outside and, let’s be honest, make a great party space as well. It’s moments like this that you want to know why they are selling. At least I do. And I don’t have the answer sadly.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms, all en suite and one with this black bath overlooking the atrium, as well as a gym and sauna with balcony. I’m torn this week. I would probably buy the first one but I’d really, really, like to come and spend some time in this one. I reckon it would be great to hang out in for a few days. What do you think?
I live in Knowle, currently re-developing our Victorian semi there, I can confirm the large box, Hedge House isn’t finished, in fact it’s just a steel frame at the moment. Looks interesting from the renders though. I love both properties!!
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think the Knowle house is a render, which might explain why they look for a buyer.
Ah yes, the gas boiler pouring hot water into the bath…if only the bl….dy thing will light!
Finsbury Park 1967 I’d date it around then!
For my generation born just after WWII, in the 1970’s we’d jump at the chance to buy the house but very much doubt we’d want to contemplate such a project now. What an opportunity for someone intelligent enough to spot that it’s a gem with the proviso that the surrounding area is to their liking of course!!
Well I’d go for the Knowle pad because I grew up there and my brother lives very close to this box – I shall quiz him on why the owners are leaving. I have an inkling it hasn’t actually been lived in, just developed but you never know!
A little against the grain but I love the second one. The Victorian house is very charming but the second just seems so much more artistic to me. While the first may be a better home, I would love to live in what looks like a modern art gallery: it’s unique. And with all that outside space, it really is a slice of something special.
Defo Tottenham rather than the box (OK a big box) in the field. But isn’t it interesting, we’re all talking about it needing modernisation. Back in the day (when my parents were looking for a doer-upper in the early 80s) this involved houses that had missing roofs, no heating, where the top floor had been inhabited by a mad old lady for 30 years, where you’d dig down in the garden and find that it had been filled with 50 years’ worth of bottles, where the whole family ended up camping in one room for months while the rest of the place was made habitable bit by bit. This gem is hardly ‘needing modernisation’ by comparison. Yes, it’s an old boiler, yes, there’s some dodgy carpet, yes, it only has one bathroom (a cardinal sin these days, particularly in the insane London housing market) and the kitchen is old, but we ‘update’ such things at our peril. We end up with the same kinds of kitchens and bathrooms and then fashion moves on again and so we have to do all over again. This house has so clearly been a home, and a wonderful one. Sadly it won’t be me getting my grubby mitts on it, but I hope, as we all do, that whatever is done, is done with a light touch. And I agree, Kate, about repairing rather than replacing that conservatory. It’s a delight.
Yes, definitely Tottenham for me. I love it when houses have not been “modernised”. I just hope whoever does buy it doesn’t destroy its magic
The Tottenham house gets my vote too, and despite my preference for a darker palette I wouldn’t do any alterations or painting for at least a year. New owners seem often in too much of a hurry to stamp their personalities on to their new homes. But 52 weeks of doing nothing but living in the house, seeing where the sun rises and sets, and noting which rooms get flooded with light. Discovering what it feels like to sit in the conservatory and listen to the rain splashing on the roof; finding out which corners are best for sitting and reading, and watching the garden slowly display its treasures throughout the seasons. Pure magic.
The Victorian one is stunning ! You need that house lol! So much potential.
Talk about chalk and cheese, both are fabulous in their own way, but the London house does it for me, I am already bursting with ideas and as our eldest daughter has just started renting in Highgate, surely it won’t be long before she needs her own house and her salary will not be that of one who just left Uni but that of a CEO, and then I could fly over as often as necessary and help with the very sympathetic renovations!
I’m literally running out to buy a lottery ticket ….. I WANT that house in Tottenham!!