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Homes&Property

Wednesday 11 December 2013

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2 WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Faye Greenslade

This week: homesandproperty.co.ukProperty search

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

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news: jumpers for goalposts could be right up your street

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

For more country homes, visit homesandproperty.co.uk

Earls Court January 17-19 — 1,000 tickets to give away

hot homes: cute country cottages for less than £250k

RESIDENTIAL roads across London are being closed to traffic so that local children can enjoy the simple, old-fashioned pleasures of bike riding and street football.

Haringey in north London is the latest council to introduce a “play streets” scheme, encouraging parents to apply to have their road shut for a morning or afternoon up to once a week so children can play in the road in safety. It joins five other boroughs — Hackney, Westminster, Sutton, Waltham Forest and Islington — which have recently introduced similar schemes.

Ooh la la! It’s the France Show

£485,000: what better location for a little B&B than the Gloucestershire town of Tetbury? This smart, Cotswold stone house is sure to attract well-heeled summer guests thanks to its plum spot close to Prince Charles’s Highgrove estate. Nearby Westonbirt Arboretum brings more guests during the autumn. The house has four bedrooms and two bathrooms but also permission to extend to create further guest suites. Through RA Bennett & Partners.

£400,000: you could enjoy a good East End Christmas knees-up at this bright and spacious two-bedroom flat set on a quiet E8 side street. These days the location is prime — sandwiched between vibrant Dalston and the open spaces of London Fields. Wood flooring and lots of high-spec detailing feature in the open-plan kitchen/dining and living areas, which can become the perfect entertaining space, with sliding doors to a large balcony. Through Stirling Ackroyd.

JOIN our property tour to uncover chocolate-box thatches and romantic cottages priced below £250,000.

TO ENTER For a chance to win a pair of free tickets to the France Show, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/offers before noon on Friday. Usual rules apply.

London buy of the week making Christmas merry

Out of town buy of the week perfect for pottering down by the sea

Life changer rub shoulders with Charles in pretty Tetbury

£198,500: a two-bedroom stone-built cottage in Limpley Stoke, near Bath

Visit homesand property.co.uk/limpley

THE France Show is back, bringing French flavours and charms to the heart of London.

For home hunters there will be thousands of properties for sale to browse, with experts on hand to answer all your questions about buying in France.

As you set about tracking down your French dream home, you can also enjoy cookery demonstrations from top French chefs and sample fine French wines and champagne at tutored tastings. And while you are there, why not

visit the French market, pick up some great holiday ideas — or simply sit back and watch the cancan dancers? You can even try your hand at pétanque.

We have 1,000 tickets to give away in pairs, see details below.

To find out more about the France Show, visit thefranceshow.com.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/outrottingdean

£375,000: cute as a Christmas button is this darling cottage in Rottingdean, just a few miles along the coast east of Brighton. The colourful garden and courtyard are a joy for any buyer who loves to potter, while inside is a cosy treat with parquet floors, chunky beams and an open fire in the living room. Worktops in cherry red offer a pop of colour in

the refitted kitchen, the master bedroom has a smart new en suite bathroom, and the second bedroom has a guest shower. Through King & Chasemore.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangertetbury

Homes & Property Online homesandproperty.co.uk with

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/buyeastend

£999,665: a four-bedroom house at Vence, Alpes-Maritimes in Provence

Visit homesand property.co.uk/vence

SEE US EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE NEXT WEEKDON’T miss our special online Christmas edition on December 18 with end-of-year new homes bargains, Spotlight on Covent Garden, Boxing Day homeware sales news and the indoor blooms that burst open for the festivities. Find us at homesandproperty.co.uk

HOMES & PROPERTY RETURNS ON JANUARY 8, 2014

EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 3

Santa and Strictly set up camp at Windsor Castle

THE Queen’s Windsor Estate has been transformed into a magical festive retreat. Windsor Great Park and Windsor Castle Home Park are part of the 6,400-hectare estate, and in keeping with the Christmas spirit, the magnificent grounds now also provide a base for Father Christmas’s new home — LaplandUK.

Visitors can make toys with the elves, decorate gingerbread with Mother Christmas and skate on the ice rink. Of course, Santa’s “home” would not be complete without huskies, reindeer and also their herders, seen below with a special sentry. Stars including Rochelle Humes, above, from girl band The Saturdays, singer Elaine Page and comedian Rufus Hound have filmed there for the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special, which is due to be broadcast on Christmas Day.

Stir it up at the Bake Off country house

Stars will be tsars in new Celebrity BB

MILEY CYRUS has splashed out £15,000 on a giant tepee for her garden.

The Wrecking Ball singer, right, installed the luxurious tent, which can sleep four, as a temporary guesthouse during her 21st birthday celebrations last month. However, she loves the pop-up pad so much that she plans to make it a permanent fixture.

The tepee is one of the wackier features of Cyrus’s five-bedroom Los Angeles property, below. Despite the twerking star’s wild-child reputation, her homeware tastes are somewhat refined. She has opted for simple decor using a palette of cream, beige and brown.

Tepee or not tepee? Well, if it twerks for Miley. . .

By Amira Hashish

Homes & PropertyNewshomesandproperty.co.uk with

MARY BERRY and Paul Hollywood, left, will share their top tips for making the ultimate Christmas pudding during The Great British Bake Off festive special.

Anyone wanting to hone their cookery skills in time for the family gathering may also find inspiration at Harptree Court, the grand country house in Somerset where the past two series of the BBC2 hit were filmed. Owners Linda and Charles Hill open four of their bedrooms to guests and rent out the treehouse and yurt in the grounds (harptreecourt.co.uk). If the weather turns very chilly, just huddle close to the Aga in the cosy kitchen.

THE new series of Celebrity Big Brother, hosted by Emma Willis and Rylan Clark, right, will start on January 3, and the show’s famous house in Borehamwood has had a flashy, Russian-themed makeover for the purpose.

The Moscow-in-Hertfordshire look is created with a grand fireplace, celebrity portraits, sumptuous chairs and sofas, and glittering chandeliers.

The house is built on top of Elstree Studios’ old underwater stage, where scenes in The Dam Busters and Moby Dick were filmed. But who will be calling it home next year?

Contestants are rumoured to include model Katie Price, Nancy Dell’Olio, comic Jim Davidson and The Apprentice’s Katie Hopkins.

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Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews

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4 WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with

On the streets

London’s fashionable food markets are revitalising forgotten areas and proving irresistible to home buyers who love street café society, says David Spittles

LONDON’S street markets have been reborn with a passion, fuelling innovative gastron-omy and providing all things delicious. So strong has been

the appeal of new foodie, flea and farmers’ markets that many are expanding and new ones are launch-ing, waking up forgotten areas, shaking up retail parades, revitalising London neighbourhoods and recreating communities.

Small and friendly independent shops and street stalls that provide for everyday needs encourage people to stay local and help to promote village-like living and safer communities. All this colour is crucial for welcoming a home buyer.

It is happening everywhere, from Bloomsbury to Belgravia, Marylebone and Mayfair, South Kensington and the Square Mile, Knightsbridge and Notting Hill.

Developers and the aristocratic land-lords of our great estates are working with council planners to create these important microzones with better streetscaping and pedestrian-friendly spaces.

HANG OUT IN TYBURNIAPortman Estate is focusing on “Tyburnia”, a 110-acre enclave just north of Oxford Street. This reborn neighbourhood offers alfresco dining amid the boutiques and art galleries, above which are smart new apart-ments, including those at 64 Seymour Street. Prices from £1.7 million. Contact CBRE on 020 7182 2477.

UNDERNEATH THE ARCHESIn edgier parts of town, derelict railway arches are being transformed into trendy shopping hubs, with new homes alongside, as at Chatham Place in Hackney, where developer Manhattan Loft Corporation is building a new “fashion and lifestyle quarter”.

The £100 million project will have retail space for local and international brands, a café, restaurant, design studios and a “stitching academy” that builds on the area’s rag-trade roots, including local workshops for top brands Aquascutum and Pringle. Funky, light-filled buildings aim to “capture the creative energy of Hackney and give local residents a sense of pride in their built environ-ment”, says architect David Adjaye.

Penthouses at Textile Building, a factory conversion that is part of this emerging neighbourhood, will be released early next year. Call estate agent Currell on 020 3004 4975 for details.

SHOREDITCH VILLAGEPlanners gave the green light last week to Shoreditch Village, an innovative scheme to be built below a refurbished railway viaduct. It will have a covered

market with nine restaurants and cafés, loft-style offices, a hotel and apart-ments, and link into the Shoreditch Triangle cluster of design stores and showrooms.

“It mends a broken part of the city by restoring lost connections across the neighbourhood and creating new public space enlivened by a mix of uses,” says architect Jonathan Ellis-Miller.

Cheaper new homes are on offer close to the giant Westfield shopping malls at Shepherd’s Bush and Stratford, and the new one being built in Croy-don, while at the heart of a new 85-acre district known as Wembley City is the capital’s first designer outlet with more than 80 shops, open seven days a week. Stadium Reach, a new residential scheme, has two-bedroom flats priced from £264,500. Call Network Living on 0844 809 9148.

POSH AND SHABBY CHICWith regeneration spreading inexora-bly across the capital, it seems every up-and-coming area and fashionable district has a market of some sort — posh ones as well as shabby chic.

London Farmers’ Markets runs more than 20 certified markets, up from a handful five years ago, and says the number is steadily rising, with loca-tions spanning Balham and Brixton, Parliament Hill, Parsons Green and Pimlico Road.

“Street markets are a tell-tale sign of gentrification and can really boost property values,” says Iain Currie of Islington estate agent Thomson Currie. The firm has opened a new branch in Smithfield where there is a proposal to transform the old trade market halls into a new artisan food and retail quarter.

“Years ago, there were only a few —Portobello, Covent Garden and Camden plus some rougher working-

class street markets — but London is now more like Paris, where neighbour-hoods have a distinct character and identity, with specialist markets that serve locals as well as tourists.”

Some are spontaneous pop-ups — as at Maltby Street, Bermondsey — while others are revitalised ancient markets such as Borough, Spitalfields and Greenwich. Regeneration is spawning new ones too, such as Hallsville Quar-ter, Canning Town, a 15-acre zone with a new town centre next to Custom House DLR, which will be a Crossrail station. Eddington Court, the first phase of 1,130 homes, has been unveiled. Prices from £275,000. Call Knight Frank on 020 7718 5202.

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Hot buys: the farmers’ and artisans’ Sunday market in Moxon Street, Marylebone, above, is one of a new wave of markets across London’s prime central districts. Above right, an artisan food market under railway arches in Bermondsey

Makeover: after revitalisation of Borough and Spitalfields markets, Smithfield is set to become an artisan food centre

Lifestyle quarter: in Hackney, Chatham Place is part of a £100 million project, part designed by David Adjaye (below)

Jamon everybody: cured Spanish ham at Maltby Street Market

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£1.7 million: apartments at 64 Seymour Street in “Tyburnia”

EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 5

Homes & PropertyNew homeshomesandproperty.co.uk with

where you all want to liveLUXURY LOVES LUXURYSavills reports a strong link between luxury shops and luxury property, with “concentric circles of value” rippling out from the heart of a select shopping area, with the inner rings, or streets, the more expensive.

London’s most expensive homes are in the SW7 postcode, which extends from near Harrods in Knightsbridge to South Kensington. Next in the league table is the Mayfair pocket of W1 (Bond Street) followed by SW3 (King’s Road) and W8 (around Kensington High Street).

VICTORIA RULESTraditionally, Victoria and the adjoin-ing Westminster parliamentary quarter

have trailed other parts of SW1 because of the dearth of upmarket shops but property values are now soaring as the retail scene improves. As well as the new Cardinal Place precinct, Burberry, Jimmy Choo and Tom Ford have landed in the area. Nova, with 170 apartments and shops, replaces a cluster of drab concrete office blocks, forming a five-acre site near Buckingham Palace. Prices start at £625,000 for a studio. Call 020 7024 3889.

BLOOMING COLUMBIA ROADDelightful Columbia Road, a street of mainly Victorian shops and terraces that is transformed into an oasis of foliage and blooms with the famous

flower market every Sunday, has caused ripples along Bethnal Green Road, towards cool Redchurch Street, lined with eateries, galleries and fash-ion boutiques. Property values here exceed £1,000 a square foot, which was unthinkable even a couple of years ago. Redchurch Lofts is a new scheme of nine apartments priced from £799,500. Call Fyfe McDade on 020 7613 4044.

Lordship Lane in East Dulwich is so hot that it is usurping Dulwich Village, its prosperous but unexciting neigh-bour. The lively thoroughfare is awash with new bars, gastropubs, restau-rants, delis and organic food suppliers used by younger middle -c lass

residents, mainly teachers and public-sector workers, actors and artisans priced out of similar hubs north and west of the river.

BOROUGH IS BESTSimilarly, Bermondsey Street, SE1, is giving Borough Market a run for its money as a fashionable hangout and place to live.

Buildings range from Georgian to modern, mainly small scale, and the street boasts a long-standing commu-nity of live-workers and artists.

White Cube gallery, a recent arrival, has upped the street’s status. Behind the street frontages are deceptively big courtyards, where light-industrial

premises are now being redeveloped into apartments and loft offices.

A park lining part of the street has been refurbished, including tennis courts, and in recent times, three fash-ion boutiques, a trendy hairdresser’s and several noted bar-restaurants have opened. Six estate agents now compete for business.

Nearby Maltby Street used to be a slightly off-pitch commercial patch but is now a coveted cheaper address. Lassco, the architectural salvage firm, has a yard there and is collaborating with traders to present their wares, while L&Q is building a development of 154 apart-ments, a mix of private sale and shared ownership. Call 0844 406 9000.

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From £275,000: Hallsville Quarter is part of the major regeneration project at the heart of Canning Town. The first phase, Eddington Court, includes 1,130 homes. Call Knight Frank on 020 7718 5202

£625,000: for a studio flat at Nova, left, near Buckingham Palace. Call 020 7024 3889

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6 WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Commuting homesandproperty.co.uk with

Country house conundrumHouses in towns are cheaper but countryside homes have more space, says Ruth Bloomfield

WHAT YOUR CASH BUYS IN TOWN AND OUT

DESPITE being Streatham born and bred, and a lover of the buzz and whirl of city life, Francesca De Franco

joined the legions of Londoners living in the Home Counties.

She and her expanding family moved from the capital two years ago in search of the home makers’ trinity: good-value property, better schools and a convivial community life.

Surrey was as far as she would go from the city, so Francesca, 34, her husband Matthew Collom, 36, who works for a financial website in the Square Mile, and their children Sofia, five, and twins Maria and Gabriella, two, went for Banstead.

“Being in the middle of nowhere wasn’t for me. Nature is nice for a week’s holiday but not full time,” says Francesca, founder of parenting website theparentsocial.com.

“I wouldn’t want to be on my own with three young children and with Matthew at work and nobody around me for miles.”

Francesca and her family left London in August 2011, selling a two-bedroom cottage in Streatham and buying a five-bedroom, detached Twenties house in Banstead for £620,000. “Surrey is not exactly cheap but if we had tried to buy a house like this even in Streatham it would probably have cost £1 million,” says Francesca.

For her, the choice of a town has paid off. There is an Ofsted-rated “excellent” primary school, quality shops and children’s clubs within walking distance, and, door to door, the journey to London is less than an hour. There are also plenty of pubs, restaurants and cafés.

“I could never live anywhere where I had to drive for 20 miles to do anything, or get in the car for a pint of milk,” adds Francesca.

Moving out of London is a huge

decision and it is inevitably followed by the challenge of deciding whether to opt for one of the small towns around the capital, or to plunge deep into countryside living.

The decision is not only about lifestyle — at the end of the day it is about money, too. Surprisingly, a remote country house is more expensive than one in a county town.

Exclusive research from Savills on the town vs country price differential finds a 25 per cent premium on homes in the middle of nowhere. They cost an average £370,485 while in the Home Counties you pay an average £301,247. Nowhere is this “privacy premium” more marked than in West Sussex, where a home in a town will cost an average £259,123, while a rural property averages £361,665, a difference of 39.6 per cent.

The only anomaly is in Buckinghamshire, where there is almost nothing to choose between the price of urban homes, at an average £360,873, and country houses, at £362,964. This, experts believe, is thanks to the influence of Beaconsfield, named by Lloyds Bank as the most expensive market town in Britain, with almost exclusively wide avenues of large homes — average property price £861,371. The value of homes in this affluent town skews the figures for the entire county.

A key reason rural prices are so much higher is that country houses are generally larger than those in towns and have bigger gardens with, possibly, paddocks and outbuildings.

Savills calculates that prime properties in the semi-rural/rural locations — defined as the top five per cent most expensive in each region — are on average 40 per cent larger than prime urban properties.

Sally Randall and her husband Michael Reynolds went for a full-on country experience after more than

20 years in London. Sally, 49, a PR consultant for Hobbs Parker estate agents, and Michael, 51, who works in IT and still commutes to work in London, left their terrace in Crystal Palace for a converted oast house outside the village of Woodchurch, Kent, in 2005.

They have two children, Jay, 17, and Hope, 11, and went to Kent for the grammar schools, choosing a

THE COST OF ISOLATION

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE: urban £360,873, rural £362,964 (rural premium is 0.6 per cent). ESSEX: urban £235,718, rural £295,065 (rural premium is 25.2 per cent)WEST SUSSEX: urban £259,123, rural £361,665 (rural premium is 39.6 per cent.KENT: urban £226,497, rural £306,188 (rural premium is 35.2 per cent) HERTFORDSHIRE: urban £319,493, rural £443,954 (rural premium is 39 per cent.SURREY: urban £405,776, rural £453,076 (rural premium is 11.7 per cent) HOME COUNTIES AVERAGE: urban £301,247, rural £370,485 (rural premium is 25.2 per cent)

£600,000TOWN: a four-bedroom, period end-of-terrace house in the centre of Weybridge, Surrey. South-facing gardens and one mile’s walk from the station. The guide price is £595,000 (johndwood.co.uk).

COUNTRY: Cameo Cottage, a Grade II-listed property in the village of Purleigh, Essex. The cottage, above, dating from 1778, is full of listed features and is surrounded by open country. Nearest station is North Fambridge, 3.7 miles away. The property is on the market at £600,000. (hetheringtons.co.uk).

£800,000TOWN: Wodeland Avenue, Guildford. A three-bedroom, period semi-detached house, below right, in a great location 500 yards from the high street. The garden has a terrace and barbecue area and the price is £795,000 (savills.co.uk).

COUNTRY: Philpots, a Grade II-listed, three-bedroom detached house dating from the 16th century is set on the outskirts of the village of Hambledon, Surrey. Witley station is 1.6 miles away. Philpots is on the market at £800,000 (struttandparker.com).

£1 MILLIONTOWN: Wisteria Cottage, Esher,Surrey. A 17th-century terrace cottage, below, with plenty of original features. The property has four bedrooms and a 150ft back garden with a detached office annexe. The cottage is within an easy walk of the station and town centre and is on the market for £995,000. (johndwood.co.uk).

COUNTRY: Kentwater House, Cowden, Kent. A Grade II-listed detached house, pictured above right, dating from the 16th century with original beams and fireplaces. There are five bedrooms, and views over the High Weald from the 1.3-acre garden. Guide price £995,000 (jackson-stops.co.uk).

£995,000: four-bedroom Wisteria Cottage, in Esher, Surrey, has a 150ft garden. Through John D Wood.

homesandproperty.co.uk/wisteria

rural home partly because they fell in love with the property. They also felt that if they were going to quit the city, they might as well “do it properly”. They sold their London home for £560,000 and their new property cost just over £700,000. Sally works from home but says she does not feel lonely, though she admits there are times that “it gets to 4pm and I realise I’ve not spoken to another adult all day. I think I am just one of those people who does okay on their own.”

WORTH THE COMMUTESally made friends at the school gates when the children were at the primary in the nearest village, and says the locals are friendly. Although it is annoying having to drive to the village shop — run by another ex-Londoner — if they run out of milk or want a newspaper, she made sure before they moved that supermarkets would deliver to the house and that it was served by broadband.

“You do need to get a lot more efficient about planning your life, and you have to work harder on your social life than you would in a town, but it was worth it,” says Sally. “When we saw the house we just said, ‘Wow’, and we have got a great school for the kids and a really good life. It was worth the commute.”

£600,000: this cottage in Purleigh, Essex, is surrounded by open country. Through Hetheringtons (hetheringtons.co.uk)

From Streatham to Banstead: Francesca De Franco with daughters Sofia, five, and two-year-old twins Maria and Gabriella

£795,000: a three-bedroom period semi-detached house in Wodeland Avenue, close to the high street in Guildford, Surrey, is available to buy through Savills.

Guide price £995,000: five-bedroom Kentwater House, Cowden, Kent, has original fireplaces, views over the High Weald and a 1.3-acre garden. Through Jackson-Stops & Staff.

homesand property.co.uk/cowden

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EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 7

Plug into Battersea at a fraction of the cost

Young Londoners who find the power station prices a shock can buy nearby and enjoy the same lifestyle, says Ruth Bloomfield

Homes & PropertyAffordable homeshomesandproperty.co.uk with

THE Battersea Power Station redevelopment has been the year’s most exciting property launch, attracting buyers from around the

world who are keen to own a slice of an iconic London scheme.

However, first-time buyers who can’t afford up to £1,200 a square foot to move into this emerging area can instead opt for a shared-ownership flat less than half a mile away, where A2Dominion New Homes (a2dominion.co.uk/newhomes) is selling 32 apart-ments on Ascalon Street.

A 55 per cent share of a one-bedroom flat starts at £149,875, and it is esti-mated that average monthly costs, including mortgage, rent and service charge, would be around £1,174 per

month. Three-bedroom flats start at £207,625 for a 55 per cent share, and buyers will need to budget to spend about £1,580 a month.

The homes will be ready to move into in January and the prime location means residents will be able to take advantage of all the new shops, bars, restaurants, entertainment and open space planned as part of the power station development.

To the east of the site lies the other massive regeneration scheme currently under way in south-west London — Nine Elms, which will include thou-sands of homes, plus shops, bars and restaurants, and a redeveloped New Covent Garden Market.

GREAT TRANSPORT LINKSThe Ascalon Street scheme already passes the green space test with flying colours, since Battersea Park is half a mile away. It is just off Battersea Park Road, which means there are local

pubs and useful — although not desper-ately exciting — shops on the doorstep. And until the new Battersea Power Station Tube link is complete in about 2019, there is a choice of nearby train stations.

Queenstown Road and Battersea Park London Overground stations are both within easy walking distance. Journeys

to Victoria take about five minutes, and since it is only a mile and a half away it would be healthier, physically and financially, simply to walk. Vauxhall is also a mile and a half away.

HOT PROPERTYAll developments have a downside and the issue to consider here is that the

Ascalon Street site backs on to railway lines. Rosie Nesbitt, sales and market-ing director at A2Dominion New Homes, says the block has been designed with that in mind, in that none of the flats have windows over-looking the tracks, and the building has been heavily insulated to protect resi-dents against noise.

“Ultimately, the development is in central London and it is not that unusual to be near to a railway line,” she says. “The upside is being able to buy an affordable home in an area where the new homes being built and sold privately are very expensive. It is right in the middle of a massive hub of regeneration, and this scheme gives people the chance to get on to the property ladder of a hot area.

“All these new housing schemes will have a lot of amenities built in and are there to be used by everyone for shop-ping and leisure — and the transport links are just great.”

From £149,875: for a 55 per cent share of a one-bedroom apartment at the Ascalon Street scheme, Wandsworth SW8, by A2Dominion New Homes

Powering ahead: Ascalon Street is only half a mile from the new shops, bars and restaurants of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment

8 WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Homes abroad homesandproperty.co.uk with

Buying in Germany — let it be HamburgNow cultured and smart, the seedy city of The Beatles’ early days is long gone, says Cathy Hawker

BEATLES-PLATZ in the centre of Hamburg is a circular plaza paved black to look like a vinyl record and edged by statues of the Fab Four. Built

in 2008 it commemorates the two years from 1960 when the group, then little-known, were gigging in local bars, working up to their first recording.

The plaza is in the St Pauli area of Germany’s second city, next to the infamous Reeperbahn red-light area. In 1960 the area was seedy and sometimes dangerous. Paul McCartney’s father, hearing its reputation, had to be per-suaded to let his son leave Liverpool.

What a difference 50 years makes. St Pauli has tidied itself up and Hamburg’s reputation has changed almost as dramatically as did the band’s fortunes. Cultured, sophisticated and handsome, Hamburg is now Germany’s richest city with some of the country’s highest property prices.

MODERN HAMBURGAlways a wealthy city thanks to its thriving port — Europe’s second largest — Hamburg’s prime areas, with classical mansions around the five-mile Alster Lake, now have no crime-ridden areas to detract. International companies including Airbus and Unilever have made their headquarters in Hamburg, it’s a media hub and academic centre, and it’s a green city, too. Over 40 per cent is made up of parks and lakes and it regularly ranks among the world’s top 20 most liveable cities.

Ben Schaul, who develops listed buildings in Berlin, lived in Notting Hill for 14 years before choosing to live with his Swedish wife in Hamburg. They bought a 1,650sq ft, two-bedroom apartment at Sophienterrassen, a development on the banks of Alster Lake, an artificial lake formed by damming the river Alster to make an important recreational area.

“The Alster is the pulse of the City, rather like Hyde Park in London,” says Ben, in his thirties. “People jog, walk and cycle around it, year-round. Living here is like living in the countryside, yet we are in the city centre. Berlin is funky and edgy while Hamburg is more polite and settled. Germans all agree that Hamburg and Munich are our most beautiful cities.”

DESIGN BY LAGERFELD Sophienterrassen is on Harvestehuder Weg, Hamburg’s most prestigious address where German company Frankonia Eurobau is developing a former military building in private parkland. On completion there will be 105 one- to four-bedroom apartments of 430 to 4,300 square feet, priced from £209,400. Twenty-four com-pleted four-storey townhouses start from £1,675,000 and five substantial Alster villas are £2.5 million.

“Hamburg is a rich city but under-stated,” says Hilke Brandig-Rettig of Frankonia. “Our classic design reflects

the city’s elegant architecture. So far over 50 properties have been sold to buyers from China, Germany, Europe, Russia and the Middle East.”

These well-built homes with striking neoclassical and art nouveau architec-ture have triple glazing for the harsh winters, high ceilings and top-quality bathrooms and kitchens. There’s underground parking, a spa, gym and a full-time concierge. Fashion guru Karl Lagerfeld, who like German Chancellor Angela Merkel comes from Hamburg, has designed some communal areas.

In the same street Cluttons Resorts is selling the last five of 57 flats, at Har-vestehuder Weg 36. The one- and two-bedroom homes feature high ceilings and share a gym and underground parking. Prices start at £1.4 million.

Philip Bonhoeffer, MD of estate agents Engel & Völkers Hamburg, says average prices in the city are £300 per square foot with the best locations such as Harvestehuder and Winterhude up to four times higher. Up-and-coming areas where buyers can find value include Schanze and Barmbek-Süd. Highest current demand is for two- to four-room flats for investment or per-sonal use priced up to £418,800.

Average rental market yields are three to 4.5 per cent, says Bonhoeffer. “The city is growing every year due to the stronger economy and high attractive-ness, especially to younger people. To cover current growing demand Hamburg needs another 6,000 new apartments every year.”

CONTACTS

Sophienterrassen: sophien terrassen.de (+ 49 40 226 32 890)

Cluttons Resorts: cluttonsresorts.com (020 7584 3050)

Engel & Völkers: engelvoelkers.com (+ 49 40 36 13 1359)

Time out: bars in Alsterarkaden, above, a luxury shopping arcade in the shadow of Hamburg’s city hall. Left, the view from St Michael’s, the German city’s best-known church

From £209,400: Sophienterrassen on prestigious Harvestehuder Weg has flats, townhouses and villas beside Alster Lake.

£541,000: for a renovated three-bedroom house, left, with annexe, garden and garage close to Hamburg Golf Club. Through Engel & Volkers

EUROPE’S largest inner-city development is halfway through its 23-year build on a 157-acre waterfront site in Hamburg. HafenCity — Harbour City — above, has many similarities to London’s Docklands project with its red-brick Victorian warehouses but its size and central location, less than half a mile from the city hall, is unique. On completion in 2025 it will increase the size of Hamburg by 40 per cent.

The plan is for 50 per cent workspace, 30 per cent residential and 20 per cent devoted to culture, leisure, retail and education. It aims to accommodate 45,000 workers and 12,000 residents.

Already 450 companies have moved in, employing 9,000 workers. However, the building which has received most news coverage is the Elbphilharmonie, the modern glass and red-brick concert hall. Designed by Tate Modern architects Herzog & de Meuron, it is set to become Hamburg’s new landmark.

With a 2,150-seat auditorium, a hotel and 45 apartments, the building was initially set to open in 2010 but delays and legal disputes have pushed the date back to 2016.

GERMANY’S DOCKLANDS, WITH A MUSIC VENUE BY TATE MAESTROS

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AT 38, Philippa Prinsloo is the youngest ever design manager for homeware at John Lewis, heading a team of 15 at its Victoria

HQ, doing all the in-house design from fabrics and furniture to ceramics and wrapping paper. Born in South Africa, Prinsloo came to the UK at the age of two and grew up near Manchester. She has an MA in textiles from the RCA, and previously worked as a designer for Habitat.

WHERE I’VE LIVEDAs a student in 1999 I lived in a little place on St John Street in Clerkenwell, worked in a local café and fell in love with Smithfield and London markets. Then I found a small Thames Water Board canal cottage in Islington, very close to the weir — my tiny paradise. But I love new areas so I went to Limehouse and discovered Canary Wharf — crazily busy in the week but really peaceful at weekends. I’ve been in a flat in Cheshire Street in Shoreditch for three years now, and I love it. It is trendy but you still feel it’s also a community.

WHERE I SHOPI love my cushions made up from original West African waxed fabrics from the owner of Darkroom WC1 design boutique’s own collection. My Eleanor Pritchard throw is so cosy for winter — these low-key, modern designs are woven in small UK mills.

I’ve heard Redchurch Street called the “East End Bond Street”. It’s got smart boutiques, high street names and local traders, all mixed up. You buy hardware just because it’s chic at Labour and Wait, Tracey Neuls has a little showroom for her amazing shoes, and at the back of Hostem men’s store are Santa Novella perfumes from Florence. Aussie Aesop has divine soaps and lotions.

Nearby, Columbia Road Sunday flower market is loaded with berries and greenery right now. People don’t seem to know about its specialist shops, from wall stickers at Supernice to cut-price white china at Pot Luck and African tribal art at Far Global. And the market’s actually open on Wednesdays this month, with a special Saturday on December 21 to

PHILIPPA PRINSLOOHOMEWARE DESIGN MANAGER AT JOHN LEWIS

ignMy designMyMy dedesigigignnBy Barbara Chandler

A favourite for browsing: in the West End, Prinsloo loves Margaret Howell’s Wigmore Street shop for elegant retro homeware like these Ercol “reissue” chairs

Redchurch St: for Santa Novella scents

8pm. Brick Lane is another Sunday must. Try Close-Up for cool films on DVD — their screenings start again in a new cinema in January. And Chez Elles is a Parisian-style “bistroquet”. There’s a lively trio of three brothers

running Taj Stores, a huge Asian store in the same family since 1939 — it’s like shopping for cookware and soaps in an Indian market. Beach London has prints by very new illustrators and artists, and Vintage Bean has the best coffee ever. Both are in Cheshire Street.

In the West End, I love Margaret Howell’s elegant retro homewares at her shop at 34 Wigmore Street. Lesley Jackson’s new book on Ercol has just been launched there.

CHRISTMAS MUST-DOCarols at St Paul’s on Christmas Eve — wrap up, grab a hot drink, and go stand in the queue. At home, I overdose on lights and candles, lining my windowsills and mantelpiece.

WHERE I EAT OUTI get design inspiration from London restaurants such as Maison Trois Garçons, with its flamboyant tiled N

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table tops, school-type metal chairs, and generally eccentric mishmash of design and food, and Burro e Salvia, where the lighting looks like their homemade pasta (both are in Redchurch Street). Dishoom was done by interior designer Russell Sage as an Art Deco take on Bombay and Persia. For Indian, I love Tayyabs in Whitechapel — go before 6pm to avoid the queues. Nopi in Soho is all spicy and Middle Eastern, with shiny brass tables.

A pub? The Carpenter’s Arms in Cheshire Street, linking Brick Lane with Bethnal Green — it’s so cosy, warm and British. Their Sunday lunch has won an award.

BUYING FOR THE HOMEI’m still influenced hugely by my family in South Africa. My giant crochet pendant is from Moonbasket in Cape Town, started by a designer and an artist to employ local women. A new marble top has completely updated my old wooden chest of drawers. Six classic Duralex glass tumblers for £8 in the “icons” range at John Lewis were a bargain and they’re two and a half times as strong as ordinary glass. Now I’m craving a genuinely retro Kaymet modern metal trolley, made in Bermondsey since the Sixties.

FAVOURITE GALLERIESI still remember Sensation at the Royal Academy in 1997. It was so new and so shocking with that 14ft shark by Damien Hirst in a big clear tank. Now I love Gallery Libby Sellers in Berners Street for design at the cutting edge. Pick Me Up is a cool graphic art festival at Somerset House (running next year from May 23 to April 5). The Victoria Miro Gallery in N1 shows stunning art, but you need to climb a ladder to the first floor. I could spend hours in the Design Museum and love its current show, Extraordinary Stories about Ordinary Things.

MY TOP DESIGN TIPSDon’t fight your room. If it’s dark, simply play that up and make it cosy. Work with what you have. Start with the walls, then floors, then ceiling and then lighting, and fill in from there. Test paint on walls for at least 24 hours, it will change with the light. I’m currently torn between Farrow & Ball’s Mole’s Breath, Charleston Grey, Hague Blue and Down Pipe.

DESIGNERS TO WATCHNatalie Radcliffe won a John Lewis award for textiles at this year’s New Designers. Another winner, Oliver Hrubiak, now has his Finn chair and side table on sale. I’m also particularly impressed by designers from Leeds and Buckinghamshire Universities, and I love handwoven textiles by Eleanor Pritchard. She is fantastic, and she graduated with me.

Christmas must-do: wrap up warm for Christmas Eve carols at St Paul’s. At home, line windowsills with lights and candles

East London’s “Bond Street”: In Redchurch Street people buy homeware at Labour and Wait, “just because it’s chic”

Graphic choice: Prinsloo loves Eleanor Pritchard textiles like this blanket in donkey brown wool with duck egg accents, which references radio broadcasting and Morse code (£230)

Design Museum: its latest show, Extraordinary Stories about Ordinary Things, includes the tale behind the Boby Trolley, below.Designed by Joe Colombo in 1964, it made storage both trendy and versatile

Influences: Philippa Prinsloo finds inspiration at every turn in her mission to make John Lewis a design destination

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By Amira Hashish

Steal the styleTHE HOUSE OF ST BARNABASSOHO’S NEW ÜBER-COOL PRIVATE MEMBERS CLUB

Homes & Property Design homesandpropertyhomesandproperty

AT THE House of St Barnabas, a new private club in Soho Square, members can sip cocktails while helping the homeless. Club profits go to

the House of St Barnabas charity, which aims to break the cycle of homelessness by getting people back into work through its employment academy.

Club founders include photographer Rankin, DJ/broadcasters Gilles Peterson and Rob da Bank, and Scottish actor Brian Cox. It stands on the corner of Greek Street in the charity’s HQ, a beautifully restored, Grade I-listed Georgian building with an abundance of rococo froth.

The capital’s latest private members club is a hit with the über-cool. Jarvis Cocker hosted a live edition of his BBC Radio 6 Music show there. Journalist Miranda Sawyer chaired a discussion on social media with What I Wore Today website founder Poppy Dinsey and col-umnist Suzanne Moore. Musician and composer Richard Strange leads regular talks in the original chapel, and recent guests include Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi and Young British Artist Gavin Turk. The club’s permanent collection of artworks includes donations from Martin Creed, Tracey Emin, Jeremy Deller, Yinka Shonibare and Chris Levine.

The recent refurbishment was by archi-tect and designer Grainne Weber (gwdesign.ie) who aimed for a home from home, mixing the classical and contem-porary to reflect a luxurious yet ethical ethos. The secluded outdoor space is an

oasis, worked on by Hannah Gardner, head gardener at Garsington Manor near Oxford, with Sara Ingrams. We were the first through the doors of this dazzling destination to discover its style secrets... and steal some for a cosy winter home.

THE BARDeep red walls create a warm feeling, enhanced by velvet banquettes, leather tub chairs and wool seating. Warm metals are used in light fittings and the bar itself is big and beautiful.Get the look: the bar and tables are from Benchmark. Great finds at benchmark-furniture.com include a Puck side table by Simen Aarseth, from £195, in timber or lacquered finishes with metal spun

tops. Banquettes and chairs are from John O’Connell Furniture (jocfurniture.com). The Koh low stool, price on application, has a warm tartan touch. Go to Ochre lighting for the Eucalyptus painted brass and pewter chandelier (poa, ochre.net). Warm up walls with Colortrend’s Dining Room Red paint (from £17.12 a litre at colortrend.ie). The rug is from Orientalist in Highgate Road, Kentish Town.

THE RESTAURANTCosmopolitan eatery Benugo are partners in the project and run the kitchen. Founder Ben Warner took great care over colour scheme and comfort.Get the look: try posters. Art curator Katie Heller sourced fun Mills & Boon pop art paintings by The Connor Brothers from Pertwee, Anderson & Gold (from £150, pertweeandersongold.com). The Connor Brothers’ playful Shakespeare canvases also hang in the restaurant. Get more budget-friendly Zoe Trap canvases from Red Bubble (£46.50, redbubble.com). The Shakespeare Hard Hat Poster is just £1 from the Globe’s online store (shakespeares-globe.com). Frame a book or vinyl disc in Play and Display frames, £99 for three at johnlewis.com. Enhance the retro theme with MrSmith Studio for Calligaris Basil chairs (from £110 at heals.co.uk) or the Bartolomew chair in Lattice by Galapagos (£625, notonthehighstreet.com).

Sitting pretty: buttoned velvet tub chair in Currant, £445 from Oliver Bonas (oliverbonas.com)

Join our club: DJ Rob da Bank, far left and musician Richard Strange, both House of St Barnabas founding members, with Sandra Schembri, chief executive of the homelessness charity which benefits from club profits

Listed beauty: opulent Georgian style, right, at the superbly restored House of St Barnabas

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EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 15

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THE MONRO ROOMDark blue panelling broken up with strik-ing artwork makes this a cosy, relaxing space. Subdued lighting and sleek furni-ture add softness. Dark walls in dedi-cated rooms at home, such as TV rooms or studies, instantly gives the space its own character, says Weber.Get the look: the lighting, from Astro (astrolighting.co.uk) is stocked at Way-fair (wayfair.co.uk). An art deco-style Amalfi wall light is £32.31. Team it with refurbished antique furniture from The French House (thefrenchhouse.co.uk). Or spice things up with a crimson Lotus chair from Made (£289, made.com). Far-row and Ball’s Drawing Room Blue paint gives a warm effect (farrow-ball.com).

THE SILK ROOMThis Georgian space is the club’s main boardroom, taking its name from origi-nal 19th-century wall coverings. The bold board table is the centrepiece.Get the look: the table was rejuvenated by Woodcraft Joinery (woodcraftjoinery.co.uk). For restored tables visit The Antique Table, from around £1,580 (theantiquetable.co.uk). The wingback chairs are from The French House. Made.com’s Rubens wingback in kelp green by Steuart Padwick is £399 (made.com). Or the gorgeous restored range by UrbanMotifs is available in various fab-rics and patterns from £250 at Etsy.com. At Julian Chichester on Fulham Road ( julianchichester.com) ask about the Bastide Fifties floor lamp.

THE DICKENS ROOM & SOHO ROOMThese bold rooms, made for comforta-ble, unpretentious dining, incorporate bespoke upholstery, monochrome wool-len fabrics with accents of gold, smoked oak joinery with burnished metals and marble, and mirrors to reflect modern light fittings. Get the look: the lighting is from Porta Romana (portaromana.co.uk) and antique mirrors from Rupert Bevan. A large antique silver rococo mirror is £285 at Beau Decor (beau-decor.co.uk). The bespoke banquette is from John O’Connell Furniture (as before). The Drama leather corner sofa from Master Furniture (£1,309, masterfurniture.co.uk) gives a similar style.

THE GARDEN ROOMDelicate, leafy green, garden-themed paper lines the walls. The furniture ranges from Fifties to present day.Get the look: Sanderson’s Woodland Ferns wallpaper is £47 a roll (wallpaper-direct.com). Mix and match chairs, such as Dunelm Mill’s Milan (£99, dunelm-mill.com), a velvet tub chair from Oliver Bonas (£445, oliverbonas.com), Ikea’s Bernhard in Kavat green-yellow (£100, ikea.com) and Orla Kiely’s yellow kitchen chair (£150, orlakiely.com). SAWhomeBK makes retro-style tables, including the Clinton, £548 at etsy.com. A statement piece completes the look. The club’s is a black mirror ball and rope feature by Blue Curry (poa, bluecurry.com).

Relaxed atmosphere: home from home with a green oasis in the heart of town

£965 plus fabric: Tideswell Chair from Whitehead Designs (whiteheaddesigns.com) uses Abraham Moon & Sons tartan

A new leaf: Woodland Ferns wallpaper, £47 a roll from Sanderson’s A Painter’s Garden collection (wallpaperdirect.com)

£285: large antique silver rococo mirror from Beau Decor (beau-decor.co.uk)

Arty eating: the House of St Barnabas restaurant, above. Orla Kiely Stem-print yellow stacking kitchen chair, right, £150. Ikea’s Bernhard chair, far right, £100

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Who needs an inn when the stables look like this?Sarah and Nigel Roberts gambled on a ramshackle block that’s now a rental racing certainty, says Ruth Bloomfield

THE closest most Londoners get to owning outbuildings is having a shed in their back garden. But when Sarah and Nigel Roberts and their

three children moved from Dulwich to a Grade II-listed 17th-century manor house near Winchester in Hampshire, it came along with an acre of grounds and a stable block. Or rather, as full-time mother Sarah puts it, “a virtually derelict stables, with a roof that was caving in, almost beyond repair”.

Nigel, creative director of an advertis-ing agency, decided it required an ambitious plan. With the help of archi-tects AR Design (ardesignstudio.co.uk) the couple reinvented the stables as a contemporary three-bedroom home that cleverly redeploys original features, from the feed troughs to the stable doors.

They ploughed in close to £200,000 — but now have a valuable property and a rental investment.

Like many families, the Robertses had long discussed moving out of London but it was not until their elder son, Louis, now 14, was due to start at secondary school that the decision

took on a now-or-never sense of urgency.

HOME TO A NATIONAL WINNERIn July 2009 they sold their London Edwardian home and the family — the younger members are Aimee, 12, and Cody, nine — rented a house in Win-chester while they searched for a year, when they eventually found the manor. It took another year to renovate the main house, then last summer they turned their attention to the stables.

They discovered the building, also listed, has an interesting racing history. The stables were the home of thorough-bred racehorse Lovely Cottage, trained by Tommy Rayson, who lived in the manor house. In 1946 the horse made the journey to Aintree and returned to Winchester a Grand National winner.

Planning permission to convert the stables into a house was granted on condition that the single-storey brick-and-flint building’s original features be preserved. Architect Andy Ramus’s scheme had to work around a series of heavy wooden partitions — each topped with a metal grille — that had separated Rayson’s string of horses. Ramus’s

solution was to design a linear layout for the long, slim building, using the footprint of each of the former stables, the tack room and the feed room as individual rooms.

The partitions were sandblasted to reveal the original wood and metal along with the dents and scrapes from the horses’ hooves, bringing history and texture to the rooms of white rendered walls and pale polished

concrete floor. The partitions did not reach fully to the ceiling so toughened glass has been used to fill in the gaps and soundproof the rooms but give an open-plan feel. Clever mirror infills between the grilles makes each space self-contained but retains the original effect.

To add light, two large, ugly doors were replaced with picture windows that throw light into the master

bedroom and hall, while a line of skylights has been punched into the roof.

NAME’S A NOD TO HISTORYThe pared-down, white fitted kitchen is an unobtrusive addition, while the high, beamed ceiling adds light and volume. And when the planners said the original feed troughs had to stay, they became bathroom hand basins. Underfloor heating and added insula-tion keep the building cosy.

Outside the stables look much as they would have done in Rayson’s day. The exterior has been preserved, the slate roof repaired and with a nod to history, the family named the finished home after the Grand National winner — Lovely Cottage. In April, the first ten-ants moved in and the rent is covering the cost of the mortgage, while the cottage has been valued at between £500,000 and £600,000.

“It was a lot of money for us to invest so it was a bit of a gamble, ” says Sarah. “But we didn’t just want to let the stables crumble. Now we will have an income, other people nearby and something ‘lovely’ to look at.”

Light and bright: the simple white kitchen works perfectly with the conversion Warmth: original wood and soft white Main event: the family’s Winchester home came with an acre and outbuildings

Hay there: Aimee, Louis and Cody Roberts behind original metal stable grilles that had to be preserved

They’re all winners: Nigel and Sarah Roberts with their children in the racing stables they converted into a rental property that covers their mortgage

Photographs:: John Lawrence

EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 17

Gardening problems? Email our RHS expert at: gardenproblems @standard.co.uk

Pattie Barron

First deck the halls, then turn inside outMake outdoors as festive as indoors, simply by festooning the garden, patio or balcony with nature’s bounty

Homes & PropertyOutdoorshomesandproperty.co.uk with

1 CREATE a patio table to rival the Christmas dining table. Buy several pots of large-flowered cyclamen in

hot pink, white and scarlet, contrast with silvery senecio or corokia plants, dropping each one, still in its plastic pot, into shiny Panettone tins, silver champagne buckets or galvanised pails. Group together, light up a lantern or three and you have a festive land-scape to be proud of.

2 FOR an even more original display, bring out the tiered cake holder and pack the plates either with fat

fir cones and berries, or small terra-cotta pots of pure white Christmas rose Helleborus niger, interspersing with silvered baubles.

3 LOOK on bare branches of trees and shrubs as an asset — they just beg to be hung with glass birds,

hearts or icicles as well as beribboned hanging tealights. Arches and pergolas, bare of roses, beans or clematis, present ideal frames for festive decora-tions. Real ivy trails or snow-dusted berry garlands (£24.99 for a 180cm

wiring fake berry sprays on to holly, box or bay, and add larger-than-life

berries, too, with round red tree baubles.

5 THE point is to add pizzazz where it counts, such as right outside the front door. Topiary trees just beg

to be dressed in festive finery. As well as tree baubles, creative garden designer Bunny Guinness hangs rusted NOEL letters across her two Portuguese laurels to greet guests. Find rusted letters, £2.50 for 9cm high, £5 for 25cm high, from re-foundobjects.com.

6 BALCONIES that are visible from the street as well from inside the house need to look doubly deco-

rative, from a distance and up close. No reason why you can’t swag the balcony railings as you would the staircase indoors, using fake or real fir, adding a central wreath for good meas-ure. Make a grand statement in that small balcony space by spray painting an outsize plain flowerpot silver or gold, fill with sand, and prod in an extravagant fan of long, straight, scarlet-berried Ilex stems, currently starring at every florist in town.

length, thechelseagardener.com), twisted around the apex of an arch,

look subtle and pretty. Boost the fairy-tale effect by hanging fir cones sprayed silver, in varying lengths, from the apex. Bird houses can be gussied up, too — make miniature wreaths from a twist or two of fir wired into a circle, stud with baby baubles, and pin to the front entrance. Berry circlets, fash-ioned from a carton of cranberries and a spool of fine wire, make decorative and edible delights for the birds.

4 WHITEWASHED builders’ steps make a fine display case, and you can move them to make the best

possible view from the house windows. Range them with uniform terracotta pots of scarlet-berried skimmia or gaultheria, and lightly spray with arti-ficial snow. A can of Snow Spray is £1.99 from flowerhour.co.uk. At ground level, pull together a warm, cheery display of red-berried evergreens. If you have the evergreens but not the berries, no matter. You can cheat by

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Add pizzazz just where it counts, right outside the front door, with topiary trees dressed in festive finery

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18 WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Alison Cork

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Homes & Property Reader promotion homesandproperty.co.uk with

ADD sparkle to your home with this set of four Ambah lanterns. Perfect for the living room or hallway all year round, the set has a hanging height of about 40cm. Its intricate metal hanging bell detail and the silvered interior work beautifully against the vibrant coloured glass.

Culture Vulture is offering readers a 10 per cent discount across its entire range, reducing the set of four Ambah lanterns to just £22.49.

To claim your offer, visit culturevulturedirect.co.uk or call 0844 875 0010 and use code CVDES before December 20.

Bargain news

BRING the capital’s iconic transport logo into your home with a London Underground roundel cushion in soft faux suede, exclusive to welovecushions.co.uk.

These hand-made cushions can be printed with any station name, so you can represent your local area in style. Readers

receive a 15 per cent discount, reducing the starting price to £29.74.

To claim your offer, visit welovecushions.co.uk and use the code Alison before December 19. For more information, call 0845 269 4343. The standard cushion measures 45cm x 45cm, and the jumbo floor version is 90cm x 90cm.

MAXIMISE your space and storage with a made-to-measure sliding, hinge-door or walk-in wardrobe from Bluefield Wardrobes.

The company can find an affordable and effective solution for all areas of the home. Wardrobes come with a 10-year guarantee

and readers benefit from a 20 per cent discount. To book your free design service and to claim your offer, visit bluefield wardrobes.co.uk, email sales@bluefield wardrobes.co.uk or call 0800 610 2020 before January 31.

Logo-tastic Tube cushion

Walk right in, store in style

TREAT someone special to a Select cashmere throw, reduced by 50 per cent, from Alison at Home, or a Superior range cashmere throw with a 35 per cent reduction.

Made from 100 per cent pure cashmere, the Superior throws are just £159.25 each including the discount. Choose from the six winter shades pictured. They are biscuit, cocoa bean, mushroom, silver birch, steel and warm brown. The throws, with fringed edges, come gift-boxed.

Call 0800 472 5533 or visit alisonathome.com/cashmere-clearance and use the code CASH35 before December 18 for guaranteed pre-Christmas delivery. Available only while stock lasts.

Throw your cash at superior cashmere

GALAPAGOS Designs updates Fifties and Sixties German furniture. The Wolf chair, left, for example, teams Parris Wakefield’s ZigZag fabric and virgin wool from British fabric house Camira. Readers get 20 per cent off all chairs in the Parris Wakefield range, making the ZigZag only £556. To claim, email info@galapagosdesigns.com and quote code GPWO before December 25.

Call 07972 129694 or visit galapagos designs.com for more information.

Sixties ZigZag chic

Lured by the bright lights

20 WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

£599,995A ONE-BEDROOM ground-floor flat in Warren Street, W1, handy for Great Portland Street and Warren Street Tubes. Through Foxtons.

homesandproperty.co.uk/warren

£899,000A GEORGIAN conversion flat with two bedrooms in quiet, cobbled Goodge Place, W1. Through EA Shaw.

homesandproperty.co.uk/goodge

£1,375,000THIS two-bedroom flat in Eastcastle Street has a big reception room, an en suite main bedroom and a guest shower. Through Hudsons.

homesandproperty.co.uk/east

£1,299,950A ONE-BEDROOM flat in Newman Street, W1, at the popular West One development in Fitzrovia. Through Life Residential.

homesandproperty.co.uk/newman

SpotlightFitzrovia

Homes & Property Property searching homesandproperty.co.uk with

Smart flats, superb eateries, West End is a stone’s throw and Crossrail is coming

Fitzrovia is that rare thing — a full-on, functioning, central London neighbourhood. Arty types have loved it for ages but the east-west rail link will bring new fans, says Anthea Masey

GRADE I-listed Fitzroy Square is one of London’s finest garden squares. Almost car-free, it is a quiet haven for cyclists, pedes-

trians and residents alike. Its southern and eastern sides were designed by the great neoclassical architect Robert Adam for Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton, towards the end of the 18th century, though the Napoleonic wars delayed the completion of the square for another 30 years.

Famous residents have included the novelist Virginia Woolf and playwright George Bernard Shaw, who both lived at separate times at No 29, Treasure Island author Robert Louis Stevenson, and Victorian prime minister Lord Salisbury.

The Omega Workshops flourished briefly under artist and art critic Roger Fry in the years before the First World War at No 33. Closely aligned to The Bloomsbury Group, the enterprise turned out painted furniture, carpets and textiles by artists such as Duncan Grant and Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell.

Ian McEwan set his 2005 novel Satur-day in the square on the day of the February 2003 march against the war in Iraq. More recently the square was in the news when an alternative school squatted in a house being renovated by film-maker Guy Ritchie.

Fitzroy Square is the architectural pinnacle of the area of London that has become known as Fitzrovia. Bounded by Oxford Street in the south, Euston Road in the north, Great Portland Street in the west and Gower Street in the east, Fitzrovia has always had a bohemian reputation, and unusually for London — a city that likes to send its workers to live in the suburbs — it has homes, offices, shops and restau-rants within its boundaries.

Property firm Derwent London has 35 per cent of its portfolio in Fitzrovia and is about to redevelop the Saatchi & Saatchi building in Charlotte Street with offices, residential space and shops. “Fitzrovia is typical of the kind of areas we like,” says Derwent London chief executive John Burns. “It is a bril-liant location undergoing a transforma-tion. The arrival of Crossrail on Tottenham Court Road is going to bring a big influx of people to Fitzrovia.”

WHAT THERE IS TO BUYThe roads between Great Portland Place and Cleveland Street are mainly Edwardian. This was once the heart of the fashion industry and although the number of wholesale clothing outlets is declining, they remain much in evi-dence and there are still a few tailors toiling away in the odd basement. These roads have tenement and mansion flats, apartments above shops and office-to-flat conversions. Around

Charlotte Street the character is smaller scale with Georgian and early Victorian architecture predominating. There are houses, converted flats, pretty mews homes and a handful of rows of tiny cottages in streets such as Colville Place and Middleton Place. Between Totten-ham Court Road and Gower Street are blocks of impressive mansion flats.

On the face of it, Fitzrovia is well-heeled with house prices hovering around £1,300 a square foot. However,

Taste of modern Japan: commis chef Luis Rodrigues, left, at award-winning Roka restaurant, Charlotte Street

To find a home in Fitzrovia, visithomesandproperty.co.uk/fitzrovia

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EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 21

CHECK THE STATS

The best schools in Fitzrovia

The most expensive streets

The latest housing developments

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

How to shop for a home by postcode

A look at Fitzrovia’s lively rental scene

Smart maps to plot your property searches

GO ONLINE FOR MORE

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

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGEHow did this man outclass the local competition in Little Titchfield Street? Find the answer at homesandproperty.

co.uk/spotlightfitzrovia

■WHAT HOMES COST:

BUYING IN FITZROVIA (Average prices)One-bedroom flat £789,000Two-bedroom flat £1.4 millionFour-bedroom flat £1.92 millionFive-bedroom flat £2.02 million

Source: Zoopla.co.uk

RENTING IN FITZROVIA (Average rates)One-bedroom flat £2,234 a monthTwo-bedroom flat £4,051 a monthThree-bedroom flat £6,859 a monthFour-bedroom flat £7,646 a month

Source: Zoopla.co.uk

NEXT WEEK FIND US ONLINE Spotlighting Covent Garden. Do you live there? Tell us what you think @HomesProperty

HAVE YOUR SAY FITZROVIA

@FitzroviaNA: #Fitzrovia has its own local newspaper @FitzroviaNews and its own festival @FitzroviaFest, there’s a primary school! and 2 nurseries! #children

@ldgestateagents: Fitzrovia full of independent eateries, Honey & Co, Kaffeine, Harris’s Italian Deli, Picture + many more

@ldgestateagents: Fitzrovia has a secret synagogue, a Banksy, hidden pub, Oliver Twist workhouse revealed on the LDG walk

@FitzroviaFest: join us for a guided walk around #Fitzrovia on Saturday 14 December

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this is a genuinely mixed neighbour-hood, with many people in rented social housing and a third of the children at the local primary school claiming free school meals.

Simon Bray of Charlotte Street-based estate agent, Hudsons, says business is brisk, with one- and two-bedroom flats under £500,000 in great demand. “We recently took on a one-bedroom flat on Cleveland Street, put it on the market at £450,000 and within three days it was under offer at £475,000.” The area attracts: only 40 per cent of buyers recorded by Bray this year are British-based, and buyers from Asia are discovering the area, he says. Just over a quarter of people buying through Hudsons are doing so for their chil-dren, another quarter are buying in Fitzrovia for themselves, a similar pro-portion are buy-to-let investors and the rest are buying second homes. Staying power: couples often move on once they decide to have children, says Bray. But those who can afford it hang on to their flats, either as pieds-à-terre or rental investments. Up and coming: while Fitzroy Square is the grandest address, value for money can be found in the surround-ing streets at the Warren Street end of Fitzrovia. Another tip is Holcroft Court in Clipstone Street, a large Sixties coun-cil development around a communal garden, where “right to buy” flats sell for about £850 a square foot, a signifi-cant discount to the rest of Fitzrovia. Estate agent Robert Irving Burns (020 7637 8827) is selling a four-bedroom maisonette there for £850,000.

SHOPS AND RESTAURANTSThere are plenty of shops, bars, cafés, pubs and restaurants along the main streets. Tottenham Court Road with

Heal’s, Habitat and BoConcept is one of the best London streets to buy fur-niture. The concentration of restau-rants in and around Charlotte Street includes Michelin-starred Dabbous, Pied à Terre, Hakkasan in Hanway Place and Peruvian restaurant Lima. Charlotte Street also has two modern Japanese restaurants — Roka, which specialises in cooking on an open char-coal grill, and Tsunami, which started life in a Clapham back street.

The Salt Yard on Goodge Street is a tapas bar specialising in charcuterie and cheese. On Great Portland Street, Villandry is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and has a delicatessen and greengrocer. Efes in Great Titchfield Street, its façade decorated with giant caryatids, is a Turkish restaurant that has been around since 1974, while the Spaghetti House on Goodge Street dates back to 1955.

Elena’s L’Etoile on Charlotte Street celebrates Elena Salvoni, the maitre d’ who managed the French restaurant well into her nineties. It has been

around for more than 100 years, a l though the owners recent ly announced it is up for sale, along with its sister restaurant in Soho, the Gay Hussar.

For coffee, no one need patronise the chains. Kaffeine is in Great Titchfield Street and Lantana is in Charlotte Place, while TAP has two branches in Fitzrovia — look out for the number, there is no branding — at 26 Rathbone Place and 114 Tottenham Court Road.

Charlotte Street Hotel has long been the place to hang out for afternoon tea or a cocktail and on Sundays there is a film club in the basement cinema. Now though, the smart crowd is moving on to the newly opened Edition Hotel in Berners Street, with its grand Ian Schrager-designed entrance lobby and Berners Tavern, where chef Jason Atherton is holding sway. Leisure and the arts: the theatres and cinemas of the West End are within walking distance. In summer there is open-air theatre in Regent’s Park that always includes a musical production

and a Shakespeare play. There is an Odeon multiplex on Tottenham Court Road.Travel: Fitzrovia is served by five Tube stations — Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street, Warren Street and Great Portland Street, offer-ing access to the Northern, Victoria, Central, Circle, Metropolitan and Ham-mersmith & City lines.

Crossrail is investing £1 billion in upgrading Tottenham Court Road Tube station and opening a new integrated station for the east-west rail link on Oxford Street. Together with a new theatre on the Astoria site and a new public square at the foot of Centrepoint, Crossrail will provide Fitzrovia with a big boost. All the stations are in Zone 1 and an annual travelcard costs £1,216.Council: most of Fitzrovia is in Tory-controlled Westminster, where Band D council tax for the 2013/2014 year is £680.74. The eastern section is in Labour-controlled Camden, where t h e B a n d D r a t e i s c u r re n t ly £1,324.48.

Haven in the city: handsome Fitzroy Square, left, is largely traffic-free

On your doorstep: Fitzrovia is full of property treasures, including lovingly kept, quiet side streets, right

Spoilt for choice: modern Thai Siam Central, right, at Windmill Street/ Charlotte Street junction, is one of many local restaurants

Well-connected: Charlotte Street, an easy walk from the bustling West End, is at the centre of a network of streets full of independent bars and eateries

Writing on the wall: Fitzrovia has the ultimate in cool attributes — a message from street artist Banksy

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22 WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?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 a partner in the residential property, farms and estates team at Withy King LLP (withyking.co.uk).

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

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

Will lofty ambitions cost me a packet?

QI LIVE in a flat which I bought in 2007, above which is the loft space. I am the only person who

has access to the loft, which belongs to my local council, as the freeholder. The loft is not included in my floor plan or lease, but I have been using it for storage since I bought the flat. The previous owner used it, too. The council doesn’t know I am using it. Is that a problem? I really want to do a loft conversion but the council says I have to buy the space first. What should I do, and what will all this cost me? Will I face legal fees?

AREAD your lease in case there is a right for you to use the loft for storage only. It is also possible to have a licence

to use a loft space, so the previous owner may have been granted one by the freeholder, which would not have automatically passed to you.

If there is no right in the lease and no licence to use the loft space for storage, you could regularise the

position by requesting a licence from the council. It is entirely up to the council as the freeholder whether or not to sell the loft space to you — so you will need to negotiate this with them.

The council is perfectly entitled to charge you a premium. Remember, you are likely to benefit from a loft conversion as the size of your flat will increase and the value will probably do so, too. It would be

usual for you to have to pay an increased service charge, plus the council’s legal and surveyor’s fees as well as your own.

A deed of variation will be needed. You will require building regulation consent, possibly planning permission and listed building consent where applicable, and the consent of the freeholder to convert the loft into living accommodation. This all costs money.

Fiona McNultyOUR LAWYER ANSWERSYOUR QUESTIONS

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

QCAN you explain how the new mortgage guarantee phase of the Help to Buy scheme works, because I think I’m mixing it up with the Help to Buy equity loan offer. Can I really

get a 95 per cent mortgage? Also, I thought all our financial problems were caused by people getting huge mortgages, so aren’t these schemes encouraging the same thing?

ATHE new mortgage guarantee scheme is for the benefit of the lender, rather than the buyer, and is intended to encourage lenders to make higher loan to value mortgages available to borrowers

who are creditworthy. The lender will be able to buy a guarantee from the Government that will provide some compensation for losses they may suffer when a borrower cannot make their repayments and the property is repossessed. The lender will have to pay a commercial fee for the guarantee, which will last for seven years.

The scheme is open to first-time and subsequent buyers, provided they can satisfy the requirements of the lender in the usual way. It is not available to investors, or in relation to shared-ownership or shared-equity schemes, and the property price must not exceed £600,000. There is no upper income limit, and it is available in respect of new-build and existing properties.

If you can convince a lender you are creditworthy and you can satisfy their requirements and those of the scheme, it appears you should be able to get a 95 per cent mortgage. Please note, the lender has the guarantee — the borrower will still have to pay the whole mortgage amount.

24 WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Smartmoves

The word from the streetDavid Spittles

Not just for MPs and Mary Poppins

How to profit from living on a building site

WESTMINSTER’S historic “parliamentary quarter” is witnessing the biggest injection of new homes since the Edwardian mansion block boom a century ago.

Favoured in the past by MPs and senior civil servants, the area is opening up to a wider public who have spotted the locational draw of its quaint, tucked-away streets close to the river, Royal Parks and the buzzing West End.

Outdated government offices and public buildings are being converted into homes, while company relocations are bringing more neighbourhood shops.

The Courthouse is being built on a plot opposite the new Home Office on Marsham Street. It has 129 apartments including five penthouses with large terraces offering Mary Poppins-like rooftop

views towards Big Ben. Barratt, the developer, has raised its game by offering higher-quality interiors and 999-year leases. A grand entrance lobby and communal areas are designed by Conran Architects and there is a private courtyard garden.

Prices start at £665,000 and include underground parking. Barratt is keeping a nearby scheme called Great Minster under wraps until next year. Call 0844 811 4334.

Berkeley Homes also has a prestige project in the core patch lying between St James’s Park and Millbank. Called Abell & Cleland,

£665,000: views across rooftops to Big Ben from The Courthouse, above, conjure up scenes from the film Mary Poppins. Right, flats at Abell & Cleland are priced from £1.81 million

BUYING into an early phase of a large housing scheme can be a double-edged sword.

Bold buyers who snap up homes when the cranes are swinging into action can expect higher price growth during the course of construction. The downside is that they have to live on a building site for years — up to a decade in the case of some London schemes where hundreds, even thousands, of flats are being built.

The first residents moved into Grosvenor Waterside in Pimlico, below, back in 2009 and homes are still being released as the development nears completion. Created around a once-hidden dock

built by architect Thomas Cubitt to carry materials from the Thames for the building of Belgravia, it is a sought-after address where re-sales are quite rare.

New ground-floor flats at Moore House, one of eight crisply designed blocks, have their own front doors and terraces. Prices from £795,000. Call St James on 020 8246 4166.

Chelsea Barracks, whose 13 precious acres are being turned into a smart housing estate, lies just across the road from Grosvenor Waterside, meaning local residents will have to put up with yet more construction. But they are likely to be rewarded by a property price boost.

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EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013 25

GO WITH THE FLOW IN A BATTERSEA TOWNHOUSEA NEW generation of townhouses — unmistakably modern, with light-filled interiors — is enticing London buyers fed up with the constraints of a Victorian terrace or semi.

Shaftesbury Gate in Battersea is one such scheme, aimed at those who crave a ground-floor, free-flowing, multi-use family space for living,

dining and relaxing that dovetails neatly with the garden.

“A lot of younger families want a house that has the hallmarks of a factory loft — open, dramatic, exciting and flexible, with contemporary design finishes and creature comforts,” says Julia Reynolds, director of developer Crest Nicholson.

As with most modern townhouses, the architecture is

less fussy, with sharper lines. They are bigger than average, too, up to 1,600sq ft, with tall windows and private parking space. Prices from £1.2 million. Call 020 3640 7555.

The development’s name is inspired by nearby Shaftesbury Estate, a charming Victorian conservation area of tree-lined streets with small cottage-style houses built for railway workers.

the large-scale scheme will have luscious gardens, 24-hour concierge, gym, pool and business centre. Two-bedroom apartments start at £1.81 million. Call 020 7720 4000.

HALF of all seven year-olds in the UK fail to exercise enough, according to a study by University College London. While many parents encourage children to swap their smartphones and computers for the great outdoors, easy access to safe green space can be difficult — one reason why families relocate from the capital to the commuter belt.

A 45-minute commute to London combined with well-regarded schools and a lively cultural scene makes cosmopolitan Cambridge a popular choice.

A new “settlement” built around a 120-acre country park on the city’s

£1.2 million: modern townhouses at Shaftesbury Gate in Battersea. Call 020 3640 7555

Learning to exercise in Cambridge

outskirts, Great Kneighton above, offers clusters of low-rise housing that border woodland, ponds, allotments, playing fields and adventure playgrounds, and beyond these is the green belt.

“Kids can get involved in organised

sports or simply explore nature,” says Tony Travers, managing director of developer Countryside Properties. “We also aim to make it easy for people to make journeys on foot or by bicycle. Primary and secondary schools are planned and children will

be able to walk to the classrooms.” Novo, above, is a scheme of three- and four-bedroom contemporary design family houses with an open-plan living area opening on to the garden and integral car port. Prices from £404,950. Call 0844 5610 526.

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For more information and to request an entry form email avril@signaturevents.co.uk or call 01753 880 390 or visit www.homesandproperty.co.uk/nha

Closing date for entries Friday 14th February 2014

The 23rd annual London Evening Standard

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