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Wednesday 29 August 2018

THE PERFECT MARTINI STARTS WITH THE GLASS

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VANITY FAIRLondon houses steal the show

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SOUTHALL Hot new Crossrail winner

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OUR HOME Victorian warehouse in Shoreditch

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SPOTLIGHT ON CAMDEN TOWNLiterati, glitterati and markets

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Behind the scenes At home with stars of the Royal Ballet Page 16

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£1,325,000: leave London for a new life in this four-bedroom farmhouse in the Slad Valley, Gloucestershire, in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Stone fireplaces, a bread oven, flagstone and elm floors, mullion windows and beams come with a temperature-controlled wine cellar and a luxury bathroom with roll-top tub. You could let the separate, converted barn and two-storey studio. Pretty gardens with stone balustrades are bordered by trees, with valley views beyond. Call Hamptons International (01452 902090).

London buy of the week Cool Kilburn garden flat

£21 million: everyone knows you’ve made it when your home is a mega mansion in leafy Hampstead Garden Suburb, just minutes from the Heath. This one has 14,358sq ft of space with four reception rooms, an über-slick kitchen/breakfast room, a spectacular indoor pool, gym, sauna and steam, a treatment and spa room — so the therapist can come to you — an impressive wine cellar and a fabulous games room. There are six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and staff living quarters, all set in manicured, secluded gardens. Through UK Sotheby’s International Realty (020 3823 4660).

Lifechanger of the week Swap the rat race for holiday lets with a Cotswolds beauty

Trophy home of the week Just owning a home spa like this will make you feel good

£750,000: this ground-floor period conversion in Brondesbury, close to Kilburn, is a real find. A smart refit has created two large bedrooms with high ceilings, wood floors and pale grey walls. But it’s the extended, kitchen/dining/living space that will really impress. Sleek grey kitchen cabinets line one wall, while the lounge area is sky-lit with bi-fold doors out to a generous walled garden. There is a also a useful basement utility for hiding the washing. The location is perfect for the shops and restaurants of West Hampstead, Queen’s Park and Brondesbury. It’s chain free. Call Greene & Co (020 3151 4686).

NEWS

The punishing price of living near a top school

Do the maths: families pay a £70,676 premium — 15 per cent — to live near a top London school

THIS WEEK IN...

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TO THE Victorians, puritanical snobs yet voracious achievers, property was still the ultimate sign of success. Where or how the wealth to buy it was achieved was quickly forgotten on the back of a gilded invitation to a grand manor. It was a society ready to be deceived by the ruthless Becky Sharp, satirist William Makepeace Thackeray’s anti-heroine in Vanity Fair, which launches this Sunday on ITV. Impoverished Miss Sharp delights us on her manipulative way through a feast of fabulous homes from the “countryside” of Chiswick, through Georgian Bloomsbury to the fashionable Mayfair full of politicians, admirals and stucco-fronted grandeur. Like Miss Sharp property has its ups and downs but it never loses its allure. Who wouldn’t want to marry into a Mayfair mansion?

‘Property has its ups and downs but it never loses its allure’

Janice Morley EDITOR

Property search

By Faye Greenslade

THE premium you have to pay to live near one of London’s top-performing state senior schools has risen to more than £70,000. New research shows buyers must pay 15 per cent more for a home in a top school catchment area.

The average £70,676 hike in the capital compares with a 13 per cent or £40,294 premium to live near a good school across the South-East. Families are increasingly willing to “cheat” and make sacrifices in order to move near their chosen school, says Santander Mortgages.

One in five said they had to downsize to afford the area, and one in six relocated to a district they didn’t otherwise like. A quarter took on extra hours at work to afford their new home, and one in four found themselves facing a longer commute to the office.

Research by the Evening Standard into London’s top-performing schools at GCSE level found that most are in far-flung boroughs, with three in Sutton, two in Barnet and one apiece in Kingston upon Thames, Bromley, Bexley, Redbridge and Enfield. Despite the downsides,

three in 10 parents with children aged between four and 18 said they are considering moving in the next two years to ensure they are in a top school’s catchment area. Once a child has secured their school place many parents have no intention of staying. More than half admit they will sell up and move again.

Homes Property | News

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

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EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 29 AUGUST 2018 5

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THIS Absolutely Fabulous Victorian Grade II-listed pile in Tufnell Park is being offered for sale by Chris Winter, the BBC comedy’s costume designer. The house first found TV fame as the flat of Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, left, in hit Channel 4 sitcom Spaced.

Winter first put the house on the market for £4 million in May but has now dropped the price by £250,000 with Century 21. In Spaced it depicts the two-bedroom home rented by

Pegg and Hynes’s characters for just £90 a week and comedy fans still make pilgrimages there, 17 years after the last episode aired. The house was also used to film Channel 4 sitcom Black Books, starring Dylan Moran, Tamsin Greig and Bill Bailey.

The eight-bedroom Victorian home in Carleton Road, N7, has period fireplaces and sash windows. There is more than 4,000sq ft of living space and an 80ft mature back garden.

Mamma Mia! Meryl’s selling for £19mAFTER 12 happy years Meryl Streep is selling her New York City penthouse for £19 million. The Mamma Mia! star, inset, bought the four-bedroom flat in Tribeca for £7.8 million. As befits a superstar, the exclusive home has a

skylit entrance gallery and a wraparound terrace with views over Manhattan. The muted interiors offset the statement art collection that belongs to Streep and her sculptor husband, Don Gummer. The art goes when they do.

You might have to entertain Spaced pilgrims

Move like Jagger in your Chelsea gym

By Amira HashishGot some gossip?Tweet @amiranews

Homes gossip IT’LL “only” cost you £22 million

to join the glam Chelsea set if you buy this 7,000sq ft converted architect’s studio in Upper Cheyne Row, above. Over the years the neighbourhood has been home to Mick Jagger and inventor James Dyson. In landscaped grounds and with a roof terrace and gym, a section of a Victorian former church is part of the home. It’s for sale with Russell Simpson and Knight Frank.

A castle for kings of their eraNOT one but two celebrated names owned Ravenswood Court, a 10-bedroom mansion in Coombe, Kingston upon Thames. It was built by Field-Marshal Earl Haig (1861-1928), above left, and Roosevelt and Eisenhower were said to have been guests there. It was later the family home of Bafta-winning film, TV and theatre actor Joss Ackland, above right.

The interiors are inspired by 12th-century Scottish castles, with a wonderful mix of architectural highlights and modern touches, including an indoor swimming pool which these days is a popular party spot.

The entrance hall has medieval double doors leading to an exquisite formal drawing room with rare pine panelling and flooring rumoured to have come from Windsor Castle. Such regal surroundings carry a £6 million price tag on Estate and Agent’s books.

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Homes Property | Property searching

London takes centre stageVanity Fair, autumn’s blockbuster TV costume drama, launches on Sunday and follows ruthless Becky Sharp as she climbs her London property ladder. By Ruth Bloomfield

SHE is flirty, ferociously ambi-tious and altogether rather fabulous. And Becky Sharp, anti-heroine of what promises to be the hit TV costume drama

of the year, has also got pretty decent taste in property.

Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about the irresistible rise of Miss Sharp, was published dur-ing 1847-1848. While the penniless schemer is the star of the ITV adapta-tion, London steals a well-deserved second billing.

From Chiswick to Mayfair, with stop-offs in Fitzrovia, Russell Square and even a sojourn in Brighton, Thackeray’s meandering tale showcases some of the most aspirational addresses of the early Victorian era. Now, 170 years on, they have stood the test of time.

The action begins at 9pm this coming Sunday, September 2, in Chiswick, where the impoverished Becky, played by Olivia Cooke in the production, and her good-natured if marginally dim friend Amelia “Emmy” Sedley attend Miss Pinkerton’s academy for young ladies.

CHISWICK TIME CAPSULEBecky is thrilled to turn her back on the school in Chiswick Mall — where she is treated as a glorified servant — despite its status as one of west Lon-don’s most desirable streets.

“It is certainly one of the best, if not the best, street in Chiswick,” says James Waight, sales manager at John D Wood estate agents. “It is like a time capsule. If you stroll along by the river you

wouldn’t know what century you are in. It feels a bit like being in the country-side, but you are only 20 minutes from central London.”

Adding to the Mall’s charms is its riv-erside location, for which buyers must be prepared to pay a premium. A seven-bedroom double-fronted house would today cost around £6 million. A smaller, four- to five-bedroom period house would come in at £2.2 million to £2.5 million, while even a typical two-bedroom flat in one of a handful of purpose-built blocks that have sprung up more recently would cost about £900,000.

Chiswick Mall’s grandest house is Walpole House, built at the start of the 18th century for Barbara Villiers, Duch-ess of Cleveland and mistress of King Charles II. It was used variously as a boys’ school, attended by Thackeray who based Miss Pinkerton on his old school days; an “asylum” for vagrant girls, before being converted back into a house. In 2006 the fashion designer Jasper Conran paid £7.25 million for the property, which he renovated and sold two years later for £12.5 million.

Becky Sharp’s next stop is Russell Square, Bloomsbury’s largest garden square, where the Sedley family live.

The square was set out in 1804, mak-ing it, in Thackeray’s day, a relatively arriviste sort of address suitable for new money like the Sedleys — Emmy’s dot-ing daddy is a wealthy merchant.

Today private houses have largely been ousted from the square by offices, and the area is handy but not fashion-able. The University of London’s pres-

tigious School of Oriental and African Studies is based on one corner of the square, and the frivolous Gothic hotel The Principal London dominates its northeastern side.

Residents of Russell Square mostly live in one of the interwar mansion blocks that overlook the gardens. Here, you can expect to pay £600,000 to £700,000 for a one-bedroom flat, and to compete with international parents looking for digs for their fortunate off-spring studying nearby.

When Becky finally arrives in Mayfair it is to take up a position as governess in the “tall, gloomy” home of Sir Pitt

Crawley in “Great Gaunt Street” a pseu-donym for Hill Street, which runs from Berkeley Square towards Park Lane. Hill Street was hugely fashionable in the 18th century, popular with the aristo-crats, admirals, and politicians who lived there and with novelists who used it as a shorthand for social success. Jane Austen in Mansfield Park, Sir Walter Scott in Waverley and Evelyn Waugh in Vile Bodies name-checked Hill Street.

Many of its white stucco and red-brick townhouses have been converted into offices now, with estate agents and law firms heavily represented, while the Coach & Horses pub is popular with

after-work drinkers, and The Naval Club is an old-school private members club for those with maritime credentials.

Precious few full houses still survive in Hill Street, says David Lee, head of sales at Pastor Real Estate. He estimates that the home described by Thackeray for Becky would now, in fully renovated condition, be worth some £30 million. A two-bedroom flat in Hill Street would cost in the region of £3 million.

MAKING IT IN MAYFAIRDespite this, Hill Street is not, quite, Mayfair’s Premier League. Homes in “Mayfair Village” around Mount Street, and close to Grosvenor Square, its abso-lute alpha address, are more sought after. “Arguably you could call it south Mayfair,” admits Lee. “It is only a couple of streets away, but it is perhaps a bit more commercial and therefore a bit less prestigious.”

Later in the novel, Becky contrives to marry Sir Pitt’s son, Captain Rawdon Crawley, and the not-particularly-happy couple set up home in a rented house in nearby Curzon Street, which runs almost parallel with Hill Street and was equally chic during the 18th century.

More recently, however, Curzon Street has become more associated with office workers than lords and ladies, with private banks much in evidence. M15 was based at Leconfield House, Curzon

Leading lady: Olivia Cooke as Becky Sharp in ITV’s adaptation of Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1847 novel with Victorian London as the stunning backdrop

On location: left, Vanity Fair stars Olivia Cooke as Becky Sharp and Tom Bateman as Captain Rawdon Crawley; above, Georgian Fitzroy Square in Fitzrovia, W1


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SPOT THE LOCATIONKeep your eyes peeled

ITV took a fairly relaxed attitude towards locations when filming Vanity Fair. Its selection included Marble Hill House in Twickenham, Osterley House in Isleworth, Fitzroy Square in Fitzrovia and Princelet Street in Spitalfields.

Further afield, filming was carried out at Chatham Historic Dockyard, while the stony beach at Deal in Kent stood in for Brighton. And while the novel takes readers to Paris, Rome, Brussels and the small German town of “Pumpernickel”, the TV series was partly shot in Budapest.

Eagle-eyed viewers should look out for scenes filmed at One Great George Street, a Grade II-listed Edwardian landmark in Westminster. When not in use for corporate events and weddings, Number One has been the location for a string of movies including Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, when it stood in as the venue for a Law Society dinner attended by Mark Darcy and poor, gaffe-prone Bridget.

Stand-in: Marble Hill House, Twickenham’s handsome English Heritage Palladian villa in 66 riverside acres, was used as a filming location for Vanity Fair

Blooming convincing: Olivia Cooke as Becky with Claudia Jessie as Emmy Sedley. Some scenes were shot in Budapest

Street, from 1945 until 1976, and is now an office. Curzon Square, formerly Cur-zon Place, has a footnote in musical history. The late songwriter Harry “Without You” Nilsson owned a flat there in the Seventies which was rented by The Who drummer Keith Moon, who died there in 1978. Singer Cass Elliot of Sixties group The Mamas & the Papas suffered a fatal heart attack at the same flat in 1974. Both were just 32.

“Curzon Street used to be considered quite a peripheral address, full of gam-bling clubs,” says Tim Macpherson, partner and head of London residential sales at Carter Jonas estate agents. How-ever as demand for Mayfair has increased, and with stock limited in “Mayfair Village”, buyers have started drifting a few streets south. “It is becom-ing more popular,” adds MacPherson, who recently sold a 3,000sq ft house there for about £10 million to an Amer-ican looking for a pied-à-terre.

A more high-profile buyer is Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and chief executive of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel manufacturer, who is said to have pur-chased a huge Curzon Street house as a wedding gift for his daughter.

The fact that Shepherd Market, on the east side of Curzon Street, is losing its red-light reputation, with the arrival of new high-end restaurants and a lavish new private members club, is also help-ing to polish up Curzon Street’s appeal. A two-bedroom apartment will now cost about £2 million which, while expensive, is still about 10 per cent less than in Mayfair Village itself, says MacPherson.

£5.25 million: in Hill Street, W1, aka “Great Gaunt Street” this two-bedroom flat has a large terrace. Wetherell (020 7529 5566)

Price on application: a six-bedroom house on the river at Lower Mall, Hammersmith, W6. Call Savills (020 8012 5285)

£7.75 million: a three-bedroom maisonette in Curzon Street, W1, with parking and concierge. Call Knight Frank (as before)

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Homes Property | Renting

Crossrail: final countdownIn just three months the Elizabeth line launches at Docklands Light Railway stations. Ruth Bloomfield finds homes for best-connected renters

MORE than 30 years after the Docklands Light Railway opened, its somewhat exotically named further reaches remain a bit of a

mystery to many Londoners. Pontoon Dock? Prince Regent? Really, who knows?

However, the swathe of the capital encircling the Royal Docks is the focus of a series of important regeneration schemes that are rapidly transforming industrial wasteland into convenient housing hotspots served by the DLR and close to Canary Wharf and the City. Transport links will be improved still further in December when Crossrail launches.

A “period property” in this area means something built in about 1990 but if you are looking to rent a hassle-free con-temporary apartment at a competitive price, Zones 3 and 4 on the DLR could provide the ideal solution.

CUSTOM HOUSE Custom House is a single stop from Canary Wharf and is also on the Cross-rail line which will give the area its first fast, direct links to the City and West End. You can also hop on to the Emir-ates Air Line, for a hair-raising half-mile cable car ride across the Thames to Greenwich Peninsula.

Proximity to Canary Wharf makes Custom House one of the more expen-sive options in the area. According to research by Rightmove, an average two-bedroom flat rents at just over £1,700 a month. Tom Crowe, sales manager at Harrison Property Partners, says the area’s focal point is the Royal Docks, the

historic former heartland of London’s shipping industry.

It is now being redeveloped at speed and pioneering locals have been able to enjoy the heatwave, hanging out at the free manmade beach that opens from July until September, learning to row and sail at the London Watersports Centre, or trying their hand at wake-boarding at WakeUp Docklands. “Every time I have been down there it has been packed,” says Crowe.

The docks also have a new open-air contemporary sculpture park, The Line, while the Sunborn is a floating yacht hotel with a glamorous line in cock-tails.

Custom House is also beside ExCeL London exhibition and convention centre, which has a growing number of slightly corporate-feeling cafés and restaurants, and a full programme of events, some interesting — the Cake and Bake show in October is surely a must for those with a sweet tooth.

The area is also greener than you might expect, with several parks, including Canning Town Recreation Ground, within walking distance.

On the south side of the Royal Docks is Pontoon Dock, right beside the ethe-real and rather marvellous Thames Barrier Park, and on the doorstep of London City airport.

SILVERTOWN: 3,000 NEW HOMESThis is an area in flux thanks to a £3.5 billion regeneration of Silvertown, a former industrial zone where every-thing from submarine cables to sugar

were once manufactured. Over the next few years the area will see 3,000 new homes built as well as millions of square feet of offices and shops.

Transport links will be enhanced with a new bridge installed over the Royal Docks giving pedestrian access to Cus-tom House station and, of course, Crossrail.

An average two-bedroom flat in one of the area’s two main developments, Royal Wharf or Waterside Park, would cost around £1,660 a month according to Rightmove, although Harrison’s Tom Crowe says there are older buildings where you could find a two-bedroom flat for £1,350 to £1,450 a month.

In regeneration terms Silvertown is a work in progress, and Crowe says most renters coming to the area work either at Canary Wharf or in the City, gravitat-ing to Silvertown for its comparative value and easy commute. Silvertown does have downsides. Flightpath noise

£2,102 per month: a two-bedroom flat at Western Gateway, E16, part of a warehouse conversion, is available to rent through Foxtons (020 8012 6728).

Thrills and spills: just one stop from Canary Wharf, rent near Custom House DLR and Crossrail station to enjoy watersports in London. Right, you can also hop on the Emirates Air Line for the half-mile cable car Thames crossing to Greenwich Peninsula

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Renting | Homes Property

will deter some, while those who want amenities right on the doorstep will be disappointed.

“It still needs more facilities,” adds Crowe. “The developments are obvi-ously huge, and there are a few local amenities, but for anything major you would probably have to go into Canary Wharf. It is a bit like how Canary Wharf was 10 years ago.

“The reason people move there is that you can get a flat in a brand-new devel-opment that is bigger than you would get for the same money at Canary Wharf, if you are prepared to do a 15-minute commute.”

WOOLWICH ARSENALLooking south of the river and Wool-wich Arsenal is a more mature sort of regeneration zone. The area, where armaments were stored to see the Brit-ish military through conflicts including the Battle of Waterloo and the Crimean

War, and where workers formed the football club that eventually morphed into Arsenal Football Club, has been the focus of housebuilding since the early 2000s.

Its biggest development is Berkeley Homes’ Royal Arsenal Riverside, with thousands of homes and a Crossrail station to come, as well as a local pier with river bus services.

An average two-bedroom flat in Wool-wich rents at £1,405 a month, according to Rightmove, although Marie Wale, lettings manager at Knight Frank, says this figure covers a multitude of sins. A new two-bedroom flat at Royal Arsenal Riverside, with use of a gym and pool, would cost around £1,733 to £2,058 per month. A slightly older flat, say five to 10 years old, would drop to around £1,516 to £1,625 a month.

In Woolwich town centre prices are lower still: you won’t get any frills but you can find two-bedroom period con-

versions and purpose-built flats at just over £1,000 a month.

Wale’s clients are almost exclusively twentysomething and thirtysomething young professionals working in the City or Canary Wharf and lured here by the prospect of Crossrail. “You can also get more for your money here than you can at Canary Wharf,” she says.

There is also, she feels, more to do at weekends than at Canary Wharf, what with a popular Saturday farmers’ mar-ket giving the area some buzz, plus bars and restaurants in the Berkeley Homes development, and neighbourhood res-taurants, as well as a full complement of chain stores and supermarkets in Woolwich town centre.

With Blackheath and Greenwich eas-ily accessible for open space, cafés, shops, and restaurants, and the river on the doorstep, Woolwich is starting to look like the complete package for Generation Rent.

£1,300 a month: a one-bedroom flat with big balcony in Tradewinds at Wards Wharf Approach near Pontoon Dock, E16. Call Samuel Estates (020 3858 2975).

£295 a week: a one-bedroom flat in Duncombe House at Royal Arsenal Riverside, fully furnished and with private balcony. Chase Evans (020 8012 5822).

Looking for a great home to rent? Start your search on

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Homes Property | Crossrail

THERE is no single characteristic that marks out a district as an up-and-comer. With Southall in west London it is simply Crossrail. According to estate agent JLL, Southall should see an 8.5

per cent uplift in house prices when the new Elizabeth line opens there at the end of next year. Perfectly positioned for travel west to Heathrow as well as east to the City, journey times from Southall to the airport will be cut by 16 minutes, while eight minutes will be trimmed off the journey east to Bond Street.

This boost will be coming to an area — often referred to as Little India — with comparatively low house prices. The average property value in Southall is £410,413 according to Rightmove, but rises of 15 per cent on 2016 and 32 per cent on 2015 are already arousing buyer interest.

For years this part of London has been overlooked but there are high hopes for a “Woolwich effect” off the back of a planned mega development. The 88-acre Southall Waterside scheme by Berkeley Homes is the redevelopment of the old gasworks and will deliver not only 3,750 new homes, but is also set to be instrumental in the regeneration of the wider area. The colossal scheme will fuel the creation of a new high street, schools, community centres and new green spaces. Prices are not yet available but there are plans to deliver 618 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in the first phase, 186 of which will be affordable. This first slice of development is set to be completed by the end of next year to coincide with the launch of Crossrail.

Damian Leydon, operations director, Southall Waterside, says: “Plans for Southall Waterside will see the former gasworks transformed into a new neighbourhood of 3,750 new homes alongside a new retail and leisure hub, community facilities and extensive open public realm. The new destination, which borders the expansive 95-acre Minet Country Park, will enhance the rich Asian culture that has long been a defining feature of Southall. Formerly isolated land will be transformed, thanks largely

to the planned introduction of a substantial amount of new landscaped parkland and open green space. The Southall Waterside scheme will open up the site and integrate it into the existing community through a network of new pedestrian routes, cycle paths, nature and exercise trails and a series of footbridges over to Minet Country Park.

“Over half of Southall Waterside will comprise designed open space, landscaped public parkland, leisure and play spaces, piazzas and courtyards, with a revitalised kilometre of canalside walkway.

“The scheme will also unlock a waterside trail along the Grand Union Canal and introduce a network of new pedestrianised routes, cycle paths (each home will be within a five-minute cycle of a station) and exercise trails to improve connections to Minet Country Park, which borders Southall Waterside towards the west.

“The development will introduce up to 500,000sq ft of new commercial space that includes a mix of retail, restaurants and café amenities into Southall’s town centre and provide a new cinema, leisure and community facilities with a two-form entry primary school.

“The station is currently the site of major renovation and expansion in readiness for the arrival of Crossrail next year which will provide direct links to Bond Street in 17 minutes and Canary Wharf in 30 minutes.” Completions for the first phase of affordable Southall Waterside homes are anticipated late this year, with private sale homes from mid-2019. The overall development at Southall Waterside is set to be delivered in phases over a 25-year period.

Another encouraging sign that Southall has what it takes to become a popular, well-connected London hub has been news of a new high-end development. The West Works by Redrow will see the creation of 64 luxury homes priced from £389,000 to £600,000. Developer Strawberry Star’s Greenview Court scheme adds another 118 luxury one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments into the Southall mix where prices start at £340,000.

Spicy Southall is hotCrossrail is fuelling 4,000 new homes in London’s exciting ‘Little India,’ reports Emily Wright

Crossrail bounce: the Elizabeth line’s arrival next year is predicted to boost Southall house prices by 8.5 per cent, while the giant Southall Waterside homes scheme will spark new shops, schools and green spaces

Coming soon: Southall Waterside and its landscaped central park. The first of 3,750 new homes are due to be delivered late this year in an “affordable” phase, with private sales next year

From £389,000 to £600,000: The West Works by Redrow will offer 64 luxury flats in another boost for Southall

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Put your garden

Autumn is the perfect time to plant trees for cool and dappled shade next summer

We are sailing: strung across a seating area, sail shades are a cool, contemporary antidote to sun-scorched days and many are attractively priced

Alex Mitchell

SUMMER this year has presented Londoners with a pleasant if unusual conundrum: the need for shade. With temperatures

predicted to remain higher than average until October, the chances are we could be reaching for the parasol for weeks yet.

With more hot summers predicted in the years ahead, maybe it’s time to think about long-term solutions, in the form of pergolas or trees to cast beautiful, dappled shade in which you can lunch, lounge or read in comfort.

Without doubt, if you have room, the best shade for a city garden is cast by a small deciduous tree. You’ll still have sunlight coming through but in restful patterns, rather than a glare. Evergreen trees cast a deep, dense shade that can feel oppressive in a small space and prevent other plants growing underneath.

Four roof-trained mature mulberries meeting in the middle make a beautiful living pergola above a dining area, but a single small tree is much easier on the wallet and just as effective at creating a cool refuge. Apples, pears, amelanchier, small magnolias, acers, crab apples, prunus and cornus kousa are all perfect for throwing a rug under, or placing a small table and chairs beneath, and won’t dwarf an average city garden. Mature deciduous shrubs can also be lovely places to sit under if you lift the canopy by pruning lower branches.

Tree planting season is a little way off — November onwards — but now’s the time to start planning a site and variety when the sun is still relatively high in the sky. Where do you need shade most? Where will the shade actually be cast from a tree? There is little point shading your neighbour’s garden rather than your own.

If it’s shade near the house you are after, a pergola is an elegant and restful solution. Again, a deciduous climber is preferable: grapevines and wisteria are perfect. But be prepared

Above: Ikea’s FLISÖ/BRAMSÖN parasol and base with straight side (£35, ikea.com) is ideal shading for a slim balcony

Homes Property | Outdoors


to sweep up the fallen leaves every autumn.

Before you have a pergola constructed or buy one “off the peg”, there are a few things to consider. First off, it’s worth checking that it will shade the right area, even if this means holding up sheets to mimic its canopy. Also, make sure the pergola will be large enough. If possible, put your garden furniture in position and pace out the space. Finally, make sure the frame is of a material and style that suits your property. Unpainted wooden pergolas, either of oak or pressure-treated pine, are classic, though thick beams can look overly chunky in small spaces.

Many people have pergolas made bespoke, but off-the-peg versions include the wooden Rustic Rose Pergola from Wayfair (wayfair.co.uk; £159.99). This one is both simple and affordable but might work best at the end of the garden, rather than up near the clean lines of the house. Try Perfect Pergolas online or check out B&Q’s range including the Grange Traditional Natural Patio Pergola (diy.com, £247) which would fit into most spaces.

Metal or painted frames that chime with your fencing, masonry or window frames may work well in more modern houses. Some, such as the Carol Bridges Lichen Green steel Bespoke Contemporary Pergola Gazebo with Shade (from £3,600 plus VAT, harrodhorticultural.com) do

away with the need for planting altogether, providing shade in the shape of a removable cover.

Sail shades strung across a seating area always look like a cool temporary solution but they do need permanent fixings to walls or posts and cables holding them taut, or they will try to blow away; the clue’s in the name. Ikea’s Canopy Dyning (ikea.com, £25) and the Kookaburra Sun Sail Shade Canopy (3m triangle, £39.99) are attractively affordable but factor in almost the same again for fixings, plus some time up a ladder with a powerful masonry drill.

A parasol is, of course, the ultimate instant shade for a table or really small outdoor spaces. On slim balconies, parasols and bases with a straight side are great since you can tuck them right up against the wall (FLISÖ/BRAMSÖN parasol with base, £35, ikea.com).

For lawns, a parasol that you can push into the ground means you can sit wherever you like. At £350, the jewel-patterned fabrics of Indian parasol specialist Kasakosa (kasakosa.com) might seem an indulgence, but you’ll rarely see a more beautiful umbrella. Perfect for posing beneath in colourful splendour.

For small trees for shade: try Deepdale (deepdale-trees.co.uk) or Provender Nurseries (provender nurseries.co.uk)

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in the shade

Photographs: Marianne Majerus

Far left: an attractive, lofty canopy of umbrella-trained pleached plane trees takes time to grow, but is so worth the wait

Above: set against a Cor-Ten steel panel and with pleached hornbeams, this pergola, furniture and bowl by Faye Toogood create a shade-dappled outside room (fayetoogood.com)Left: an arbour of Sorbus aria trees forms the perfect natural parasol above a circular patio

Cool colour combination: a rectangular cream canopy for instant shade, with climbing Iceberg roses and pristine white petunias

Outdoors | Homes Propertyhomesandproperty.co.uk powered by

Pariès: Basque cakes and kanougas — a type of chocolate caramel — are house specialities at Pariès, established in the Basque region since 1895. Its artful displays alone are worth a visit. (paries.fr) Basque fabrics: bring home some traditional Basque linen, a thick canvas decorated with seven stripes representing the seven Basque regions — three in France and four in Spain.


Homes Property | Homes abroad

DELIGHTFUL Saint-Jean-de-Luz sits in the foothills of the Pyrenees where south-west France meets northern Spain.

Fashionable French and Spanish families holiday in the small Basque town, swelling the 13,000 year-round population to 50,000 in summer, but otherwise it stays happily low-key.

Saint-Jean is 15 minutes from both Biarritz to the north and the Spanish border to the west. The town’s historic wealth came from fishing in the 14th century and the daily catch is still displayed in the lively covered market. The long, sandy beach is on a wide, protected Atlantic bay and the charming centre is filled with small independent shops.

Architectural heritage includes Italian Renaissance and half-timber

façades while the Basque influence shows in the sublime food and drink: chillies from Espelette, salted hams from the Aldudes valley, wonderful seafood, almond cakes and Txakolina, a lightly effervescent, dry white wine.

Fly to Biarritz or Bordeaux and there’s a direct train to the centre of Saint-Jean. The rail line continues to Hendaye on the French-Spanish border, so you can start the day in France and cross into Spain for lunch.

Small-scale, handsome and with a good family-focused holiday infra-structure, Saint-Jean-de-Luz attracts wealthy house buyers, says Caroline Laffontan of Laffontan Immobilier. “The property market is strong, with demand from holidaymakers and also French buyers relocating here. Most want to live in the centre so they can walk or cycle everywhere.”

Two-bedroom flats from £357,000 sell quickly but there is little new build to be had. Laffontan is selling an attractive 926sqft three-bedroom flat by the beach for £580,000. A larger, newly renovated three-bedroom flat in the town, in a 15th-century ship owner’s house, is £740,500.

Christie’s International Real Estate has a four-bedroom flat in the centre with balcony for £772,000 and directly across the Nivelle river on the beach in Ciboure, a renovated townhouse with six bedrooms for £678,300.

“Thanks to its exceptional bay Saint-Jean-de-Luz’s real estate market is among the most active on the Basque coast,” says Nicolas Deschamps of Christie’s affiliates Côte Ouest. “Villas currently for sale there start from £714,000.”

Laffontan Immobilier:

laffontanimmobilier.comChristie’s International Real Estate:

christiesrealestate.com

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£580,000: a three-bedroom flat in the town centre, only steps from the sandy beach. Through Laffontan Immobilier

WHERE TO...

La Réserve Hôtel: on the coastal path above Saint-Jean’s lovely beach, this relaxed four-star hotel has exquisite gardens, a large infinity pool and a talented chef who turns out both casual bar snacks and accomplished fine dining menus. From £165 for a Prestige Room.

Visit hotel-lareserve.com⬤

stay

Le Kaïku: one of several Michelin-star restaurants in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Le Kaïku occupies the oldest house in the town, at 17 Rue de la République.

shop

eat

La Réserve: a relaxed retreat on the coastal path above Saint-Jean’s beach

Laze on a lovely Basque town beach in France all morning, then hop to Spain by train for lunch, says Cathy Hawker

Sheltered and sandy: kids love the beach and their parents love the intriguing shops at Saint-Jean-de-Luz in south-west France

Buy one, get one free

£678,300: a renovated townhouse in Ciboure close to Saint-Jean-de-Luz with six bedrooms. Christies International

Want to buy a home abroad? Start your search on

ALA

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Dance routineIn the first of a series looking at how busy Londoners with demanding jobs live and raise families in our city, Liz Hoggard meets husband-and-wife Royal Ballet dancers Steven McRae and Elizabeth Harrod

Behind the scenes

VISITING Steven McRae at the end-of-terrace Edwardian house in Kew he shares with his wife and fellow Royal Ballet star Elizabeth “Lizzie” Harrod, you

might not guess they are one of London’s top creative couples. Their three-year-old daughter Audrey Bluebell and her 15-month-old brother Frederick Charles are having a pillow fight on a floor spread with toys. When they’re not on stage at the

Royal Opera House, these world-class dancers are hands-on parents.

Born in Sydney, Australia, McRae, 31, who arrived in London 15 years ago on a coveted Prix de Lausanne dance scholarship aged 17, rose quickly at the Royal Ballet.

He has been a Principal of the company since 2009, appearing as the Mad Hatter in Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, inspired by the novels of Virginia Woolf. Today McRae has 148,000

Instagram followers as he documents a daily routine of 180-degree leg stretches and barre work.

Yorkshire-born Harrod, 32, a Soloist at the Royal Ballet, starred on stage until she was five months into her pregnancy with Fred-erick. The couple, who met as teens while training at the Royal Ballet School, married at Somerset House in 2011. Their living room wall displays beautiful black-and-white pho-tographs of the ceremony.

OUR HOME SEARCHThey lived in a small Bloomsbury flat for nine years, near the Royal Opera House. They were able to sell and buy several times but with the children they needed a four-bed-room house with room for a nanny, plus a garden.

They found the perfect family home in Kew in west London. The lawn turned out to be fake turf, which proved a godsend — no mowing.

They knocked out two walls to make the reception room bigger and create a cut-through to the kitchen with a walkway wide enough for a double pushchair.

The couple’s lives of irregular performance times and strict training sessions necessitate a lot of flexible living. McRae picks the chil-dren up from school when he has an evening performance, which can be up to five times a week. Nanny takes the best bedroom — the top-floor en suite and utility room — as it is near the children’s bedroom.

Harrod and McRae are dressed and out of the house by 9am. “It’s a smoothly run rou-tine with no panic,” says Harrod. “The chil-dren just continue on with their lives.”

Kew Gardens Tube station is seven min-utes away, and the couple’s District line commute to Covent Garden usually takes about 45 minutes. McRae travels a lot for work and Kew is only a 15-minute drive from Heathrow.

A live-in nanny is cheaper than paying for two children in nursery. “I take great comfort in the fact they’re very happy children,” adds Harrod.

MONEY MATTERS “Having bought and sold we know that stamp duty can be a massive problem,” says McRae. “We could get another flat with all the money we’ve paid on moving. It handi-c a p s s o m a n y people.” Child-care is prohibi-

tively expensive, they feel. “Luckily our director loves the fact that ballerinas are having children,” smiles McRae. “Since Audrey was born there have been about 12 babies within the company.” It would be wonderful if the many West End theatres could open a joint crèche, he says. “I dream of that scenario — and of affordable child-care. If London wants to attract and keep hold of great talent, that’s something that

would definitely help.”Harrod longs for the benefits

parents have in Scandinavian countries. “Some have free child-care.” Theirs is a demanding and highly

competitive profession. McRae lost a year of dancing when he tore his

Achilles tendon age 20, but he took an Open University degree in business

management and leadership. One day he would love to direct a dance company. He talks of introducing the best healthcare, especially for pregnant dancers, and more

recovery time to avoid injury. When Harrod suffered two stress

fractures in her back a few years ago, she studied for a diploma

in nutrition and the couple eat super-healthily — but that does not stop them ordering a takeaway “if it means an extra hour with the kids while enjoying a glass of wine from the local shop in Kew Vil-lage”.

Steven McRae returns to the Royal Opera House in Mayerling next month. Visit roh.org.uk for details.

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Family first: Steven McRae and wife Elizabeth Harrod are world-class stars of the Royal Ballet — and hands-on parents to Audrey Bluebell, three, and Frederick, 15 months, at home in Kew, above and top

In rehearsal: Royal Ballet Principal Steven McRae has brought the dance to Instagram, documenting arduous stretches and barre work

Homes Property | London life

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18 WEDNESDAY 29 AUGUST 2018

NE W YOR K-s t y l e l o f t s with exposed brick walls, iron columns and big win-dows are a film-maker’s

fantasy and so romantic. But the reality of living in a huge, draughty space soon kicks in for couples or a family. There’s no storage, there have got to be walls for the loo, bathroom and at least one bedroom. And where do the washing machine and ironing board go?

Andy and Dorys Lewis love lofts. They grasp the need to balance space against comfort, and to build in the flexibility to divide a loft into private rooms — and reopen them easily and smoothly, keep-ing that distinctive warehouse feel.

With the help of skilled architects the couple transformed the huge top floor of an old Victorian warehouse complex in Shoreditch, where uniforms were made in the Second World War. When the original floorboards were taken up, yellowed newspapers and old Players cigarette cards turned up underneath.

The Lewises bought an open-plan one-bedroom penthouse with a galley kitchen and a small glass building on the roof that Andy says was “too small and baking hot”. Seventeen months’ work turned all that into an elegant, grown-up family home with a large new pavilion above.

While still glassy for amazing views and light, it has a solid roof and some solid walls. There’s a truly romantic bedroom and sitting room, plus a swish white marble-tiled bathroom “hidden” behind a dark stained-oak wall: no door handle, you just push. The big roof gar-den was designed by a Chelsea winner, with nodding agapanthus and grasses.

Below, the principal floor uses sliding doors to connect or close off the spa-cious main living area and a hall as wide as a gallery. More pressure-push or slid-ing doors lead to bedroom, study and bathroom off the dark oak-walled hall.

The main living area exemplifies mod-ern comfort. Furniture ranges from classic loungers to a marble dining table that seats 12, and glowing Tom Dixon copper lamps. Open to it, the elegant kitchen has a mirrored back wall and a

We sleep in a rooftop pavilion

large island with stylish bar chairs. Andy’s collection of street and student art hangs everywhere. Another great touch is Dorys’s row of Russian dolls, the largest the size of a baby.

Dorys, a trained florist, is Bolivian while Andy, 47, who works in oil and gas, is Welsh. They met in Bolivia in 1991, married in 1997 and have three sons: Joaquin, 26; Dixon, 24, and Alex, 21. Dixon currently lives at home, with his own bedroom with en suite.

The couple moved around the world with Andy’s job. During seven years in Moscow they got used to big flats, while London stints confirmed their love of Shoreditch, with its vibrant mix of art-ists and great restaurants.

In 2014 they returned to London, rented a flat in Clerkenwell and began looking for a warehouse apartment to buy. They wanted a top floor with a roof terrace in a warehouse in their favourite area. They needed parking for Andy’s car and a flexible space. They were happy to buy ready made, or to remodel. They weren’t bothered about a lift. “A walk-up keeps you fit,” they say.

After a long search they bought the flat in December 2015 and hired Lon-don-based architects William Tozer, whose work has an urbane, glamorous, slightly industrial feel, to design it. The couple continued sourcing for their interiors — it’s obvious they make a great team. Andy grins: “I do what Dorys says and that works very well.”

Their plan was fairly straightforward, at least in outline. The lower level was stripped, removing one supporting wall and putting in steels, then fitted out the flexible way Andy and Dorys wanted, offsetting dark oak with wide, pale, soaped-oak floors. That part took 10 months. “You’d be surprised how long it takes to achieve a very pared-back look,” Andy says.

Above, the terrace level is a triumph. Reached by a wide, open-tread stair, brightly skylit, the airy bedroom pavil-ion, softened with romantic velvet cur-tains, billowing muslin and a jewel-bright velvet sofa, achieves a great balance between relaxed and luxe. Imagine wak-ing up there, looking out first at your garden and then the sky… and the odd crane, of course; that’s part of the dis-tinctive joy of life in modern London.

The huge top floor of an old Victorian warehouse seemed like a dream space for this family — until they had to decide how to carve it up. By Philippa Stockley

Homes Property | Our home

Principal floor: sliding doors, a spacious main living area and hall as wide as a gallery

Up on the roof: Dorys and Andy Lewis in their garden in the sky in east London

WHAT IT COSTWork done to 1,900sq ft

penthouse loft including roof garden in 2016: £400,000-£450,000

Value now of 2,200sq ft penthouse loft (3,100sq ft with terrace): £2.85 million GET THE LOOK

Architect: William Tozer Associates (williamtozer associates.com)

Roof cladding: from Abet Laminati (abetlaminati.com)

Roof lights: by Glazing Vision (glazingvision.co.uk)

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Industrial uplighters: toolstation.com

Gallery lights: zumtobel.com

Wide-board Douglas fir floors with lye soap finish: dinesen.com

Oval Eero Saarinen dining table in Emperador marble; Harry Bertoia 1952 Wire Barstools; red velvet sofa: all from Knoll (knoll.com)

Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs: carlhansen.com

Copper lamps throughout: tomdixon.net

Kitchen: bulthaup.com

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Balmoral velvet sofa in bedroom: heals.com

Herringbone bathroom floor tiles: from Tiles Etc (tilesetc.com)

Muslin curtains: from Caravane (caravane.fr)

East Hampton marble wall tiles: from Fired Earth (firedearth.com)

Green velvet curtains: by Kirsten Hecktermann (kirstenhecktermann.bigcartel.com)

Garden: by Tony Woods at Garden Club London (gardenclublondon.co.uk)

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FACTFILEPared back with stylish, comfy touches: above, copper lights and bright barstools in the kitchen; left, soaped oak floors, a bright sofa and open-tread stairs to the terrace level from the living space; right, the airy bedroom pavilion is a great balance between relaxed and luxe

EVENING STANDARD 19

Our home | Homes Propertyhomesandproperty.co.uk powered by

Photographs: Juliet Murphy


Homes Property | Shopping

Sharp-cut and crystalThe main ingredient of a good martini is the glass...

Left: Bentley clear martini glasses, £95 each, by Ralph Lauren Home (ralphlaurenhome.com)

Right: Utopia Timeless vintage-inspired cut-glass martini glass (centre) with gold rim, £49.99 for a set of 12 from Drink Stuff (drinkstuff.com)

Right: set of two fine crystal Lismore Diamond martini glasses from Waterford, £130 (waterford.co.uk)

Above: mixed metallic martini glasses from Oliver Bonas with copper foiling, pictured, and gold foiling, £18 for a set of two (oliverbonas.com)

Above: Soho House’s Barwell cut crystal martini glasses are mouth blown and hand cut, £32 each, available from Soho Home (sohohome.com)


You’ll love a latticework retro bench for two

Store it and sit downSuper-smart outdoor set with £400 off

ADD vintage charm to your garden with the sturdy yet attractive Gloucester bench, featuring lattice panels, soft curves and a wrought-iron frame. At

H93cm x W128cm x D44cm, it comfortably seats two. Choose from the pictured cream (2450006) or antiqued brown (2450007).Available for £166.99

(RRP: £266.99), readers also receive free delivery with code ESBN298. Visit alisonsmarketplace.com/press or call 020 7087 2900 to order before September 4.

A GREAT space-saving idea, this practical and stylish Lancaster ottoman bench measures H49cm x W89cm x D45cm and is just right for storing unsightly clutter. Good-looking and versatile, the Lancaster also offers a soft cushion and a comfy seat.

It’s yours for just £121 with free delivery when you order at alisonsmarketplace.com/press or call 020 7087 2900 and quote ESBN298 by September 4. Look online for product code LANOTTGRY.

GIVE your garden the intriguing illusion of a space beyond with the Theo rustic Gothic-design wall mirror from Alison’s Marketplace. Priced at £119 (RRP: £149), it’s frost-protected and the metal frame has an attractive distressed finish. Choose from H115cm x W50cm

(£119: RRP £149) or H161cm x W72cm (£189: RRP £239). Fixtures not included.

Search for product code GMA002 at alisonsmarketplace.com/press or call 020 7087 2900 and quote ESBN298 before September 4 to get free delivery.

OUT AND OUT ORIGINAL’S extra-special £400 clearance discount for the Havana eight-seater garden dining set cuts the price from £799 to just £399, including free two-man

UK mainland delivery. This modern dining set comes with eight aluminium stackable chairs and a sleek aluminium 200cm table, perfect for entertaining friends and family. All

materials in the Havana are ideal for outdoor use. To claim your discount, simply quote code “Summer400” at outandout.com or call 020 3772 8752 before September 19.

READERS are offered the Lyon day bed with trundle for £350 less than the RRP, making the price just £499 (RRP: £849). A sofa by day and a guest bed by night, the Lyon includes two D23cm memory foam mattresses. The trundle slides out and can be elevated for use as a twin or double. Measuring H93cm x W94cm x L199cm, in black or cream.

Look for product code LYODB3 at alisonsmarketplace.com/press or call 020 7087 2900. Get free delivery on all marketplace items when you quote ESBN298 before September 4.

A day bed for your sleepovers

The companies listed here are wholly independent of the Evening Standard. Care is taken to establish they are bona fide but we recommend you carry out your own checks prior to purchases and use a credit card where possible. To offer feedback on any of these companies, email [email protected] with “Bargain News” in the subject line. For more bargains, visit alisonathome.com or homesandproperty.co.uk/offers⬤

Bargain news By Alison Cork

Homes Property | Reader offers

Go Gothic in the garden


Art in residence

Kate Gordon

CULTURAL CAMPUSBOOK now for the Royal Academy Festival of Ideas, where some of our most impressive artists and creators will discuss how they find inspiration, as well as confront some of the most challenging questions of our time. Listen to Tate Modern director Frances Morris and V&A director Tristram Hunt debate the future of museums, or artist Yinka Shonibare discuss his life’s work. It’s a stellar line-up, with contributors from all areas of the arts, including legendary war photographer Don McCullin, left, and Olympic closing ceremony creator Es Devlin. The RA is also home, this autumn, to Renzo Piano’s first exhibition in London in 30 years. Piano is best known in London for the Shard, and this will be the first in a series of annual RA architecture shows.

Royal Academy, Piccadilly; September 7-16 (royalacademy.org.uk/page/festival-of-ideas)⬤

CUTTING EDGEBEST KNOWN for Closer to the Veg, an art exhibition at Fitzroy Park Allotments on the edge of Hampstead Heath, curator Sasha Galitzine now goes one step further in taking contemporary art from the gallery and directly to the public, along a bus route with an innovative art project called Salon 63.

It runs along the No 63 bus route from Peckham to Clerkenwell, and will feature 14 site-specific installations as well as offering a haircut, if you want one, in salons along the way.

Galitzine wants to raise awareness that such hair/beauty salons across London, vital to local communities, are under threat from high business

rates and regeneration. Hop on and off the No 63 and don’t miss hairdresser Barber Streisand, which will feature Finnish artist Hans Rosenström’s sound installation, with dialogue drawn from an Ingmar Bergman film. There’s Freddy Tuppen’s Jacuzzi renovation and Stasis’s dance performance at Miami Health Club, and we’d also suggest Eros, pictured, where women seek answers to perennial problems of love and loss.

Salon 63 runs from September 16-24 (salon63.co.uk). There’s a special tour for Homes & Property readers on September 22 — for more information, email [email protected]

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ART AND ARCHITECTUREBIG-NAME architects will feature at Frieze week for the third year during the Frieze Academy’s art and architecture conference. It’s a full day of discussion on the relationship between art, architecture and society and explores, quite simply, the nature of space and how we live with art.

Richard Rogers will be in discussion with design critic Alice Rawsthorn, and Jamie Fobert, Stirling Prize nominee for the Tate St Ives extension, left, will be speaking on his £35 million upcoming redevelopment of the National Portrait Gallery. Artist Andrea Zittel’s collection of studios and sleeping pods might be the way of the future. And if you’re simply interested in making your home more sensory, check out Frieze’s Making Scents: Art & the Olfactory.

frieze.com/academy⬤

TOOLS FOR LIFE IT’S rare that an artist’s creative process becomes an “Intangible Cultural Property”, but this is the honour bestowed on Gyokusendo in Japan, a 200-year-old metal workshop.

Tsubame-Sanjo, in northern Japan, is known throughout the country for the precision and skill of its craftsmen and their ultra-fine metal polishing techniques. Now, these craftsmen and their wares, from teapots to specialist sushi knives, are the subject of an exhibition at Kensington’s Japan House, curated by Simon Wright.

Biology of Metal includes hands-on workshops — we love “make your own chopsticks” — and talks, as well as demonstrations hosted by some of the craftsmen from the region.

Biology of Metal runs from September 6 to October 28. Visit japanhouselondon.uk/whats-on/ for more information.

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Homes Property | Art events


Spotlight on Camden Town

FOR the world’s youth, Camden Town in north London is the capital’s top tourist attraction. They flock to the rabbit warren of

markets and food stalls next to Regent’s Canal at Camden Lock and stretching down the High Street and up Chalk Farm Road. The district’s “patron saint” is the late singer Amy Winehouse, who lived in Camden Square. Her image pops up on graffiti and her tragically short life is marked with a statue in Stables Market.

Yet just two streets away there is an entirely different world, a street where some of the country’s leading writers, artists and intellectuals settled in the Fifties and Sixties, when Camden Town was still a cheap area in which to buy run-down period houses.

The street is Gloucester Crescent and the lives of its residents have been documented in so many books and plays that it can lay claim to be the most written-about street in London. It is where the writer Alan Bennett turned the story of Mary Shepherd, who lived in a dilapidated van on his driveway for 15 years, into a book which became the film The Lady in the Van (2015) starring Dame Maggie Smith. The house Bennett bought for £13,500 in 1968 is now on the market for £2.6 million.

Current and former Gloucester Crescent residents include Ursula Vaughan Williams, the composer’s widow; the theatre director and writer Jonathan Miller; writers Deborah Moggach and husband and wife Michael Frayn and Claire Tomalin; jazz singer George Melly

The famous markets and London’s most celebrated crescent add to the attraction of this lively area. By Anthea Masey

Today in Camden Town Rightmove has 375 homes to BUY and 620 to RENT

To find a home in Camden Town, visit rightmove.co.uk For more area guides, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/area-guides

£1,595,000CHESTERTONS has this three-bedroom, three-bathroom mews house set over three floors with 2,700sq ft of living space and a private terrace in Camden Mews, NW1 (020 8012 3884).

WHAT THERE IS TO BUY

£774,950A TWO-BEDROOM freehold split-level top-floor flat in a classic period terrace in Charlton Street, Camden, with superb transport links on the doorstep. Call Marsh & Parsons (020 3858 3531).

£1.95 MILLIONTHIS well-designed four-bedroom modern house in Camden Mews, NW1, enjoys lots of natural light over four floors and has a games room and a roof terrace. Through Marsh & Parsons (020 3858 3531).

Vibrant: Camden Lock on Regent’s Canal, famed for markets, live music and comedy venues, cafés and bars

Grab a nosebag: Horse Tunnel stalls. Stables Market site was a Victorian equine hospital treating horses hurt pulling barges

Homes Property | Property searching

and philosopher AJ Ayer. Nina Stibbe, the nanny who saw it all when she worked in the street for Mary-Kay Wilmers, the editor of the London Review of Books, turned her experience into her semi-fictionalised memoir Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life. Now Jonathan Miller’s son William, who also lives in the street, has written another: Gloucester Crescent: Me, My Dad and Other Grown-Ups in which he says Miller senior and his wife Rachel bought their house for £7,000 soon after they married in 1956.

Over the ensuing 62 years Camden Town has changed beyond recognition. Former industrial buildings have been converted into smart lofts, while run-down period houses have been done up. The market has expanded and now attracts 28 million visitors a year, and hundreds of new homes are being built or are in the pipeline.

Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, the man behind LabTech, the company which owns Camden Market, is

putting the finishing touches to Camden Lock Village, a canalside development on the eastern side of Camden Lock. A mixed-use development, there will be 195 new homes, employment space, revamped Network Railway arches and a canalside market with cafés and restaurants spread over eight new buildings varying in height between three and nine storeys.

Camden Goods Yard, a joint venture between Morrisons supermarket and Barratt Homes, now has planning permission to redevelop the Morrisons supermarket site and petrol station that sits off Chalk Farm Road between Stables Market and the Roundhouse arts venue. There are plans for 573 new homes here, ranging from studios to four-bedroom family homes, of which 40 per cent will be affordable. There will be a replacement supermarket and petrol station but the unique feature is a roof garden featuring London’s largest urban farm.

Camden Town is two miles almost due north of central London with Kentish Town to the north; Islington to the east; King’s Cross to the south; and Chalk Farm, Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park to the west.

Estate agent Jack Graham-Lindsey from the local branch of Marsh & Parsons describes Camden as the perfect mix of a busy shopping and dining destination with quiet residential streets and squares.

“It is a hidden gem and most of our buyers are from the UK, although, thanks to the French school in nearby Kentish Town there is also a strong French presence.”


Global draw: above, pedestrian footbridge at Camden Lock. Young tourists the world over put the district on their must-see list Left: José Maldonado, manager at Chin Chin Labs, West Yard in Camden Market. Europe’s first liquid nitrogen ice cream parlour, it opened in 2010Right: bustling Camden High Street

THE PROPERTY SCENE TRANSPORT

CAMDEN TOWN and Mornington Crescent Tube stations are on the Northern line. Camden Road is on the Overground with trains to Stratford. Camden is well served by commuter bus routes including six 24-hour buses, the 27, 88, 134, 214, C2 and also the No 24, which runs from Hampstead to Pimlico and is London’s oldest bus route, unaltered since 1912.

BUYING IN CAMDEN TOWN(Average prices)One-bedroom flat £487,000Two-bedroom flat £727,000Two-bedroom house £946,000Three-bedroom house £1.93 millionFour-bedroom house £1.73 million

RENTING IN CAMDEN TOWN(Average rates)One-bedroom flat £1,630 a monthTwo-bedroom flat £2,584 a monthTwo-bedroom house £2,359 a monthThree-bedroom house £3,573 a monthFour-bedroom house £4,474 a month

Source: Rightmove

STATS CHECKWhat homes cost

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LOVELY Georgian and early Victorian houses can be found in Camden Town, some still single family houses, others converted into flats. There are also architect-designed mews with remarkable homes, such as Murray Mews, a terrace of three houses designed by Norman Foster. Camden was once an area of warehouses and gin distilleries, many of which are now loft-style apartments. There are also modern flats and estates of social housing.

A five-bedroom semi-detached flat-fronted villa is currently for sale with Marsh & Parsons priced £1.95 million at Rochester Square, a location on track for big improvements. Local couple, Francesca Anfossi and Eric Wragge, bought the former plant nursery in the middle of the square, turning the building into a pottery studio. They’ve plans to revitalise the space and bring it back into use.

NEW-BUILD HOMESXY Apartments is the redevelopment of the Maiden Lane Estate in York Way by the Camden Collection, Camden council’s in-house developer. There are 273 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats in an 18-storey block, with the one-bedroom homes from £555,000 and two-bedroom flats at £700,000. Call Savills (020 7299 3091).

Arlington Lofts in Arlington Road is the conversion by housing association Fabrica of an Art Deco electrical substation into 16 loft flats. Two-bedroom lofts start at £1.15 million and three-bedroom lofts at £1,285,000. Call 080 8301 4008.

Chappell Lofts in Belmont Street is the conversion of the former Chappell grand piano works into nine flats with up to four bedrooms. There is a residents’ lounge and a swimming pool. The scheme is complete and prices start from £2.95 million for a

two/three-bedroom apartment. Call Savills on 020 3428 2900 or Aston Chase on 020 7724 4724.

Moy’s in Pratt Mews is a mixed-use development of two offices and eight one-, two- and three-bedroom flats from developer Hamilton Court. Two-bedroom flats start at £800,000 and three-bedroom flats at £1,175,000. Call Hamptons on 020 3369 4382.

Marine Ices Apartments is a scheme of 19 flats in Chalk Farm Road on the site of the old Marine Ices ice cream parlour which moved down the road in 2014. For more information contact the developer Bellis Homes on 01279 424733.

AFFORDABLE HOMESOne Housing Group will be launching 16 shared-ownership flats soon in Camley Street in the nearby King’s Cross masterplan area. One-bedroom flats start at £141,250 for a 25 per cent

share of a home with a market value of £565,000. Two-bedroom flats start at £202,500 for a 25 per cent share of a home with a market value of £810,000. Call 0344 809 2018.

WHO RENTS HERE?Marsh & Parsons rental manager Augusta Melia says Camden Town is popular with the widest range of people of any of the firm’s branches, including students from UCL and Central Saint Martins, professional couples working in the City or for tech companies such as Google and Facebook, as well as families, many of whom will have grown up in the area.

“I used to share the same prejudices many Londoners have about the area being dominated by tourists, but I’ve changed my mind. Away from the markets are quiet streets of beautiful architecture and most of my landlords have lived here.” Photographs: Daniel Lynch


By Fiona McNultyOUR LAWYER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS

Can we afford to be her Bank of Mum and Dad?

Q OUR only daughter has a great job and earns decent money, so she can well afford to take on

mortgage payments. However, she has no savings and she’s asked us if we will give her the deposit for a flat. We have just finished paying off our own mortgage and we’re due to retire in a couple of years. We have some savings and investments. Is this a sensible thing for us to do?

A BEFORE you agree to anything you should consider very carefully your own financial circumstances and

whether you can actually afford to give your daughter a lump sum.

Calculating your future living costs and expenditure can be very difficult to do. People are tending to live longer, so you need to think about what your retirement income will be and take into account unforeseen eventualities such as illness,

care costs and the like. Instead of gifting the money to your daughter you could

lend it to her, although she will have to disclose to her mortgage lender

the source of the deposit funds.Some lenders are not keen to lend where the deposit is funded by way of a third party loan but will be prepared to lend if you provide written confirmation that the

deposit money is a gift. Seek advice from an independent

financial adviser as to which of your assets is best for you to use to withdraw the money to pay your daughter.

You could jointly own the property with your daughter but you may need to be a party to the mortgage, in which case there may be tax implications, so do seek legal advice if you decide you want to go down this route.

Q I AM buying a house and getting a new mortgage. My boyfriend has a flat of his own which is

mortgaged. He intends to rent that out

and move in with me. My solicitor says that my mortgage provider needs my boyfriend to sign some sort of consent form. What is that for?

A If YOU are not buying the property with your boyfriend, your lender will require him to sign an

Occupiers Consent Form as he will be an adult in occupation of the mortgaged property but will not be a legal owner.

If you were to fail to meet your monthly mortgage payments, your lender would be entitled to take action to repossess your property and sell it with vacant possession on the open market.

Accordingly, the lender would need to be able to evict not only you, but also your boyfriend — and your lender would not want your boyfriend to be able to claim he has a right to remain in the property.

By signing the Occupiers Consent Form your boyfriend will acknowledge that your property is mortgaged and that your lender has a charge over it, and that if you default on the mortgage and the lender takes possession proceedings, your boyfriend will vacate the house, and any interest he may have acquired in the property would come after, or rank behind, the interest of your lender.

Your boyfriend will be requested to seek independent legal advice before signing the form so that he cannot claim at a later date that he did not know what he was signing.

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

WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?

Email [email protected] or write to Legal

Solutions, Homes & Property, Evening Standard, 2 Derry Street,

W8 5EE. Questions cannot be answered individually, but we will try

to feature them here. Fiona McNulty is a solicitor specialising in residential

property.

Homes Property | Ask the expert

Daniel Eamer is a senior lettings negotiator with CBRE Residential in central London (020 7182 2093).

⬤

In-trays full thanks to the lettings boom

Diary of anEstate AgentMONDAYAfter a weekend away to recharge my batteries, I walk in to a mountain of enquiries in Battersea and Nine Elms. I get straight on the phone and book my diary for the week ahead. There are multiple enquiries from students and professionals for a lovely three-bed-room flat near Kennington Tube station, so I decide to book them all in for tomor-row evening.

TUESDAYI’ve got appointments lined up today with a buying agent viewing on behalf of a client. We visit an incredible two-bedroom penthouse with river views, a massive reception room, an on-site gym and parking — fingers crossed it ticks the boxes.

Back in the office just before lunch, I receive a phone call with regard to a viewing that took place last week. The company involved would like to make an offer on two properties in Nine Elms

for employees. Arriving later at the flat near Kennington Tube for this evening’s block viewing, I meet four sets of appli-cants ready to view, and 45 minutes later I have completed six viewings. I suspect I will have an offer email during the course of tonight.

WEDNESDAYReceived three emails overnight from the block viewing last night. After dis-cussing the best and final offers, they are all presented to the landlord who is very impressed. He mentions that he owns more properties nearby and instructs us immediately. My manager is over the moon.

This afternoon I go to meet an appli-cant who rented through us two years ago and is now looking to upgrade from the one-bedroom apartment he took on in Battersea. I find an amazing two-bed-room flat with spa facilities, members club, cinema and — most importantly — a virtual golf room. Another offer is made and it’s only Wednesday…

THURSDAYThe buying agent from Tuesday’s view-ing calls first thing to say he’d like to take the option with the river views and asks whether we have anything else

available in the same development for another client. I speak with our client services department to see if we have anything coming up, and yes, they have a penthouse apartment with panoramic views of London that will be available in two months’ time. I call the client and explain the situation and they agree to a viewing tomorrow morning. Now, it’s time to try to get some of these offers tied up — paperwork calls.

FRIDAYAt the end of a whirlwind week I meet early with the buying agent again, along with the applicant, at the riverside pent-house. The applicant loves the place and puts forward an offer that’s just under the asking price, but will be a back-to-back tenancy and a long-term contract. Here’s hoping the landlord accepts.

Strong coffee in hand, I’m back at my desk working through other enquiries and offers. There is a great atmosphere in the office, with plenty of offers and even more enquiries. I hear back from the penthouse landlord and they are happy to proceed. Great news.


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Hackney breaks all records

HACKNEY property prices have jumped a staggering 753 per cent in 20 years, nearly twice the London average of 402 per cent,

and more than anywhere else in England. They have stabilised now, but this hipster hub remains a development hotspot, with new projects aimed at a fresh generation of home buyers.

Nile Street is part of a canalside creative quarter moments from the Shoreditch tech cluster. Sprinkled with handsome warehouses and factories, it also attracts young career professionals working in the City, who like the modern apartment blocks and being able to walk to work.

Smart moves By David Spittles

Homes Property | New homes

Rising here is The Makers, a scheme of 175 apartments within a 28-storey tower and a connected low-rise block. Exterior architecture features two-tone concrete and perforated aluminium panels. Flats have full-height glazing, while corner apartments have double-aspect winter gardens.

An impressive Art Deco-style entrance lobby with terrazzo floor and brass detailing sets the bespoke tone. Residents can chill in an indoor garden or roof garden, and there is a gym plus a screening room, too. Prices from £600,000.

Overlooking Hackney Downs, The Otto enjoys more open space and comprises 89 apartments in two

pavilion buildings with decorative terracotta façades in mellow shades. Ground-floor duplexes have a raised private garden, mimicking a terrace of Victorian houses, while penthouses have “sky gardens” and basements have extra storage space.

Prices from £490,000. For more information on both of these developments, call Cushman & Wakefield on 020 3296 2222.

Spurhouse is a smaller scheme of 20 flats moments from Hackney

From £585,000: flats at Hackney Gardens in ancient listed St John churchyard

From £490,000: flats at The Otto, overlooking Hackney Downs for open space

From £525,000: Spurhouse, a scheme of 20 flats near Hackney Downs station, with trains to Liverpool Street in just eight minutes


HELP TO BUY FOR FAMILIESLow-deposit village houses

Make Essex your habitatESSEX commuter towns are on a roll, boosted by Crossrail and regeneration rippling out from Docklands and touching coastal resorts such as Southend as well as the historic Roman town of Colchester.

Though blemished by industrial eyesores along the Thames Estuary and with a reputation for tanning salons, nightclubs and snooker players, 70 per cent of Essex is countryside, with delightful heritage villages, medieval pubs and some great state and independent schools. This is where Essex swaps its stiletto heels for wellies.

Brentwood exudes a sense of wealth, has a rural feel and boasts a traditional high street with independent shops and a monthly farmers’ market. You will find trophy new-build houses and modern estates alongside Victorian and interwar terraces. Library House, right, in the town centre, is an office-to-residential conversion of 55 new homes with interiors designed and furnished by Habitat. Prices from £249,950. Call Savills (01245 269311).

CLOSE to National Trust-owned Hadley Heath, the Surrey village of Tadworth falls into travel Zone 6 and has regular trains to London Bridge and Victoria as well as quick links to Gatwick and Heathrow.

For young families considering quitting the city for good schools and green space, three-bedroom houses at Tadworth Gardens, left, at £579,950 are available with Help to Buy, requiring a deposit of £27,500.

This tasteful project is by developer London Square, which takes the traditional garden square as a template for its architectural approach. Call 0333 666 4242.

Looking for a new-build home? Start your search on

New homes | Homes Propertyhomesandproperty.co.uk powered by

Downs station, which offers eight-minute trains to Liverpool Street. Prices from £525,000. Call Fyfe Mcdade on 020 7613 4044.

And at nearby Hackney Gardens, 58 flats have been built within the ancient churchyard of listed St John, also a cool venue where Coldplay and Ed Sheeran have played.

The new apartment blocks are clad in warm brown brick. Prices from £585,000. Call Stone Real Estate on 020 7043 8888.

Prices from £600,000: flats with full-height glazing, some with winter gardens, plus a gym and roof garden, at The Makers in Nile Street canalside creative quarter, Hackney N1

Victoria Whitlock explains why the taxman’s squeeze on private landlords could leave her with no choice but to pass on the financial pain to her tenants

The accidentalLandlord

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

⬤

Raising rents for the first time in 10 years

£460 a week: a two-bedroom first-floor apartment in this handsome block in Croftdown Road, NW5, sits next to Hampstead Heath and comes with a communal garden. It is available to rent immediately through Marsh & Parsons (020 3858 2404).

AN EXCELLENT tenant who is coming to the end of his first-year contract emails to ask if I’ll extend his lease and, if so, whether I intend

to increase his rent. I start to reply that yes, I would love him to stay, and no, the rent will stay the same, but then I hesitate, and here’s why.

I recently re-let another one-bedroom flat a stone’s throw from this one at a slightly higher rent than the previous tenants were paying, so I think this flat’s rental value may well have increased in the past year. Also, there seem to be few properties as nice as mine on the market in that part of London, so I’m pretty sure I could easily re-let it at more rent than I am getting now. However, these aren’t the reasons I am hesitating.

I know from the credit check I ran on the tenant when he took the flat last year that he is earning a very decent wage, so unless he is quaffing champagne every night or he has a girlfriend with a Jimmy Choo fetish, I would think he could afford to pay a bit more, but that’s not the reason I am considering increasing it either.

He’s the best tenant I have ever had, so I wouldn’t want to drive him away. Re-letting a property is a tedious, expensive process so even if I find new tenants straight away, which I am

fairly confident I will, the flat could still be empty for a few days, and the void could cost me more than the extra rent I would earn.

For this reason, I have never previously increased the rent for existing tenants unless my costs have risen significantly. As my mortgage interest rate hasn’t gone up since 2008, I haven’t increased rents for any

of my tenants, except for those where I made the rookie mistake of including the energy bills in the rent and they decided to leave the heating blasting out 24/7.

So why am I considering raising the rent now, for the first time in 10 years? It’s due to the Government’s decision to phase out tax relief on

landlord’s borrowings. As a result, my tax bill is set to rise every year until 2020, when I’ll be about £4,000 a year worse off. To be honest, that’s not too painful, I will still be able to cover all my overheads at current interest rates. But if interest rates go up much more, I could be stuffed.

Also, the Government’s tax grab on landlords has made lenders more cautious so I am worried that when I try to remortgage this flat in a few months’ time when my current fixed rate comes to an end, I won’t be in a position to shop around for a good deal unless I can get the rent up. It seems prudent, therefore, to increase the rent now to avoid any potential problems in the future. However, I realise that it’s probably unfair to make my tenant pay now for some-thing that might happen later.

After discussing the issue with my husband, we decide not to increase the rent but to leave our options open by offering the tenant a periodic (month by month) tenancy, which will allow us to increase the rent in the future. The tenant happily accepts as he is not sure of his long-term plans and he didn’t want to be locked into another long-term contract anyway. I am relieved it has worked out this time — but there will be more tough decisions to make in the future.


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