FRIDAY AUGUST 12 2022

The hot property topic

HOW TO DEAL WITH CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE HOME FRONT pages 6-7
2 Bricks & Mortar Friday August 12 2022 | the times
2 Bricks Friday August 12 2022
& Mortar the times

£3.85 million

Anthony Trollope’s boyhood home could

be the way you live now, says Emma Wells

T
he power of wealth, the stone canopy with an oculus.
lust for riches and “Two generations of the same family
human nature’s frailties had lived here when we bought it, and
are themes that run although it was well preserved the
through the works of rooms had been used formally,” Hope
the Victorian novelist says. “It’s never easy to bring a listed
Anthony Trollope. The house into the 21st century, but we
author could draw on wanted to make the spaces more flexible
first-hand experience, his lawyer father and bring in lots of colour, without it
having made a series of disastrous being dominating.”
property decisions that ended in the Over the course of about five years the
family fleeing, debt-ridden, to Belgium. couple — both in their fifties and who
Thinking himself deserving of a share the property with their 18-year-old
country home, and wanting to escape son, Archie, two Bedlington terriers,
the London smog, Thomas Trollope Roker and Ringo, Ginger the tortoise
took on a family house in Harrow on the and Truffle, a pot-bellied pig —
Hill, now in northwest London, before redecorated every inch of the home. The
deciding it was too small vast 19th-century sunroom,
and building himself a lit by a pitched roof lantern,
grander one in 1817: a farm Sign up to our was converted into a
known as the Julians. property newsletter kitchen/dining area with a
“Things there went much for the latest analysis, central oak and slate island.
against him; the farm was gossip, tips and tricks The 33ft-long hall, which
ruinous,” Trollope wrote in every Monday at has a statuary-adorned
his autobiography of 1883. thetimes.co.uk/ marble chimneypiece at the
“My father’s clients deserted newsletters rear, is painted in Farrow &
him . . . And his purchases Ball’s vibrant India Yellow.
always went wrong.” Leading off of it, on a circular plan, the
The home, and its junior resident, at three main reception rooms are parquet- HA1 The postcode in numbers
least, had brighter days ahead. Now floored, taking in an oval drawing room
In this part of London 52% Increase
grade II listed, the 4,000 sq ft-plus featuring show-stopping cornicing of
of properties for sale are in buyer
Regency property — known as Julian gilded spheres. All are filled with the
Hill House, a short walk from Harrow family’s collection of antique furniture, under offer, falling to
47% of those costing
10% demand
in the
School, where a miserable Trollope was contemporary artwork and rich textiles,
£1 million or more past year
beaten and flogged — has all the sourced from Lots Road Auctions in
hallmarks of success and style.
Bought in 2006 by its present owners,
Chelsea, Designers Guild, Vaughan and
Ikea. The nearest superstore is a 15- £512,478 is the average house price
the interior designer Karen Hope and minute drive. “I’ve never gone out TAKING THE TEMPERATURE
her long-term partner, the property shopping for anything deliberately for SELLERS' MARKET

Source: Propcast and Rightmove

investor Paul Featherstone, the five- the home,” Hope says. “It has all just The hotter the SE
T LL
bedroom house has restored original come together over the years. I dread to KE
market, the quicker

52°
R

ER
MA
features behind its stunning double- think how much we have spent on it — and easier it should

S’
RS’

MA
height porch: a Victorian addition it has always been heart over head.” be to sell a home
BUYE

RKET
with classical stucco work and a hooded £3.85 million; inigo.com

What £1 million buys you in . . . Compiled by Victoria Brzezinski

@vbrzezin

Berkshire Denbighshire
Snap up a pretty terrace in a prime spot £975,000 Alyn Bank is a six-bedroom former £1 million
in Windsor. This grade II listed 19th- vicarage just outside Llanarmon-yn-Ial,
century townhouse spread over three a picturesque village in the valley of the
floors has considerable kerb appeal. A River Alyn, a couple of miles east of
hallway leads to the open-plan sitting Offa’s Dyke. The grade II listed property
and dining room, which have been sits in more than seven acres of grounds
knocked through to create an airy and is described as “a good example of a
entertaining space. There’s a compact late-Georgian parsonage” in its Cadw
kitchen with a door to a patio garden. listing. You’re eight miles from the
There’s also a large 26 x 16ft basement market town of Ruthin, a 2022 Best
and, on the first floor, a bathroom and Places to Live winner. More than 3,100
three bedrooms. Trains to London sq ft spread across the main house,
Paddington take roughly half an hour workshop, 247 sq ft garage, barn and
from Windsor & Eton Central railway outhouse includes two reception rooms,
station, 15 minutes’ walk away. a study and six bedrooms, a kitchen/
Air pollution 11.2mcg/m³ particulate diner and downstairs loo.
annual average; 6.2mcg/m³ above the Air pollution 5.3mcg/m³; 0.2mcg/m³
WHO guideline of 5mcg/m³. above the WHO guideline of 5mcg/m³.
Upside Green spaces in Windsor. Upside A wine cellar in the basement.
Downside E rating for energy efficiency Downside There’s only one bathroom
(A being the best and G the worst). shared by six bedrooms.
Contact struttandparker.com Contact savills.com
the times | Friday August 12 2022 Bricks & Mortar 3
3

Brief encounter
Ask the expert
My parents’ tenant has lived in
their investment property for many
years. They have an informal,
unwritten arrangement, although the
tenant pays rent. If there was a dispute,
what is the legal position?

Verbal tenancy the landlord to provide a

agreements are written statement of any term
enforceable in the of the tenancy that is not yet
same way as written evidenced in writing. Failure
ones. If there is an arrangement to provide a written statement
in which someone is allowed within 28 days is a criminal
exclusive occupation of a offence. The statement must
property for a period of time, give the date the tenancy
or “term”, in return for a rent, began, the rent, the rent dates
it generally means there is a and the length of any fixed
tenancy. If the arrangement term that has been agreed. But
began after February 27, 1997, it plainly a well-drawn tenancy
will almost certainly be treated agreement will include a lot
as an assured shorthold tenancy more than this.
under the Housing Act 1988. If there was to be a dispute,
The fact that nothing is the basic terms of the tenancy
written down does not mean are therefore known —
that the basic terms of the although it would be better for
tenancy are not known. For your parents to have a proper
example, if rent has been paid written tenancy agreement
weekly or monthly, it will be with their tenant.
presumed that it is a weekly Mark Loveday is a barrister
or monthly tenancy. Certain with Tanfield Chambers.
terms are implied at common Email questions to
law. For example, the tenant is brief.encounter@thetimes.
entitled to peaceably enjoy the co.uk
premises without interference
by the landlord (an implied
covenant for “quiet
enjoyment”). Equally, the
tenant must not damage the
landlord’s property (a covenant
against “waste”). Similarly,
some terms are implied by
statute, such as the landlord’s
obligation to repair the
structure and exterior of the
dwelling under section 11 of the
Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
In any event, if there is no
written tenancy agreement,
section 20A of the Housing
Act 1988 allows an assured
shorthold tenant to require

View the UK’s most luxurious residential properties

mansionglobal.com/london

Rutland Tuscany, Italy

If you’re on the hunt for a family- £1 million Ditch big city life to run an organic €1.13 million
friendly home with a 21st-century layout, agriturismo less than four miles from
try this four-bedroom detached house Caprese Michelangelo, the birthplace
ten minutes’ drive from Rutland Water. of the Renaissance artist. The 15-acre
A modern extension with bifolding doors estate comprises a main farmhouse with
on two aspects houses the large L- plenty of Tuscan charm (exposed stone
shaped kitchen/dining/family room walls, terracotta floors and beamed
complete with an island with a Belfast ceilings), two further two-bedroom
sink and Quooker boiling water tap. A farmhouses and four partially restored
Nigella-level walk-in pantry and outbuildings. There’s an outdoor pool
a separate utility room lead from this and grounds dotted with olive groves,
space to keep kitchen clutter to a orchards, a veg garden and pinewood
minimum. There’s a hallway, downstairs forest. The main building houses the
loo, a reception room, snug and a study. restaurant, bar, three studio apartments
Two of the bedrooms have their own and the present owner’s three-bedroom
en suite bathrooms. apartment. Arezzo is 28 miles away
Air pollution 8.7mcg/m³; 3.7mcg/m³ while the nearest airport, Perugia San
above the WHO guideline of 5mcg/m³. Francesco, is about an hour and 15
Upside Underfloor heating downstairs. minutes’ drive.
Downside The back garden lawn area is Upside The verdant views.
a little uninspiring. Downside It’s a lot to manage.
Contact fineandcountry.com Contact christiesrealestate.com
4 Bricks & Mortar Friday August 12 2022 | the times
4 Bricks Friday August 12 2022
& Mortar the times

“We knew we wanted to downsize,”

Moving stories Keith says. “We used to come and visit

my daughter for holidays, but now if feels
we are living on permanent holiday.”
Your tales from up and down the property ladder The couple chose a third-floor flat at
Churchill Retirement’s Dutton Lodge

‘It is cheaper and more in Penrith, where properties start at

£200,950 for a one-bedroom apartment
and £271,950 for two bedrooms — less

friendly in the north’ than half the price of a similar one in

St Albans; Churchill has homes at
Dovehouse Lodge, in nearby Hitchin,
priced from £403,950 for a one-bedder.

S
ue Cretin moved to Mickle cinema and bar. And the grounds are “Property is much less expensive
Hill retirement village in well looked after.” here,” Keith acknowledges. But getting
Pickering, North Yorkshire, It’s a different life from the one they more bricks for your buck is not the only
in 2016. She and her late were living as childhood sweethearts. attraction. “The cost of living here is
husband, Michel, who was “We met when we were 16, at the Swiss much lower too,” he says. “Our
French, sold their three- Club in Wardour Street in [central] household bills and council tax are much
bedroom family home near London. Michel couldn’t speak any cheaper, and even the local healthcare
Hampton Court in English and I had just a smattering of seems better.”
southwest London for £540,000 — they French, so a friend would sit between us Being close to the centre of Penrith
had bought it for £32,000 in 1980. and translate,” Sue says. Michel died Sue Cretin, 74, who According to Knight Frank estate means they also save on petrol. “I
“We looked at a two-bedroom two years ago. The couple had been moved from southwest agency, 15 times more private retirement hardly ever use the car,” Keith says.
retirement apartment without a garden married for 53 years. London to Pickering in housing units have been built in the “We can just walk everywhere, which
in Walton-on-Thames,” Sue says. “But it “My husband worked for some top North Yorkshire in 2016, southeast than in the northeast since keeps us active. I can’t walk the fells like
seemed expensive at £445,000. It was London hotels, so he did miss having a has never looked back 2010. In June Churchill Retirement I used to, but I like getting out and about
also right on the main road and noisy.” selection of good restaurants on the Living opened a northern regional office to the shops.”
Instead they chose to move closer to doorstep when we moved here.” in Warrington with £330 million to He adds: “Everyone seems more
their daughter, and six years ago they Adjusting to the public transport system invest in building new homes over the friendly here. We speak to far more
bought a two-bedroom ground-floor hasn’t been easy either. “Buses are much next three years. The UK’s biggest people each day than we used to.
home for £279,000. less frequent,” she says. “There is only retirement housebuilder, McCarthy Perhaps it’s the northern charm
There’s more to love in the north than one bus an hour to the local town of Stone, has also set its sights on northern rubbing off on us.”
lower house prices, though. “I am a Pickering. And it can take an hour to get expansion, with 18 developments under Interviews by Jane Slade. She is the
Londoner but have grown to love to Scarborough on the express.” construction and more to come. founder of the retirement property
Yorkshire,” Sue, 74, says. “It’s delightfully And then there is the extra tourist Have your say Moving 270 miles north from their website retiremove.co.uk
old-fashioned in the sense that people traffic in the summer. Even so, Sue Would you like to share home in Hertfordshire was quite a shift
say ‘Good morning’ when you pass in claims she would never move back to your moving story? in lifestyle for Keith Murphy, 80, a
the street and everyone has time for the south. “The walks and scenery here Email carol.lewis@
thetimes.co.uk
retired product manager for Kodak, and GET BRITAIN
each other.
“It’s a gentler pace of life too. We have
are wonderful — we are on the border
of the North York Moors. And I have
his wife, Norma. The couple had lived
for 30 years in a three-bedroom house
MOVING
much more space here. My patio made so many friends. I would never near St Albans before moving two years Speed up. Streamline.
overlooks a pretty courtyard near the move,” she says. ago to a two-bedroom flat in Cumbria. Save money
6 Bricks & Mortar Friday August 12 2022 | the times
6 Bricks Friday August 12 2022
& Mortar the times

The hot property crisis

Most British homes were not designed How to adapt your home for a hotter climate
with scorching temperatures in mind —
Roofing
now we urgently need solutions to Insulation White roof
reflects heat
Helps the home to
overheating, says Martina Lees stay warm in winter
and cool in summer
C O V E R S T O RY Skylights
Purge hot air
with openable

I
spent the past week sheltering homes that will overheat as skylights
under a parasol in my 37C Surrey temperatures rise, a report from the
garden. My house, you see, was Committee for Climate Change (CCC)
hotter inside than out. As well as found last year. Long overdue, the Layout
Leaves a clear External shutters
worrying about a hosepipe ban country’s first ever regulatory path for cross Keep heat out
and how to get a good night’s requirements on overheating, known as ventilation
sleep in the heat, I was panicking “Part O”, took effect in June, but these between
about the future. Experts predict only cover new homes. There is still a windows
London may feel as hot as Barcelona “complete policy gap” on overheating Glass
by 2050. What might have once sounded for 25,000 existing homes, says Adam Replace standard
Foliage glazing with solar
like a dream is quickly becoming a Gardiner, a senior analyst at the CCC. Strategically
nightmare. According to a Swiss By insulating homes without control glass
placed trees and
climate change study of 520 cities, the considering what happens in summer, plants create a
rising heat will bring flooding from the building industry “has thought about cooler
heavy downpours and spells of severe one problem, but created others”, says microclimate Overhang or recessed
drought, which will soon become the Deborah Andrews, a professor of balcony Shade glazing
with deep balconies and
new normal. sustainable design at London South Garden overhangs
Yet unlike Barcelona, our homes do Bank University. “Then we rely on more Permeable
not have shutters or thick walls or cool tech to manage heating or cooling. We surfaces such as Fans Grilles
courtyards. For our ancestors, a milder ought to get back to a more primitive bark chippings Ceiling heights of Heat pump Allow windows to be
help prevent at least 2.7m safely left open for
climate and cheap coal took the edge off approach to buildings.” Uses renewable electricity
flooding allow fans ventilation
both summer and winter. Today, Britain So what should we do? for both heating and cooling
has the oldest and worst-performing
housing stock in Europe. We also have Use more shading due to water in the toilets evaporating”. 70 per cent of visible light through and,
an antiquated and bizarre Like Barcelonians, shade External slatted blinds made flats feel in what is known as the “G value”, only
planning system. Many windows externally under up to 17.6C cooler and “reduced thermal 35 per cent of the heat. Look for a G
councils still require recessed balconies, shop- loss in winter too”. value below 50 per cent.
homes that face each style awnings or roller In her own 1970s house in west Even just upgrading from single to
other at the rear shutters. These block London, Andrews keeps the kitchen’s double or triple glazing — more effective
to be built 21m (70ft) heat before it comes new bifold doors cool with electric in winter — will help with overheating
apart — a distance inside so are more blinds. “They’re brilliant,” she says. in summer too, as it reduces thermal
chosen in 1902 to effective than gain from the outside and heat loss
protect the internal blinds or Choose the right glass Without from inside, Andrews says. To adapt
modesty curtains, which act “Solar control glazing or films existing windows you can apply a
of Edwardian as a barrier “once also help, but limit useful heat
shading, the flats solar film or, better still, replace
women. It was a the heat is already gains in winter,” says the could reach up to 47.5C — the panes inside the frames to
measurement in the room”, Good Homes Alliance (GHA), solar control glass
reputedly decided by Andrews says. which has just produced an in-
so warm that the (sealedunitsonline.co.uk).
two urban designers, “It’s all common sense depth guide to help owners assess the laminate floors
Raymond Unwin and but no one was taking it risk of overheating. “The greater the
started Increase ventilation
Barry Parker, who walked seriously,” she adds. Her team area of glazing, the more important solar Create a layout with a clear path for
apart in a field until they could no studied the effect of internal protection becomes,” it says. to lift air to flow between two windows on
longer see each other’s nipples through versus external shading in a converted Specialist solar control glass, such as different sides. Fit grilles or secure
their shirts. A century later, the nation block of flats in north London. Like Planitherm 4S, has a metal oxide coating openers so you can safely leave them
became obsessed with sticking glazed many new-build schemes, these homes inside the external pane of a double or open at night — the wider, the better.
rear extensions onto their homes had windows on only one side. Without triple-glazed sandwich. This lets in Roof lights that can open, for example at
and now it’s too hot even to wear shading, the flats could reach up to 47.5C sunlight, but reflects the shorter waves the top of the stairs, purge much of the
a shirt indoors. — “so warm that the laminate floors of solar heat energy back out. A popular heat. Higher ceilings allow for ceiling
Since 2016 we have built 570,000 started to lift, and there was a bad smell ratio is 70:35, meaning the glass allows fans, which usually need a clear 50cm
the times | Friday August 12 2022 Bricks & Mortar 7
Friday August 12 2022 Bricks 7
the times & Mortar

I
t is a clichéd truth universally
acknowledged that an estate agent
in possession of a Georgian house
for sale is in want of a Jane Austen
connection to flog it.
Austen, who would surely while
away hours on Rightmove if she
were alive today, peppered her
prose with many mentions of property.
Phyllis Richardson, the author of House
of Fiction: From Pemberley to Brideshead,
Great British Houses in Literature and
Life, explains that Austen begins five of
her six completed novels by explaining
her characters’ relationships with their
properties. “Mansfield Park and
Northanger Abbey place the house at the Luckington Court,
forefront of the stories even before the on sale for £6 million,
first lines appear,” she notes. was the setting for the
Born in 1775, the author lived her life 1995 BBC adaptation of
Left: Orchard House in Hertfordshire. much like her fictional heroines did — Pride and Prejudice
Above and on the cover: Stone in and around the houses of the
House, in Cornwall. Both new-builds wealthiest and the educated middle class
used solar control glazing by IQGlass of society. It provides prime fodder for
costume dramas, and estate agents
and “improve comfort but do not reduce swoon over her fondness for bricks and
temperature”, according to the GHA mortar. If today’s sometimes tenuous
guide. The extra volume also allows air property particulars are to be believed,
to circulate better. Austen will have traversed vast swathes
Mechanical ventilation with heat of the country, visiting hundreds, even
recovery (MVHR) systems, often fitted thousands of manor houses, rectories
in highly insulated homes, won’t help and cottages in her 41 years.
with cooling and should have an This week Luckington Court — the
“effective summer bypass” — they filming location for the Bennets’ family
can even make overheating worse, home in the BBC’s revered 1995 Pride
the guide adds. and Prejudice adaptation, starring
Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and
Paint the roof white Colin Firth as Mr Darcy — caused a stir
Dr Neil Jennings is a climate scientist at online. When Madeleine Pelling, an art

Austen powers
the Grantham Institute, Imperial College historian specialising in 18th-century
London’s climate change centre. The Britain, tweeted on Monday “THIS IS
speed at which extreme temperatures hit NOT A DRILL. The Bennets’ house
his four-bedroom Victorian semi in from the 1995 Pride and Prejudice is FOR
southwest London has surprised him. SALE”, along with a Rightmove link to
Five years ago, he converted the loft into the £6 million Wiltshire property, she
a fourth bedroom. “We honestly didn’t racked up thousands of likes within
think about the overheating element.” hours. The Austen property connection Estate agents are still smitten with the author’s
Now he plans to paint the loft’s flat roof remains just as powerful as estate agents
white. Why? A 2019 study by the will have you suppose. property connections, finds Victoria Brzezinski
University of Oxford found that making Luckington Court was the perfect
rooftops a lighter, more reflective colour location for the BBC series. Fans will
can reduce peak daytime temperatures recall its starring role from the first stable block, are included in the sale. Chawton cottage [in Hampshire], that
by up to 3C in a heatwave. scenes, featuring a red-cheeked Lizzie The grade II* listed seven-bedroom influenced the sanctuary Austen
returning to Longbourn’s handsome property near Chippenham is for sale described for her female heroines,”
Insulate stone elevations and semi-circular with Woolley & Wallis, although it was Richardson writes. “Although Elizabeth
Adding insulation to walls is a “double Doric porch after tramping through put up for sale in 2018, with more land Bennet and Emma Woodhouse end up
win”, Gardiner says. “It stops cold air the countryside. and a steeper pricetag of £9 million. The marrying into rich estates, Austen had a
from getting into the house in winter, The honey-coloured house had the online furore has translated to something penchant for settling her heroines into
and in summer it can stop the hot air suitable drawing and dining rooms, tangible — by Wednesday a viewing had cottage parsonages. Arriving at
from getting into your house.” Topping library and large hall, which hadn’t been been booked by a pair of Londoners Mansfield Park as
up loft insulation to 30cm and filling over-modernised. Some 25 acres of looking to move to the country; their a child and a
the gap inside cavity walls would pay grassland, woodland and frontage to the daughter had spotted the tweet. poor relation,
for itself in heating bill savings within River Avon provided the romantic rural Austen and her family grew up in homesick Fanny
three years on a three-bedroom backdrop for Lizzie’s country strolls, and modest gentility in a rectory in the Price finds that ‘the
semi, estimates the Centre for for the “prettyish kind of little Hampshire village of Steventon. She lived grandeur of the house
Sustainable Energy. wilderness” in which she took a turn in Bath from 1801 to 1806, and spent astonished, but could not
during a grilling from Lady Catherine de extended periods visiting her brother console her’. The rooms are
Rethink heat pumps Bourgh. It adjoins St Mary with St Edward’s estate, Godmersham Park in ‘too large for her to move in
If more of us get air conditioning, says Ethelbert, a grade I listed church that Kent. Godmersham’s vicarage is thought with ease’ and, worried lest she
Jennings, “the net effect is that more gave the BBC another ideal setting for to have provided the inspiration for Mr damage some expensive item, ‘she
heat is being generated and dumped (spoiler alert) Lizzie and Darcy’s Collins’s house in Pride and Prejudice. crept about in constant fear of
out in the street”, hitting those who eventual wedding. Outbuildings, notably “However plain or snug, it is the something or other’.”
cannot afford the cost of cooling. A CCC a splendid 17th-century dovecote and rectory, and perhaps her final home at w-w.co.uk
study suggests it can increase urban air
temperature by over 1C. Instead, we
should rethink heat pumps. They extract
heat from the air, ground or water and, Novel settings
like a fridge in reverse, amplify it to heat
the space inside a home, but can also be
used for cooling.

Create a green
microclimate
Paved front gardens and plastic artificial
turf at the rear — which can get so hot
that it burns your feet — increase the
risk of overheating indoors. Swap
paving for permeable surfaces such as
gravel or bark chippings. Plant greenery
and, best of all, trees. After trees were
strategically planted at a development in The Ashe Park Estate is a mile from Austen’s Austen is thought to have visited Sea Tree Austen is thought to have been a guest at
Zagreb University, indoor temperatures birthplace, Steventon, and according to House in Lyme Regis, Dorset, in 1804. The 12-bedroom Charlton Park in Kent. She was
were found to be 4C lower in summer “some historical records” she used to visit it views over the Cobb harbour wall may have close to the uncle of Robert Foote, who
and 6C higher in winter than in areas frequently (£17 million; savills.com) inspired Persuasion (£1.4 million; stags.co.uk) owned it (£3.6 million; struttandparker.com)
where no trees were planted.
8 Bricks & Mortar Friday August 12 2022 | the times
8 Bricks Friday August 12 2022
& Mortar the times

‘We employed a
stylist who lived
3,516 miles away
to make over our
home in Bucks’
Meet the virtual decorator who
compiles a dossier to restyle your
space. By Katrina Burroughs

T
wo years ago Emma- interior designer,” Blunden-Stone says. sleep over, you got up and found Emma-Jane Allen and in person, Blunden-Stone probably
Jane Allen, 46, a “I work like an editor. Your home is the the house rearranged. I’d visit people her family, Tim, Lucy knows more about them than their
sustainability story of your life. I walk into your room and go ‘mmmm’ and start moving and Felix Russell, had closest friends.
consultant, moved with and treat it like a paragraph in your life things around.” their Wendover home “He sent a questionnaire, not just
her family from a three- story. I see what might be moved around The basis of his practice is “refresh restyled by Elias about the room but asking everything
bedroom home to a five- to make it better, and then I punctuate it and reframe”. He often finds clients have Blunden-Stone, right, from your favourite hotel to what makes
bedroom chalet-style — with lamps and rugs.” Blunden-Stone, the precise piece needed to complete a over WhatsApp you happy when you come home from
1970s house in who lives with his British husband in scheme somewhere in their house. work,” Allen says. “I hadn’t realised it
Wendover in Buckinghamshire. They Canada, is a committed anglophile, and “There is a reason they bought it — it’s before, but everything for us links back
didn’t have enough furniture, and their Brits love him right back. “Probably just not in the right place.” It’s clever and to nature and outdoors. All my
possessions didn’t suit the space — but about 40 per cent of clients are British. satisfying, and best of all, for those who responses were linked back to
neither did anything that Allen bought. Right now, I’ve got two jobs in the UK: a fear the cost of professional help, mountains, fields and animals, instead of
“The amount I ordered in that first six home office and a main bedroom.” His relatively inexpensive. restaurants and hotels.”
months and then sent back! Nothing attraction? “I have a really good grasp of Allen heard about Blunden-Stone Clients commissioning a room refresh
worked!” she says. “I know what I like, the British high street, from living in from a friend in 2020. “I’d always go are quizzed about what they own, and
but I can’t put things together. I just London for 21 years. The British high to her house and be like, ‘Wow, your their possessions, prized and despised,
wanted somebody to tell me what to do.” street, for home, is just genius, far house is amazing.’ I thought it was all are used as a starting point. “I had a
Help was at hand — well, 3,500 miles superior to the US and Canada.” her work, then she revealed her secret. I thought it was sofa and I said I wanted to get rid of it
away in Toronto — in the form of Elias The publishing analogy comes from ‘I have this friend in Canada that I and he said, ‘Why do you want to get
Blunden-Stone, 51, a Canadian interiors his early career in print and online worked with in London a few years ago, all her work rid of it? I think I can make it work.’ He
stylist and shopping consultant who magazines, including Livingetc and Ideal and he helps me.’ ” before she was always saying, ‘Let’s focus on what
calls himself the Room Editor. The two Home, before he changed direction to The cat was out of the bag. Research you’ve already got.’ ”
began an online relationship, hitting it become a virtual decorator, in 2019, started for a makeover of the garden revealed her After the questionnaire and mood
off so well that, 18 months later, the when he launched his website room. The Room Editor had questions, secret — a man boards comes the centrepiece of
family home has been redesigned from (theroomeditor.ca). Blunden-Stone’s many questions — not just for Allen but Blunden-Stone’s service, the strictly
top to bottom. decorative meddling started long for her accountant husband, Tim Russell, in Canada budgeted “decor dossier”. This is a
The Room Editor is on a mission to before he made it his day job. “I was 48, and children Lucy, 11, and Felix, 9. document comprising three different
“beautify on a budget”. “I’m not an the guest that when you invited me to While he hasn’t met most of his clients schemes for an interior, with illustrated
the times | Friday August 12 2022 Bricks & Mortar 9
Friday August 12 2022 Bricks 9
the times & Mortar

Save&splurge
Outdoor rugs
W Handwoven Kilim Sauvage
outdoor rug, 240cm x 170cm;
£640.78, 1stdibs.com

V Dormouse Juno
rug; from £70 for
110cm x 60cm;
weavergreen.com

For more outdoor

rugs, go to
thetimes.co.uk

V Vrensted rug,
133cm x 195cm,
polypropylene
flat-weave; £29,

i ikea.com

Refresh rules
Want to do a little room editing of your
own? Here are seven top tips:

Seek inspiration everywhere

The aesthetic of your favourite
bar, city or film is a big part of what
makes it special. Bring some of that
home by identifying the colours,
patterns and materials that make it
appealing to you.
Compiled by
Celebrate what you have Victoria Brzezinski
Make sure your treasured items @vbrzezin
are in great shape. If they aren’t, take
steps to make them shine, from a
simple cleaning or a bit of DIY to
professional repairs.
X Waterproof paisley
Rediscover your forgotten items outdoor rug,
Go digging through your stored 180cm x 120cm; £40,
possessions. Long-lost finds you talkingtables.co.uk
didn’t know what to do with may
make a revamped room shine.
floorplans and click-through shopping included finding artworks for the
lists for each option. It includes kitchen, fabric for blinds for the Ignore the ‘rules’
comments on, for instance, how many children’s playroom, and suggesting art The traditional laws of decorating may
centimetres of space are needed between and accessories as finishing touches not always apply (and are often
the furniture, where the cat throughout the house. And this outdated). Forget them. Instead,
may like to sleep, and summer, with the makeover make your personal joy, ease and
styling notes such as: complete, having comfort the priorities when creating a
“Hints of marble communicated with space that works for you.
harmonise Allen solely on email
beautifully with the and WhatsApp Identify what you don’t like
woods and metals throughout all This is an important early step to take
throughout.” It’s ten projects, when filtering through the endless
like a mini Blunden-Stone decorating choices available to you.
magazine about visited the family’s
his client’s home, home and saw the Not everything has to blow
and precisely the fruits of his long- the budget
detailed instruction distance liaison. Spend appropriately. Budget-friendly
manual Allen “Oh my goodness, finds — especially those that won’t
needed. “The dossier I’d had so many undergo heavy wear and tear — U Bellizi indoor/outdoor
Elias sent for the dreams about meeting can be the smartest option. rug; from £59 for 120cm
garden room — it looks Elias. It sounds ridiculous, x 170cm, dunelm.com
exactly like my house now,” but he’s made me so happy in Enlist help
she says. this house,” Allen says. “He turned up Whether it’s a decorator, an interior
After the garden room they moved on and I cried. There were massive hugs. designer or a room editor, help
to the dining room, then tackled the It was pure joy.” (and a fresh set of eyes) can be key X Always Greener outdoor rug by
sitting room and the entry porch, the Projects start at £175. A large-scale to revealing the answers to your Kit Kemp; £570, Andrew Martin
main hall, a guest bedroom and the makeover might cost £1,500; interiors challenges.
family bathroom. Additional tasks theroomeditor.ca
10 Bricks & Mortar Friday August 12 2022 | the times
10 Bricks Friday August 12 2022
& Mortar the times

Wish you lived here?

Provence
Meet the estate agent who has seen it
all and sold it all over 50 years in the
sun-drenched region. By Peter Miller

H
ugo Skillington is the the unwitting celebrity who really put
frightfully English Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur on the map
estate agent who this for British househunters thanks to his
summer celebrates 50 1989 book A Year in Provence. “I told him
years of helping the that if he authorised me to put ‘on the
rich and famous to instructions of Peter Mayle’ at the top of
buy and sell homes a full-page ad in Country Life I was sure
in the sun-drenched, we could get an outrageous price for it,”
lavender-scented fields of Provence. he says. “However, he was a surprisingly
His clients have included Elton John, discreet sort of chap and said he would
Sting, Hugh Grant, Angelina Jolie, Brad really rather not. In the end it was the
Pitt, Eddie Redmayne, Joan Collins, local agent through whom he’d bought it
Rupert Everett, Mark Birley, Mohamed who sold it on for him, for a surprisingly
Al Fayed and Tina Turner. Many modest sum.”
became friends, including Tony Skillington’s own story is worthy of
Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave, who a bestseller. He first went to France in
in 1967 bought a holiday home, Le Nid 1972, aged 21, to marry an au pair he
du Duc, high in the hills behind had lured away from a workmate at a
Grimaud, and where in later Chelsea party. The wedding
years Skillington attended should have been in Orange
some of the grandest but he jilted her ten days
celebrity-filled parties before the nuptials.
on the Riviera. Weeks later he ran off
“I’ll never forget with the wife of a
a time in the 1970s trade fair organiser.
when a painting of This time they
their swimming married and she
pool was hanging became the mother
over a fireplace. of the eldest of his Riviera as he did deals from St Maxime Top: Grimaud. Above far removed from the noisy and rather
It looked special,” three sons. to St Tropez, including selling pop star left: a four-bedroom desperate summer circus of St Tropez.”
Skillington recalls. In “I was making up Johnny Hallyday’s villa, where he split-level villa in La It’s still not cheap, though, and as a
2018 that painting was for the rather sheltered narrowly escaped hordes of groupies. He Croix-Valmer is on sale result the pretty villages of Gassin and
sold at auction in New life I had been leading has valued dungeons, drunk champagne for €4.8 million with Ramatuelle and even further inland, to
York for $90 million, at the in Gloucestershire,” says with the late Sir Bernard Ashley, and Halstead Bell. Above Lorgues, Cotignac and Fayence, are
time a world record for a work Skillington. His A-level French declares his finest sale was Château right: a four-bedroom proving popular.
by a living artist. The artist was David got him his first job with an agency in Léoube to Sir Anthony Bamford. “It stone farmhouse in Those on a tighter budget can go just
Hockney, who worked on Portrait of an Cogolin, a town near St Tropez. His first must be the most spectacular property the Vaucluse is on the a little further west along the coast to
Artist (Pool with Two Figures) during solo sale was in 1972, a villa on the edge on the entire Côte d’Azur — it makes market for €1.2 million improving Cavalaire-sur-Mer. Although
several visits to the house — it featured of Pampelonne beach, for 450,000 francs. [Roman] Abramovich’s pile on the Cap through Knight Frank. it lacks character — there’s no quaint
his boyfriend at the time, the artist Its value today? Close to €3 million. d’Antibes look pretty small beer.” Left: Hugo Skillington square with a church in a corner —
Peter Schlesinger, with Le Nid in the Skillington now lives on the edge of Skillington’s rather more practical tip it has a restaurant-packed marina.
background. In 2018, after 51 years in the Grimaud. Two divorces followed and for buyers? Don’t buy in the heat of a And if you want the sound of the sea?
Richardson/Redgrave family, Skillington this autumn he will marry another Provençal summer. “Come again in the Then Gigaro, around the peninsula to
sold the house for about €3 million to French woman. “It will be third time winter, ideally when it’s raining. On a the south of St Tropez, is the new hot
Ian Fleming’s nephew. He remembers lucky, I’m sure,” says Skillington, now grey day you’ll be able to assess a spot, Skillington reveals. “Just a few years
glancing at the pool during his final visit. 71 and working for the St Tropez property more realistically.” ago it was little more than a discreet
“I thought of the painting and it occurred agency Halstead Bell — he is regularly He now advises buyers to look to family beach with a few bars, but it’s
to me in a bizarre way that the pool was spotted in leathers astride his Motto Grimaud. “The more discerning among gone wildly upmarket, to the delight of
worth more than the whole estate.” Guzzi Griso 1100 motorcycle. us value its restrained chic and calm, some and the despair of others.”
He was also instructed by Peter Mayle, His business revved up across the where one can enjoy a peaceful lifestyle You heard it here first.

Location lowdown Brockley, SE4

Where? In southeast London, appealing stock, from former house on Foxberry Road, with How about schools? No is one of the few art deco
near Peckham, Deptford and workers’ cottages to substantial a garden room, is on sale for need to move once you’ve put dancehalls left in London
Lewisham — and about ten family homes; short terraced £1.1 million. down roots. A trio of state and hosts regular events for
minutes by train from rows on streets such as primaries have been rated the twinkle-toed, from
London Bridge. Geoffrey Road and Cranfield Not cheap, then? Think of outstanding by Ofsted: John northern soul and 1990s
Road mean you’ve a good it as good value for Zone 2, Stainer Community Primary beats to jive parties. It was
Why now? Kate Bush, the chance of snapping up a semi. where the average property School, Haberdashers’ Aske’s a filming location for the
world’s new favourite pop star, Indie shops near the station price over the past year was Hatcham Temple Grove Free BBC drama Killing Eve and
was living in a flat on include a brace of Gently £1.07 million, according to School and Gordonbrock hosted a secret White Stripes
Wickham Road in Brockley shops, for ceramics, candles Rightmove. Brockley sneaks in Primary School. The local gig in 2007.
when she wrote and recorded and children’s shoes, and My at £612,169 — and it’s handier state secondary, Prendergast,
Wuthering Heights 45 years Eco Brockley, a zero-waste England IPA. Down the road for the city centre than many is rated outstanding too, and Don’t move here if . . .
ago. (The flat above is under store. The Orchard pub does in Crofton Park the popular south London locales, with Brockley is in the catchment You’re looking for the lido.
offer with The Modern House.) a seven-hour slow-cooked Malaysian Deli serves Overground services to area for four more outstanding That’s in Brockwell, a 20-
For nostalgia of a different brisket on Sundays, Joyce succulent beef rendang. Canada Water (from six secondaries: St Ursula’s, St minute drive away. And you’ll
kind, head to Hilly Fields park serves craft beers and natural A two-bedroom minutes) and Highbury & Thomas the Apostle and two need to head to Peckham,
for an outdoor screening of wines from the tap, and the end-of-terrace garden flat on Islington (from 30 minutes). Harris academies. Deptford or Lewisham for
Back to the Future. Brockley Brewery offers locals Cranfield Road, near the First-timers will find modern a swimming pool, cinemas
For fans of Victorian a 20 per cent discount on station, is on the market for one-bedroom homes near the Do move here if . . . You like or the big weekly shop.
architecture there’s plenty of delicious beers such as its New £625,000, and a four-bedroom station from £275,000. to boogie. The Rivoli Ballroom Matthew Davis