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BSPC FEATURE PROPERTY
A beautifully restored and extended Georgian If walls could speak, a now magnificent B-listed Georgian townhouse on the High Street in Coldstream could fill a tombe or two. But this house is also much more than it appears. Completely refurbished and extended, the accommodation is now over three floors – not counting cellar rooms – and includes a sizeable outbuilding/double garage and adjoining workshop, a combined space that offers home-based business opportunities or conversion to a self-contained granny annexe or holiday let. Dating from 1798, the house occupies a plot originally owned by The Hirsel that served as storage space for a stonemason who was given four years in which to build a home – and this was the result. Successive owners have included the first Liberal MP for Berwickshire, Charles Marjoribanks – the property has also been a school, Henderson Academy, and a quirky legacy is the tunnel that goes under the house from front to back, a shortcut route the boys used to take to reach the schoolhouse in the rear garden. Today, the house has acquired a new lease of life thanks to its present owner, Bill Little, who bought the property nine years ago when it was in a very dilapidated condition. “I’d always wanted a Georgian townhouse and when I saw this one I just knew I had to resurrect it,” he says. And resurrect it he has, from literally raising (and renewing) the roof to accommodate a stunning en suite master bedroom that occupies the entire second floor, to installing new double-glazed sash and case windows, repairing stonework, checking and reinforcing wall and window lintels, new gas central heating and water systems, replacing the kitchen and bathrooms .
Suffice to say nothing has been overlooked, and as the property has listed status, all the work has been done under the eagle eyes of Scottish Heritage. The interior of this one-off home showcases the very best of old and new, where careful choices have been made to ensure continuity between the two, as in the mix of original wood floors and engineered oak flooring, original stripped doors and woodwork, cast iron radiators, working window shutters, and the sitting room’s inglenook-style fireplace, which houses a multi-fuel stove.
This is a substantial family home, with a classic period hall and original staircase leading to two elegant and beautifully proportioned reception rooms – in addition to its feature fireplace, the sitting room also has an amazing full height arched window overlooking the rear garden, while the formal dining room has a curved glass wall feature. Linked to the dining room by french doors is a well -equipped dining kitchen fitted with a dual-fuel range cooker, fridge, freezer and dishwasher (all included) and solid oak worktops – and a delightful window seat underneath the front-facing window.