Country Life property pages 7th Dec 2022

Successfullysoldbyyour local countryproperty experts

2022hasbeenanespeciallybusyyearintheproperty market.AtMichaelGrahamourteamofdedicatedlocal expertshavesuccessfullymatchedprimetownand countryhomesforsalewiththerightbuyersin am arket wher ed emandforlargerfamilyhousesfarexceededtheir supply.

UntilnowTheLondonOfficeinStJames’ sP lacehas beentheLondonbranchofMichaelGraham’ sn etwork ofofficeswhichstretchacrosseightcountiesinEngland. OurnewLondonofficelocatedonPortobelloRoadin KensingtonandChelseawillstrengthenthe re lationship betweenour re gionsandLondonandallowustohelp evenmor ec ustomersmaketheironwar dj ourney ,w hether that’ sw ithinthecapitalortothecountry.

MichaelGraham’s newLondonoffice comingsoon...

SOLD DINTON,BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, Guideprice:£1,375,000

SOLD THORNBOROUGH,BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, Guideprice:£1,200,000

SOLD MAIDFORD,NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, Guideprice:£1,500,000

SOLD ASPLEYGUISE,BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, Guideprice:£1,875,000

SOLD CRANFIELD,BEDFORDSHIRE, Guideprice:£1,500,000

SOLD GREA TK INGSHILL,BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, Guideprice:£1,500,000

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i l l a g e h o m e w i t h b e a u t i f u l g a r d e

Your indispensable guide to the capital

A CITY THAT’S GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT

The Museum of Architecture’s perennially popular and wonderfully eccentric ‘candy paradise’isbackforitssixthyear.Theevent sees more than 100 landscape architects, engineers and architectural designers wave goodbye to traditional tools and come togethertoconstructagingerbreadcityinminiature,usingbakedbricksandsugaredcement.

The sweet sensation is built to a different designeveryyear.Thisyear,itwillcomprise fivecities,infiveverydifferentclimatezones: polar, continental, temperate, dry and tropical. The architects will consider building methods, environments and local resources, in light of the impact the climate crisis is having on communities across the globe.

Festive workshops will run alongside the exhibition,includingonewhereyoucanbuild a gingerbread house using a handmade, in-house-recipe gingerbread kit. Each kit is madefresh,sopre-bookingisessential. AEW The Gingerbread City, 6–7 Motcomb Street, SW1, is open from December 3–January 2, 2023 (www.thegingerbreadcity.com)

Luke Hayes

At Risk no more

BOSTON MANOR HOUSE (above and below), the Jacobean gem on the outskirts of Brentford in west London, heads a list of 19 sites in the capital whose futures have been secured, enabling their removal from Historic England’s updated Heritage at Risk register (Town & Country, November 16). Noted for its superb plaster ceilings and chimneypieces, the house was built in 1623 by Lady Reade, who inherited the site via marriage from Sir Thomas Gresham, owner of nearby Osterley House. Now in the hands of the London Borough of Hounslow, the Grade I-listed house, the grounds of which form an attractive public park, will reopen to visitors in early 2023 after a four-year restoration programme. Also deemed saved is a 19th-century drinking fountain and adjacent cattle trough at Hyde Vale, near the Ranger’s House, Greenwich, SE10. Funding from various bodies has enabled the repair of the fountain and reconnection to the water supply, providing safe drinking to passers-by. It was erected by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association in 1877, a time when indoor plumbing was rare. Philanthropists responded by building numerous free public water fountains. Despite there being more than 100 listed drinking fountains across London, few are now operational (‘Urban streams’, June 29). The Heritage of London Trust is campaigning to get them reconnected. Among 17 sites added to the at-risk list include the Church of St Bartholomew, Stamford Hill, N15, by the Arts-and-Crafts architect W. D. Caröe, and the former Gaumont Palace cinema, Wood Green, N22. Jack Watkins

Paint the town la Dolce vita

COVENT of colour this Christmas, courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana. The bold Italian fashion house has installed a pop-up store in the famous piazza, stocked full of festive treats, including homeware items and its renowned panettone cake decorated in traditional Sicilian colours and patterns. Open until January 15 (www.coventgarden.london/ dolce-gabbana-x-covent-garden).

is awash in a riot

Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cheroo

BATTERSEA POWER STATION’S chimney experience is now open to the public.

Visitors to Lift 109, in the Power Station’s Art Deco Turbine Hall A, will be treated to an immersive exhibition offering them a glimpse into the building’s industrial past, before being whisked up to the top of the north-west chimney for 360˚ views of the London skyline. Visit www.lift109.co.uk for more information.

A pretty penny

APROPERTY on Knightsbridge’s Cadogan Square, SW1, is on the market for £25 million with Harrods Estates. The guide price for the five-bedroom, 4,404sq ft duplex apartment is 7.89 times more than the area’s average price for the past year, according to Rightmove (020–7225 6506; www.harrodsestates.com).

The substantial figure is down to a number of things, according to Shaun Drummond, director of residential sales at the agency, including a rare opportunity to acquire a share of the freehold. ‘The cost of the materials and finishes is incomparable to any other home on Cadogan Square,’ he added. (Designer Viktor Udzenija used rare marbles and commissioned stained-glass windows.) Finally, the location. ‘Cadogan Square is considered to be one of the top five addresses in the golden triangle of Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair,’ he said.

Back to the Heath

ALONG LOST pond on Hampstead Heath

immortalised on canvas by John Constable is to be restored 140 years after it dried up. The artist regularly sketched and painted the view from the top of the Heath—which featured Branch Hill Pond—when he lived in the area from 1819–22. A pit has already been dug on the site of the spring-fed pool and lined with puddling clay to help hold rainwater. It is hoped that the project, which is due to be completed in the spring, will encourage the dragonflies and hedgehogs that once frequented the area to return. Anne-Marie O’Connor, chairwoman of The Redington Frognal Association, which has already raised more than £40,000 to fund the works,

said: ‘It’s a win-win. A wildlife pond like there was two centuries ago, particularly with so very many ponds in Britain having been lost from drying up or built on [will return], as will that view, which Constable so loved.’

3,000

The size of the new Guccidesigned suite at The Savoy. It’s a full-circle moment for the fashion house, the founder of which,GuccioGucci,wasonce a luggage porter at the hotel

The new afternoon-tea experience at the Kensington Hotel, SW7, is based upon Jules Verne’s seminal novel Around the World in Eighty Days. The culinary journey starts in London with miniature steak pies and ends in Cairo with a cumin humous and caramelisedonion sandwich. You will want to steal one of the menus, beautifully illustrated by Niki Groom. From £58 per person (www.doylecollection.com/hotels/thekensington-hotel/dining/afternoon-tea)

LONDON LIFE

Editor Rosie Paterson

Editor-in-chief Mark Hedges

Sub-editors Octavia Pollock, Stuart Martel

Art Heather Clark, Emma Earnshaw, Ben Harris, Dean Usher

Pictures Lucy Ford, Emily Anderson

AdvertisingKatieRuocco07929364909

Email firstname.surname@futurenet.com

Let there be light

From incandescent whales to giant, starry angels, London’s Christmas light displays only seem to get bigger and better with every passing year. Carla Passino journeys through the capital’s centre guided by their cheering glow

Illustrated by Fred van Deelen

THEY are a wiry silhouette, dull against the clutter of fuzzy hats, imperious shop signs and misty breaths of a cold autumn evening. But it takes only a moment and the angels above Regent Street come alive in a burst of gold and white, their wings and tails twinkling in festive triumph against the darkening sky. It’s the Christmas lights switch-on and the festive season has officially begun, ushering in a cascade of partying, cooking and frenzied shopping.

To paraphrase Louisa May Alcott, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without any light

displays. It’s perhaps surprising, therefore, to discover that they only made their first appearance in London less than 70 years ago, although they are the modern incarnation of a much older tradition. Someone in Germany—story wants him to be none other than the founding father of Protestantism, Martin Luther—once thought of decorating an evergreen tree with tiers of lit candles, taking the first step towards turning Christmas into a festival of light. Many hands helped those early flickers to become today’s sparkling displays. The first was Prince

Albert’s—he brought his Tannenbaum tradi tion to Britain when he married Queen Victoria and popularised it so much that the tree crossed the Atlantic, too, catching the imagination of the US. The second was Thomas Edison’s: the incandescent bulb’s inventor created a little electric display for New Year’s Eve, followed by another one for Christmas in 1880. An enterprising busi nessman who worked with Edison, Edward Hibberd Johnson, then had the brilliant idea of replacing festive candles with bulbs, stringing 80 together to decorate a tree in 1882.

It took a while for the fashion to catch on, not least because electricity was expensive, but, in 1920, American store-owner Frederick Nash thought that bedecking the trees along Santa Rosa Avenue in Altadena, California, with lights would make for a jolly Christmas (and great advertising). The tradition of festive displays had officially begun.

As the US’s elaborate shop-window vignettes journeyed across the Atlantic—they were ‘imported’ by Wisconsin-born departmentstore pioneer Harry Selfridge in 1909—so did the Christmas lights, although it took them considerably longer: it was only in 1954 that central London’s first proper display set Regent Street ablaze. The initiative was so unusual that The Times wrote that ‘lanterns would stretch the length of the street and would be lighted for a month’ at a cost of £8,000. However, the atmosphere must have been more

Onfoot

Middle Eastern than Dickensian, because, in December 1954, The Sphere magazine reported: ‘Late-evening shoppers in Regent Street are given the impression that they are walking through a vast Eastern bazaar by the hundreds of lanterns hung outside the shops as Christmas decorations.’

Regent Street may have been the first off the historic blocks, but, these days, it’s Oxford Street that kickstarts the Christmas season. The capital’s temple of shopping turns on its display earlier than anyone else (this year, on November 2), although in 2021, 20 streets across the West End worked together to stage the world’s largest simultaneous switch-on, bathing London in more than a million festive LEDs—almost a liberatory gesture from the restrictions of the recent past.

Lights only arrived in Oxford Street in 1959, but not for lack of trying. A 1955 request to extend Regent Street’s scheme to Oxford Circus was turned down by the local council ‘because of the possibility, however small, of an accident’, according to UCL’s Survey of London. Eventually, in 1959, local traders succeeded and the street was lined with a sequence of tree-like shapes spruced up with tinsel and bulbs. Somewhat sparse, it wasn’t a patch on today’s glowing river of stars, hanging golden at the end of silvery-white tails and almost tickling the top of doubledecker buses. A Sky Full of Stars—no prize for creative naming there—is the same display as last year and that’s good news, not only because it’s pretty, but also for sustainability. At a time of growing environmental pressures and high energy costs, Christmas lights have come under fire, but re-using the decorations reduces waste and, in a bid to be even more eco-friendly, Oxford Street this year has chosen ultra-efficient LEDs and cut down operating hours, with the scheme’s consumption set to be two-thirds less than in 2021.

Equally strong are the sustainability credentials of Bond Street’s new display—its lights are energy-efficient and made of recyclable and, in some cases, recycled materials. After years of peacocks—inspired, alas, not by this magazine, the symbol of which is the bird, but by the dandies that once strutted their stuff along the street—it’s all change in 2022, with regal jewels taking centre stage. Originally conceived for the Platinum Jubilee, they are now a tribute to the late Queen. Four giant crowns dot the road, interspersed by a glittering, if perhaps Baroque, symphony of necklaces and tiaras, all inspired by the Royal Family’s own collection (and perhaps by some of the gems that sparkle in the local shop windows).

Where Bond Street looks to royalty, Piccadilly turns to its own architecture, with

‘TheangelsaboveRegentStreetcomealive inaburstofgoldandwhite,theirwingsand tailstwinklingagainstthedarkeningsky’

Onfoot

five figures of Anteros—a sparkling interpretation of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain —floating bow in hand above the crowds and competing in wingspan with the Regent Street angels. ‘The scheme along Piccadilly was purposefully given its own unique identity by making the iconic figure of Anteros the focus,’ says Emily Ferrary of the Heart of London Business Alliance, which puts up the display. This is the sixth year Piccadilly has a dedicated display, but, of course, shops along the street had long put on head-turning schemes —most notably the Burlington Arcade, which this year celebrates the 1920s with a Babyloninspired installation, and Fortnum & Mason, dressed in festive lights to complement its whimsical windows, which feature a new adorable, if slightly hapless, redcoat Geoffrey, who always puts his foot wrong at Christmas.

Minimalism is definitely not at home in Covent Garden either—where a winter wonderland complete with twinkling tree, glowing mistletoe chandeliers and dazzling disco balls can be washed down by 25 different varieties of mulled wine—and, above all, Carnaby Street. The people that gave us giant records, butterflies and whales are bringing them all together in a scheme inspired by the past 25 years of lights (the street first switched them on in 1997): it’s a zany com bination of snowmen, palm trees and even an underwater seascape, all peppered with

Bestoftherest

It’s impossible to miss the Harrods Christmas lights in Brompton Road. Christian Dior has taken over the store and embroidered its 44 windows with a sailing ship and compass stars of a massive scale. But perhaps the most delightful surprise awaits inside— a gingerbread Monsieur Dior in his atelier

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its lights, Kew Gardens has put on a magnificent show that encompasses everything from the pretty (the illuminated Twelve Days of Christmas sculptures) to the atmospheric (the fire garden); however, the palm for the most moving displays goes to Floraison, an installation of fragile poppies clinging to branches, with Silent Night playing in the background

More is more at King’s Cross, where a 47ft Christmas tree glows in the neon colour of Alpine-themed decorations. Also back is Temenos, a gigantic, stylised sculpture that suggests a grove of trees; there’s The Drops Christmas market, too, and even curling

tributes to Queen (expect quotes from Bohemian Rhapsody) and the Rolling Stones (massive tongues).

Because no Christmas would be complete without a Grinch, however, Christmas lights have long had their detractors. Many lamented the traffic congestion caused by the throngs that came to admire the lights: ‘Is it not highly absurd, by these tedious “Lights”, to beckon even more cars to jam London’s streets to utter standstill?’ wrote Surrey resident Mrs Godfrey Talbot in a 1966 letter to The Times. Others decried the aesthetic, or lack thereof, with the displays variously labelled as flashy or unimaginative—in 1997, The Independent dismissed the festive efforts

At home in festiveLondon

Mayfair, £2.25 million

Set in a secret courtyard overlooking New Bond Street, this two-bedroom flat is laid out across two floors, with receptionroom,diningroomandkitchen downstairs and, upstairs, the bedrooms, plus access to loft space and a roof garden. Knight Frank (020–7647 6615; www.knightfrank.co.uk)

Mayfair, £10.95 million

Situated in a mews close to Berkeley Square, this unusually wide house has four bedrooms, a bespoke eat-in kitchen, a large reception room with separate study area and plenty of intriguing details, including a retractable roof at the top of the house. Savills (020–7578 5100; www.savills.co.uk)

as a ‘sorry parade of pathetic Santas, tatty angels and garish light bulbs’.

But perhaps the worst setback London’s Christmas lights have ever had to overcome is cost: a mere seven years after Oxford Street staged its first display, local shops were ready to throw in the towel and eventually did so in 1967, with Regent Street following suit a few years later. ‘The lights might not be lit again in our times,’ cautioned The Times in 1969 and, indeed, the difficult years of the 1970s were an era of festive darkness. Today, the future of the economy may once again feel uncertain, but the Christmas lights keep shining—all the more reason to go out and enjoy them.

Mayfair, £35 million

ThebirthplaceofSirAlecDouglas-Home, No 28, South Street was once home to Dame Barbara Cartland. A grand Edwardianhouse,ithassevenbedrooms, lavish reception rooms, a wellness suite with swimming pool and a roof terrace taking in long views of Mayfair. Wetherell (020–7529 5566; www.wetherell.co.uk)

Seasonal suggestions

Be sure to head on down to St Paul’s Cathedral for an Advent service (www.stpauls.co.uk). ‘A Celebration of Christmas’, December 15, is free to attend, but advance booking is required; the Christmas Carol Service (December 23 and 24) is free to attend and unticketed. Be prepared to queue. Borough Market’s annual Evening of Cheese is back, 6pm–9pm, December 15. The extravaganza includes tastings, drinks and plenty of expert advice (www.boroughmarket. org.uk/events/an-evening-of-cheese. Shire-horse carriage rides around Richmond and Bushy Parks are available until January 1, 2023 (www. royalparks.org.uk). In Richmond Park, the 75-minute experience costs from £450, plus booking fee, for a six-seater carriage and refreshments. Rides in Bushy Park are £15 per head for 25 minutes, including refreshments, until December 26. The rides will help fund conservation initiatives using working Shire horses in the Royal Parks.

Here’s looking at nursery rhymes

• Oranges and lemons: its singsong tune belies its dark message about money, borrowing and debt. ‘When will you pay me? Say the bells of Old Bailey.’ Apparently never, because the rhyme ends: ‘And here comes achoppertochop off your head, Chop,chop,chop, chop, the last man’s dead.’

London’s criminals, oftenthe victims of extreme poverty, were regularly paraded through the capital’s streets before being publicly executed • Three Blind Mice: many believe that this alludes to Mary I’s persecution of three priests, including Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London. The mice’s blindness refers to their Anglican faith. ‘They all ran after the farmer’s wife’: they plotted to kill the Queen. ‘Who cut off their tails with a carving knife’: she (Bloody Mary to her Protestantpractising opponents) had all three burned at the stake

• Ring-a-ring-a-roses: once a warning against the Black Death that ravaged London; today, an innocent game acted out by young children standing in a circle. The roses refer to the deadly rashes, the posies a (useless) preventative tool and the sneezes a common symptom. ‘We all fall down’: Death

Lavender Green Flowers Shop of the month

239, KING’S ROAD, SW3

EARLY on in the barrel run to the holidays, Lavender Green Flowers is larded with moss-tucked pots of jasmine and paperwhites and frothy tubs of waxflower, heather, and hellebore. Downstairs in the basement workshop, customers stand around a communal table wielding spools of bindwire, gimleting wreaths with pine cones and winterberries, dried green oranges and hydrangeas.

It’s the owner Sue Barnes’s favourite time of year and it’s odds-on you’ll spot her putting in shifts on the shop floor with her 36-strong staff. She started the business 32 years ago, shortly after her children were born. As Christmas approaches, Ms Barnes and her team will be garlanding grand winter events as well as private homes—you can book them to turn up at your house with a Nordmann fir and all the trimmings. ‘At home in Sussex,’ says Ms Barnes, ‘I go for a huge wreath of foraged foliage to put on a bit of a show for visitors. Three types of pine, dried hydrangeas and eucalyptus with a velvet ribbon does it for me!’ Jo Rodgers

Alamy; Getty; Polly Crossman; Rik Pennington Photography; Paul Wood

A green space

RHS LINDLEY LIBRARY, 80, VINCENT SQUARE, SW1

THE library of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is clearly not a garden, but, in December, when the wind starts to bite and flowerbeds begin their annual hibernation, this sunlit room makes for an excellent alternative.

The Lindley’s world-class collection is open to all (note that only RHS members can take

Thegreatandthegood

the books outside of the library) and holds tomes on everything from earthworms and old roses to landscape design. Rare books, journals and drawings in the archive below are available to view by appointment.

Armchair researchers will be pleased to learn that some of these treasures can now be accessed online (www.rhs.org.uk/digitalcollections).

Natasha Goodfellow is the author of ‘A London Floral’ and ‘A Cotswold Garden Companion’ (www.finchpublishing.co.uk)

Psst... pass it on

THE Waterside Café is a new eatery in Regent’s Park. The menu has been curated by Chris Holland, former contestant on BBC’s Great British Menu, and the bespoke wallpaper is inspired by clippings from the park’s Queen Mary Rose Garden.

MY PLATE OF VIEW

Mount St Restaurant, 41–43, Mount Street, W1

I KNOW it’s a Christmas classic, but I can’t stand Love Actually. I have, however, always had a soft spot for Richard Curtis’s London, a place where nobody ever has to change at Bank and the snow miraculouslysettles.Atthistimeof year,itfeelsnearestnotinNottingHill,but on the wide, frosty streets of Mayfair.

Mount Street Restaurant sits atop the newly revamped, Holmesianly hand some Audley Public House. Both are under the stewardship of Artfarm, the hospitality group headed up by former Fortnum & Mason CEO Ewan Venters. It’sallundertheHauser&Wirthumbrella and the dining room at Mount Street, with its Warhol-esque primary colours mingling with clubland oxblood and brass,hasbeencreatedwithagallerist’s confident eye.

The first of the edible works of art comes in the form of omelette Arnold Bennett. With the individually tempera mental components of eggs, haddock, cream and cheese, it’s the chef’s equivalent of conducting Brahms, but here it’s a triumph, every element striking the rightnote.Thesameistrueofleekvinaigrette with moreishly nubbly romesco, accompaniedbyaglassofsensationally buttery white Burgundy.

London curiosities

BRANCH OUT

STANDING in Hyde Park’s Rose Garden, this Caucasian elm has a huge, but very neat and dense canopy of small, serrated leaves. Most remarkable is the trunk, which is very short and made up of a tightly clustered, fluted boles, gathered above your head. Jack Watkins

LoinofHighlandvenisonissuede-soft, served with the richest, almost jammy braised haunch and parsnip purée— a genuinely flawless piece of cooking. Bubble and squeak ‘chips’ with HP hollandaisearegildingthelily,butI’dgild it again in a heartbeat. A crisp-lidded, whisper-lightblackcurrantsoufflecomes, asalldessertsshould,withbothcustard and ice cream, the latter spiked with a hintofliquorice.Oneofthejoysofeat ingat 45 Jermyn Street, the restaurant beneath Fortnum & Mason that was, until 2020,underMrVenters’seye,isthe savouries menu, and there’s one here, too, complete with a rarebit and gentleman’s relish on toast.

On a weekday lunchtime, the dining room is full of couples, colleagues and groups getting into the festive spirit.

Mount Street Restaurant already feels likeafutureclassic—andit’soneI’dtake over Love Actually any (Christmas) day.

Emma Hughes

Where everybody knows your name

Firmly flying the flag for traditional British fried food, the greasy spoon is still flourishing. Patrick Galbraith tucks in to a full English Illustrations by Bryony Fripp

food,

IREMEMBER my first time very clearly.

We were both 16 and it was called Parma Café. ‘It’s the best greasy spoon I’ve been to,’ she said, as we walked there from her house behind Oval Tube. Twelve years later, Constance and I live together in Walworth, a little further south, and she still talks about the Parma often, although it was turned into a Japanese restaurant two years ago.

Outside Café House (189, Walworth Road, SE17), a man in a dirty grey suit drags a mattress down the pavement. When my food comes, they’ve added chips as well. ‘A mistake,’ I suggest to the waiter. ‘Yes, but is it a problem?’ In the doorway, two couples are standing inches apart, talking into each other’s faces as they fiddle with their hearing aids. ‘Nice to see you,’ the old man says as he turns to walk away. ‘Be good,’ the other man calls after him with a shining smile. Outside, the man in the too-big grey suit shuffles past, heading back the other way. The mattress is gone.

clearly. was called Parma Café. ‘It’s greasy walked Tube. live south, talks into Japanese Road, a ‘Yes, it are other the fried

My girlfriend’s beloved Parma might now be serving sushi, but greasy spoons, those cheap eateries where fried food conquers all, are still very much part of London life. From Pimlico to the Old Kent Road, ‘caffs’, as opposed to cafés, can be found in number. Their story really begins after the Second World War.

Restaurants at that point were few and fiendishly expensive and subsidised public dining rooms were usually dire. Consequently, greasy spoons, serving everything from liver to fried eggs, became immensely popular. They were usually run by people who had emigrated here in the 1940s and 1950s. ‘It’s funny,’ a tattooed girl with whom I strike up a conversation at Café House says to me, ‘greasy spoons are so English, but they are basically all run by Italians or Turks.’

Greasy spoons are buried deep in British culture—although the term itself originated in the US, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.TheyappearinShane Meadows films, in Derek Jarman films and the eccentric outsider artists Gilbert and George used to breakfast at the same one in Spitalfields, the Market Café (2, Broadway Market, E8), every day for 35 years.

reckons that the charm of the greasy spoon is really its salty reliability. ‘To me, it’s spoons but all deep Jaroutsider at E8), for

Hugh Richard Wright, the bouncy London foodie and restaurant PR (www. hughrichardwright.com),

all about familiarity,’ he explains. ‘You know what you’re getting and you know you’re going to eat abundantly.’ Mr Richard Wright admits that not all of them serve good food, but he disagrees when I suggest that perhaps it’s not about the food at all. He accepts you’re probably best to head down to your local with a bit of a hangover and relatively low expectations, but he notes that you’ve got places such as the Regency Café (17–19, Regency Street, SW1) in Pimlico, and Terry’s (158, Great Suffolk Street, SE1), which, he reckons, ‘are really very, very good’. Although, admittedly, he wonders if Terry’s quite counts any more, ever since it started serving wines from

LONDON LIFE

Eateries such as the Regency Café (above) and Terry’s Café (below) are raising the bar for the humble greasy spoon, with Hugh Richard Wright lauding the food as ‘very, very good’

found everybecame run the

the

lauding very good’

of a toeatabundantly’

Fergus Henderson’s pioneering restaurant St John.

Mr Richard Wright is renowned for his honesty and when I ask if greasy spoons will go the same way as eel, pie and mash shops, perhaps the most famous of which, F. Cooke’s in Hackney, shut up shop in 2020, he tells me he believes there’s a fundamental difference. ‘I think eel, pie and mash is objectively not very nice. I’m sorry, it isn’t. Our tastes have grown.’ On the other hand, the PR agent and consultant thinks that, unless we all become vegan, admittedly not an impossibility, we’ll still be going to greasy spoons ‘100 years from now’.

I admire his optimism and in almost every caff, alongside the regulars, there are usually young, curious students, hungry for greasy nostalgia, as well as sausages, but, in spite of all that love, they are still facing threats on many fronts. There are soaring energy costs, but it’s also the case that running a greasy spoon is tough. If a person’s grandparents emigrated here and worked like hell, cracking eggs seven days a week, it’s quite understandable that they might want to do something a little less gruelling and a bit more lucrative.

Needless to say, the way we eat has changed, too. If you pop down to the Billingsgate Café at Billingsgate Fish Market (Trafalgar Way, E14)—blue plastic chairs bolted to the floor and all—you’ll find hungry porters, fresh from hauling crates of cod round all morning, eating quantities of bacon I could only dream of consuming. Office workers simply don’t need the same sort of calorie intake to tackle the day. Even Gilbert and George were getting physical with their brushes rather than living deadeyed on Excel.

The greasy spoon is also threatened by takeaways and fast-food joints. Your average chain chicken shop can undercut a stand-alone caff. But it’s their standing alone, which, according to the tattooed

girl at Café House, makes greasy spoons so special. ‘They’re all different. All of them are little cultures all of their own,’ she says, dreamily.

In a world where pubs are formulaic and every supermarket is much the same as the next, perhaps it’s only natural that people are drawn to that which is different. For all that Mr Richard Wright is correct about greasy spoons being familiar, they all have idiosyncrasies. Expect spicy sausages at those run by Turks; Billingsgate Café is the one for a scallop and bacon bap; and Alpino

in Chapel Market (1, Chapel Market, N1), will serve your eggs in ciabatta.

On the corner of Westmoreland Road in Walworth, a top hat and a cane sit atop a sign that reads ‘Chaplin Café’. The entertainer, who became one of the film industry’s brightest stars, was born in the area, into grinding poverty, in 1889. Chaplin’s menu is extensive. A young mother is having a midmorning baked potato, builders order egg rolls and, as I wait for my tomatoes, I wander outside to talk to two men who are drinking tea in the mellow winter sun. ‘They’re places where you meet each other,’ one ofthemen,Ray,says when I ask why greasy spoons matter. For a while, we stand there, not saying very much, then Ray tells me they look out for you at greasy spoons: ‘It’s community.’ He points down at the ground. ‘We’re both in wheelchairs, see, and sometimes the guy who runs the place will push Alan back home when he’s finished.’ Alan, thin grey moustache Lord of the Rings T-shirt, smiles at me and slurps at his tea. ‘Different sort of service,’ I say to him. He nods in response.

pie is still to running hell,

one

there, push and a sort

‘Greasyspoonsare alldifferent.Allofthem arelittleculturesall oftheirown’

Alpino offers a variation on the traditional greasy-spoon fare, serving eggs in ciabatta

LONDON LIFE

Belgravia feels a very long way from Scot land in almost every way. What do you love about this part of London?

I don’t think there’s anything to compare to the elegance, tranquillity and village-like atmosphere of Belgravia. Boisdale of Belgravia (15, Eccleston Street, SW1), our original restaurant, has a very satisfactory ring to it, which far out weighs the accusations of snobbery I have to endure occasionally. We’ve been here for 33 years and I have lived in the area for 44 years.

AtBoisdale,youblendScottishcuisineand drinks with Cuban cigars and jazz. Where doyougotogetawayfromsuchhedonism?

My favourite landmark is the statue of Bolívar on the corner of Belgrave Square. In itself, it’s not a particular beauty, but I do at times enjoy contemplative moments gazing at it. He was such an extraordinary man of shattered dreams, who, after all, does have one of Cuba’s most powerful cigars named after him.

THE CAPITAL ACCORDING TO...

Ranald

Macdonald

Not that this posthumous compliment would have even remotely tickled his massive ego. He wanted a united South America under his thumb to become the next global superpower to rival Europe. In a parallel universe, I am sure this did happen and the idea excites my imagination. On his deathbed, he succinctly and surprisingly accurately pro phesied what would happen to South America —and the rest, as they say, is history.

How do you get about London?

I travel predominantly by Tube [to Boisdale of Canary Wharf, above], although, in the

the Boisdale group of restaurants in Belgravia and Canary Wharf talks to Rob Crossan about haggis, jazz and diva demands

The founder

summer, it infuriates me. How can you not have proper working air-conditioning in this day and age? And the price is extortionate. It is now often cheaper for four or five people to travel by taxi than to take the Underground. Thirty years ago, a taxi to Hammersmith was about £6. The Tube was 20p. You do the maths, it’s outrageous. I also hop around London by black taxi and always relish my chats with the drivers.

ApartfromBoisdaleitself,wherewouldyou go to drink or eat in the capital if you were craving Scottish food and whisky?

For grouse and game, Bellamy’s (18, Bruton Place, W1) and, for Scottish beef ,The Guinea Grill (30, Bruton Place, W1) in Mayfair. For whisky, I have to say that there is nowhere that compares to Boisdale. You’d expect me to say that, but I can back it up—we recently

Boisdaleisfamousforitslivejazzgigs.Who was the best and who was the worst artist you’ve ever booked for the restaurant?

One globally famous 1980s soul artist refused to set foot on stage unless he had a bottle of Chivas Regal 21-year-old in his dressing room. No other whisky would do! We ended up biking it over from Belgravia to Canary Wharf. The audience had to wait 47 minutes. My favourites are a toss-up between: The Brand New Hea vies, KT Tunstall, Gabrielle, Scouting for Girls, Rebecca Ferguson, and Kid Creole and The Coconuts. Although, it has to be said that Kid Creole was the only artist who got the entire room to do a conga. Even I joined in.

Visit www.boisdale.co.uk for the live jazz schedule and to book

won the Best Spirits List in the World award from the New Statesman

of

Richard Cannon

‘Idon’tthinkthere’s anythingtocompare toBelgravia.We’ve beenherefor33years’

Propertymarket Penny Churchill

THIS week sees the launch in COUNTRY

LIFE of the last major country-house sale of 2022—that of the exquisite, Grade I-listed Great Tangley Manor at Wonersh, near Guildford, in the prestigious Surrey Hills AONB, which comes to the market at a guide price of £11 million through the country departments of Savills (020–7409 8823) and Strutt & Parker (020–7591 2207).

Thought to be Britain’s oldest continu ously inhabited house, Great Tangley Manor represents a happy union of medieval and Arts-and-Crafts architecture that has been

celebrated in COUNTRY LIFE many times over the years, notably in the issues of February 12, 1898; July 30, 1898; August 6, 1898; January 21, 1905; September 22, 1906; and June 10, 1999.

There has been a dwelling on the site of Great Tangley Manor for more than 1,000 years. Its first official mention was in the Domesday Book, where it was described as a royal hunting lodge, later much favoured by King John. In 1173, John granted the manor to John de Fay, after which it descended ‘from parent to child’ until 1572, when the

manor was sold to John Caryl, who altered the manor house considerably, adding the handsome, half-timbered front in 1582.

Descendants of the Caryls held Great Tangley until the first half of the 19th century, when it was sold to Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons. Following the death of a later Fletcher Norton, Lord Grantley, all the Grantley property in the area was sold off and Great Tangley Manor was acquired by Wickham Flower in 1884.

During the Grantley family’s ownership, the manor was used as the farmhouse to its

To bring down the curtain on 2022, Britain’s oldest continuously inhabited house hits the market

The final countdown

Medieval and Arts-and-Crafts architecture are intertwined at historic Grade I-listed Great Tangley Manor at Wonersh in Surrey. £11m

surrounding 140-acre manor farm and, according to COUNTRY LIFE, ‘neglect and disorder were everywhere around, but through it all smiled John Caryl’s beautiful timber front, embowered, but not obscured, by a clamber ing grape-vine. It is this timbered front, and some portions of the house of earlier Tudor work, that comprise the oldest now remain ing of the habitable parts of the building’.

Flower was a founder member of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and an enthusiastic sup porter of the Arts-and-Crafts Movement. He commissioned the eminent Arts-and-Crafts architect Philip Webb to renovate the manor house and design Great Tangley’s magnifi cent ornamental gardens, incorporating the original medieval moat, where, according to former COUNTRY LIFE Architectural Editor

Jeremy Musson: ‘The laying out of varied walks was central to the realisation of the full picturesque potential of the revived manor house.’

visitors

The main structural alterations made by the new owner were the addition, in 1886, of a building at the west end and the quaint covered entrance way, plus, in 1897, of the library and the rooms above it. Furnishings were supplied by his good friend William Morris. Following Flower’s death in 1904, the Conservative politician Col Hegan Kennard bought the manor and, in 1906, employed the architect and landscape designer Inigo Thomas to build the north wing. Royal visi tors at that time included Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, George V, Queen Mary, the Duke of York and the Duke of Kent.

In May 1958, an advertisement in COUNTRY LIFE announced the sale of Great Tangley Manor with five cottages, farm buildings, 120 acres of land and a prime dairy herd. Thereafter, the farm was sold off and, in 1959, the manor house was divided into two separate entities, Great Tangley Manor and Great Tangley Manor West. In 1998, the cur rent owners, Anne and Glyn Powell-Evans, bought Great Tangley Manor and, nine years later, acquired Great Tangley Manor West

Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk

Top: A picturesque moat encircles Great Tangley Manor. Above: Great Tangley Manor West boasts exquisite reception rooms. Below: Glorious gardens extend to 10 acres

Royal

to Great Tangley Manor included Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, George V, Queen Mary and the Duke of York

Propertymarket

on the death of its then owner, thereby restoring the property’s historic manorhouse status.

During their tenure, they have sympa thetically renovated and upgraded the entire house, which now offers 11,255sq ft of accommodation, the most notable change being the addition of a ‘glass-box’ extension that won the New Buildings category of the Waverley Design Awards in 2007. Equal consideration has been given to the preservation of the glorious gardens that surround the manor and are an intrinsic element of its pictur esque, 10-acre setting.

Until recently, Great Tangley Manor West has been used primarily as an impressive holiday letting venue with its own independent entrance, three splendid reception spaces, a kitchen, study, five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Two ground-floor reception rooms, three bedrooms and two bathrooms occupy the Webb extension, whereas the remaining reception room, two bedrooms and a bathroom are housed in a ground-floor extension added in the 1960s. From the outset, Great Tangley Manor itself has been

the owners’ much-loved family home. This wing also boasts three grand reception rooms, with access to the 40ft indoor heated pool, sauna and office, and five bedrooms, two dressing rooms and three bath/shower rooms on the first floor.

Works executed throughout, with exem plary care, include exterior decoration, electrical upgrades, installation of a woodpellet heating system and electrical carcharging points, drive resurfacing, dredging of the lake, rebuilding of the tennis hut and the addition of estate fencing. Ancillary buildings include a greenhouse, stables, a helicopter hangar and a Second World War air-raid shelter.

Also worthy of a late-season mention is charming, Grade II-listed Parsonage Farm near Penn, Buckinghamshire—an immaculate, timber-frame, late-16th or early-17thcentury farmhouse set in 7¼ acres of lovely gardens and grounds, 1½ miles from Penn village centre and 2½ miles from the commuter hub of Beaconsfield. Currently for sale through Savills (01494 731950) at a guide price of £4.75m, Parsonage Farm was, for

many years, the cherished family home of the legendary rally driver Paddy Hopkirk, who died earlier this year.

Approached off a country lane along a tree-lined gravel drive, the farmstead stands next to Woodland Trust-owned woodland on the edge of this quintessential English village, with its duck pond and village green, and roughly half a mile from The Royal Standard of England, said to be the oldest pub in the country.

The main house offers 4,388sq ft of light and cheerfulaccommodationontwofloors,including three elegant, beamed reception rooms, a large, quarry-tiled kitchen/breakfast room, five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Further accommodation is available at the front of the house by way of a connected converted barn withanoffice/sittingroom,bedroomandbathroom that could be used as an annexe. Outbuildings include a large barn/workshop, a vaulted barn/games room and a granary. Amenities include a paddock, an all-weather artificial-grass tennis court and a swimming pool screened from the rose garden by a brickand-flint wall and clipped yew hedging.

An immaculate timber-frame farmhouse, Grade II-listed Parsonage Farm stands in 7¼ acres near Penn in Buckinghamshire. £4.75m

Propertiesoftheweek

James Fisher

The best of both worlds

The new Elizabeth Line has opened up opportunities for buyers to enjoy quick access to and from central London, as well as all the joys of the countryside

Oxfordshire, OIEO £2 million

Trent Reznor once said: ‘You could have it all.’ Whether he was referring to a new-build black barn in Oxfordshire, we are unsure, but it certainly fits the bill. From the outside, Fernwood House looks like an unassuming traditional black barn, but the property was actually constructed as recently as 2020 and offers all the trimmings—both environmental and comfort—of modern living. Located 20 minutes northeast of the Elizabeth Line’s final destination of Reading, Fernwood House offers four bedrooms, four bathrooms and five acres in the enviable location of Goring Heath between the Berkshire Downs and the Chilterns. Finished to a very high modern specification, the property comes with an EPC rating of B, thanks to a wealth of state-of-the-art appliances, modernmaterialsandaground-sourceheatpump.Outside, the grounds extend to a large lawned area, fields, wildflower meadow and five stables. Fine & Country (0118–207 4997)

Ealing W5, £6 million

Not that long ago, if one of my friends asked me to visit them in Ealing, I would grumble and pack an overnight bag. Now, the journey is a leisurely 20 minutes from Tottenham Court Road and, with homes such as The Quax awaiting me at the end, I would jump at the chance. Built by the current owner, the property is a modern luxury dwelling with a strong emphasis on low-carbon living. The house, which offers three bedrooms, boasts a wealth of amenities, including a heated swimming pool, air-conditioned gym, spa, sauna, cinema room and games room all part-powered by air-source heat pumps and solar panels. The interiors are a symphony of seamless open-plan spaces, making this a great house for entertaining, to say nothing of the garden, which benefits from its own customised outside kitchen. Hamptons (020–3369 4561)

Propertiesoftheweek

Essex, £1.895 million

Buckinghamshire, £3.95 million

Situated just north of the River Thames, halfway between Marlow and Wooburn Green, the Artsand-Crafts Underidge and its corresponding lodge house offer supremely comfortable family accommodation within easy reach of central London. The main house has been updated and extended by the current owner and the two floors of living space (4,890sq ft) have been finished to an exceptionally high standard. With four reception rooms and a kitchen/breakfast room, as well as five bedrooms, there is more than enough space for a large family. Further accommodation is offered by Underidge Lodge, which boasts three bedrooms of its own, as well as a sitting room, dining room and kitchen. As a whole, the property sits in five acres of park-style gardens, with rolling lawns, mature trees and an orchard, with views over the surrounding countryside. Savills (020–7016 3780)

London W2, £4.995 million

Should you be unhappy with the living arrange ments provided by this four-bedroom apartment on Westbourne Terrace, feel free to walk mere seconds to the COUNTRY LIFE office and complain to me personally. Situated within the famous Grade II-listed stucco buildings that populate the street, the property offers more than 3,000sq ft of space over its split-level interiors, as well as ceilings that are more than 14ft high in places. With four bedrooms, three bathrooms and three reception rooms, as well as a roof terrace, the property is more than suited to family living. The many amenities of London need no further description and, as well as being able to enter the crossword competition the same day as your magazine arrives, nearby Paddington station offers excellent transport links via the Elizabeth Line and mainline services.

Knight Frank (020–3978 2463)

A mere 10 minutes drive from the eastern end of the Elizabeth Line at Shenfield, the gardens and woodlands of Manor Cottage are what first attracted its current owners 22 years ago. A fine example of the benefits of the new line, here is true countryside living within 30 minutes of central London. Situated on the outskirts of the village of Doddinghurst, the property offers seven acres of garden and grounds in total outside, with three bedrooms inside. The owners have added a garden and sun room, as well as replacing the roof, and the property also benefits from a separate annexe with a further bedroom. The house is also unlisted, which means there is plenty of scope for further improvements and extensions, should they be required.

Fine & Country (01277 714044)