Country Life: May 4, 2022 Early Property Pages by julialaurencefuture

EVERY WEEK

MAY 4, 2022

The Cotswolds

ISSUE: 18

PRINTED IN THE UK

£4.50

COTSWOLDS AND LONDON LIFE MAY 4, 2022

‘Heaven on earth’:Kelmscott Manor revived Celebrating our beautiful beech woods Fabulous local artists and Badminton guide

CLI354.cover.indd 1

28/04/2022 10:13

ONE FAMILY SPECIALISING IN FINE FURNITURE SINCE 1866

A new arrival in stock. A mahogany, ebonized and giltwood tripod table of octagonal shape on a turned spiral gilded column with down swept square legs and gilded ball feet. Inspired from a regency piece.

£895 Width: 18¼ inches (46.5cm) Depth: 18¼ inches (46.5cm) Height: 28 inches (73cm)

NATIONWIDE HOME APPROVAL SERVICE | BESPOKE COMMISSIONS UNDERTAKEN OVER 1,000 ITEMS OF EXCLUSIVE CLASSICAL FURNISHINGS IN STOCK CALL 01491 641115 | WWW.BRIGHTSOFNETTLEBED.CO.UK NETTLEBED

OXFORDSHIRE

RG9 5DD (OPEN TUES-SAT)

KING’S RD

LONDON

SW6 2DX (OPEN MON-FRI)

1 2

HANNINGTON WICK, WILTSHIRE/GLOUCESTERSHIRE

n impressive Georgian farmhouse with wonderful family accommodation situated in a rural location. Yew Tree Farmhouse is a substantial house, built in the early 18th century to an exceptional standard providing versatile accommodation.

Guide price available upon request Knight Frank London & Cirencester bruce.tolmie-thomson@knightfrank.com 020 7861 1070 peter.edwards@knightfrank.com 020 4502 8544 rupert.sturgis@knightfrank.com 01285 895776 Ref: CHO012133148

knightfrank.co.uk Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

GAYTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Offers In Excess Of: £1,750,000

7 Bedrooms | 5 Reception Rooms | 4 Bathrooms | D EPC

A contemporary detached house with gated driveway parking, a separate double garge, outbuildings and 4.73 acres of gardens and paddock with far reaching views. The property has 4,565 sq. ft. of versatile accommodation and has been remodelled and extended to include a new open plan kitchen/breakfast room with an adjoining orangery. The landscaped rear garden is south facing and includes an ornate lake with a summer house and a cantilevered deck overlooking it. The village of Gayton offers good transport links including mainline railway stations in Northampton and Milton Keynes with services into London Euston.

Michael Graham Towcester Richard Irlam 01327 350022 Michael Graham London Bob Bickersteth 0207 839 0888

michaelgraham.co.uk michaelgraham_living

1 2

WROXTON, OXFORDSHIRE

picturesque and well-equipped country house beautifully presented throughout. Situated in just over nine acres of stunning grounds, with a working water wheel, mill stream and trout-stocked wild swimming lake, the property further benefits from its own private golf course in a wildflower meadow and parkland setting. 5 B E D R O O M S | 4 B AT H R O O M S | 4 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | S W I M M I N G P O O L & P O O L H O U S E M I L L B A R N W I T H S T O R A G E O R P O T E N T I A L F O R F U R T H E R A C C O M M O D AT I O N | W O R K I N G WAT E R M I L L | E P C D B A N B U R Y 5 M I L E S ( M A R Y L E B O N E F R O M 5 9 M I N U T E S ) | S O H O FA R M H O U S E 1 1 M I L E S | D AY L E S F O R D 1 5 M I L E S

Guide price available upon request Knight Frank London & Oxford peter.edwards@knightfrank.com 020 4502 8544 harry.sheppard@knightfrank.com 01865 987983 william.ward-jones@knightfrank.com 01789 863993 Ref: OXF012197004

knightfrank.co.uk Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

James Mackie INTERIOR DECORATOR & ART ADVISOR

The beauty of Cotswold architecture and design never ceases to thrill me. I love the grandeur of Blenheim Palace through to the exquisite manor houses and gorgeous cottages; the legacies of William Morris at Kelmscott Manor and Ernest Gimson at Sapperton. Being in the Cotswolds gives me the headspace to be creative. I draw inspiration and energy from the architecture and from the landscape. jjamesmackie.com

L e Poco MILLINER

Throughout my life I’ve lived and worked in various places, but I’ve always come back to the Cotswolds. The light and the colour here are like nowhere else – I can be inspired just by looking out the window. Chipping Campden has a long history as an arts and crafts space, and I’m proud to help keep that tradition alive. louisepocock.com

5 PLACES TO EXPLORE ON A SUNDAY

5 RETREATS TO RELAX AND UNWIND

• Sip coffee coffee with a view at Cotswold Barn cotswoldbarn.com • Go riding at Cotswold Club Equestrian cotswoldclubequestrian.co.uk • Relax over Sunday lunch at The Potting Shed thepottingshedpub.com • Visit the gardens at Kiftsgate kiftsgate.co.uk • Visit beautiful Bourton-on-the-Water bourtoninfo.com

• Dormy House dormyhouse.co.uk • Lucknam Park lucknampark.co.uk • Cowley Manor cowleymanor.com • Calcot & Spa calcot.co • Barnsley House barnsleyhouse.com

ﬁve letting or renting, contact one of our ﬁ ve local offices offi ces today. As one of the world’s leading property agents, we know what it means to be local. We’ve got the Cotswolds covered.

Savills_Cotswolds_gatefold_2022_live_copy_v6.4.indd 10

Savills Banbury Nick Rudge +44 (0)1295 228 000 nrudge@savills.com

Savills Cirencester Sebastian Hipwood +44 (0)1285 627 550 sebastian.hipwood@savills.com

Savills Cheltenham Chris Jarrett +44 (0)1242 548 000 cjarrett@savills.com

14/04/2022 16:18

Lindsay Cuthill HEAD OF SAVILLS COUNTRY HOUSE DEPARTMENT

Illustration Heather Gatley/The Artworks Illustration Agency. Vignettes Darya Malikova

ou don’t need to have been born and bred in the Cotswolds to feel a part of it. I discovered that when I moved here 15 years ago. It’s a very welcoming, relaxed and open community, and the people who live and work here are the people who make the Cotswolds what it is. Homes here enjoy a connectivity to the landscape. It’s the faint scent of woodsmoke emanating from a room; the stone that wraps you up, whether it’s a grand house or a cosy cottage;

the way nature is brought close to the house through gardens that are just wild enough; the warmth you feel no matter the time of year.

Wine Cellar House is a perfect example of a Cotswold property that beautifully embraces its surroundings. It’s a Grade II listed farmhouse that was built in the late 18th century and is set in four acres of gardens and paddocks. It’s only a short drive from Tetbury, but far enough away from the buzz that when you step outside after the sun’s gone down, you’ll be greeted by nothing but night sky and stars. It embraces the best of Cotswold living – community, country and connection.

5 AWE-INSPIRING COUNTRY WALKS • Broadway and the Tower, 4 miles • Cleeve Hill Common Ring, 6 miles • The Rollright Stones, 8 miles • Windrush Way, 13.5 miles • The Cotswold Way, 100 miles

Savills Stow-on-the-Wold David Henderson +44 (0)1451 832 832 david.henderson@savills.com

Savills_Cotswolds_gatefold_2022_live_copy_v6.4.indd 11

Savills Summertown, Oxford Charles Elsmore-Wickens +44 (0)1865 339 700 cewickens@savills.com

David Gibson & Jorge Perez Martin OWNERS, BROWNRIGG INTERIORS

Our home in the Cotswolds is the centre of our universe. We love the tranquillity it brings and the diversity of the people who cross our threshold. Everything is linked between our business and our personal lives – in this part of the country there are always people buying and renovating houses of all kinds, and that’s endlessly inspiring. brownrigg-interiors.co.uk

Savills Country Department Lindsay Cuthill +44 (0)20 7016 3820 lcuthill@savills.com

Savills Cotswolds Lettings Louise Nicholson +44 (0)1285 627 561 louise.nicholson@savills.com

14/04/2022 16:22

Gloucestershire, Broadwell

Simon Merton

Oliver Custance Baker

Moreton-in-Marsh Office 01608 638 731

Country Department 020 7591 2207

simon.merton@struttandparker.com

oliver.custance.baker@struttandparker.com

Over 50 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London.

ZC121 / ZC123 SP Country Life Contract DPS - 4.5.22.indd 1 Untitled-55 1

19/04/2022 12:18 19/04/2022 14:07

Oxfordshire, Asthall

A charming Grade II listed edge-of village house in this most sought-after Windrush Valley location Burford: 3 miles, Witney: 5.5 miles, Charlbury Station: 8.8 miles, Daylesford Farm Shop: 11.5 miles, Oxford: 17 miles, Soho Farmhouse: 17.5 miles Entrance hall | Drawing room | Sitting room | Study | Living room | Dining room | Kitchen/breakfast room 4 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms | Annexe with living room/kitchen, bedroom and shower room Garaging and summerhouse | Wonderful walled south-facing gardens About 0.76 acres

/struttandparke r

Helen Whitﬁeld

Giles Lawton

Oxford Office 01865 988 249

helen.whitﬁeld@struttandparker.com

giles.lawton@struttandparker.com

@struttandparker

ZC121 / ZC123 SP Country Life Contract DPS - 4.5.22.indd 2 Untitled-54 1

struttandparker.com

19/04/2022 12:18 19/04/2022 14:07

1 2

4 5 ODDINGTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

beautifully presented family home on the edge of one of the most sought-after Cotswold villages. The property benefits from a generous garden barn with a games room, gym, changing room and accommodation. 7 B E D R O O M S | 5 B AT H R O O M S | 4 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | 2 G U E S T/ S TA F F F L AT S T E N N I S C O U R T | S W I M M I N G P O O L | S TA B L E S | G A R D E N S T O R E S B A R N W I T H G Y M & H O M E O F F I C E S / F L AT | P L A N N I N G P E R M I S S I O N G R A N T E D

F O R A N E X T E N S I O N | A P P R O X I M AT E LY 6 . 0 5 A C R E S | E P C F D AY L E S F O R D FA R M S H O P 1 M I L E | S T O W - O N -T H E -W O L D 3 M I L E S K I N G H A M 4 M I L E S ( L O N D O N PA D D I N GTO N F R O M 75 M I N U T E S )

Guide price available upon request Knight Frank London & Stow-on-the-Wold rupert.sweeting@knightfrank.com 020 4502 7744 bruce.tolmie-thomson@knightfrank.com 020 7861 1070 leigh.glazebrook@knightfrank.com 01451 888130

Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

knightfrank.co.uk

1 2

4 5 CHELTENHAM, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

unique Grade II listed Cotswold Stone manor house with good access to Cheltenham. The property is ideally located with far-reaching views across the Dowdeswell Valley to the rolling Malvern Hills beyond. 9 B E D R O O M S | 5 B AT H R O O M S | 7 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | 3 B E D R O O M C O T TA G E INDOOR SWIMMING POOL | CINEMA ROOM | WINE CELLAR S T O R A G E S PA C E | O U T B U I L D I N G S | G A R A G I N G F O R 8 C A R S

Guide price available upon request Knight Frank London bruce.tolmie-thomson@knightfrank.com 020 7861 1070 rupert.sweeting@knightfrank.com 020 4502 7744 Savills esugden@savills.com 020 7409 8885

Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

knightfrank.co.uk

1 2

4 5 ILMINGTON, WARWICKSHIRE

once in a lifetime opportunity to own a 17th century, 12,000 sq ft mini country estate with spectacular views. Situated in the Cotswold Hills, this unique property offers tranquillity and breathtaking designer interiors. 7 B E D R O O M S | 6 B AT H R O O M S | 7 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | G Y M | C I N E M A DUTCH BARN WITH PLANNING PERMISSION FOR INDOOR POOL COMPLEX S TA B L E S & TA C K R O O M | P O N D | PA D D O C K S | M O AT E D I S L A N D

PA R T LY WA L L E D G A R D E N S | G R A D E I I L I S T E D | A P P R O X I M AT E LY 3 1 A C R E S S H I P S T O N - O N - S T O U R 3 M I L E S | S T R AT F O R D - U P O N - AV O N 9 M I L E S M O R E T O N I N M A R S H 7 M I L E S ( L O N D O N PA D D I N G T O N F R O M 9 0 M I N U T E S )

Guide price available upon request Knight Frank London & Stratford-upon-Avon jamie.robson@knightfrank.com 020 4502 7203 james.way@knightfrank.com 01789 863993

Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

knightfrank.co.uk

1 2

4 5 LANCASTER, LANCASHIRE

ituated in the exclusive Haverbreaks Estate, Tufton Warren occupies a private elevated position. The property has undergone complete renovation by the current owners and is finished to an exceptional standard. 6 B E D R O O M S | 4 B AT H R O O M S | 4 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | G Y M | C I N E M A R O O M S N O O K E R R O O M | GA R AG I N G | SW I M M I N G P O O L | FO R M A L GA R D E N | T E R R AC E L A N CA ST E R C IT Y C E NT R E 1 M I L E | PR E STO N 2 1 M I LE S | K E NDA L 23 M IL E S

L A N C A S T E R S TAT I O N 1 M I L E ( T R A I N S T O L O N D O N E U S T O N F R O M 2 . 5 H O U R S )

Guide price available upon request Knight Frank London jamie.robson@knightfrank.com 020 4502 7203 Hackney & Leigh Ltd richardharkness@hackney-leigh.co.uk 01524 272111

Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

knightfrank.co.uk

1 2

4 5 HAMBLETON, RUTLAND

A I R S O U R C E H E AT I N G & H O T WAT E R | U N D E R F L O O R H E AT I N G O A K H A M 1 . 4 M I L E S | S TA M F O R D 8 . 4 M I L E S | U P P I N G H A M 9. 5 M I L E S L E I C E S T E R 1 1 . 4 M I L E S | C O R B Y 1 6 .7 M I L E S

Guide price £3,250,000 Knight Frank London jamie.robson@knightfrank.com 020 4502 7203 peter.edwards@knightfrank.com 020 4502 8544

Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

knightfrank.co.uk

1 2

4 5 ELMORE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

charming farmhouse beautifully positioned within its own grounds. The property offers fantastic views with excellent equestrian facilities, woodland and pasture.

T E N N I S C O U R T | A P P R O X I M AT E LY 9 8 A C R E S | E P C E G L O U C E S T E R 6 M I L E S ( L O N D O N PA D D I N G T O N F R O M 1 H O U R 4 0 M I N U T E S )

Guide price £3,000,000 Knight Frank London & Cirencester peter.edwards@knightfrank.com 020 4502 8544 alasdhair.lochrane@knightfrank.com 01285 895776

Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

knightfrank.co.uk

1 2

4 5 CHARLBURY, OXFORDSHIRE

n impressive house with separate coach house surrounded by beautiful countryside. Conveniently situated on the edge of the popular market town of Charlbury and within good striking distance of Oxford. 9 B E D R O O M S | 7- 8 B AT H R O O M S | 5 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S W I N E C E L L A R | G U E S T A PA R T M E N T S | G A R A G I N G S E L F - C O N TA I N E D C O A C H H O U S E W I T H 3 B E D R O O M A PA R T M E N T

Guide price £2,750,000 Knight Frank London & Oxford peter.edwards@knightfrank.com 020 4502 8544 damian.gray@knightfrank.com 01865 987983

Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

knightfrank.co.uk

1 2

BIBURY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

spacious Grade II listed former working Mill, steeped in history, in the heart of the Coln Valley. The property is now a fantastic private residence, full of history, character and charm, offering spacious, fully renovated and well-maintained living accommodation. 6 B E D R O O M S | 6 B AT H R O O M S | 3 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S 1 B E D R O O M C O T TA G E | D O U B L E G A R A G E | G A R D E N C I R E N C E S T E R 1 2 M I L E S | C H E LT E N H A M 1 6 M I L E S | O X F O R D 2 9 M I L E S

Guide price £1,350,000 Knight Frank Cirencester alasdhair.lochrane@knightfrank.com 01285 895776 Ref: CIR012222029

knightfrank.co.uk Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

1 2

OLDBURY- ON-SEVERN, SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE

beautifully presented former Victorian rectory in a peaceful setting surrounded by unspoilt countryside and extensive views to the Severn Estuary. Its location provides the perfect country retreat with good access to the daily life of Thornbury, Bristol and beyond. 5 - 6 B E D R O O M S | 4 B AT H R O O M S | 3 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | G A R A G I N G A S T R O T U R F T E N N I S C O U R T | S W I M M I N G P O O L | O U T B U I L D I N G S | A P P R O X I M AT E LY 2 A C R E S | E P C F BRISTOL 19 MILES | M5 (J14) 6 MILES

Guide price £2,200,000 Knight Frank Bristol james.toogood@knightfrank.com 01174 054802 Ref: BRS100254

knightfrank.co.uk Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

Discover

Newlands

Two bedroom apartment for sale £475,000 - Further two bedroom apartment coming soon

Live a life less ordinary Newlands is a unique integrated retirement community set within idyllic landscaped grounds framed by open countryside and in easy walking distance of Stow-on-the-Wold centre. Everything is tailored to your own requirements. Our bespoke retirement living services embody gracious living and ensure everything you could wish for is at hand. Nothing is too much trouble for our concierge team. Fine dining cuisine can be served in your home or in our restaurant, while discreet housekeeping and unobtrusive support helps retain your independent lifestyle. With properties to suit all needs, peace of mind comes naturally. Enjoy an extraordinary way of life at Newlands of Stow.

To discuss your perfect retirement or book a Covid safe visit, please call Leigh Glazebrook today on 01451 885168 or email leigh.glazebrook@knightfrank.com

1 2

BAGPATH, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Cotswold stone farmhouse in a secluded yet accessible location not far from Tetbury. Situated at the end of a no through lane, Scrubetts has great potential to upgrade subject to planning consent, completely redevelop, or keep as it is.

Offers in excess of £1,950,000 Knight Frank London & Cirencester james.walker@knightfrank.com 020 7629 8171 rupert.sturgis@knightfrank.com 01285 895776 Ref: CIR012127239

knightfrank.co.uk Winner of six customer service experience awards in 2021

Superb Sporting & Residential Estate Nettlebed, Oxfordshire Henley-on-Thames: 7.8 miles, Reading Station: 11.9 miles, Oxford: 19.8 miles Unlisted principal house with 8 bedrooms and 2nd floor in need of refurbishment, tennis court, swimming pool, stableyard, manège, additional farmhouse, 5 cottages, farm buildings, manicured formal gardens, farmland, woodland and established shoot. EPC = D-F

About 741 acres | Offers in excess of £23 million

Crispin Holborow Savills London National Farms & Estates 07967 555 511 cholborow@savills.com

Louisa Batterbury Savills London National Farms & Estates 07972 000 042 louisa.batterbury @savills.com

Richard Binning Savills Oxford 07968 550 312 rbinning@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Classic Cotswolds Home Donnington, Gloucestershire Moreton-in-Marsh station: 4 miles (London Paddington from 90 minutes) Cherished Grade II listed village house with separately accessed staff flat. 3 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms (4 en suite), further bathroom, games room, laundry room, garaging and gardens.

About 0.43 acre | Guide £2.95 million

Sebastian Hipwood Savills London Country Department 020 4579 2789 sebastian.hipwood @savills.com

David Henderson Savills Stow on the Wold 01451 514 013 david.henderson @savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Elegant Edge of Village Living Sutton-under-Brailes, Warwickshire Shipston-on-Stour: 4.4 miles, Moreton-in-Marsh: 8.2 miles, Oxford: 29 miles Detached Grade II listed home offering lovely views and a sense of space. 3 reception rooms, 5/6 bedrooms (2 en suite), 2 further bathrooms, study, integral garaging, timber outbuildings including loose boxes. Level gardens and paddock grazing.

About 7 acres | Guide £2.5 million

Nick Rudge Savills Banbury 01295 500 372 nrudge@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Country House and Barns Faringdon, Oxfordshire Abingdon: 13 miles, Oxford: 15 miles, Central London: 76 miles A much loved country house and barns set amidst 12 acres. 3 reception rooms, principal bedroom with dressing room and en suite, 5 further bedrooms, 3 further bathrooms, 1 bedroom annexe, large stone barn, Dutch barn, portal framed cattle yard, 4 double garages, tack room, 2 store rooms, 2 stables, pond, gardens and paddocks.

About 12 acres | Guide £3 million

Lindsay Cuthill Savills London Country Department 020 4579 2982 lcuthill@savills.com

Charles Elsmore-Wickens Savills Summertown 01865 521 654 cewickens@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Sophisticated Modern House Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire Abingdon: 5 miles, Oxford: 10 miles A sophisticated series of modern spaces seamlessly linked to the landscape. Open plan living areas, 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, utility room, study, heated swimming pool with pool house/annexe, triple garage, landscaped gardens and grounds. EPC = C

About 1.16 acres | Price on application Hugh Maconochie Savills London Country Department 020 4579 2827 hmaconochie @savills.com

Charles Elsmore-Wickens Savills Summertown 01865 521 390 cewickens@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Charming Cotswold Farmhouse Cirencester, Gloucestershire Kemble Station: 6 miles, Cheltenham: 18 miles An excellent family home with separate cottage. 3 reception rooms, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, cellar, tennis lawn, separate cottage, garaging, gardens, grounds and paddock.

About 1.7 acres | Guide £1.5 million Anthony Coaker Savills Cirencester 01285 300 143 acoaker@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Excellent Family House Overton, Hampshire Whitchurch Station: 3.5 miles (London Waterloo from 65 minutes) Substantial home with secondary accommodation in a rural position. 5 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms (3 en suite), family bathroom, wine room, 1 bedroom flat, swimming pool, garage, machinery store, landscaped gardens and grounds. EPC = D

About 12 acres | Guide £3.25 million Liz McLean Savills Newbury 01635 598 768 liz.mclean@savills.com

Freddy Dalrymple-Hamilton Savills London Country Department 020 4579 2623 fdhamilton@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

This is the life.

Is it Yours?

Luxury Portfolio International® has some of the most diverse luxury real estate listings in the world. Let our exclusive network of well-connected, locally tuned brokers and agents find your next home.

luxuryportfolio.com @LUXURYPORTFOLIO

Oxfordshire, Chadlington

Guide Price £2,250,000

Giles Lawton

Oxford Office 01865 988 249

helen.whitﬁeld@struttandparker.com

giles.lawton@struttandparker.com

Over 50 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London.

Hertfordshire, Berkhamsted

Guide Price £3,800,000

/struttandparker

Mark Rimell

Rozanne Edwards

Country Department 020 7318 5025

St Albans Office 01727 238 467

mark.rimell@struttandparker.com

rozanne.edwards@struttandparker.com

@struttandparker

struttandparker.com

CHILDSWICKHAM, BROADWAY, WORCESTERSHIRE OFFERS IN EXCESS OF £1,350,000 FREEHOLD A former mill house in an idyllic location, with a mill stream running through delightful grounds. Offering versatile accommodation including a guest suite and separate holiday let. Double garage/workshop, parking and 0.49 acres. EPC: D Hamptons Broadway 01386 897 876

PAINSWICK, GLOUCESTERSHIRE GUIDE PRICE £3,000,000 FREEHOLD An outstanding and historic Grade l Listed property in the ‘Queen of the Cotswolds’. Reputed to have the best plasterwork in private ownership in England and over 5,000 sq. ft. of accommodation. Landscaped gardens and ample private parking. Hamptons Painswick 01452 341 635 HAMPTONS.CO.UK

WOTTON-UNDER-EGDE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE GUIDE PRICE

£2,000,000 FREEHOLD

[7 bedrooms] [5 bathrooms] [7 receptions] A beautifully restored Grade II* listed period gem in a convenient town location set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty extending to 8,563 sq ft. The property has a one/ two bedroom cottage and one/two bedroom annexe and is all set in 0.849 acres. 01453 802 669

STROUD@HAMPTONS.CO.UK

HAMPTONS.CO.UK

PR O PE RTY EXPERTS S IN CE 1 9 10

WEST SUSSE X , BOSHAM A unique and inspiring 95 acre ancient woodland with 800 metres of prime frontage to Chichester Harbour, offering unparalleled privacy and tranquillity. • 1,000 Year History • Protected Saltmarsh and Foreshore • Diverse Wildlife • Important Heronry • Splendid Harbour Views • No Public Access

Please contact

012 4 3 78 6316

mark.astley@jackson-stops.co.uk

Please contact

020 78 61 10 65

PRICE ON APPLICATION

james.crawford@knightfrank.com russell.grieve@knightfrank.com

jackson-stops.co.uk

THE

BROADWAY PORTFOLIO

FOR SALE A UNIQUE OPPORTUNIT Y TO ACQUIRE 8 PERIOD PROPERTIES IN THE COTSWOLD VILL AGE OF BROADWAY

OFFERS ARE INVITED FOR THE FREEHOLD PORTFOLIO AS A WHOLE.

Richard Knightley

Laura Hatten

07917 155760

07769 254158

PLEASE CONTACT THE SOLE AGENTS richard.knightley@kbw.co.uk FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

laura.hatten@kbw.co.uk

NOW

OPEN

APPOINTMENT

STUNNING NEW SHOW HOMES

RICHMOND SQUARE

RICHMOND UPON THAMES

B O O K YO U R P R I VAT E A P P O I N T M E N T T O D AY Elegant new homes in Richmond upon Thames A blend of renovation and new build ▪ High ceilings, terraces and views Beautiful interiors ▪ New landscaped square ▪ Concierge service Apartments from £699,000. Town house prices on application. AN EXCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT BY RER LOND ON AND BLUE COA ST C APITAL Prices correct at time of publication. CGI’s indicative only.

0203 369 0169 sales@richmondsq.co.uk Richmond Square Kew Foot Road Richmond TW9 2TE

richmondsq.co.uk

Avon Court occupies an idyllic riverside position in one of Stratford Upon Avon’s most prestigious areas.

Off Tiddington Road, Stratford Upon Avon. Offers Over £3.25m. The location of the home allows for a very pleasant walk into the town centre….or a short sail down the river from the moorings to the rear of the residence. The accommodation measures nearly 9,000 Square Feet and includes an impressive entrance and hall with galleried landing, an elegant drawing room overlooking the stunning rear gardens and enjoying river views, a large dining room, ideal for entertaining with a wide window bathing the room in natural light. There is a further sitting room, again, facing the gardens with direct access to the rear terrace. The breakfast kitchen runs the full depth of the house. The kitchen leads to the rear grounds and the indoor swimming pool. The swimming pool has changing rooms for male and females. There is a lift which serves all three floors. The Lower ground floor hosts a nightclub and full size bank vault. An elegant staircase rises to the first floor where there are two large landings (one of which is 44’) servicing the 5 bedrooms, a large dressing room and 4 bathrooms. The owners suite is an opulent collection of rooms providing a study area giving access to a spacious principal bedroom (27’ x 22’) with its own private balcony terrace enjoying views over the gardens and river beyond. Outside, the magnificent landscaped rear gardens makes up nearly 1.5 acres and are well laid out, sitting on the bend in the river affording views up and down stream with country views beyond. There is a private river mooring nestled under the Willow Tree. A large garage offers shelter to horseless carriages. With further parking for well over 20 cars within the secure confines of the grounds.

3 Euston Place, Leamington Spa, CV32 5EN, brendan@brenpp.co.uk 01926436123

e u l a v w e o r g W space to We all reach the point where our aspirations outgrow what our home can offer. A new addition to your family, finding the right schools, or a desire to turn your garden into a private sanctuary. It’s not just about finding you your next home, it’s about finding the person who will fall in love with yours. We understand the value of a property, but it’s our appreciation of what is precious to you that makes us a valued partner, whether you are buying or selling. Could one of these exceptional homes offer you an inspiring community to be part of? RINGWOOD HAMPSHIRE

LLANBADOC USK

The perfect, countryside retreat providing privacy and luxury amenities. Set in approx. 12.12 acres, this property has an outdoor pool, tennis court, stables, gym and direct forest access.

Nestled in approx. 16 acres of grounds this late Victorian property is accompanied by a separate coach house, pool house overlooking the outdoor swimming pool and a seven box stable block.

EPC: E guide price £2,850,000 Contact: 01425 203408

EPC: D guide price £3,000,000 Contact: 01633 927277

SHREWSBURY SHROPSHIRE

MALVERN WORCESTERSHIRE

EPC: C guide price £1,300,000 Contact: 01743 296116

EPC: C guide price £1,250,000 Contact: 01905 678111

The idyllic Honeysuckle Cottage dates back to the early 19th Century. It stretches over 7 acres of gardens, paddocks, natural ponds and vegetable plots.

This spectacular property occupies a luxurious hillside position on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills. Three bedroom chapel, and a two bedroom studio annex.

Contact your local Fine & Country agent for unrivalled insight into your marketplace and a valuation of your property. Head Office 119-121 Park Lane, Mayfair, London W1K 7AG Tel: +44 20 7079 1515 parklane@fineandcountry.com fineandcountry.com

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

Drawing of St Dunstan-in-the-West by SPAB Scholar Ptolomy Dean

Founded by William Morris, the SPAB protects the historic environment from decay, damage and demolition. It responds to threats to old buildings, trains building professionals, craftspeople, homeowners and volunteers and gives advice about maintenance and repairs. Since 1877 countless buildings have been saved for future generations.

Information about maintaining your home is available through events, courses, lectures, publications and telephone advice. To support our work why not join the SPAB? Members receive a quarterly magazine, our list of historic properties for sale and access to our regional activities.

www.spab.org.uk 020 7377 1644 A charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England & Wales. Company no: 5743962 Charity no: 1113753 37 Spital Square, London E1 6DY

5 – 14 May 2022 Mall Galleries | The Mall, London SW1

Commission a Portrait Contact Annabel Elton | +44(0)2079680963 annabelelton@mallgalleries.com

David Cobley RP NEAC, By the Pool, Oil, 102 x 107 cm, 2021 (detail)

Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition

Your indispensable guide to the capital

English Heritage

A LONDON GEM RE VIVED Marble Hill House returns as one of outer London’s most picturesque Thames riverside attractions this spring, after a two-year programme of works by English Heritage —generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund—to revive the interior and the property’s 66 acres of parkland. Built in 1724–29 for Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suﬀolk, who became George II’s mistress, a team of gardeners and volunteers has reinstated the long-lost garden design that Charles Bridgeman created for the Countess, with advice from the poet Alexander Pope (February 7, 2018).

CLI354.ll_cover.indd 31

Serpentine paths have been reinstalled and avenues of trees leading down to the riverbank replanted, re-opening views that existed in the 18th century. The Countess’s ninepin bowling alley and the land surrounding the garden grotto have also been restored. Inside the house, the original paint scheme has been reinstated in the Great Room, which was modelled on Inigo Jones’s muchadmired work at Wilton House in Wiltshire and elsewhere. ‘There is a greater court now at Marble Hill than at Kensington,’ wrote Pope in 1735, of Twickenham’s Palladian jewel of a great house.

Marble Hill passed into the hands of London County Council in 1902, after public uproar at plans to develop the site. Campaigners argued that the house and its landscape were integral to the celebrated view of the Thames from Richmond Hill and it passed into the care of English Heritage in 1986. There are hopes that the renovations will demonstrate that the Countess was more than merely a king’s mistress. Jack Watkins Marble Hill House will re-open on May 21, Wednesday–Sunday; the grounds are open now. Entry to the house is free (www.englishheritage.org.uk/visit/places/marble-hill)

27/04/2022 09:19

LONDON LIFE

News

The ‘izakaya’ room at the The Aubrey, The Mandarin Oriental’s new restaurant, offers guests a taste of casual Japanese drinks and dining

Five-star dining

HEN you think of dining out in Knightsbridge, it’s unlikely that pub grub springs to mind, but The Aubrey, The Mandarin Oriental hotel’s newest restaurant, offers exactly that. Specifically, ‘izakaya’, a Japanesestyle room that translates to ‘stay-drink-place’. Low-level lighting guides you down from the ground floor to where Bar Boulud once was and into what feels like the private rooms of their namesake, the decadent artist Aubrey

Beardsley. Gilt frames and silk screens, imported from Japan, jostle for space on the walls. This is the place for special occasions, decadent cocktails (try the Volpone with a splash of wasabi liquor) and private affairs —some of the booths can be veiled off with velvet curtains. There’s even a separate, secret bar, which hosts special cocktail experiences. There are small plates of sushi and topgrade Robata grill—Iberico pork cooked to perfection and whopping prawns coated in airy tempura batter. The restaurant is

particularly proud of the Karaage chicken, coated in activated charcoal, a very upmarket deep-fried treat. I assume that the charcoal counteracts the cocktails… Best of all, the service: these folks seem pleased to be here, serving up creative fare against an opulent backdrop. At weekends, the music ramps up and a house-party atmosphere ensues, but a calm Tuesday evening suited me perfectly. HL (www.mandarinoriental.com/london/ hyde-park/fine-dining/japanese-izakaya/ the-aubrey)

Anything but bleak

Overlooking Regent’s Park, Charles Dickens’s home on Hanover Terrace is for sale

to enter Regent’s Park—once part of the Forest of Middlesex—in 1836; by the 1860s, when Dickens moved in, it was attracting thousands of Londoners year round. Although he might

struggle to place the revamped interiors, he would no doubt still recognise the Grade Ilisted façade, with its Doric columns and terracotta decoration, and interior layout.

54 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.ll_news.indd 54

28/04/2022 16:28

Alamy

HARLES DICKENS’s Hanover Terrace home is on the market with London House, for £22,500,000 (www.londonhouse.co.uk). Designed by John Nash in the 1820s, as part of an ambitious redevelopment plan for the area, the eight-bedroom property—where the author lived for the duration of the 1861 summer Season and described as ‘really delightful’— overlooks Regent’s Park’s various gardens and lakes. The bedrooms, seven bathrooms and eight reception rooms are spread over five storeys; outside, there’s a separate mews house, Italianate garden and private terrace. According to London House’s director and co-founder, Alex Bourne, there is ‘a real “return to the park” mentality among buyers and Hanover Terrace is the ideal enclave for this. It’s practically like living in the countryside, near Regent’s Park with its open expanses, including [the] zoo, sports fields and amenities, as well as being close to the Tube and very central London’. The public were first permitted

News

The royal seal of approval

How London’s top hotels are planning to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Alamy

O mark The Goring’s part in the coronation celebrations 70 years ago, when the hotel hosted many of The Queen’s personal guests, the restaurant has prepared a new Platinum Jubilee menu that includes dishes inspired by that event and the special dinner held here on June 2, 1953 (www.thegoring. com). Choosing a favourite dish from the riches on offer is hard, but St Enodoc asparagus, ewe’s cheese, confit of egg yolk and barbecued white asparagus won out for me. For a limited time only, guests staying in Hotel Café Royal’s two-bedroom Royal Suite will be offered the chance to visit the Tower of London and Crown Jewels on a private tour hosted by a Yeoman Warder. The lucky few will also be chauffeured there in a luxury Daimler once owned by The Queen Mother. The experience is available June 1–October 1, from £12,295 per night, and June 4–5 from £14,795 (www.hotelcaferoyal.com) Brown’s Hotel has created the Jubilee Gintini, a gin, bitters and pink Champagne cocktail. It’s available at the Donovan Bar, June 1–August 1 (www.roccofortehotels.com / hotels-and-resorts/brown-s-hotel) If you check in for a two-night stay at ME London with your corgi in tow, you’ll receive a third absolutely free. The offer is available now until June 2, excluding Saturdays and Bank Holiday weekends (www. melondonhotel.com) Claridge’s, often referred to as ‘the annexe of Buckingham Palace’, has been busy rummaging through its archives in preparation for a special exhibition ‘Claridge’s Royal Archive Windows’,

LONDON LIFE

Upper Ground, SE1, is the address of a proposed development by Make Architects for the developers Mitsubishi Estate and CO-RE, next to the National Theatre. If planning is agreed, the new building will stand some 121ft higher than the 236ft tower and studio block that’s currently there and increase the floor area by 230%. It has been described as ‘out of scale with its surroundings and disconnected from them’ by The Guardian columnist Rowan Moore.

Claridge’s features a royal exhibition

available to view in the hotel lobby throughout the month of June. According to Claridge’s archivist Kate Hudson, treasures including ‘entries in Queen Victoria’s diaries, a fan created by the hotel to celebrate the coronation in 1911, photographs, original menus and letters’. The Fumoir and Claridge’s Bar will also welcome back the Windsor Rose cocktail, first served to mark The Queen’s coronation in 1953 (www.claridges.co.uk) Both The Connaught and The Rosewood are hosting street parties on June 5, in Mayfair and Holborn respectively. Tickets to The Connaught’s afternoon tea-style bash, complete with ice cream from the hotel’s pink patisserie cart and an English brass band, are available for guests and its neighbours. Tickets to The Rosewood’s Courtyard Party are available to all, from £275 per person.

Try the new Gintini at Brown’s (left) or a new Jubilee menu at The Goring

Green fingers

ETERSHAM NURSERIES is launching a series of gardening classes and workshops, for novice and expert gardeners alike. The School of Garden Inspiration, devised by director of horticulture, Thomas Broom-Hughes, kicks off on May 16 with A Celebration of Roses. Other classes on offer include sessions on dahlias and houseplants. Visit www.petershamnurseries.com/ events for more information and dates.

LONDON LIFE Editor Rosie Paterson Editor-in-chief Mark Hedges Sub-editors Octavia Pollock, James Fisher Art Heather Clark, Emma Earnshaw, Ben Harris, Dean Usher Pictures Lucy Ford, Emily Anderson Advertising Katie Ruocco 07929 364909 Email firstname.surname@futurenet.com

May 4, 2022 | Country Life | 55

CLI354.ll_news.indd 55

28/04/2022 16:28

LONDON LIFE

On foot

Walk another day Illustrated by Fred van Deelen

56 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.ll_walking_bond.indd 56

28/04/2022 12:32

On foot Some of the ‘James Bond’ franchise’s most famous scenes have been captured around the capital, discovers Carla Passino

ITH three recycled-plastic ships floating in mid air above gushing fountains and a Ukrainian flag flying defiantly above the South Wing, Somerset House hardly recalls St Petersburg, but the London landmark played the role brilliantly in GoldenEye. Filmed on a steely day in April, the scene has Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond driven by CIA operative Jack Wade in a crumbling car that breaks down in the middle of ‘Central Square’, against the backdrop of a fake Lenin bust, only to be fixed with a good hammering. Location consistency has never bothered 007 filmmakers, so, two years later, in a much swankier motor—his customary Aston Martin DB5— Bond, still played by Mr Brosnan, passes through Somerset House’s North Wing arch to meet Judi Dench’s M in Tomorrow Never Dies. Conveniently sandwiched between Rules —where Ralph Fiennes’s M sits opposite a haunting nautical painting in Spectre— and the Savoy Grill, one of Ian Fleming’s favourite restaurants, Somerset House is the perfect starting point to explore 007’s London. From there, a walk along the Victoria Embankment Gardens, where flowers grow on land reclaimed by the genius of Joseph Bazalgette, the civil engineer who gave London its underground sewers, reaches the gateway to prime James Bond country— Embankment Place. It is here that turncoat agent Silva emerges in Skyfall, after being pursued by Bond across a packed District Line train, down two escalators and up a ventilator shaft. Although the Tube scene nominally takes place between Temple and Embankment, the entire sequence was filmed on a disused Jubilee platform at Charing Cross. ‘The platform is straight for most of it and then it curves at the end,’ says Antony Richards of Detective Tours, which runs bespoke film and television tours (www.detective-tours.com). ‘You can have a train leaving on the curved part, [then] you go to the other end and you see a train arriving on the straight part—it looks like a different station.’ However, he adds, when Bond is

LONDON LIFE

running along the carriages at what’s supposed to be Temple, eagle eyes can spot a picture of Nelson’s column in the background. Even the vent from which Silva exits has nothing to do with the Embankment station: it’s the stair leading to the National Liberal Club’s basement—rather an ignominious role for a building that has played host to no fewer than seven Prime Ministers (from founder Gladstone to Churchill) and some of Britain’s greatest minds, such as George Bernard Shaw, Jerome K. Jerome and H. G. Wells. The venerable club also had a villain of its very own, albeit one bent on lining his pockets rather than destroying the world. Liberal MP and developer Jabez Balfour set up a building society that syphoned investors’ money and lent it to companies that bought properties from Balfour himself. Before his downfall, however, he built an elegant block of flats next door to the club, Whitehall Court, which not only briefly appears in No Time to Die, but also housed, in the early 20th century, the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Its first chief, former naval officer Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, who signed his name as C, became one of the inspirations for Fleming’s M. On camera, the SIS has moved addresses more frequently than Bond has changed faces. Vauxhall Cross’s SIS building—which made its first appearance in GoldenEye—fits the part best, not least because it’s home to the real secret service, but the blocky appearance that earned it the sobriquet of ‘Legoland’ is a steep fall from the Ministry of Defence (which ‘played’ itself in For Your Eyes Only, but became the MI6 Offices in No Time To Die) or the ornate glories of the Old War Office (first featured in Octopussy and a place that Fleming knew well, having worked there as a naval intelligence officer). It took 29,000 tons of Portland and York stone and 25 million bricks to give the Old War Office its stately look, but the domed turrets upon which Bond—standing on the roof of 55, Whitehall—gazes wistfully after M’s death in Skyfall had a functional purpose: they were added to disguise the building’s irregular shape. Around the corner from Whitehall’s ministerial grandeur, Trafalgar Square is another 007 filming hotspot. The windows of Malaysia House, festooned with images of Kuala Lumpur’s skyscrapers and Bornean rainforests, belie its location, in The Living Daylights, as MI6 front Universal Exports. Almost opposite it, the unassuming 35, Spring Gardens, was the safe house to which M, Q and Moneypenny

‘Of course, Bond doesn’t miss the opportunity to have a dry martini at Boodle’s’

May 4, 2022 | Country Life | 57

CLI354.ll_walking_bond.indd 57

28/04/2022 12:32

LONDON LIFE

On foot

repaired in Spectre. Even the hallowed halls of the National Gallery have appeared in 007 films—in Skyfall, Daniel Craig meets the new Q in front of Turner’s Fighting Temeraire. However, cautions Dr Richards, die-hard Bond fans that visit the gallery are likely to find the room in which Temeraire hangs much smaller than they remember. That’s because ‘they had to move that painting from one gallery to another, so they could get all the big cameras in’. As well as cementing the link between 007 and Q, the Temeraire sequence reveals that an affinity for art is not among Bond’s many qualities. Q is moved by the melancholic painting, but when he asks 007 what he sees in it, his reply is a blunt: ‘A bl**dy big ship.’ Bond shows greater appreciation for wellmade attire and it’s easy to imagine him striding down Pall Mall towards Jermyn Street and Turnbull & Asser (which has made shirts for the films since Dr No), Sunspel (for Daniel Craig’s polo shirts) or Crockett & Jones (for his shoes). Along the way, he would likely make a pit stop at the Reform Club, which doubled up as M’s beloved Blades Club in Die Another Day, with Bond fencing against villain Gustav Graves among the extravagant interiors that contrast with the building’s understated façade (the very same interior becomes the Foreign Office in Quantum of Solace). However, the real inspiration for Blades partly came from Boodle’s, in St James’s Street,

of which Fleming was a member. In Moonraker, Bond dines there with M—lamb cutlets so tender you could cut them with a fork and Dom Pérignon ’46 liberally seasoned with Benzedrine —ahead of playing cards with Hugo Drax. Of course, he doesn’t miss the opportunity to have a dry Martini at the club—‘made with vodka. Large slice of lemon peel’. Quite particular about his Martinis, Bond invents the Vesper in Casino Royale, telling the barman: ‘Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?’

‘Her Majesty was “very amused by the idea” and even chose to have a speaking part’ The credit for first mixing the drink for Fleming has often gone to another bartender, Gilberto Preti of Dukes Bar, although he only took over at Dukes in the late 1980s, well after Fleming’s death. Mr Preti did, however, revive the Vesper after the discontinuation of Kina Lillet threatened to put an end to it and, today, the bar lists a staggering number of Bond-inspired Martinis on its menu (made tableside on a drinks trolley).

Although legend has it that Fleming penned some of his stories at Dukes, he wrote most of his books either at his Jamaican villa or when living at 16, Victoria Square, his London home from 1953. He must have walked past nearby Buckingham Palace 1,000 times, but even he couldn’t have imagined that The Queen herself would one day appear in a James Bond sequence. It wasn’t a film, of course, but a sketch promoting the London Olympics, in which Daniel Craig accompanies The Queen on a helicopter journey from Buckingham Palace to Stratford, parachuting with her onto the Olympic Stadium. Mr Craig has revealed in interviews that he was incredulous the scene would ever happen, but, according to royal dresser Angela Kelly’s The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, Her Majesty was ‘very amused by the idea’ and even chose to have a speaking part—although she left the parachuting to a body double. Yet, despite the impact that Bond has had on popular culture, Fleming’s house in Victoria Square bears no trace of a blue plaque—it was apparently refused by subsequent owners. Instead, the honour goes to his former bachelor pad at 22B, Ebury Street, where he lived in the late 1930s, entertaining his girlfriends and carousing with the men that belonged to his Cercle Gastronomique. Although no 007 story was ever written there, it is very much the spiritual home of James Bond.

At home in James Bond’s London

Whitehall, from £5.8million For a slice of James Bond life with all the glitz and none of the danger, there’s no better place than the OWO residences in Whitehall. The former Old War Office, which has appeared in several 007 films, has been converted into 85 luxury properties serviced by the Raffles Hotel. Knight Frank (020–7861 1056) and Strutt & Parker (07494 791569)

St James’s, £22.5 million From Park Place, which Fleming called Park Street, Bond, in his Bentley, trails villain Hugo Drax all the way to Ebury Street in Moonraker. The 8,356sq ft house at No 1 would have been an ideal vantage point to watch the action —assuming residents could tear themselves away from their own cinema, bar and spa. Savills (020–7578 5100)

Whitehall, £2 million Perfect for Bond, this apartment near Trafalgar Square and Downing Street has direct views of Whitehall, making it easy to respond to summons from M, from its 29ft reception room, plus a contemporary kitchen, two ensuite bedrooms, wooden flooring and underfloor heating. Winkworth (020–7240 3322)

58 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.ll_walking_bond.indd 58

28/04/2022 12:32

Beautifully Presented Penthouse Arlington Street, London, SW1A Green Park Underground Station: 0.1 miles The stunning penthouse apartment extends over the top three floors of this historic period conversion, once occupied by Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. Open plan living space, principal bedroom suite, 2 further en suite bedrooms, roof terrace, breakfast terrace, lift and concierge. EPC = E

Leasehold, approximately 988 years remaining | 3,001 sq ft | Guide £17.5 million Claire Reynolds Savills Mayfair 020 4579 2739 creynolds@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

LONDON LIFE

The great and the good

Seasonal suggestions May is likely named after the Greek goddess Maia, mother of Hermes and an Earth Goddess associated with nursing mothers. The Romans also had a goddess called Maia, who bore links to fertility

What to eat Hot foot it to The Lanesborough hotel for an exclusive Bridgerton-themed afternoon tea (created in partnership with Netflix and producers Shondaland). Highlights include A True Love Match, a classic Charlotte sponge cake layered with seasonal strawberry jam and vanilla cream, inspired by the programme’s Queen Charlotte (www. oetkercollection.com) What to buy Rosé—at The Rosé Festival, Fulham Palace Gardens, May 27–29. Visitors can now pre-order a limited-edition Pink-nic Hamper, by Daylesford and Léoube (www.the-rose-festival.com)

Here’s looking at theatre in London

• Elizabeth I was known as a proud patron of British drama and literature and it was during her reign that the first permanent and public playhouse in London was built (in 1576). The playhouse was christened The Theatre and it stood on Curtain Road in Shoreditch. Shakespeare’s company of players performed regularly, although they soon moved to The Globe, which was built in 1599. The latter burned down on June 23, 1613, thanks to a rogue cannon used during a performance of Henry VIII • In 1642, all theatres in London closed under orders of the Puritans, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell. They believed that theatres attracted indecent crowds and distracted people from worshipping God. When Charles II was crowned King in 1660 he, like Elizabeth before him, encouraged the Arts and, in so doing, inspired the Restoration Comedy genre. The Theatre Drury Lane opened during this period (in 1660) • Theatre first resembled what we know today in the mid 18th century, under the influence of actor David Garrick. His performance as Richard III is often touted as the first attempt at realism and he also abolished the popular practice of audience members paying extra to sit on the stage and irritate the actors. The Garrick Theatre is named after him • The National Theatre (above) was built in 1976, entirely out of concrete. It was designed by Sir Denys Lasdun, Peter Softley and structural engineers Flint & Neill. Upcoming productions include Much Ado About Nothing and The Father and the Assassin

Shop of the month

Southpaw Coffee 2 , R O M A N W AY, N 7

Open Monday to Sunday, 8am to 4pm (www.southpawcoffee.co.uk)

T the top of a green-squared, residential stretch of Islington, between busy Offord Road and the cur-clunk of the Overground, there’s a permanent queue on the pavement. People wait for coffee, bend to notice dogs and prams and know the staff by name. ‘This is not something we expected,’ said co-owner Orlando James, meaning the local reception, ‘but it’s a beautiful by-product of making room for relationships and for the community to grow. We used to joke that we know our customers by their idiosyncratic coffee orders, but it’s been a wonderful surprise to learn that we now actually know them.’

Southpaw opened in 2019, with Mr James and his co-owner and wife, Charlotte, handing out flat whites from behind a La Marzocco. From the beginning they have ground beans from Routes Coffee, a micro-roastery based in Oxford, and served a small selection of simple, moreish food, such as flapjacks, and cheese-and-tomato toasties (‘The magic is all in the butter-slathered, oregano-dusted crust,’ says Mrs James). There is also a deli selling artisanal producers that Mr and Mrs James have found and loved—slim bars of Bare Bones chocolate from Glasgow, patterned jars of blackberry bramble jam from England Preserves in south London. Jo Rodgers

Illustration by Polly Crossman; Alamy; Courtesy of the Horniman Museum and Gardens

What to do Disocver a new perspective at an exhibition of works by Luchita Hurtado at Hauser & Wirth (23, Savile Row, W1), May 12–July 20. The artist first started working on her ‘Sky Skin’ series in the 1970s (www.hauserwirth.com)

60 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.ll_notebook.indd 60

28/04/2022 14:52

The great and the good

LONDON LIFE

M Y P L AT E O F V I E W

Oslo Court, 7, Newcourt St, NW8

A green space T H E G A R D E N AT 12 0 , F E N C O U R T, 12 0 , F E N C H U R C H S T R E E T, E C 3

Illustration by Polly Crossman; Alamy; Courtesy of the Horniman Museum and Gardens

HE Sky Garden atop the Walkie Talkie gets all the attention, but did you know that, only a few yards down the road, there is another, entirely free, roof garden waiting to be explored? The Garden at 120 is designed to resemble a public park; a lift shoots you up straight into this

little slice of Nature hovering in the sky. The main draw are the views, but the planting is pretty incredible too. There’s jasmine cladding the board-marked concrete and an entirely unexpected combination of grasses, cordoned pear trees, and, the crowning glory in May, a geometric steel canopy planted with about 80 wisteria plants. Natasha Goodfellow is the author of ‘A London Floral’ and ‘A Cotswold Garden Companion’, both out now (www. finchpublishing.co.uk)

Psst... pass it on

HERE’S a must-see overstuffed walrus at London’s Horniman Museum that surely snags the title of London’s most underrated attraction. When the animal arrived in London from Canada —where he’d been hunted down in Hudson Bay—Victorian taxidermists assumed that his wrinkled skin was a defect that needed to be smoothed out.

London curiosities ON THE FACE OF IT

HE former Middlesex Guildhall built in 1906–13 by J. G. S. Gibson and Partners, now the Supreme Court, on Parliament Square, SW1. It displays a frieze of historical figures signed on the bottom right by Henry C. Fehr.

There are London restaurants—plenty of them, in fact—that depend on celebrity footfall for bookings. They do everything with one eye on Instagram. And then there’s Oslo Court. It’s never followed fashion, never had a PR agency and, as far as I know, never even advertised. Quite simply, it doesn’t need to. Almost from the moment it opened its doors, this Barbara Cartland-esque temple to the 1970s has been booked solid. Getting a table here feels like reaching the top of Everest, but I finally managed it, and on a Friday night, no less. We approached the block of flats overlooking Regent’s Park where it’s situated almost with trepidation: souncool-it’s-cool Oslo Court occupies a mythical place in the London food world. We were greeted warmly (most of the staff have been here for at least a decade) and whisked to a corner table decked out in salmon-pink linens. In that moment, it really felt like one of the happiest places on Earth. The menus arrived, together with a plate of perfect, golden Melba toast, the crunchiest crudites and the most garlicky aioli this side of the Mediterranean. I hadn’t even had a sip of wine and I already felt drunk on nostalgia for a world of food I only dimly remember. The set menu—just shy of £50 for three courses—looks like amazingly good value even before anything you’ve ordered arrives. The whitebait, accompanied by the zingiest homemade tartare sauce, could easily feed four. Lobster bisque is served tableside, and they keep going until you say ‘please, no more!’ The mains, steak Diane, say, or monkfish in garlic butter, come with potatoes, rosti, zucchini fries, green beans, red cabbage… you get the picture. The waiter who looks after the fabled pudding trolley is a north London legend, coaxing diners into having cream and ice cream with their slice of apple strudel or swapping fruit salad for sticky toffee pudding. ‘That was like being spoiled by your favourite grandparent,’ was my companion’s delighted verdict. What higher praise could there be? Emma Hughes

May 4, 2022 | Country Life | 61

CLI354.ll_notebook.indd 61

28/04/2022 14:53

LONDON LIFE

The great and the good

May at a glance We’re all guilty of ignoring what’s on our doorstep, so we’ve made it easier for you. Here’s what’s happening this month

Top: Hampton Court Palace, the site of the Artisan Festival. Above: ‘When Flowers Dream’

Alamy; Jack Ball

Above: The life—and near death—of James I and VI is told at Tower Hill Vaults. Below: Chelsea in Bloom

AY is always dominated by the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, SW3, but there are plenty of other events worthy of your time. Start the month with a bang at The Gunpowder Plot, Tower Hill Vaults, EC3, a virtual-reality and multisensory exhibition about the failed assassination attempt against James I, starring Harry Potter’s Tom Felton, from May 6 (www.gunpowderimmersive.com). Journey back in time (again) with a Shirehorse carriage ride at Hampton Court Palace’s Artisan Festival, KT8, May 13 to 15. Entry is included in the normal ticket price (www.hrp.org.uk/ hampton-court-palace/whats-on/artisan-festival). Take in world-class photography at Photo London, the annual exhibition at Somerset House, WC2, May 12 to 15 (https://photolondon.org). Or add some colour to your life at ‘When Flowers Dream’, a vibrant exhibition of artworks made out of sugar, among other things, by artist Pip & Pop, at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, TW9, from May 21 (www. kew.org). Enjoy a concert like no other on earth at the Royal Albert Hall, SW7. Ilan Exhkeri’s Space Station Earth, created in collaboration with The European Space Agency, premieres on May 15 (www.royalalbert hall.com/tickets/events/2022/spacestation-earth). Finally, if you need your floral kicks, but haven’t got a ticket to the main event, there’s Chelsea in Bloom, which sees shops in the area attempt to out do each other with bigger and better flowery displays, May 23–28 (www. chelseainbloom.co.uk). Best of all, it’s free.

62 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.ll_glance.indd 62

27/04/2022 13:39

Wonderfully Finished Apartment Park Crescent, London, W1B Regent’s Park Underground Station: 0.2 miles Spectacular duplex apartment situated in one of London’s finest Residential Developments. Reception room, 4 bedrooms (3 en suite), utility room, porter, terrace, 2 patios and exclusive access to Park Crescent and Park Square Gardens including a lawn tennis court. EPC = C Leasehold, approximately 135 years remaining | 3,729 sq ft | Guide £10.8 million Alex Ross Savills Marylebone & Fitzrovia 020 4579 2843 ahross@savills.com

Nick Poppe Savills Marylebone & Fitzrovia 020 4579 2895 npoppe@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

LONDON LIFE

THE

GOLDEN MILE

A Government-backed scheme to pedestrianise parts of The Strand is throwing light on the road’s gilded history, finds Jack Watkins

ET’S all go down the Strand,’ cries the Edwardian music-hall song, hailing it as ‘the place for fun and noise’. In the 1890s, it had more theatres, music halls, pubs and smoking rooms than any other street in London. However, more recently, it’s been just another traffic-dominated thoroughfare, more noted for its poor air quality.

In 2019, it was the first in the capital to breach annual legal limits for nitrogen dioxide. Now, however, Westminster City Council has begun a £32 million programme to pedestrianise the area around St Mary le Strand and King’s College, as well as creating a two-way traffic system on the Aldwych. The council hopes it will transform ‘this historic

gateway to the West End into a world-class and contemporary traffic-free public space’. How historic a gateway it was is the focus of Manolo Guerci’s sumptuously illustrated new book, London’s ‘Golden Mile’: The Great Houses of the Strand, 1550–1650. Although the street’s name arose from its original use as a bridle path alongside the Thames,

64 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.ll_strand.indd 64

28/04/2022 09:17

LONDON LIFE

according to Guerci, by the 16th century, it was distinguished by ‘a virtually uninterrupted line of majestic riverside mansions’, owned by aristocrats and courtiers, and operating as a de facto substitute for Whitehall, after the Tudor monarchs established a permanent Court in London. The Strand, just over three-quarters of a mile long, extended from Temple Bar to the Charing Cross monument (destroyed in 1647), and operated as a channel of communication between the City and the Inns of Court to the east and Whitehall Palace and Parliament to the west. Yet, writes the author, these unofficial ‘palaces’ lacked the urban appearance of their European equivalents. Whereas two of the 11 were on the north side of the Strand, those on the south side faced the river.

Several were approached from the Thames and entered via water gates that opened onto formal gardens leading up to the houses. Guerci reports they created a rus in urbe effect akin to an Italian villa surbana. Many of the architects and craftsmen employed on the design of the palaces also worked on their patron’s rural estates. By their centrality, Guerci argues, the Strand palaces ‘helped shape England’s architectural identity’. Combining features of English vernacular with Continental influences, he says, enabled them to reach unprecedented levels of sophistication that ultimately gave rise to a truly English style. Working his way east to west, Guerci has given each house its own chapter, the main focus being on the period between the 1550s

One of Wenceslaus Hollar’s 17th-century etchings of London, showing the Strand

and the end of the English Civil War in 1651, after which many of the great houses began to decline. Re-creating their histories has not been easy. As the author says, even most of the buildings that replaced the Strand palaces in the 17th century have themselves now been demolished. Records of the properties are scattered and plans and contemporary drawings are scarce. Even so, via meticulous research, the author has pieced together detailed stories. Some of the names associated with these properties resonate through time. Essex House, the most easterly of the palaces, and the first to be seen when approaching London by the May 4, 2022 | Country Life | 65

CLI354.ll_strand.indd 65

28/04/2022 09:17

LONDON LIFE

Thames, was owned by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (at which time it was known as Leicester House), the great favourite of Elizabeth I. The original palace was built by the Bishop of Exeter in the early 14th century, but Dudley rebuilt and improved the complex, and it was much visited by the monarch. Next to it, the tower of Arundel House, previously an inn of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, was reputedly where Wenceslaus Hollar, the draughtsman and etcher, whose riverside drawings are a vital feature of the book, produced some of his panoramic views of 17thcentury London. Hollar was in the employ of Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, who transformed the house from 1616. Not only did it contain his vast collection of paintings, Inigo Jones was employed in the design of what is reputed to be England’s first garden of antiquities, a tantalising glimpse of which is provided in the background of a portrait of the Earl, painted in about 1627. This terraced, open-air museum, displaying statues, inscriptions and architectural carvings, was emulated by Howard’s great art-collecting rival George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, further down the Strand at York House. As do many of the other palaces, York House looked

towards the river, with rented tenement properties fronting the Strand highway. The memory of its most famous occupant lives on in the road names (Villiers Street; Buckingham Street) long after the house’s demolition in the 1670s. Here, also, is a precious relic from the Golden Mile era, the rusticated York Watergate, built in about 1626. Today, it serves as a monument marking the former north bank of the river, more than 100 yards away from that of today, after the completion of the Embankment in 1870.

‘If the pedestrianisation taking place helps the Strand recover some of its former lustre, that is to be welcomed’ The latter, together with the cutting through of Northumberland Avenue, led to the demolition of the last of the great Strand palaces (and the nearest to Whitehall), the vast Northumberland House, in 1874. By that time, almost every architect of standing, as Guerci says, from Robert Adam to Charles Barry, had

passed through its doors. The huge Coade stone lion, the crest of the Percys, on its frontage was saved and removed to their Syon estate. Somewhere between the overbearing Regent Street and tacky Oxford Street, the Strand and its side streets still reward exploration. The Savoy Chapel lurks within the shadows of The Savoy hotel as the last surviving portion of the Savoy Hospital. There are still three theatres (the Savoy, the Adelphi and the Vaudeville), with the Lyceum and the Aldwych theatres close by. The slender spires of St Mary le Strand and St Clement Danes resemble elegant galleons floating down the highway. Close by, the arches and courtyard of Somerset House, a grand, purpose-built office development designed by William Chambers in the 18th century (and now the home of the Courtauld Gallery), perpetuates the name and memory of the original palace, built by Protector Somerset from 1547. If the pedestrianisation taking place directly in front of it helps the Strand recover some of its former lustre, that is to be welcomed. ‘London’s “Golden Mile”: The Great Houses of the Strand, 1550–1650’, by Manolo Guerci, is published by the Paul Mellon Centre and distributed by Yale University Press (£50)

Bridgeman Images; Creative Commons

The last of the great Strand palaces, Northumberland Palace, was demolished in 1874. It is shown here in a painting by Canaletto

66 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.ll_strand.indd 66

28/04/2022 09:17

GRIMSBY STREET, E2

GUIDE PRICE £900,000 FREEHOLD [2 bedrooms] [2 receptions] [open-plan kitchen/living/dining room] A mid-terraced exceptionally stylish contemporary open plan house near Shoreditch High Street and Brick Lane extending to 1023 Sq Ft benefitting from a heat recovery system, air conditioning, smart technology and electric blinds. EPC C 020 3930 4616

CITY@HAMPTONS.CO.UK

HAMPTONS.CO.UK

LONDON LIFE

Was opening your first restaurant in Peckham a gamble? We were taking a risk, for sure, opening Kudu (119, Queen’s Road, SE15) at the ‘wrong’ end of Peckham, away from the [gentrified] Bellenden Road and the common. When we took over the site, it was a Caribbean chicken shop, very grimy and we had to gut it completely. But I felt that, if we made it good enough, people would come. When Giles Coren reviewed us in The Times a couple of years ago, it really put us on the map as a destination. For the next three months, we had black cabs pulling up outside from north London. How did you manage to expand during the pandemic? We opened our cocktail bar, Smokey Kudu (Arch 133, Queen’s Road, SE15) underneath Queen’s Road overland station literally three months before the first lockdown. We’d taken over the site next door to Kudu, which used to be a Chinese currency exchange—we were convinced it was a money-laundering place because it never opened. It was originally going to be a tapas-style place called Little Kudu. But when the pandemic hit, we got nervous, so we changed the concept to Curious Kudu (117, Queen’s Road), which is our private dining room. It’s an exhibition space for local artists to hang work, so, during the day, it’s open to the public as an art gallery.

‘I remember being in a highchair and eating at The Ivy–we basically grew up in restaurants’ My babysitter told me about a restaurant in Nunhead that wasn’t re-opening after lockdown and I suggested we took over the site to make it a grill restaurant—that’s what Patrick [Williams], my husband, always wanted, being South African. It’s a braai—a South African barbecue; a way of open-fire cooking. Because Kudu received a Michelin Bib Gourmand within a few months of opening, we wanted somewhere more relaxed for family and friends. I love taking friends to Kudu Grill (57, Nunhead Lane, SE15) and sharing the whole black bream from the grill. It comes with these amazing rotis and you make your own fish wrap with some salad—a fun, interactive dish.

T H E C A P I TA L A C C O R D I N G T O ...

Amy Corbin

The restaurateur talks to Flora Watkins about opening on the ‘wrong’ side of Peckham and prawn cocktails at The Wolseley

Do you live locally? We’re right by Nunhead Cemetery (Linden Grove, SE15), which is the most amazing, enclosed secret garden. You’d never know you’re in London. There are tons of independent suppliers in Nunhead High Street, which I love. We buy cheeses and charcuterie at a really sweet deli, Mother Superior, (26, Nunhead Green, SE15) and all the fish for our restaurants at FC Soper (141, Evelina Road, SE15). There’s a really good coffee shop run by an Aussie guy called Goodcup (44, Nunhead Green, SE15); I love going down there at weekends with my girls. Have you always lived south of the river? I grew up in Clapham—my parents still live there, in Crescent Grove, overlooking

the common. That’s definitely home, too. Like Peckham, it’s changed a lot. When we first moved to Clapham, 23 years ago, there were only two restaurants on the High Street, including an Indian, Maharani (117, Clapham High Street, SW4), which is still there. We used to go there as a family when we drove back from France. Given your heritage [Amy’s father, Chris Corbin, helped launch some of London’s most iconic restaurants], has fine dining always been part of your life? I remember being in a highchair and eating at The Ivy (1–5, West Street, Covent Garden, WC2). We basically grew up in restaurants because my dad worked so hard—the only way we could eat as a family was to go to The Wolseley (160, Piccadilly, St James’s, W1). I loved the prawn cocktail and my brother would have the hamburger, then I’d order the Chocolate Liegeois coupe, my absolute favourite.

68 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.ll_interview.indd 68

27/04/2022 14:49

MITRE STREET, EC3A

OFFERS IN THE REGION OF £1,350,000 LEASEHOLD [2 bedrooms] [2 bathrooms] [open plan living] A split level penthouse apartment extending to 1276 Sq Ft with grand proportions and exceptional interior. The property benefits from dual aspect living space and a west facing private terrace with fabulous views towards the Gherkin and across the City. EPC D 020 3930 4616

CITY@HAMPTONS.CO.UK

HAMPTONS.CO.UK

Property market

Penny Churchill

English Arcadia The rolling Cotswolds countryside is the enchanting backdrop to six handsome properties

Oddington Lodge was meticulously renovated five years ago and offers 6,663sq ft of accommodation over three floors. £7.25m

LTHOUGH currently in short supply, classic country houses can be found anywhere within the 787 square miles of the Cotswolds AONB, which stretches from the borders of Warwickshire and Worcestershire in the north, to the fringes of Wiltshire and Somerset in the south. Yet recent transactions indicate that the smart London money continues to target the exclusive ‘golden corridor’ between Daylesford Farm Shop, near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, and Soho Farmhouse at Great Tew, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Bruce Tolmie-Thomson of Knight Frank’s country department (020–7861 1070) is

handling the sale, at a guide price of £7.25 million, of pristine Oddington Lodge at Lower Oddington, in the picturesque Evenlode Valley, a mile from Daylesford and 14 from Soho Farmhouse. Set in more than six acres of landscaped gardens and grounds, the imposing Cotswold-stone house was meticulously renovated five years ago by Oxfordbased conservation builders Symm, on behalf of the current owners, who bought it as a weekend retreat in 2016, but are now moving to a larger house in the area, having decided to live in the Cotswolds full time. The immaculate, 6,663sq ft main house stands on the edge of this most sought after

of Cotswold villages and offers well-laid-out accommodation over three floors, including an impressive reception hall, four reception rooms, a large kitchen/breakfast room, two bedroom suites, four further bedrooms and three bathrooms. Further accommodation is provided in two flats above six traditional stables in the converted coach house. The property comes with planning consent to build a two-storey rear extension and a new swimming pool and treatment room, as well as further accommodation and garaging. With easy access to the capital still a key factor for high-flying London buyers, David Henderson of Savills in Stow-on-the-Wold

132 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.prop_market.indd 132

28/04/2022 17:12

Proud sponsors of ‘A Garden Sanctuary by Hamptons’ at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show

GARDENS THEY COME IN ‘VERTICAL’ AS WELL AS ‘HORIZONTAL’

G A R D E N S . W E ’ R E E X P E R T S AT T H AT

Property market

Above: Grade II-listed Well House is 90 minutes by rail from London. £2.95m. Right: Greenhill Farm offers edge-of-village living in the Warwickshire Cotswolds. £2.5m (01451 832832) quotes a guide price of £2.95m for handsome, Grade II-listed Well House in the historic small village of Donnington, some three miles west of Daylesford and 3½ miles from Moreton-in-Marsh station, which is a 90minute train ride from London Paddington. Donnington Mill, home to the Donnington Brewery, is less than two miles away. Built of dressed limestone under a slate roof, Well House dates from the mid to late 17th century, with 19th- and 20th- century extensions. It offers some 5,900sq ft of family accommodation on three floors, including three main reception rooms, a games room, a kitchen with Aga, six bedrooms, four bathrooms and a selfcontained one-bedroom flat. Approached through electric gates with ample parking space and a double garage, it boasts almost half an acre of stocked, south-facing gardens, with terracing, a greenhouse and a summer house. Slightly more than eight miles north of Moreton-in-Marsh, Nick Rudge of Savills in Banbury (01295 228002) offers ‘elegant edgeof-village living with striking views’ for £2.5m at Grade II-listed Greenhill Farm, in the unspoilt south Warwickshire village of

Sutton-under-Brailes, located at the northern tip of the Cotswolds AONB. Built of local stone under a pitched Welsh grey slate roof, the house dates from the 18th century with 20th-century additions and has many period features, including open fireplaces, exposed timbers, deep window boards, panelled doors, flagstone floors, window seats and leaded lights. Modernised in recent years, it stands in seven acres of enclosed gardens and paddocks, with frontage to the Sutton Brook. The main house

provides 4,650sq ft of living space, including two main reception rooms, a garden room, a kitchen/breakfast room, five to six bedrooms and four bath/shower rooms. It comes with garaging, off-road parking and a range of timber outbuildings comprising two loose boxes, hay and garden stores. At the opposite end of the Cotswolds AONB, Rupert Sturgis of Knight Frank in Cirencester (01285 882001) quotes a guide price of £2.35m for Georgian, Grade II-listed Yew Tree Farmhouse, in the peaceful hamlet of

134 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.prop_market.indd 134

28/04/2022 17:12

Property market

Above: Little Ham at Burford, the ‘Gateway to the Cotswolds’. £2.14m Right: Yew Tree Farmhouse offers 5,000sq ft of living space 55 minutes from London. £2.35m Hannington Wick, on the Wiltshire/Gloucestershire border. Built to an exceptional standard in the early 18th century, the substantial stone farmhouse, which is set in just under two acres of gardens and orchard, offers the option of a 55-minute London commute from Swindon station, nine miles away. Used mainly as a holiday home by the current owners, who are upgrading to a larger property, Yew Tree Farmhouse has been extensively and sympathetically renovated by them and comes complete with CAT 6 wiring for faster digital data transfer. The interior provides more than 5,000sq ft of versatile family accommodation, including three reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, master and guest suites, four further bedrooms and three family bathrooms. 136 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.prop_market.indd 136

28/04/2022 17:12

Advertisement promotion

Fighting your corner If you are looking to buy property in the competitive Cotswolds market, a property search agent that goes the extra mile to look after your interests is vital to help you secure the right home at the right price Prime Purchase For the past 20 years, Prime Purchase has represented buyers acquiring some of the finest homes and estates across the country. Its four-strong Cotswolds team offers a discreet, impartial and professional service. The company only represents buyers and acts in their best interests, using its detailed knowledge of the market to impart considered and sensible advice, managing

the negotiation process to ensure the best possible outcome. Prime Purchase’s Cotswolds team is one of the largest and most well connected in the business, offering only a handful of clients at any one time unrivalled access to properties available both off and on market. (07500 818272; www.prime-purchase.com)

Cotswold Buying Agent Limited The founder of Cotswold Buying Agent, Samantha Scott-White, provides a professional and highly personal service to private clients. By engaging a skilled, independent buying agent, you’ll enjoy the benefits of having the best possible representation. With more than 20 years’ experience, Mrs ScottWhite has built excellent personal relationships—often hearing about properties long

before they come to the open market. She lives in the Cotswolds and is often approached directly by vendors to view their property. Friendly, professional and armed with a full understanding of your needs and dreams, Mrs Scott-White is wholeheartedly committed to finding your dream home—stress-free. (07733 232822; www.cotswoldbuyingagent.co.uk)

Jess Simpson Property Search An independent buying agency covering the South of England, Cotswolds and the West Country, Jess Simpson specialises in offering impartial, strategic advice to buyers looking to purchase a country house, farm or estate. The team works closely with clients to understand their needs and investment drivers fully, and ensure that they get the best possible enjoyment from their home or return from their

Cotswold Property Finder Opening your door to The Cotswolds and surrounding areas, Cotswold Property Finder offers a bespoke property finding service that’s tailored to the needs and requirements of individual clients. Hannah Edge acts solely for the buyer and is truly independent, operating discreetly and with integrity at all times. Whether you are looking for a second home, village or town 30

property, country house, farm or equestrian property, Cotswold Property Finder is able to assist with your search and get you one step ahead of the competition. If you wish to discuss your property search in The Cotswolds, do not hesitate to contact Mrs Edge MRICS. (07833 431117; www.cotswoldpropertyfinder.co.uk)

investment. The company spends time to maintain excellent relationships with a range of industry professionals, enabling it to gain access to property privately or off-market. Its professional reputation and market knowledge help ensure that its clients have the advantage when it comes to negotiations and securing those otherwise unattainable opportunities. (020–3488 4038; www.jesssimpson.com)

Property market

Southfield Farm at Compton Scorpion, Warwickshire’s highest village, sits in 30 acres of gardens, orchards and paddocks. £5.65m

An attached barn houses a double car port, two stables and a spacious, doubleheight games room that can be accessed directly from the boot room, with a large outbuilding providing storage for garden machinery and equipment. Even in areas of high demand such as the Cotswolds, there’s nothing more dispiriting than sales that fall through at the last minute —even if the reasons are genuinely unavoidable. Such is the case of Little Ham at Burford, 10 miles from Stow-on-the-Wold and 20 miles from Oxford, which returns to the market with the local office of JacksonStops (01993 822661) at a revised guide price of £2.14m, following the withdrawal of the prospective purchaser due to ill health, as selling agent Kathryn Anderson reveals. Often referred to as the ‘Gateway to the Cotswolds’, the ancient town of Burford, which dates from Saxon times, nestles in the lovely Windrush Valley, surrounded by glorious, rolling countryside, yet is within easy reach of both Oxford and Cheltenham. Little Ham was acquired three years ago by the present vendor, an interior designer who has painstakingly refurbished the Grade II-listed

house, which dates from the late 18th century with 19th- and early 20th-century alterations. It is now finished in a mix of old and new, with white the predominant colour.

The smart London money continues to target the exclusive “golden corridor” Approached through solid-wood electric gates, the compact, 3,319sq ft house, which incorporates a two-storey annexe that could be separated if required, offers family accommodation on two floors, including two reception rooms and five bedrooms, together with a summerhouse and covered terrace, private off-street parking and a landscaped garden enclosed by a privet hedge and a Cotswold-stone boundary wall. The recent failure of a prospective purchaser to complete the sale of Southfield Farm at Compton Scorpion, near Ilmington,

Warwickshire’s highest village, despite contracts having been exchanged, was made marginally more palatable by the vendor’s right to retain the deposit paid, says Rupert Sweeting of Knight Frank, who has overseen the relaunch in today’s COUNTRY L IFE at a revised guide price of £5.65m through the firm’s Stratford-upon-Avon office (01789 206950). Set amid 30½ acres of partly walled gardens, paddocks, orchards, arboretum and lake, Grade II-listed Southfield Farm and its magnificent tithe barn, previously owned for many years by the Church, have been renovated and refurbished to create one outstanding, 11,000sq ft property with spectacular views in all directions. An ingenious feat of engineering and design has seen the vast interior spaces of the previously detached tithe barn linked by a doublestorey glazed link to the 17th-century farmhouse, with its many traditional features, including period doors, stone fireplaces and inglenooks with flagstone hearths and timber lintel beams. A stable yard provides four stables and a hay store and the nearby Dutch barn has planning consent for conversion to an indoor pool, gym and leisure complex.

138 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.prop_market.indd 138

28/04/2022 17:12

Natural, beautiful, comfortable. We are a family company, making wonderfully comfortable furniture from natural materials. Every piece is made by hand and crafted to last a lifetime. To experience Maker&Son comfort for yourself, book a visit from one of our beautiful mobile showrooms, or pop in and see us in our Sussex home. We are able to make bespoke pieces in any size or using customer own materials like this wonderful chaise. To find out more, visit our website or give us a call. We’d love to hear from you. W W W. M A K E R A N D S O N . C O M | 0 8 0 0 0 2 4 6 1 0 0 |

MAKERANDSON

Properties of the week

Carla Passino

Take to the hills Find the perfect springboard to enjoy the beauty of The Cotswolds Gloucestershire, £675,000 With its honey-coloured stones, different rooflines and pretty bay windows, Grade II-listed Rhymes Cottage, in Moreton-in-Marsh, has an almost fairy-tale quality. Inside, it’s equally charming, with plenty of exposed stones and timbers, inglenook fireplaces and an Aga in the kitchen. There are two to three bedrooms and a study that opens onto the stone terrace (ideal for alfresco entertaining) and the walled garden beyond. Strutt & Parker (01608 653308)

Gloucestershire, £1.25 million Ashlar, in Icomb, has a traditional feel that belies its relatively young age—it was built in 1975 and extended by the current owners. The 2,271sq ft interior, however, has a modern layout, with the dining room flowing into, but still separate from the kitchen. There’s also a large sitting room, three first-floor bedrooms and two on the top floor that could also be put to other uses. Outside, the stone terrace and south-facing lawned garden are perfect for summer entertaining. Ashlar, which enjoys fine country views at the rear, also has easy access to many delightful walks. Butler Sherborn (01451 830731)

140 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.props_week.indd 140

28/04/2022 14:50

Properties of the week Oxfordshire, £2.14 million Manicured gardens complete with gurgling fountain and alfresco dining area welcome visitors to Little Ham, in Burford. The five-bedroom house —which is listed Grade II and dates from the late 18th century, albeit with later additions—is equally elegant, thanks to a careful renovation programme that blended contemporary finishes with period details. Among the highlights of the 3,319sq ft interior are the panelled dining room with mullion windows and stone fireplace, the panelled sitting room with panoramic garden views and the bespoke kitchen with handmade cabinets. There’s also a ground-floor annexe and a striking stone summerhouse at the northern end of the garden. Jackson-Stops (01993 822661). Gloucestershire, £1.5 million From its heyday as a mill, Weavers Mill, in Pitchcombe, has kept intact its original waterwheel and bucolic setting—it comes with beautiful gardens of about one acre, bordered by a stream, and another eight acres of grazing land with spring-fed pond. The main reception rooms make the most of the delightful views, as do some of the five bedrooms. The house also has a range of outbuildings. Murrays (01452 814655)

9000

Oxfordshire, £3.5 million Old meets new at this Grade II-listed house in Chipping Norton. Originally dating from the 15th century, it was painstakingly renovated to make the most of features such as the original leaded windows and the exposed oak beams and trusses. New wiring and plumbing was added, as well as underfloor heating on the lower ground and ground floors. Every detail is delightful, whether it’s the Aga and French doors in the kitchen, the 17th-century oak staircase, or the oriel windows, reclaimed-elm bookcases and open fireplace in the drawing room. The dining room, with its vaulted ceiling and fireplace made from reclaimed carved stone, is particularly striking. The master suite—one of five—even has vaulted ceilings and a sitting area with open fireplace. A terrace with two loggias is ideal for alfresco entertaining and the garden beyond, which houses a swimming pool, is very private. Savills (01451 832832) 142 | Country Life | May 4, 2022

CLI354.props_week.indd 142

28/04/2022 14:50