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A Regency house with outbuildings proved to be love at first sight for creatives Julia Bostock and Ben Burdett
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ith a shared passion for photography, Julia Bostock and Ben Burdett’s 1840s regency home can be found a few miles drive off the A12. Light and airy, every room is bursting with creativity and stunning imagery. “We’re very lucky,” says Julia. “We found the house back in 2010 and it needed very little doing to it.” Whilst both have strong working ties to London and travel extensively – Julia is a leading children’s fashion and lifestyle photographer, working for Liberty of London, Fendi and Harrods amongst others, and Ben is the owner of the much-respected Atlas photography and fine art gallery in Marylebone – a relaxed family home out of town was always what they imagined. Ben explains: “Whilst London-based, our weekends were spent decamping to Osea Island on the Blackwater in Essex. We rented a very unflashy white clapboard cottage that had no heating and was cut off by the tide. It was complete freedom until Sunday afternoons when we had to head back to our proper lives.” With the owners selling the cottage in 2008, the couple, along with daughters Molly and Ella, decided to settle permanently in Suffolk. Ben takes up the story: “We took a risk moving just as the banking crisis was starting and moved to Stutton for two years before we came across this place. “For me, the house was love at first sight. It gave us the chance to live in an architecturally unspoilt Regency house but the outbuildings at the back of the property satisfied our urge to do a very modern build.” With both Julia and Ben sometimes able to work from home, it made sense to rework the house’s outbuildings and granny annexe to create a space that was multi-
ISSUE ONE… SUMMER 2016
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