Country Life August 4, 2021 Early Property Pages

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AUGUST 4, 2021

Rock pools: a magic world

ISSUE: 31

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The insect apocalypse and how to stop it Free as a bird: take to the skies in an autogyro Courage under fire: First World War memories

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ONE FAMILY SPECIALISING IN FINE FURNITURE SINCE 1866

A very fine mahogany and etimoe veneered coffee table. The brass bound top with highly decorative marquetry in sycamore and mother of pearl, above a paneled frieze with floral brass accents and brass inlay, on fluted columns with acanthus capitals and bases.

Width: 63¾" (162cm) Depth: 41" (106cm) Height: 20¾" (53cm) £7,555

View items in your home with our approval service...

For showroom appointments & home approvals call 01491 641115 or visit www.brightsofnettlebed.co.uk/book - watch our video online.

COVID-19: We believe it is in the best interests of our clients and team to continue with our established hygiene protocol. Our team will continue to wear masks with temperature checks, social distancing and regular rapid testing in place when possible. Our routine sanitisation of showrooms and vehicles will continue and masks will be available to our showroom visitors.

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)

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NEAR BILLINGSHURST, WEST SUSSEX

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beautifully presented barn conversion with an additional five bedroom house and two bedroom cottage. The property is set amongst 218 acres in a remarkable situation in prime West Sussex and has excellent equestrian facilities.

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 | A M E R I C A N B A R N W I T H 8 S TA B L E S WA S H & TA C K R O O M | I N D O O R A R E N A | W O O D L A N D & PA S T U R E | R I V E R | E P C D BILLINGSHURST 4 MILES | GUILDFORD 16 MILES | CENTRAL LONDON 44 MILES

Guide price available upon request Knight Frank London & Haslemere annabel.blackett@knightfrank.com 020 4502 7347 russell.grieve@knightfrank.com 01428 786268 rupert.sweeting@knightfrank.com 020 4502 7744 Ref: CHO012182091

knightfrank.co.uk

YARDLEY HASTINGS, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Asking Price: £2,000,000 5 Bedrooms

3 Reception Rooms

3 Bathrooms

E EPC

A modern five bedroom detached house with an indoor swimming pool, a triple garage, gated driveway parking and 1.29 acres of mature enclosed gardens backing onto woodland.

The property was designed in the style of an Italian villa, and is set well back from the road in landscaped gardens. The rear garden has an extensive terrace spanning the width of the property. The pool room has bi-fold doors to the terrace which is also accessible from the principal reception rooms. The house has over 5,150 sq. ft. of versatile accommodation with high specification and bespoke features which include a walnut and Parapan kitchen with Neff and Miele appliances and a walnut staircase.

Olney Office | Jonathan Selsby | 01234 712424 London Office | Bob Bickersteth | 0207 839 0888

14 offices covering 8 counties and Central London

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michaelgraham.co.uk

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michaelgraham_living

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SEVENOAKS, KENT

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particularly handsome country house, positioned at the head of a long drive and set in 33.80 acres of wonderful gardens and grounds. Located in a stunning private setting on the edge of one the most sought-after villages in West Kent.

6 P R I N C I PA L B E D R O O M S | 5 P R I N C I P A L B AT H R O O M S | 5 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | C O T TA G E | G Y M S W I M M I N G P O O L | T E N N I S C O U R T & PAV I L I O N | G A R D E N S T O R E | S TA B L E S | E P C F SEVENOAKS 5.4 M ILE S | LOND ON 3 5 MILE S

Guide price £5,350,000 Knight Frank London & Sevenoaks edward.rook@knightfrank.com 020 3930 1379 matthew.hodder-williams@knightfrank.com 01732 807851 Ref: SEV160117

knightfrank.co.uk

Castle with Views to France Hythe, Kent Hythe: 2 miles, Ashford International Station: 11 miles (London St Pancras from 37 minutes) Situated on the edge of the escarpment, this Grade I listed castle enjoys stunning views across the Romney Marsh towards the English Channel. Currently operating as a wedding and corporate entertainment venue, the property includes stables, 1 staff flat, 4 holiday let cottages, restaurant, remains of a Roman fort, walled garden, further gardens and enclosures.

About 137 acres | Guide £11 million

Will Peppitt Savills London Country Department 020 3553 7833 wpeppitt@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Kent, Northbourne

A superb small estate centred on a beautiful Grade II* Listed Jacobean manor house, with a Grade II Listed cottage and period farmstead for conversion Walmer station: 2.7 miles (Ashford International from 44 mins, London St Pancras from 82 mins), Deal: 3.2 miles, Sandwich: 4.6 miles, Dover: 8.4 miles, Canterbury: 16 miles 4 Reception rooms | Cyclops room | Kitchen | Atrium | Cellars | Principal bedroom with dressing room and ensuite shower room 6 Further bedrooms | 3 Family bathrooms (1 with sauna) | Garden | Double garage | Outbuildings | Double carport | Summer house | Greenhouse Stores | Georgian Cottage with 3 bedrooms | Lake | Lot 2: Barn, stables and store with planning permission for conversion to 2 dwellings In all about 49 acres (considered to have potential for vineyard planting)

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

Jane Layfield

James Mackenzie

Canterbury Office 01227 806 892

Country Department 020 3642 4591

jane.layfield@struttandparker.com

james.mackenzie@struttandparker.com

/struttandparker

@struttandparker

struttandparker.com

Exceptional Country Residence Sevenoaks, Kent Sevenoaks Station: 2.8 miles (London Bridge from 22 minutes) Once home to the eminent architect Charles Robert Ashbee, this is a handsome unlisted and refurbished Arts and Crafts country home set within parkland grounds in a rural location. 4 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms (5 en suite), further bathroom, study, sauna, steam room, swimming pool, tennis court, secondary accommodation, summerhouses, pool house, pavilions, garaging, formal gardens and grounds. EPC = F About 16 acres | Guide £10 million

Will Peppitt Savills London Country Department 020 3925 6807 wpeppitt@savills.com

David Johnston Savills Sevenoaks 01732 807 692 djohnston@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Elevated Estuary Views Padstow, Cornwall Padstow: 0.4 miles, St Merryn: 2.5 miles, Wadebridge: 8 miles A spacious and versatile detached house, set in a generous plot with spectacular and uninterrupted views over the Camel Estuary. 2 reception rooms, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, outbuildings, garage, set in lawned gardens. EPC = E About 0.5 acres | 2,201 sq ft (204.48 sq m) | Price on application Chris Clifford Savills Cornwall 01872 885 914 cclifford@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Highly Sought-after Location Tisbury, Wiltshire Tisbury Station: 0.9 miles (London Waterloo from 108 minutes) The former home of Rudyard Kipling’s parents, a Chilmark stone house less than 0.5 miles from the High Street. 3 reception rooms, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, shower room, hard tennis court, workshop, storage bay, 2 bay car barn, arboretum, beautiful gardens and grounds. EPC = F About 4.7 acres | Offers in excess of £1.5 million James McKillop Savills Salisbury 01722 562 905 james.mckillop @savills.com

Paul Cadge Savills Salisbury 01722 562 945 paul.cadge@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Demand remains high in Central England With 11 new prospective buyers for every new instruction during the month of June 2021* in the Central region, demand for country homes in this outstanding area of the UK remains at an all-time high.

If you're thinking of making the move, here are a selection of properties available:

Eardisley, Herefordshire A beautifully restored Queen Anne House with extensive Grade II listed unmodernised outbuildings.

7 B E D R O O M S | 5 B AT H R O O M S | 5 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | A P P R O X I M AT E LY 1 5 A C R E S

Guide price £1,950,000

charles.probert@knightfrank.com 01905 885720

Ladbroke, Warwickshire Beautiful renovated and extended with nearly 4,000 sq ft of accommodation.

5 B E D R O O M S | 4 B AT H R O O M S | 5 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | A P P R O X I M AT E LY 0 . 7 5 A C R E S | G R A D E I I L I S T E D

Guide price £1,350,000

james.way@knightfrank.com 01789 863993

Longborough, Gloucestershire A delightful detached Cotswold stone period property situated on the edge of this popular village.

3 B E D R O O M S | 2 B AT H R O O M S | 2 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | E P C E

Guide price £895,000

helen.waddilove@knightfrank.com 01451 888130 Source: Knight Frank data

Radford, Oxfordshire Deceptively large family house with a lovely garden in a quiet and tranquil hamlet near Soho Farmhouse.

6 B E D R O O M S | 2 B AT H R O O M S | 3 R E C E P T I O N R O O M S | A P P R O X I M AT E LY 0 . 5 A C R E S | E P C G

Guide price £1,600,000

harry.sheppard@knightfrank.com 01865 987983

Charlton Kings, Cheltenham A superb family home set in around half an acre of gardens on one of Cheltenham's most highly sought-after private roads.

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 | E P C D

Guide price available upon request

nick.chivers@knightfrank.com 01242 806824

Ryeford, Herefordshire A beautifully renovated Herefordshire farmhouse with far reaching views.

5 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 | A P P R O X I M AT E LY 2 . 5 A C R E S | E P C D

Guide price £1,250,000

tom.banwell@knightfrank.com 01242 806824

If you’re thinking of selling your home, or would simply like some advice on the market, get in touch today. We’d love to help you.

Your partners in property for 125 years

knightfrank.co.uk

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POLLENSA , MALLORCA

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his beautiful townhouse is situated close to the main square of Pollensa as well as all key amenities, schools and restaurants. The property has been recently refurbished for year-round comfort and features a magnificent roof terrace for enjoying the panoramic mountain views and warm Mediterranean evenings.

4 B E D R O O M S | 4 B AT H R O O M S | 2 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 R I VAT E T E R R A C E S A I R C O N D I T I O N I N G | G A R A G E | P R I VAT E P A R K I N G

Guide price €1,395,000 mark.harvey@knightfrank.com +44 20 4502 8469 Ref: MLG33261

knightfrank.com/overseas-property

SELLING HOMES, NOT JUST HOUSES

DOUTHWAITE HALL, HUTTON LE HOLE, YORK Kirkbymoorside 3 miles, Helmsley 6 miles, York 26 miles (all distances approximate)

A GLORIOUS GRADE II LISTED COUNTRY HOUSE, WITH BEAUTIFUL ACCOMMODATION IN A SPECTACULAR AND TRANQUIL PARKLAND SETTING IN THE NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS NATIONAL PARK. IN ALL 33 ACRES. Accommodation and Amenities MAIN HOUSE Ground Floor: Entrance hallway, drawing room, billiard room, family room, living kitchen, preparation kitchen, dining room, sitting room, garden room, laundry, boot room, rear entrance hallway and wc/cloakroom. Three cellars.

First Floor: Master bedroom with dressing room and large ensuite, guest bedroom with dressing room and ensuite.

Two further bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, three additional bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Second Floor: Three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a sitting area.

CEDAR LODGE Sitting room, dining room and kitchen. Two bedrooms and house bathroom. Private garden, parking and outbuilding.

OUTSIDE Traditional barns, outbuildings and stores. Piggery, stables and tack room. Lake house, wendy house, tennis court, green house, potting shed and fuel stores. Manicured garden, parkland, lake and woodland.

Guide Price On Application

LUXURY. LIFESTYLE. LOCATION.

REDEFINING ESTATE AGENCY

HAM P TO N S .CO.U K

ADAM & EVE MEWS, W8 PRICE ON APPLICATION [5 BEDROOMS] [4 EN SUITE BATHROOMS] [2 KITCHENS] [2 CLOAKROOMS] [MULTI-PURPOSE BASEMENT] An immaculate five-storey town house completely rebuilt to exacting standards resulting in a stunning contemporary residence with an air of timeless elegance and a nod to Art Deco.

Versatility has been the key in the layout while externally, a kitchen patio to the rear and a spacious and private terrace on the second floor provide secluded space to catch the sun or to entertain.

The house also benefits from a large car port and secure side gate access for bicycle storage. EPC: B 020 3925 1334

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KENSINGTON@HAMPTONS.CO.UK

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HAMPTONS.CO.UK

carterjonas.co.uk Offices throughout the UK

TO LET SOMERSET Mells

A derelict range of three cottages in a secluded location at the heart of the Mells Estate, with full planning consent to create a substantial four bedroom family home.

Available to let on a 20 year improvement lease.

– Frome 3 miles – Bath 14 miles – Babington House 2 miles

Oliver Mead 0117 403 9970 oliver.mead@carterjonas.co.uk

THE HOME OF PREMIUM PROPERTY O U R PR OPE R T Y PAGE S A R E W H E R E T H E F I N E S T HO U SE S A R E SHOWC A SE D T O A R E F I N E D, W E A LT H Y R E A DE R SH I P I N B O T H T H E U K A N D OV E R SE A S

COUNTRY LIFE is where buyers search for their dream For property advertising information please contact Oliver Pearson: oliver.pearson@futurenet.com – 07961 800887

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Your indispensable guide to the capital

IS THIS LONDON’S SMARTEST HOTEL CHOICE? The Lost Poet, 6, Portobello Road, W11

A wave of brand-new, stylish and affordable (yes, really) hotels is crashing down on London—in time for a summer-holiday staycation and the August bank holiday. Multi-generational travellers and groups will love The Lost Poet, a four-bedroom, guesthouse-style hotel at the Notting Hill Gate end of Portobello Road that’s available on an exclusive-use basis. An automated check-in and check-out system means you can come and go as you please and breakfast is included—choose between Naughty (Ottolenghi pastries and lashings of salty butter) and Nice (chia seed pudding with yoghurt and compote)—and left outside your door every morning.

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Welcome hampers from The Sloe Kitchen can be pre-ordered.

Rooms are themed by colour; the Muse is the only one with a bath, as well as a mezzanine-style sitting room and terrace. They cost from £200 per night for an individual room or £1,350 for all four (www.thelostpoet.co.uk). Meanwhile, in Belgravia, The Lime Tree hotel has emerged from lockdown with a smart new look. Book room 42, which has huge, floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook Ebury and Elizabeth Streets. There’s also a new restaurant, The Buttery (for breakfast and lunch), and a kitchen garden—home to Alan, a friendly robin. From £95 per night (www.limetreehotel.co.uk)

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LONDON LIFE

News

Keep your cool

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ADIQ KHAN, Mayor of London, has announced a series of capital-wide Cool Spaces, to help Londoners deal with increasing temperatures. The spaces have been split into tiers: tier one spaces are open to members of the public between 10am and 5pm on weekdays and on weekends where possible and have access to free drinking water; tier two spaces have restricted opening hours; tier three spaces—outdoor and blue areas, like river banks and canals—offer shading. All are free of charge.

Spaces include Stratford Library, E15, Little Venice Sports Centre, W2, the Institute of Contemporary Arts Bookstore, SW1Y, and The Wallace Collection, W1U (above).

The announcement came as meteorologists forecast a second, two-week-long heatwave for the first half of August (www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment/climate-change/ climate-adaptation/cool-spaces)

Cruickshank’s London: A Portrait of a City in 13 Walks is available in paperback from August 26.

Written by the historian, author and broadcaster Dan Cruickshank, the book includes maps, photographs and plenty of historical details

London’s pride and joy

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Art is in the house

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NEW residential development in Bermondsey, SE1, will house a charitable purpose-built gallery space, studios and arts hub. Construction on Tannery Arts at London Square Bermondsey has already started and is due to complete next year (www.londonsquare.co.uk).

When it opens, residents and the public will have access to exhibitions and the opportunity to watch the artists at work.

The space will join Tannery Art’s other studios and galleries across the capital.

Founded in 1993, the charity provides support for emerging and established artists and organises public learning projects (www.tanneryarts.org.uk)

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Alamy; Nick Andrews

HERE elephants go, lions will follow. On World Lion Day, August 10, a pride of lifesize lion sculptures, designed and made by well-known artists, musicians and sportspeople (including Ronnie Wood, below), will take to the streets of London (www. tuskliontrail.com). Smaller groups will pop up in major cities across the world.

On the day, Londoners will be able to download trail maps and find out more about the artworks. Like CoExistence’s Elephant Family project, the lion sculptures will then be auctioned off by Bonhams with funds raised going towards Tusk’s conservation projects and African communities impacted by Covid-19.

Hannah Shergold, a former COUNTRY LIFE Frontispiece (June 13, 2018) and helicopter commander in the Army Air Corps turned artist, has chosen to decorate one of the lions—which she nicknamed Brian— by encasing its entire body in 22-carat gold leaf. ‘The inspiration,’ she explains, ‘was to ask the question, “is a lion worth its weight in gold?” and therefore, “is a lion worth more alive or dead?”.’

News

Dial seven for flowers

Book now

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ICKETS are now available to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel exhibition, which will take place at a secret location in London.

The exhibition promises visitors the chance to see immaculate replicas of the artist’s masterpieces life-size and up close.

From £11 (www. sistinechapelexhibit. com/london)

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EVEN DIALS, WC2H, has teamed up with floral designers and social enterprise group Urban Growth London, and volunteers from the Young Camden Foundation, on a series of floral installations. The creations can be seen around Camden, exploding out of repurposed objects such as theatre seats and a piano.

In 2020, the Young Camden Foundation supported more than 1,400 local young people through grant-giving programmes addressing issues such as digital poverty, youth safety and mental health. There is a contactless, £3 donation point on site, with funds raised going straight to the charity (www.sevendials.co.uk)

The taste of travel

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Alamy; Nick Andrews

HERE’S a new restaurant in Notting Hill that promises to transport diners to distant lands—just the ticket (no pun intended) for anyone without a summer holiday on the horizon. Los Mochis serves up an exotic selection of Mexican and Japanese fusion plates and it’s already a firm favourite with nearby residents. Funky music, bold artwork on open brick and cacti surround the tables.

Order a spicy Los Mochis Tommy’s margarita to kick things off, it pairs perfectly with the guacamole that comes with a selection of toppings—try the toasted shrimp and snow crab. Everything is designed to share, as is so often the case in both Mexico and Japan, and the tacos are a prime example of fine casual dining.

The menu was scattered with words that I couldn’t quite comprehend at first— Jalapeno Pico de Gallo was a fresh salsa; Ume Saikyo a type of miso that comes with the succulent black cod—but that just adds to the holiday feeling. Who needs a long-haul flight? The sushi came next, roll upon roll.

This is food and drink that simply cannot be re-created at home. HL

£2.50

LONDON LIFE

Best of the rest

Italy River Cafe, Hammersmith (www.rivercafe.co.uk) Greece Mazi, Notting Hill (www.mazi.co.uk) Israel The Palomar, Soho (www.thepalomar.co.uk)

The proposed toll to use the new Silvertown Tunnel between Greenwich Peninsula and West Silvertown, due to open in 2025. At the most recent London Assembly transport committee meeting, tolls on other Thames crossings were proposed, and Hammersmith & Fulham Council are considering one to help fund urgent repair work on Hammersmith Bridge

Micro-mobility provider TIER has unveiled an eco-mural on Camden High Street, NW1. The toxic-free, limebased paint absorbs carbon dioxide as it dries—around 14.4kg for every 45l of paint—and is capable of reflecting solar energy back into the atmosphere.

LONDON LIFE Editor Rosie Paterson Editor-in-chief Mark Hedges Chief sub-editor Octavia Pollock Art Heather Clark, Ben Harris, Sarah Readman, Dean Usher Pictures Lucy Ford, Emily Anderson Advertising Oliver Pearson 07961 800887 Email firstname.surname@futurenet.com

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Stunning Family Home Montrell Road, London SW2 Streatham Hill Station: 1.6 miles Immaculately presented, semi-detached family home arranged over 3 floors.

Reception room, open plan kitchen/dining room, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, cloakroom, dressing room, off-street parking and south west-facing garden. EPC = E Freehold | 2,770 sq ft (257.34 sq m) | Guide £1.625 million Helen Hammond Savills Clapham 020 4502 9890 helen.hammond @savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

Superb Warehouse-style Home Southwell Road, London SE5 Loughborough Junction Station: 0.2 miles Originally built in 1906 for theatre impresario Fred Karno as headquarters for his music hall troupe which included Charlie Chaplin. 2 reception rooms, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, work studios, lift, off-street parking, roof terrace, far-reaching views across London. EPC = D Freehold | 6,300 sq ft (585.29 sq m) | Guide £3.25 million Caroline Kennaway Savills Clapham 020 3504 5317 ckennaway@savills.com

savills

savills.co.uk

LONDON LIFE

Dulwich

SE19–22

LITTLE BLACK BOOK Dulwich Picture Gallery cafe and shop, College Road, SE21 Expect great coffee and delicious lunches, plus a shop featuring artist-made projects Bartleys Flowers, 82, Dulwich Village, SE21 A good selection of both plants and flowers Moxon’s,149, Lordship Lane, SE22 Fresh fish meets salmon and kippers smoked at the company’s own smokehouse The Dulwich Trader, 9–11, Croxted Rd, SE21 A lifestyle store with a large selection of gifts and furniture Just Williams Toys, 106, Grove Vale, SE22 A family-run toy shop beloved by children

This green and pleasant village This slice of south London is an underrated arcadia, but for how long, asks Carla Passino?

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REEN is Dulwich’s colour. The line of soaring trees and trimmed hedges along Red Post Hill hints to Dulwich Park’s manicured lawns and ancient oaks, Brockwell’s cricket pitch, Long Meadow’s black poplars and Belair Park’s weeping willows, their branches tickling the surface of the lake. ‘The leafiness of Dulwich

is, to me, its greatest charm,’ Arthur Oswald wrote in COUNTRY LIFE in 1962. Fifty-nine years on, this slice of English Arcadia hidden in south-east London endures.

‘Dulwich is one of London’s greatest surprises,’ agrees Jennifer Scott, director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery. ‘It’s remarkable that 30 minutes from Victoria you are in the most

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Dulwich

quintessential English village. Even for those who know it well, it still catches us by surprise.’

First mentioned in 967, the hamlet belonged for a long time to the priory at Bermondsey, but was sold off after the Dissolution. ‘For about 60 years, it was in the hands of a family of goldsmiths, the Caltons, then, in 1605, it was bought by a prominent actor called Edward Alleyn,’ says local historian Brian Green. A ‘big wheel in theatre’ who managed the Rose Theatre, built the Fortune and became Master of the King’s Bulls, Bears and Mastiff Dogs, he probably bought the manor of Dulwich as an investment. In 1613, however, he turned into a philanthropist, setting up a charitable institution to provide for six old men and six old women and educate 12 poor scholars. Four centuries later, the Edward Alleyn House (albeit rebuilt) still accommodates elderly, lowincome people in 14 flats and the Corporation of God’s Gift College has morphed into Dulwich

College and Alleyn’s School, with James Allen Girls’ School appearing in 1741.

It helped that London’s growth multiplied the value of the Alleyn estate in Georgian times, when Dulwich’s green expanses attracted wealthy residents. Initially, ‘the staff was very keen they would still have only 12 pupils—the surplus money was distributed among them,’ says Mr Green. ‘However, there was a heck of a row in the middle of the 19th century, the whole thing was reformed by Act of Parliament and that’s when the schools really took off’.

One of the most celebrated pupils was P. G. Wodehouse, who recalled his time at Dulwich College as ‘six years of unbroken bliss’.

Today, the schools not only dominate the skyline—particularly Dulwich College, with its stately red-brick building punctuated by slim towers—but also play an active role in the local community, opening their sports facilities to the public and running free Saturday

LONDON LIFE

schools. They have also been joined by a crop of well-regarded state schools, such as Kingsdale: ‘I haven’t ever worked it out, but would think in the Dulwich area there are more schools per square foot than anywhere else,’ notes Mr Green.

With the Georgians also came another landmark: the Picture Gallery (www.dulwich picturegallery.org.uk). Opened in 1817, it was the world’s first public gallery to be built for the specific purpose of housing an art collection. Curiously, its history began in Poland: in 1790, the Polish king, Stanislaw II Augustus, commissioned art dealers Noël Desenfans and Francis Bourgeois to assemble an art collection, but was deposed before he had paid.

Suddenly, ‘the most incredible array of Western art’ had no home, explains Miss Scott. ‘The dealers offered it to the British government —which declined.’ But Desenfans and Bourgeois knew that Alleyn had left a collection of 27

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LONDON LIFE

Dulwich

hangings and pictures to Dulwich College, so ‘it struck them that it might make sense to extend it and create a gallery. Sir John Soane—a friend of the pair—was drafted in to design the building and he devised the ideal conditions to view art, as well as adding an atmospheric mausoleum for Bourgeois, Desenfans and Desenfans’ wife, Margaret. ‘It’s a single-storey building and light [now augmented with LED lighting] streams down from above. In the mausoleum, the windows have yellow and orange glass and when the sun hits, the light is strange and ethereal,’ says Miss Scott. ‘The architecture is a work of art in its own right: you experience Soane’s genius.’ The collection does justice to its setting, with masterpieces including Rembrandt’s Girl at a window, which Miss Scott calls ‘the Mona Lisa of London.’

During the pandemic, the gallery kept its gardens open to offer respite to locals and, as it prepared to reopen, the staff found some new visitors: ‘We noticed the ducks from Dulwich Park were coming more and more into our garden; one day they waddled up the path towards the front door as if queueing up.’

The greenery that attracted the ducks (and, earlier, the Georgians) was also a lure for the Victorians, drawing industrialists such as John Lawson Johnston, the inventor of Bovril,

and James Crossley Eno, whose ‘fruit salt’ is still manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

Further bouts of development took place in the 20th century, but it was always done sensibly and, as Sheila Harrington, founder of local marshmallow company La Maison Guimauve, puts it, Dulwich has preserved its ‘lovely villagey feel’ to this day. ‘It’s not only picturesque, but also includes some really exciting parts,’ says Miss Scott, who points to

‘It’s not only picturesque, but also includes some really exciting parts’ East Dulwich’s Lordship Lane for inspiring restaurants and art galleries. Dulwich Picture Gallery contributes to create a vibrant atmosphere with a rich programme of exhibitions, including Nature-photography show ‘Unearthed: Photography’s Roots’ (to August 30) and, in autumn, a Helen Frankenthaler special.

The area is also home to a groundbreaking personal-art gallery: Stephen Wright’s House of Dreams (www.stephenwrightartist.com).

After a career designing ephemeral textile, fashion and stationery products, Mr Wright was inspired by outsider art to give found objects

THE UPS AND DOWNS

Residents love the abundance of wide open spaces Residents like the shops, restaurants, schools and transport links

‘There’s civil war over [road closures],’ warns Mr Green new life as art installations at his East Dulwich house, which he first opened to the public about 10 years ago. ‘I wanted to do something lasting and produce a legacy for future generations.’

The house became both a ‘vehicle for healing’, after he lost his parents and his then partner two years into the project, and a way to make use of the many finds he collects on his travels.

‘I look for things that are imperfect, marked, stained or have a history. I give them a home and make something out of them.’ His work draws visitors from across the world, but also resonates with the local community: ‘People deliver things here very often. I can’t use everything, but I love the support I receive.’

Mr Wright has bequeathed the House of Dreams to the National Trust, so Dulwich’s latest museum can look forward to lasting as long as its first one.

Lovelace Road, £2.25 million Set in West Dulwich, this large Victorian home has six bedrooms, five reception rooms and a magnificent, vaulted billiard room on the top floor. The about 3,500sq ft interiors have kept intact many period features, from decorative plasterwork to fine fireplaces, and the grounds outside are beautifully landscaped.

Knight Frank (020–3815 9417; www.knightfrank.co.uk)

Turney Road, £1.75 million This period family home stands in the Dulwich Village Conservation Area and has 2,152sq ft of charming details, including tessellated flooring, sash windows and feature fireplaces. There are two reception rooms and the kitchen on the ground floor and five bedrooms upstairs, plus a 68ft-long garden.

Hamptons (020–3369 4375; www.hamptons.co.uk)

Turney Road, £2.3 million Also in Turney Road, this semidetached house spans 2,163sq ft of exquisite interiors, including two reception rooms and a panoramic kitchen and dining room on the ground floor and four bedrooms on the top two floors.

Outside, the landscaped garden overlooks the Dulwich sports ground.

Roy Brooks (020–8299 3021; www.roybrooks.co.uk)

Alamy; Getty

At home in Dulwich

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TALFOURD ROAD, SE15 £2,500,000 FREEHOLD

[5 bedrooms] [2 reception rooms] [3 bathrooms] A perfect blend of historical and modern style home with lovely wooden floorboards, period shutters, cornicing and fireplaces. It has a spacious kitchen/dining room to the rear with a fabulous picture window to the garden and a side flagstone terrace. EPC: D 020 3918 3428

DULWICH@HAMPTONS.CO.UK

HAMPTONS.CO.UK

LONDON LIFE

The great and the good

Seasonal suggestions The only thing better than a drink on a hot summer’s day is a drink on a hot summer’s day with a view. Here are the roof-terrace restaurants and bars to book this summer Best for long lunches Dior has taken over Alto, the rooftop restaurant at Selfridges, W1, to celebrate its latest, Mediterraneaninspired collection. Go for the views over Oxford Street, stay for the fashion house’s signature toile de Jouy, which adorns the place mats and awnings.

Until September 30 (www.sancarlo.co. uk/restaurants/alto-london-selfridges) Best for late nights When it opened, New York-export The Standard, WC1, helped put King’s Cross back on the map. The views back over London from the 10th-floor bar are the best in town and you don’t need a reservation, but come prepared to party (www.standardhotels.com) Best for California dreaming The Polo Lounge at The Beverly Hills Hotel, California, US, has popped up on the rooftop of sister hotel The Dorchester—candy-stripe decor and pink bougainvillea flowers included.

Go in time for sunset. Until August 31 (www.dorchestercollection.com)

Here’s looking at London’s lost property

• About 300,000 items are left on the capital’s public transport systems and inside taxis every year, including 13,000 sets of keys, more than 34,000 mobile phones and 10,000 umbrellas. All items are sent to TfL’s Lost Property Office—the largest office of its kind in the whole of Europe • A nun doll, a prosthetic leg and a giant toy warthog are among some of the weirder things abandoned—either deliberately or by mistake—on the London Underground.

A lifesize gorilla toy, left behind and nicknamed Eddie by the office staff, was given a starring role in an advert for the Night Tube • What happens to the 66% of items that are never claimed? After three months, ownership is transferred to TfL. Items are then donated to charity, recycled or disposed of or sold at auction. In 2018, a Chanel bag went for £998 • It costs TfL roughly £100 to reunite each item with its owner

Shop of the month

Pentreath & Hall

P

Open Monday to Friday, 12 noon to 5pm (020–7430 2526; www.pentreath-hall.com)

ENTREATH & Hall, a collaboration between two icons of classic British taste, Ben Pentreath and Bridie Hall, offers an opportunity to spend a happy half an hour lost in the wave of classic Englishness enthralling a new generation. The pair has blown the cobwebs off our decorative heritage to reveal a crisp, considered look rooted in tradition that rejoices in decoration and great craftsmanship.

The shop offers an engaging mix of furniture, lighting, tableware and all manner of joyful bits and pieces you never knew you wanted (or needed). Choose from alphabet brush pots, Parvum Opus marbled accessories and brightly coloured table lamps that combine to create a look that is stylish and dangerously seductive. As for all the best retailers—from Barbara Hulanicki to Terence Conran—the strategy here is not simply to sell things, but to offer a glimpse of a way of life that could be yours. It’s clever, creative and more than worth the trip to the charming enclave it occupies. GK

Illustration by Polly Crossman; Alamy; Em Fitzgerald

17, R U G B Y S T R E E T, W C 1

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LONDON LIFE

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

El Pastor Soho, 66–70, Brewer Street, W1

A green space MUSEUM OF THE HOME, 13 6, KINGSL AND ROAD, E2

T

HE former Geffrye Museum, now the Museum of the Home, has reopened following an £18 million renovation by Wright & Wright Architects. And it hasn’t forgotten about its gardens. A series of six charming plots trace the development of the city garden, from the intricate knot garden representing the Tudor period, to a contemporary roof garden

that never needs watering. You’ll encounter a productive Stuart garden, a formal Georgian design and a relaxed, romantic Edwardian cottage garden, a vivid counterpoint to the rigid carpet bedding of the Victorian era.

Inside, the much-loved Rooms Through Time sets have been updated with two extra displays, including a heavily floral Victorian parlour complete with Wardian case and ferns, referencing the pteridomania of the times.

For more green-space inspiration, try ‘A London Floral’ by Natasha Goodfellow, out now (Finch Publishing, £ 8.50)

London curiosities ON THE FACE OF IT

T Illustration by Polly Crossman; Alamy; Em Fitzgerald

HE entranceway at 57–58, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2. The semicircular porch was added in 1795 when a single house of 1730 built by Henry Joynes for Lord Talbot was divided into two by the architect Sir John Soane.

Psst... pass it on

T

HE west side of Highgate Cemetery, N6, is now open to the public—it was previously only accessible as part of a guided tour. Karl Marx is buried on the east side, whereas the west is famed for its Victorian architecture and ivyclad monuments.

Cast your mind back – the time was the 2010s, and the place was Hix Soho.

Behind the big green door on Brewer Street was a modern British garden of earthly delights. Hands up if you ever lost an evening in Mark’s Bar downstairs, fuelled by Somerset cider-brandy cocktails? Surely it can’t only be me.

I was genuinely sad when Hix Soho closed last year and couldn’t imagine anywhere as fun filling the space. Then came the announcement that it was going to be taken over by the newest member of the El Pastor family, the group of taquerias with a bustling Borough Market restaurant, two more in Kings Cross and a Bermondsey tortilleria. Co-founders Sam Hart and Crispin Somerville ran a nightclub in Mexico City in the 1990s, and their love of the country is obvious.

We come for dinner and settle into one of the two-person, Brief Encounter-style booths by the window. The drinks menu sets the tone: there’s a Breakfast Margarita and, as well as coming in short form, the tequila and mezcal—tequila’s smokier cousin—are available by the carafe. We shore ourselves up for the night ahead with totopos (all the tortillas here are freshly made every day in Bermondsey with heritage, non-GM Mexican corn), guacamole and three very different salsas, from roasted tomatillo to Cornish Serrano chilli.

The big draw is the sharing platters: spiced crispy duck with charred pineapple salsa or chipotle-braised short rib and bone marrow, served with tortillas. Our sea bream, two-tone with salsa roja and mojo verde and ably supported by a lime-spiked slaw and refried beans, is pure pleasure.

Chocolate and ancho chilli fondant with roast corn ice cream is entirely superfluous and entirely delicious.

And yes, there’s still a bar downstairs.

Mezcaleria El Colmillo is named after Sam and Crispin’s nightclub—the cocktails might be made with mezcal rather than cider brandy, but the anything-goes spirit of Mark’s Bar is still humming through the place.

2021 is most definitely El Pastor’s time.

Emma Hughes

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LONDON LIFE

The great and the good

August 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

From top: Join the Royal Opera House walking tour of Covent Garden’s theatrical landmarks; The Heath and Hill hamper from Melrose & Morgan

From top: Gelupo’s raspberry sorbet; Bow Street Police Museum; the Please Be Seated art installation at the Secret World of Plants at Kew

Alamy; Getty; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

L

ONDON in August is a grossly underestimated gem: empty (everyone else is scrambling for a strip of sand somewhere in Cornwall) and warm (in theory), so there’s never been a better time to explore your own city. Start with some fuel for the road, ice cream. Some of our favourites include Gelupo, 7, Archer Street, W1 (www.gelupo.com), Soft Serve Society, Boxpark, Shoreditch, E1 (www.softservesociety.com), and Gelateria 3bis in Borough Market, SE1, and 178, Portobello Road, W11. The Royal Opera House has put together a walking tour of key landmarks around Covent Garden associated with theatrical life (www.roh.org.uk/ learning). One of the stops includes the former magistrates’ court and police station on Bow Street, home to the newly opened Bow Street Police Museum (www.bowstreetpolice museum.org.uk). In the 18th century, the Bow Street Runners–widely regarded as London’s first professional police force–were stationed inside the opera house during performances, to ward off would-be criminals from stealing jewels from around the necks of the audience. North London grocer and kitchen Melrose & Morgan has a new gourmet picnic range, available at its Hampstead Village, NW3, and Primrose Hill, NW1, stores (www.melroseand morgan.com/collections/picnic-hampers). Pick up a hamper from the former and enjoy it inside the grounds of the Kenwood estate. It’s free to enter the house and the art collection includes masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Turner, among others (w w w.english-heritage.org.uk/visits /places / kenwood). Further south, Chelsea Physic Garden, SW3 (www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk), is hosting alfresco supper clubs throughout the month and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, TW9, has installed a series of art installations throughout the gardens, designed to educate visitors on the UK’s native plants and landscapes, until September 19 (www.kew.org).

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FRANK DIXON WAY SE21 £8,500 PCM (£1,962 PW)

[6 bedrooms] [2 reception rooms] [5 bathrooms] A stunning detached family home in Dulwich Village, immaculately refurbished to a wonderfully high specification with a fabulous rear extension to provide extensive living space and ample bedrooms. Private garden & off street parking. EPC C 020 3582 3545

DULWICHLETTINGS@HAMPTONS.CO.UK

HAMPTONS.CO.UK

WALKING WITH MASTERPIECES Art is breaking free from the traditional gallery and its emergence on our streets and in our parks is changing the way we live, says Clive Aslet

H

ERE’S a tip for anyone wanting to engage bored children as they go around the capital.

Count the statues. They are thick on the ground—they’re up on plinths, in pediments, on the façade of Fortnum & Mason. In recent years, some have been contested, but neither the number of statues already in situ, nor the opprobrium some excited has deterred developers, public authorities and champions of special causes from adding more. Look at the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, occupied by a succession of colourful, if sometimes incomprehensible artworks in recent years.

Always the subject of great popular debate, it is only one of the many ways in which public art is transforming London.

It can delight and amaze those who see it, contributing to the conviction of many Londoners that they’re living in the best city in the world.

The East End now has a public sculpture trail that links a dozen or so artworks from the Olympic Park to the Millennium Dome. It’s called The Line. Some, such as Richard Wilson’s A Slice of Reality—a section of a sand dredger, cut like a cake and deposited on the foreshore—have been in place since the Millennium, but others are new. Joanna Rajkowska’s The Hatchling of 2019 takes the form of a gigantic blackbird’s egg, from inside which comes the sound of hatching chicks (recorded with an ornithologist’s microphone).

Thomas J. Price unveiled the most recent contribution in 2020, Reaching Out: this

9ft-high bronze of a young black woman on a mobile phone can be found in a public park near Stratford. A deliberately unheroic image, although, from size alone, strangely powerful, it was created in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests to address the under-representation of black people in public sculpture. Even Reaching Out is dwarfed by the scale of works such as Antony Gormley’s Quantum Cloud of 2000 on Greenwich Peninsula, where the form of a human body emerges from a miasma of magnetised nails. At nearly 100ft, it is taller than his Angel of the North.

On July 21, The Line unveiled its latest addition, a bronze sculpture by Tracey Emin.

A Moment Without You, with five birds perched above head height, is the British artist’s only public sculpture. Nearby are three former working mills on Three Mills island, on major Thames tributary the River Lea. The name The Line pays tribute to New York’s famous High Line, an old railway line turned into a linear park. London has yet to make as much of its public art as other cities around the world, such as Barcelona, Spain, but the number of sculpture trails is growing; one has been created around Wembley Stadium, with 14 works.

They are joined by temporary festivals that transform the façades of famous landmarks using projection techniques.

Having begun in Durham in 2009, the Lumiere Festival is now commissioned by the Mayor of London; this year’s event will last for four nights in November, making the most of the long winter evenings.

It is produced by Artichoke, a company dedicated to the creation of ‘extraordinary

‘Count the statues.

They’re up on plinths, in pediments, on façades’

Tate Britain’s 2020 Winter Commission devised by Chila Kumari Singh Burman

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LONDON LIFE

and ambitious’ public art. By contrast, the Illuminated River project, completed this April, will last for a decade, lighting nine bridges along more than three miles of the River Thames—the Illuminated River Foundation claims it is the longest public art commission in the world. The originator of the idea, Hannah Rothschild, is ‘proud that this monumental project promotes London as a creative and innovative city on a global stage. We wanted to celebrate the important role that London’s bridges continue to play as part of the capital’s identity, linking the whole city together.’ Every Christmas, Tate Britain’s sober Classical façade becomes an exuberant light show, in the hands of artists such as Chila Kumari Singh Burman, who is inspired, we’re told, by her family’s ice-cream van and childhood visits to the Blackpool illuminations.

These innovative and literally dazzling artworks have not staled the public appetite for traditional sculpture. In July, Princes William and Harry were both present at the unveiling of Thomas J. Price’s Reaching Out is in a park near Stratford

Ian Rank-Broadley’s statue of their mother in Kensington Palace’s Sunken Garden.

So far, the public seems not to have warmed to the image, which shows the Princess in a stylish outfit holding the hands of three children, but then it did not initially embrace Martin Jennings’s wonderful 2007 sculpture of Sir John Betjeman clutching his hat as he gazes upwards in St Pancras Station, which it has surely now taken to its heart.

‘Sculpture adds its own note to the party, continuing to populate the street after humanity has left’ The jury remains out on Maggi Hambling’s A Conversation with Oscar Wilde outside St Martin-inthe-Fields, where the head of the poet is seen emerging from a coffin.

War memorials continue to be built, too, despite the many decades that have passed since the end of the Second World War. They seem to have been subject to a process of monument inflation, whereby the Women of the Second World

War memorial on Whitehall is as big as the Cenotaph, the national memorial to the Fallen of all wars. On the northern side of Green Park, Liam O’Connor’s Bomber Command Memorial—a sober Greek Doric colonnade in Portland Stone—was unveiled by The Queen in 2012; inside stands a group of seven air crew sculpted by Philip Jackson.

These works continue a tradition of public art that was revived, after the Second World War, by the 1951 Festival of Britain. Sculptures

by Henry Moore or Barbara Hepworth relieved the monotony of the monolithic architecture that became the new face of Britain’s cities.

Today, developers use public art as a means of giving identity to what otherwise might be amorphous neighbourhoods, a contribution to the goal of place-making that makes residents bond with where they live.

Increasingly, Londoners appreciate the theatre of urban life, provided, for example, by the stalls selling street food and Christmas markets that attract happy crowds.

Busking adds to the atmosphere. Sculpture adds its own note to the party, continuing to populate the street after humanity has left.

The wartime allies, Sir Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt have been genially chatting on a bench on New Bond Street since Lawrence Holofcener sculpted them in 1995.

It is a conversation that never ends. These men of bronze help humanise the street.

Getty; Vassilis Skopelitis; Emily Jane Lovell

Above from left: Heather Phillipson’s The End; Quantum Cloud by Antony Gormley; Richard Wilson’s A Slice of Reality on The Line

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LONDON LIFE

Where do you live now?

I live in Lancaster Gate, in a mews [with his husband, Ben Webster]. I’ve lived in High Street Kensington and Marble Arch, where we could get more for our money than in Kensington, and we lived in this amazing tower block on the 16th floor, which everyone else thinks is the ugliest building in London, but it does have the best views. Four years ago in October, we saw this place and thought ‘oh my God, this is where we are going to end up living’ and we have. We’ve completely rebuilt it and now it’s home.

‘I’d be in London three times a week.

I’d go and see the tapirs in Harrods’ What’s your favourite thing about living in Lancaster Gate?

Where we are and up to Queensway and the Paddington Basin area is almost the last forgotten part of central London. There are some odd hotels, but it’s very residential— we got to know all of our neighbours in lockdown and the dog knows all of the neighbours’ dogs. The thing that is yet to come is all of the little shops. We’ve got a few and things have really come on during lockdown, such as cafes, but we are a bit unspoilt for restaurants, so we still venture out to Mayfair and the West End. Where we are is three minutes from the park [Hyde Park].

I’ve always had this fear of living in suburban London, which is a terrible thing to say!

I like to be as central as I can be.

Being near Hyde Park helps Stewart Parvin overcome a fear of living in suburban London

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

Stewart Parvin The royal couturier talks to Rosie Paterson about the Harrods pet shop and making scrubs for the NHS

You made scrubs for the NHS during lockdown, which must’ve been a bit of a change from couture...

Yes, it was my assistant Louisa’s brilliant idea. She lives at Windsor Castle, funnily enough, and one of the people there gave her the idea. We’re not even geared up to cut things in multiple numbers. With bespoke clothing, someone sits down to make one thing from start to finish, whereas when you’re making things almost on a production line, you have one person cutting and one person sewing trousers together and another putting in the drawstring in the waist, all in a Covidsecure way. That’s not what my girls [who all volunteered to come back in and work] are used to doing!

What’s your favourite place to get dressed up for and go out to dinner?

If we’re going nice, but casual, we

love Olivocarne on Elizabeth Street [Belgravia, SW1]. We’ve got an amazing pop-up really close to us, at The Royal Lancaster Hotel, organised by [event planner] Tony Page. It’s a bit like going to Le Caprice. It’s almost on a roundabout, but it feels as if you’re sitting on a boulevard in Paris, with Hyde Park in the background.

Is there someone that you haven’t dressed that you would love to see in your designs?

Someone such as Queen Rania [Al-Abdullah of Jordan] would be very special. She’s so glamorous and international and would be a great ambassador.

If you were in charge for a day, what’s one thing you would change about London?

That’s an unusual question! I’d like to bring back traditional politeness. I think a lot of people have become very self-obsessed and think that it’s their right to be able to do exactly what they like: if you’re riding a bicycle, for example, you don’t care if it’s a red traffic light or a green one.

Alamy; Getty

You grew up outside of London, but when did you first visit?

From the moment I was born. I grew up in Ascot, but my father worked in London. I’d be in London three times a week. I had a lot of favourite things that I had to do: I’d go and see the tapirs in Harrods—I think the tapir was the most exotic animal they had there. I liked going to Harrods then and I’ve always liked department stores as a result. We would go to Liberty, where they had these leather rhinoceros, and we would always go to Simpson’s —not Simpson’s in the Strand, Simpson’s the shop, and we’d always have lunch there.

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Autumn gardens issue E X PL OR I NG T H E I NSPI R AT ION A L BE AU T Y OF T H E U K ’S G A R DE NS I N AU T U M N

ON S A L E SE P T E M BE R 15 , 2021

Don’t miss your chance to advertise in our Autumn gardens issue Booking/copy deadline: September 1, 2021 For more information on advertising, please contact Lucy Khosla, lucy.khosla@futurenet.com – 07583 106990

CL WP.indd 1

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The Scotland issue E X PL OR I NG BE AU T I F U L HOM ES I N SCO T L A N D’S MOST ST U N N I NG L O C AT IONS ON SA L E AUGUST 25, 2021

Don’t miss your chance to advertise in our Scotland issue

Booking/copy deadline: August 11, 2021

For more information on advertising, please contact Julia Laurence julia.laurence@futurenet.com – 07971 923054

MARTYN R. MACKRILL

The Homeward Leg

Tally Ho and La Goleta, Fastnet Race 1927

oil on canvas 61 x 91.5 cms 24 x 36 ins

The Fastnet Race 1927

Sprung planks, burst sails and broken spars saw the windswept Fastnet fleet of 1927 reduced from 15 yachts to just two. Now a private battle was taking place between Tally-Ho, an English cutter and La Goleta, an American schooner.

These two very different craft were sailed hard by exemplary crews for nearly six days of severe gales, huge seas and driving rain. They finished within 42 minutes of each other and so put an end to – at the time – the hardest fought ocean race ever.

Mackrill is Honorary Painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron and is now accepted among the foremost marine artists of his generation.

12 Bury Street, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6AB

Tel: +44 (0)20 7287 4448 www.messums.com

Property market

Penny Churchill

Magical landscapes There’s shooting, stalking, fishing, farming and houses aplenty within the golden acres of two of this country’s finest agricultural estates

A

GAINST the backdrop of a recordbreaking low supply of farmland for sale throughout the UK earlier in the year, the recent launch onto the market of two of England’s most prestigious farming estates —the 1,306-acre Beckerings Park estate in Bedfordshire and the 1,011-acre Roundtown estate in Hampshire—continues to attract interest from farmers and investors alike.

‘With farming at a crossroads in the UK as the Basic Payments Scheme is gradually replaced by one of three Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS), whereby farmers will be paid to manage their land in an environmentally sustainable way, large,

high-quality farms offering economies of scale or opportunities for diversification are currently the most desirable,’ says Matthew Sudlow of Strutt & Parker (01865 366660), who is handling the sale of Beckerings Park at a guide price of £17 million for the whole.

Unlike most of England’s great landed estates, Beckerings Park, near Ampthill, was never a manor, but a sizeable tract of land that can trace its origins to the early 14th century, when it was granted by the de Greys, later Earls of Kent, to John de Bekering, but later returned to the Grey family, descending with their Bedfordshire manor before passing to the Crown.

Beckerings was established as a royal deer park under Henry VIII and, in 1613, Thomas, Viscount Fenton, was appointed ‘master of the deare hounds in the Park of Bickeringe’.

He was succeeded by Sir William Crayford, from a well-known Ampthill family, who was knighted by James I. In 1675, Charles II granted the park to John Ashburnham, later 1st Baron Ashburnham, in lieu of royal debts and for services rendered to the Crown. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Beckerings Park was owned by the Delmé-Radcliffe family, several of whom made fortunes trading in The Hague and the Levant, thereby establishing solid royal connections. In 1828, Emilius

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Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk

Left and above: Grade II-listed Beckerings Lodge Farmhouse, in need of total renovation, stands at the heart of a 1,306-acre farming estate near Ampthill in Bedfordshire. £17m

Henry Delmé-Radcliffe, who was Master of the Horse to George IV and William IV, sold the park to John, 6th Duke of Bedford. Beckerings remained part of the Woburn estate until 1996, when it was offered for sale as one estate of almost 1,500 acres that included— in addition to Beckerings Park Lodge Farm— the neighbouring Segenhoe Manor Farm and Beckerings Park Manor Farm.

Today, Beckerings Park estate is an exceptionally diverse commercial farming enterprise acquired by its current owners some 10 years ago. At its heart stands the Grade IIlisted Beckerings Lodge Farmhouse, which dates from the 17th century with 19th-century

extensions. Screened from the main farmyard by mature trees and hedgerows, the 5,866sq ft house, built of brick under a tile roof, has accommodation on three floors, the whole in need of complete renovation. Other property assets include six estate cottages and eight office units in the business park that, together with a telecom mast, yield an annual rental income of £124,835.

Situated in the middle of the estate and approached by a private tarmac drive, the farm buildings at Beckerings Park have been developed over the past 20 years. They include four separate onion and grain stores with automatic temperature and humidity controls; a cold store previously used for storing bulbs and flowers, but now occupied by a commercial tenant; machinery stores and workshops; former cattle sheds, a covered stock yard and straw barn; and a range of traditional brick buildings currently used by the estate shoot.

Most of the land is a deep, well-drained sandy and coarse loam suitable for cereals, potatoes and some horticultural crops, while the western side of the farm is a fine loam over clay, suitable for winter cereals and some sugar beet. A 21-million-gallon reservoir allows the farm to grow a variety of crops including potatoes, onions, asparagus, bulbs and flowers, as well as the more conventional wheat, beans, barley, oilseed rape and peas.

A fishing licence worth £7,000 a year allows a local club to fish the reservoir until 2023.

Beckerings Park is home to a renowned driven partridge and pheasant shoot, the rights to which are let until April 2022. It is also home to a managed deer herd that

includes a reputed 10% of the global Chinese water-deer population, one of a number of nonnative species introduced by the 11th Duke of Bedford to his deer park at Woburn in the late 19th century.

Hot on the heels of the picturesque Burrow Farm estate in Buckinghamshire’s Hambleden Valley and the charming, 285-acre Beech Farm estate in the Chilterns, near Henleyon-Thames (Property market, July 21), Clive Hopkins (020–7861 1064) and Will Matthews

Beckerings Park is an exceptionally diverse commercial farming enterprise of Knight Frank (020–7861 1440) are handling the sale of the scenic Roundtown estate, described as ‘a truly spectacular block of rolling Hampshire countryside’, three miles from the sought-after village of Upton Grey and four miles from the commuter hub of Basingstoke.

They quote a guide price of £13.8m for the Roundtown estate, once part of the parkland of the historic Hackwood Park estate, which was a wooded part of the manor of Eastrop until 1223, when it became a deer park owned in the 16th century by William Powlett, 1st Marquess of Winchester, of nearby Basing House.

He built a hunting lodge in the park and, following the destruction of Basing House during the Civil War, had the lodge enlarged and a formal landscape laid out in the park.

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Property market

Above and right: The striking Roundtown House is the centrepiece of a versatile 1,011-acre estate in Hampshire. £13.8m The Roundtown estate comprises part of the original parkland to the south and east of Grade II*-listed Hackwood House.

From the mid 19th century, Hackwood was tenanted, notably by Lord Curzon from 1906 to 1925, before being sold in 1936 to Lord Camrose. In 1965, the 2nd Lord Camrose inherited the house and the major portion of the park, where he carried out extensive replanting following the storms of 1987 and 1990. Following his death in 1995 and that of his wife in 1997, Hackwood was put up for sale and is now in mixed private and localauthority ownership.

The Roundtown estate is entered off a quiet country lane along a drive that meanders for half a mile past post-and-railed paddocks and mature woodland, before arriving at Roundtown House, a striking, Grade II-listed conversion and extension of former cottages to Hackwood Park. The house offers 4,941sq ft of well-planned living space, including three main reception rooms, two sitting rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, master and guest suites, four further bedrooms and three bathrooms. It comes with gardens and grounds, a stable block, garaging and planning consent for a threebedroom cottage.

The estate is currently farmed in hand with contractors carrying out the bulk of the work from the farmyard in its south-west corner, which offers a large area of hard standing, a modern grain store with scope for expansion and two further farm buildings with potential for development.

The topography of the estate lends itself perfectly to pheasant and partridge shooting, with established woodland easily accessed

by tracks and conservation headlands that are also suited to riding. The diverse terrain currently supports a shoot of some 15 days a year, with average bags of around 250 birds; there is also excellent stalking of roe, fallow deer and muntjac. It is a magical landscape, alive with all kinds of flora and fauna, where, in springtime, the meadows and ancient woodland are a mass of wild flowers and bluebells.

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Tel: 07542 200 243 01761 239 338

info@k9protector.co.uk

Family Protection Dogs K9Protector has a team of experienced staff that are former home office, police and civilian trainers.

The dogs supplied by K9Protector integrate seamlessly into your family life and live with you as your family pet.

However, as CEO Alaster Bly describes them, they are very much a “pet with a toolkit built in”. This tool kit is the ability to react when commanded, and sometimes when not, to fearlessly defend those in their charge. All family protection dogs go through a rigorous testing and training regime from breeding, selection, socialization to training. Those that complete the program are available to be purchased as family protection dogs.

I first started the business seven years ago after seeing the development of personal protection dogs in America says CEO and head trainer Alaster Bly. At the time I was serving as a police constable and dog handler in Wiltshire Police. We are now supplying around 280 fully trained dogs per year to families all over the UK and abroad.To find out how a family protection dog would benefit your family visit our website - www.k9protector.co.uk.

K9 Protector Hackmead Farm, Charlton Road, Holcombe, Bath, Somerset BA3 5EU UK

Properties of the week

Annunciata Elwes

Anyone for tennis?

Get your Joan Hunter Dunn on at one of these lovely court-side houses

Cheshire, £3.25 million Any future owner of Gatesheath Hall— in the village of Tattenhall, eight miles south-east of Chester—will have all the ingredients for classic English weekends, with an all-weather tennis court, stabling, paddocks, indoor swimming pool, summer pavilion, billiards room, gym and wine cellar. The handsome six-bedroom house is Grade II listed, with the original part dating to the 17th century; lovely features include exposed beams, period fireplaces (including an inglenook in the grand reception hall) and archways and the 17 acres of formal grounds also incorporate a courtyard and Indian-stone terrace. Jackson-Stops (01244 328361)

Alamy

Devon, £440,000 Twelve glorious acres of manicured grounds surround partly Elizabethan Flete House, former seat of the Mildmay family, which overlooks Ermington and Dartmoor, enjoying ‘probably the finest situation in Devonshire’ according to Cornish poet and historian Richard Polwhele (1797). At Holbeton in the South Hams, not far from Georgian Modbury, it was used as a maternity hospital in the Second World War and has now been converted into 29 apartments, retaining the principal rooms (library, dining, drawing and billiard rooms and others) for communal use, exclusively for over 55s. Currently on the market, Apartment 12, on the first floor—once two separate flats, now converted into one, so extra spacious—has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, original panelling, a large drawing room with impressive bay windows and a triple-aspect master bedroom with views over the tennis court, croquet lawn and grounds. There are a further three apartments available currently. Luscombe Maye (01548 830831)

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Gloucestershire, £2.5 million For moments when your eye is off the ball, rolling views towards Dixton and Bredon Hills can be enjoyed from the tennis court at Far Stanley Farm, a charming five-bedroom property with paddocks, gardens, a four-box stable yard and triple garage on land extending to 16 acres. Remodelled and extended, this Cotswold-stone farmhouse blends old and new seamlessly, with an Aga and overhead beams rubbing shoulders with three en suites, French doors and plenty of natural light. Every now and then, the distant chugs and whistles from the heritage steam railway that runs between Cheltenham and Broadway can be heard, as a train crosses into sight at the bottom of the fields. Knight Frank (01242 246951)

Local heroes The new Pony Club dad

9000

Alamy

Illustration by Emma van Zeller

Oxfordshire, £2.95 million After a summertime lunch in the dining room at Deddington Manor, the views through an open door over sunny gardens to a verdant lime avenue would surely inspire a wander, not only to play tennis lazily by the limes, but to admire the historic walled garden, with its icehouse, glasshouse and neat sections of fruit trees and vegetables. The house itself, with its elegant bay windows, is of deep-honey-hued local ironstone and Grade II listed with six/seven bedrooms (one en suite) plus two in the guest annexe and five reception rooms. The coachhouse courtyard with its garage, tack room, stables and various store rooms and lofts is particularly useful and the 14½ acres also include colourful rose beds, formal lawns, a copse and two spring-fed ponds. Deddington is about six miles from Banbury. Knight Frank (01865 264851)

Sebastian is starting to get on the nerves of the other dads. It’s his relentless keenness, his wholesome Boden-esque image, all neatly pressed polo shirts, chinos and deck shoes mysteriously free of pony dung, his lack of paunch and taught, suntanned forearms. It’s obvious he’s new to the whole thing, running around like a maniac in the midday sun, putting up jumps, putting them away, pacing out dressage arenas, remembering the recyclable drinking cups, volunteering to lead other people’s kids over the cavaletti and wash down their ponies. What else are Pony Club rallies for, if not for slouching under a Panama hat with TMS, the Sunday papers and a surreptitious tinny on the pretext of doing the vital job of minding the trailer with its snoozing dog?

Sebastian even brings banana bread. When he tells his fellow fathers, flushed with pride, that Susannah and Tinkerbell have mastered flying changes, he is met with blank stares. KG

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