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Va-va roomsNew F1 movie Rush brings racetrack chic indoorsDesign: Page 22

NEW HOMES: SUPER-SUBURBS P4 AFFORDABLE CANALSIDE P7 RE-POT FOR WINTER P33 SPOTLIGHT ON CROUCH END P36

Homes&Property

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Even she thought it was a challenge — and she’s an architect

London’s best property search website: homesandproperty.co.uk

LONDON’S BIGGEST AND

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2 WEDNESDAY 2 OCTOBER 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Faye Greenslade

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news: new homes scoop the top prizes at architecture Oscars

Read Philippa Stockley’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk

October 29-30 at the Hurlingham Club, Fulham

thinking of moving? we’ve done the research for you

BRITAIN’S latest housing projects showcase some of the country’s best new architecture, according to judges of the prestigious Stirling Prize.

Now in their 18th year, the architecture Oscars have gone mostly to housing schemes this time around, rather than to the bold, sharp or showy new signature buildings of the likes of international “starchitects” Zaha Hadid or David Chipperfield. The overall winner this year was Astley Castle in Warwickshire, owned by the Landmark Trust, which has created a holiday home out of a 12th-century ruin. Newhall Be, a group of townhouses in Essex, by Alison Brooks Architects, was also shortlisted.

The Luxury Property Show

£675,000: change direction and take the reins of this established B&B close to the cobbled streets of Rye, in the semi-rural East Sussex spot of Broad Oak. There are five bedrooms and three bathrooms to play with and plenty of room for guests to roam in the 3,300sq ft property. Beams, brick floors, open fires and vaulted ceilings await in the sitting room, study and kitchen/breakfast rooms, while the conservatory is the perfect spot to relax and enjoy views of the well-stocked gardens. Through Freeman Forman.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangerbroadoak

£625,000: on the Isle of Dogs in E14 snap up this two-bedroom sixth-floor flat in Baltimore Wharf. Start your day with a swim in the 25-metre residents’ pool, or a workout in the swish gym, then take your pick from a host of coffee shops on the way to work. At the end of the day you can enjoy river views towards Canary Wharf from either of your two private balconies or relax in your 22ft reception room. Through Chesterton Humberts.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/buyoftheweekdogs

TAKE a look our A-Z index of more than 200 property area guides covering London and the commuter hot spots. The guides are packed with information on new homes, schools, best streets, average property prices and more.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/areaguidesindex

Have your say: is there an area you’d like us to feature among our guides? Tweet us @homesproperty or find us on Facebook: ESHomesAndProperty

TO ENTER For a chance to win a pair of VIP tickets to The Luxury Property Show, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/offers before the end of October 20. Winners will be contacted by October 24. Usual rules apply, see homesandproperty.co.uk/rules for details.

London buy of the week the joys of living a dogs life

Out of town buy of the week a biscuit-coloured Cotswolds barn

Life changer room for you and your paying guests

Easy reach: the historic town hall and high street of thriving Reigate, one of our featured commuter hot spots

VIP TICKET GIVEAWAYTHE exclusive Hurlingham Club welcomes the return of this two-day exhibition featuring some of the world’s most sought-after properties for sale.

The Luxury Property Show is a chance to view and buy the finest homes and to meet with agents and developers.

Within the spectacular grounds of the Hurlingham Club, Fulham, guests are guided through the buying process by experts, while experienced investors can enjoy talks and seminars for leaders in the industry, helping them to a deeper understanding of where and how to invest around the globe.

To register for the show, visit theluxurypropertyshow.com

We also have 30 VIP tickets to be won. To enter, see below.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/outcots

£675,000: trading in your London flat for a country home couldn’t be more tempting when the trophy is this glorious barn conversion in the dreamy Cotswolds village of Ilmington. A sweeping gravel driveway leads round to a detached garage, workshop and manicured gardens dotted with azaleas and magnolia. Charm continues inside with beams, stone

walls and an inglenook fireplace in the sitting room, along with flagstone floors in the reception hall, kitchen/breakfast room and conservatory/dining room. Three bedrooms and two bathrooms sit under the eaves. Through Sotheby’s International.

Homes & Property Online homesandproperty.co.uk with

Nominated: Newhall Be, 84 new homes in Harlow, Essex, was one of the shortlisted housing schemes in this year’s Stirling Prize

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EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 2 OCTOBER 2013 3

Dive into Versace’s pure gold pool

Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews

IF YOU are a drama fan, why not move to the Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse in Spitalfields where last year’s big-screen adaptation of The Woman in Black was filmed?

A piece of the set is used as decor in the living room where Daniel Radcliffe, right, who played lead character Arthur Kipps, shot his scenes. The five-storey house was built in 1722 and belonged to leading 18th-century textile designer Anna Maria Garthwaite, who was celebrated for her gowns and fabrics, now in the V&A collection.

Rupert Hunt, founder of flat-share website SpareRoom.co.uk, has bought the house and is looking for two flatmates to share with him and a friend.

U2 BASSIST Adam Clayton is leaving his home in Ireland to join his new wife Mariana Teixeira De Carvalho in her Westminster house.

The Brazilian model, 35, is an associate director of art company Hauser & Wirth, which has galleries in Saville Row and Piccadilly.

Homes gossip

GIANNI VERSACE’S former Miami home is to be turned into a hotel. The Italian designer, above, bought the Amsterdam Palace in 1992 for almost £6.23 million and spent £20.5 million restoring it with his signature glitz — right down to the gold-lined pool with more than a million mosaic tiles, and the mosaic-covered courtyard, below.

Versace renamed the mansion Casa Casuarina. He died there in 1997, shot by a stalker, Andrew Cunanan, on the front steps. US clothing brand Jordache Enterprises recently bought the extravagant residence for £25.8 million and is asking the Versace family for permission to use their name in the new venture.

This is one hotel that’s surely destined to be a star attraction.

U2’s Adam moves base to join his wife

Making a drama out of a flat share

By Amira Hashish

Gary’s in New York but has big plans for home

Homes & PropertyNewshomesandproperty.co.uk with

GARY BARLOW has whisked his X Factor contestants off to America for the Judges’ Houses section of the TV talent show. This weekend the Take That singer will decide the fate of the final six groups in the competition from the comfort of a slick, camera-festooned New York property.

Back in London, the 42-year-old and his wife Dawn, below, have an impressive semi-detached house off Kensington Church Street. They live just around the corner from Gary’s bandmates Howard Donald and Jason Orange, and are conveniently close to Simon Cowell’s Syco

company HQ in Derry Street. The Barlows’ three-storey gem has more rooms tucked away at the bottom of its sweet garden but Gary, who releases his new solo album on November 25, is keen to create extra space. He is thought to have been granted planning permission to extend his house to include the one next door.

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Londoners priced out of the centre are discovering good design across the riverRefusing to buy off-plan or compete with rich overseas buyers, families are heading for the ‘super-suburbs’, says David Spittles

HOMEBUYERS are turning their backs on overpriced central London and head-ing across the river and out to the suburbs for

space, value and good design.Europe is full of well-designed, ingen-

iously financed and properly managed new urban and suburban areas that satisfy the needs of their residents. Well land-managed, London’s suburbs could double in density, fully meeting the demand for 400,000 new homes over the next 20 years.

The Land Registry’s latest data shows this message is getting through to people who want to live in London — but not at any price. Sixty per cent of families who sold up during the 12 months to April did not move to the country, preferring to stay within the London area — up a third on the years of the previous decade.

Some are discovering up-and-com-ing districts. Cross-river moves are a growing trend, according to estate agent Winkworth, which has the larg-est branch network in London. The main flows are from north and west London to south London, where homes are significantly cheaper, and where new Overground stations are improving the appeal of places such as Brockley, Forest Hill, Dulwich and Crystal Palace.

New homes in core central London areas are geared towards wealthy buyers and overseas investors purchasing off-plan. A high proportion, about 40 per cent, of new-build homes on the market in London are for sale in this way.

But Londoners who want to see what they are getting for their money go to less expensive places outside the centre where they can get on with their lives and buy a property they can move into straightaway.

With ready-to-move-into homes, buy-ers have the advantage of being able to see and touch what they are getting and can synchronise the sale of their exist-ing home with the purchase of the new one, to plan for a new school term or to be in by Christmas. “People are most happy and able to buy a new home when it is complete or very close to it,”

said Bob Weston, managing director of Weston Homes, known for thoughtfully designed developments.

“They don’t have large amounts of surplus cash and they rely on equity being released from their existing prop-erty. For this reason we factor in speedy completion timelines, which help eliminate uncertainty and smooth the chain.”

READY AND WAITING“Seeing is believing, that’s our mantra,” said David Smith, director of developer Octagon. “Rarely do we release a home to the market until it is completely finished, which means decorated, carpeted and sometimes fully fur-nished, plus gardens that are planted and communal areas ready.”

So smart were the two show homes at Octagon’s Wootton Place scheme in Esher that they were snapped up ahead of the other five houses, prompt-ing the developer to bring forward two more show homes, each featuring a marble-floor entrance hall and a base-ment with home cinema. Prices from £2.75 million. Call 01372 460117.

JETTY-SETTERSRiverside Quarter sits on a bend of the Thames known as the Wandle Delta, a noted wildlife habitat, and looks north across the river to leafy Hurlingham Park. Development began a decade ago and the scheme has matured into one of the city’s most attractive riverbank projects. It has moorings and pontoon jetties, land-scaped squares, restaurants, a conven-ience store and river taxi pier for local residents. The final phase has been launched — 121 flats ready for immedi-ate occupation, with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and generous-size balco-nies. Prices from £650,000. Call 020 8877 2000.

Chelsea Creek is a new dockside estate sandwiched between fashionable Chelsea Harbour and the giant Imperial Wharf residential complex. St George, the developer, has created a new navi-gable waterway linked to the Thames. Doulton House, one of the dock-facing blocks, has three-bedroom apartments

priced from £1.3 million. Call St George on 020 7610 9693.

The Panoramic Collection of 13 apart-ments occupies the top floors of The Heron, a new tower in the City. These lateral flats range up to 2,300sq ft and have superb wraparound terraces of more than 1,000sq ft with double-aspect views. Prices from £3.6 milllion. Call 0845 533 800.

DO THE SPLITSRoehampton House is one of only two Grade I-listed London properties to be converted to residential use — the other being St Pancras Chambers, for-merly Midland Grand Hotel, at King’s Cross. The rare Palladian mansion is at the heart of a new 14-acre walled estate called Queen Mary’s Place. There are 22 apartments in the restored mansion. Prices from £950,000 to £1.85 million.

Elsewhere on the estate are eight new five-bedroom semis, each with a ground-floor “super-room” for family living, a sun terrace on the upper floor and a utility room with separate exter-nal access, a practical solution for children and pets with muddy feet. Residents have exclusive access to a restored formal rose garden and there is a private shuttle bus to East Putney Tube station. Prices from £1,675,000. Call 020 8246 6748.

When Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding set up Fighter Command headquarters at the start of the Second World War, he chose Bentley Priory in Stanmore, north-west London, because of its elevated position offering sweep-

£3.6 million: for the ultimate in ready-to-move-into flats, head to the City and the 2,300sq ft homes at The Heron

From £839,000: flats and townhouses at Bentley Priory, the converted Fighter Command HQ of the Forties, in the super-suburb of Stanmore, north-west London

£1,395,000: homes in Argyll Place, a smart new scheme in North Kensington

£3.95 million: Octagon has large five-bedroom villas ready in Esher Park Avenue

See all our developments at: redrowlondon.co.uk Call: 020 3538 7449

Kingston Riverside, Kingston One Commercial Street, Aldgate Amberley Waterfront, Little Venice

IF YOU WANT TO LIVE IN LONDON, IT HAS TO BE REDROW


Homes & PropertyNew homeshomesandproperty.co.uk with

ing views of the capital. From here in 1940, Fighter Command co-ordinated the efforts of the 3,000 pilots who won the Battle of Britain. Today, the location appeals to commuters, being at the end of the Jubilee line, and is one of 20 “super-suburbs”, according to estate agent Savills. As well as grand apart-ments in the converted mansion, there are new- build flats and townhouses in the grounds, most with views across 57 acres of parkland. Prices from £839,000. Call 020 8950 5079.

GETTING THE DESIGN RIGHTModern townhouses with versatile layouts and exciting design elements are the number one choice of more and more young couples moving out of flats when they start a family. Growing families, too, are bypassing gentrified terraces in favour of wow-factor new-builds that chime with the way they live.

Mulberry Mews, close to Highbury Fields in Islington, has crisp, clean-line architecture, with white-rendered low-

rise apartment blocks and houses set around a gated, tree-lined square. Houses have up to five bedrooms and two underground parking spaces. Prices from £2.3 million. Call 020 3667 5577.

Four eco-houses at a gated develop-

ment in East Sheen are ready to move into. Prices from £1,395,000. Call Featherstone Leigh on 020 8876 4567. New townhouses at Argyll Place in North Kensington offer a chance to live around the corner from the Cameron family home, which is currently let while the Prime Minister occupies Downing Street.

The charming St Quintin Estate is a tree-lined conservation area of Edward-ian terraces. Taylor Wimpey is building a line of 20 houses, each with a lower-

ground floor that could be used as a self-contained studio, plus basement parking. Prices from £1.3 million. Call Strutt & Parker on 020 3667 5566.

Buyers may be able to strike a deal with a developer at bigger schemes where the last few homes remain. Often developers are keen to close down the site and move on to the next project.

£2.3 million: homes with crisp lines and five bedrooms at Mulberry Mews, Islington

£650,000: 121 spacious flats are finished at Riverside Quarter, which looks north to leafy Hurlingham Park

London’s suburbs could double in density, meeting demand for 400,000 new homes in the next 20 years


Homes & Property Money

Be a step ahead in the rental game When the boutiques and brasseries move in, it’s time to move out to the next area set to become cool. By Ruth Bloomfield

RENTS in the capital have risen strongly in recent years and now stand at an average £1,118 a month, up six per cent in a year,

according to LSL Property Services.James Wright, 25, lives in Clapton,

east London because his friends live there and it is (relatively) affordable. He and his boyfriend share a two-bed-room flat with a flatmate and the three each pay £433 a month.

Clapton attracts renters priced out of more central parts of Hackney. “We only moved here in March but I’ve been noticing new pubs opening and trendy hairdressers popping up,” said James, a senior account executive at a public relations company. “Our rent hasn’t gone up yet but I can imagine that it will, in which case we’ll have to move.”

CHASING A CHEAPER RENTWhen that day comes, the couple will have to do some careful research. James can cycle to work from Clapton, saving £116.80 a month on fares. A good rent is a combination of an affordable rent and a cheap commute. So where could they move to? Here are some suggestions.

HARINGEYCarla Ingram, lettings manager at Kin-leigh Folkard & Hayward, suggests Alexandra Park, less than two miles from desirable Muswell Hill.

Admittedly it is not as blessed with smart shops as its neighbour but it has the eponymous park, with Alexandra Palace at its heart, plus arguably better transport links from Bounds Green or Wood Green stations (Zone 3).

Property: Victorian, and Ingram estimates a two-bedroom flat would cost from around £300 a week, com-pared to £350 in Muswell Hill.

BEXLEYThe cheapest London borough is Bexley, with average rents of £864 a month for a two-bedroom flat. But add in a £213.60 travel card and the loca-tion, plus the long commute, starts looking less of a great deal.

STRATFORDEd Phillips, director of lettings at Fox-tons, says James should analyse the market. In an area where there is loads of renting property there is more choice. Over the next year in Stratford thousands of rental flats will come on stream. At present a two-bedroom property would cost from £275 a week, says Phillips, compared to £375 plus in Canary Wharf, around a mile away. As new homes become available in Strat-ford supply may even start to outstrip demand, bringing prices down.

Studying a Tube map, Phillips says most renters want to live close to Northern and Central line stations so

looking elsewhere is smart — particu-larly in south-east London if you don’t mind using buses or the London Over-ground. Cycling is even better.

WENDELL PARKPhilip Davenport, lettings manager at John D Wood, suggests Wendell Park in west London, a mile north of Chis-wick High Road and walking distance to Turnham Green station. The area is leafy with quality Victorian homes, and although amenities aren’t right on the doorstep rents are significantly cheaper than Chiswick. Davenport recently let a three-bedroom house in the area for £635 a week. In Chiswick he estimates it would have cost £850.

£635 a week: the likely rent for a three-bedroom house in Wendell Park, compared with £850 a week typically in nearby Chiswick

COMPARE BOROUGHSTHE COST OF RENTING A TWO-BEDROOM FLAT

Inner London:Travel costs (Zone 1 and 2 travel card, monthly): £116.80

Camden £2,044City of London £2,004Hackney £1,601Hammersmith & Fulham £1,770Haringey £1,224Islington £1,517Kensington & Chelsea £2,275Lambeth £1,213Lewisham £950Newham £950Southwark £1,249Tower Hamlets £1,797Wandsworth £1,615Westminster £2,604

Outer London Travel costs from £136.80 (Zones 1 to 3) to £213.56 (Zones 1 to 6)

Barking and Dagenham £908Barnet £1,257Bexley £864Brent £1,406Bromley £1,011Croydon £965Ealing £1,280Enfield £1,108Greenwich £1,178Harrow £1,128Havering £875Hillingdon £1,283Hounslow £1,283Kingston upon Thames £1,251Merton £1,341Redbridge £1,009Richmond upon Thames £1,540Sutton £976Waltham Forest £1,037 Source: Valuation Office Agency

Value: Alexandra Park has arguably better transport links than pricier Muswell Hill

To search for homes to rent, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/rent

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Homes & PropertyAffordable homes

Stylish homes bring young London to the waterside

Regeneration of the capital’s canal network is bringing smart new homes to peaceful, watery settings, discovers David Spittles

Shared ownership: flats at The Lexicon, left, on City Road near Angel

CANALSIDE regeneration is keeping alive the homebuying dreams of young Londoners, with developers unlocking

derelict sites in cheaper, up-and-coming areas. Many of the locations are still raw, keeping new homes affordable — but not dull. Imaginative architecture is helping to create congenial canalbank communities that are car-free, with less pollution and noise, and which become more desirable as they mature.

Gunmakers Wharf in Bow sits on the Hertford Union Canal, alongside leafy Victoria Park, one of London’s best: a 200-acre space boasting lakes and tennis courts, a bandstand and cafés. The neighbourhood is going from strength to strength and has acquired “village” status, due to the cluster of boutiques, bistros and bars that have appeared around Lauriston Road.

Frontline apartments have frameless glass balconies and views across the water to the park. There is a bridge across the canal and the towpath is being upgraded, a boon for cyclists as there are quick routes, flat and safe too, to Canary Wharf and the Olympic Park. Prices from £225,000. Call A2 Dominion on 0800 7832159.

A CUT ABOVEIf you are up for an autumn walk, the best way to discover these forgotten waterways and spot the new housing is to put on your hiking boots. Sometimes the access is difficult but it is surprising how far you can go.

Grand Union Canal is the main inland waterway in the capital. It comes in from the west, through Brentford and on to Paddington before joining up with Regent’s Canal and running into the Thames at Limehouse.

Here, Limehouse Cut spins off in a different direction, heading north-east through Hackney Marshes and Walthamstow. The Boatyard, Poplar, is a scheme of 75 canalside apartments. Prices from £240,000. Call Telford Homes on 01992 809800.

Islington and Hackney are the focus of much activity, especially the section of canal between City Road Basin and Kingsland Basin.

Back from the canal are tranquil terraces and garden squares with gastropubs and small independent shops making these attractive, rounded neighbourhoods.

Packington Square, near Angel, is a redevelopment of a former council

estate bordering the canal. Hyde Housing association is creating a complete new neighbourhood, with 798 mixed-tenure properties grouped around landscaped public squares and a park. The Axis is the latest phase of private homes, priced from £405,000. Call estate agent Currell on 020 7226 6611.

Haggerston is a place to watch. Sandwiched between bar-packed Hoxton to the south and Islington to the north, the pace of gentrification has been slower here. Broadway Market, from London Fields to Regent’s Canal at Haggerston, has changed with the times but retains some of its old down-to-earth, street-trader character: Cooke’s pie-and-mash shop now serves cocktails.

City Mills is the district’s largest new development — 350 apartments, many with sweeping views of the City skyline. Two-bedroom flats start at £390,000. Call 0844 406 9289.

Kingsland Basin, part of Regent’s Canal in Shoreditch, is being turned into a smart new waterside community with 207 new homes, a health centre, shops and offices. Restoration of two listed stable buildings will create studios and workshops for small businesses.

The canal is being opened up for recreational use, with eco-zones on the edges of the basin planted with native species to attract birds and

other wildlife. Lexicon is one of several new apartment schemes being built at City Road Basin, Angel. Of the 307 apartments, 69 are for shared ownership through Affinity Sutton housing association. Call 0300 100 0303.

GREEN SHOOTSLee Navigation runs from Bow Creek to Hertford via the giant reservoirs and nature reserves of north-east London. Along the route, factories and mills are being redeveloped. Industrial eyesores remain but this is a remarkably green swathe of the capital, with parks and unexpected conservation areas. Pavilions is part of a 12-acre waterside village at Tottenham Hale, one of the capital’s main transport interchanges. Prices from £184,995. Call Bellway on 0845 548 8038.

Brentford Lock West on the way to Heathrow in the west, has 530 flats and townhouses, part of an 11-acre scheme on the banks of the Grand Union Canal. As well as commercial and leisure space, new moorings, pontoons and a footbridge are being created, the towpath widened and Art Deco warehouses refurbished. Homes have “green” credentials: high energy-efficiency ratings, rooftop allotments and solar panels.

Prices from £284,950. Call 0202 8569 7449.

From £284,950: balcony flats at Brentford Lock West, on the way to Heathrow

£225,000: flats at Gunmakers Wharf (right), Bow, an area that is on the up


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HOW far would you go for a game of golf? How about a 12-hour flight to the Indian Ocean where the French and English-speak-

ing island of Mauritius is becoming the golf destination du jour. Homes cost from £220,000 and Britons are buying.

Tropical Mauritius is the size of Surrey — 42 miles long — but crams in 10 top golf courses designed by names such as Bernhard Langer and Ernie Els.

There’s horse riding, mountain biking and water sports, ensuring this island — best known as a high-end honey-moon destination — is winning new fans for its quality leisure activities. Mauritius is easily accessible by direct

Fairway to travel for some of the world’s best golfGet out your clubs —or enjoy mountain biking, water sports and horse riding on this virtually tax-free Indian Ocean island, says Cathy Hawker

Anahita holiday home is perfect for all the familyDAVID and Laura Rich-Jones from Putney are not golfers but that didn’t stop them buying two apartments at Anahita at the start of development. The couple, with their children aged from five to 14, had holidayed in Mauritius and loved the range of sports on offer.

“There’s tennis, the spa, gym, kids’ club and watersports at Anahita which appealed to us as a family,” said David who runs a property and outsourcing company. “Off resort we can swim with dolphins, quad bike in the mountains and go sailing.”

The family visit for up to four weeks a year, otherwise renting out the apartment through Anahita and achieving 50 per cent-plus occupancy.

“It’s a long flight, but importantly there is no significant time difference so we aren’t affected by jet lag like when travelling to the Caribbean. And then there is the beauty of Mauritius. It is a microcosm of how the world should be with Muslims, Hindus and Christians all getting on well.”

certain apartments, along with two years free green fees.

“We have seen strong demand for Indian Ocean property this year,” said Jo Leveret of Savills, Anahita’s sales agent. “Mauritius is the best known of the islands there from a property buy-ing perspective and Anahita is well established with 150 properties sold and an active resale market.”

AFFORDABLE HOMES Mauritius currently has nine RES and seven IRS projects. On the protected north coast, in the tourist hot spot of Grand Baie, newly launched Le Parc de Mont Choisy is on a beautiful long beach with a planned golf course and 198 homes, from £377,995 for a two-bedroom beach home through Savills.

Nearby apartments in the second phase of Cape Bay east of Grand Baie cost from £286,000 through Pam Golding.

Azuri, 30 minutes from Port Louis, is nearing completion with 272 apart-ments and townhouses priced from £347,000. The resort aims to create a year-round community: 103 apart-ments are only available to local buy-ers. Because it has no golf course or major sports facilities it plans to keep maintenance costs to £200 a month.

CONTACTS Anahita and Mont Choisy through Savills: savills.co.uk (020 7016 3740)Azuri: azuri.mu Cape Bay through Pam Golding: pamgolding.co.za

flights from the UK and is one of Africa’s success stories, with a stable, diversi-fied export-based economy. Its good infrastructure includes an airport that easily handles the 960,000 visitors a year from Europe and South Africa.

Foreigners have been allowed to buy since 2002, when the government intro-duced the Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS). Buyers had to spend at least £315,400 on homes in pre-approved five-star resorts. In return they got residency and low levels of taxation: 15 per cent income tax, 10 per cent capital gains and no inheritance tax.

In 2007 this was extended through the Real Estate Scheme (RES) to include smaller developments with fewer facilities and no minimum purchase price. Owners on RES schemes do not automatically qualify for residency.

ESTABLISHED RESORTSAnahita, on a truly lovely four-mile stretch of coast in the wind-prone south-east, started selling homes in 2006 and opened its doors two years later. Today it has a lush Ernie Els golf course, excellent sports facilities and

a notable Four Seasons Hotel with the highest occupancy rate on the island.

The 213-hectre IRS resort has a planned density, when all 325 homes are built, of less than 10 per cent.

The resort is a 45-minute drive from the airport and 31 miles from the capital Port Louis, a little too remote for some buyers who want the bright lights of tourist-centric Grand Baie on hand.

For its many fans though, Anahita is well-worth travelling halfway around the world. Opposite is L’Isle des Cerf, a sandy island with long empty beaches and another golf course.

The newest phase is Amalthea, 63 two- and three-bedroom apartments and detached villas, priced from £410,000 and £711,000.

These will be light, modern homes beside the golf course with bleached slate roofs, landscaped grounds and private or communal pools.

Apartments start from 1,582sq ft and villas from 2,150sq ft with annual main-tenance about £365 a month.

A full concierge service will manage the property. Rental yields of four per cent are guaranteed for three years on

From £347,000: Azuri apartments, 30 minutes from capital Port Louis

£410,000: Amalthea new homes at Anahita, an established golfing and leisure resort in the south of Mauritius

Beautiful blue: an aerial view of La Place Belgath at Anahita, with its long, empty beaches and stunning scenery

Active breaks: David and Laura Rich-Jones with their children

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New festival moves into homes and businesses on the fringes of London to highlight creativity. By Liz Hoggard

Art Licks feeds a taste for talent

Imaginative: Lawrence Lek installation in a courtyard behind Bedford Square in central London, right

Artists: architect and sculptor Lawrence Lek and Art Licks founder Holly Willats at new festival venue The White Building, left, run by SPACE, in Hackney Wick. A plywood pavilion built using plywood “and thrift”, far left

ARTISTS often colonise an area long before the estate agents move in. This week-end spot the rising talent in east and south-east Lon-

don at the Art Licks Festival at more than 70 venues including galleries, private homes, on canal boats and rooftops.

“People happily go along to the Tate, Whitechapel or Serpentine on their weekends, but they have no idea where to find the younger under-ground galleries,” said festival founder Holly Willats, 26.

Funded by the Arts Council and Jerwood Charitable Foun-dation, the festival focuses on areas along the East London line, from Bethnal Green and Hackney Wick to Bermond-sey, Peckham and Forest Hill.

Gallery spaces include people’s homes (Peck-ham’s 38b gallery is in a flat) and a former GPs’ surgery at Elephant and Castle’s Heygate estate — the very cool Hotel Elephant.

Three years ago, Willats set up the Art Licks website, a listing of events and exhibitions, from her Peck-ham bedroom, to promote emerg-ing artists and not-for-profit projects. Today, patrons of Art Licks include the Victoria Miro Gallery and Eva Rothschild.

New venue The White Building, in Hackney Wick, where “speculative sculp-tor” Lawrence Lek has a studio, is by the canal, just opposite the Olympic Stadium, with a lovely bar

and pizzeria. Artists colonise fringe areas of London, making them very desirable. Estate agents take note. “When artists regenerate an area like Hackney or Peckham, galleries pop up,” Willats said.

Lek, who originally trained as an architect, added: “You get these tribes springing up all over London of artists who graduated from Leeds or Camberwell art colleges and they start working together in a natural DIY sense, then that

snowballs.”Best-known for creating

dramatic sculptural art installations in urban spaces, including the Barbican foyer and Bedford Square, Lek has invited all the par-ticipating Art Licks spaces to send him their floor plans and he is building a virtual

tower online, so you can take an alternative digital tour of the festival. “When

you get all these galleries together, it spreads out so much across London, it’s collectively larger than the Tate,” he said.

Art Licks, October 4-5, daily, 11am to 6pm (artlicksweekend.com)

Head turner: Lawrence Lek’s sculpture Prosthetic Aesthetics

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Furniture designer Matthew Hilton tells Katie Law his Tate Modern secret, how he covets a £15,000 bicycle, and reveals that location is all when it comes to his home

WHERE I LIVEI live in East Dulwich in a first-floor two-bedroom flat in an old Victorian house. It’s a typical London space, you know: stripped wood and white walls, light and large and airy, and I’ve got lots of my own-designed furniture in it. I live there on my own except for when my 10-year-old son comes to stay.

The best thing about it is its location. It’s within cycling distance from my Brixton studio and very close to Lordship Lane, which is full of great shops, and there’s a swim-ming pool and a gym round the corner. It’s not central London living. It feels more like living in a small town in the best possible way.

FAVOURITE GALLERYI enjoy going to Tate Modern — but it is as much for its Turbine Hall as for the art. It’s almost like an indoor street, like the shopping arcade next to the Duomo in Milan, and it is what attracts so many people.

MY ESCAPEI like getting on my bike round Dulwich Park on the wide road that runs around the outside. There are always lots of people running, rollerblading and cycling there. The park itself is a lovely old Victorian one with separate areas for football, cricket and tennis, and then areas with little bushes and windy paths and a lake, as if you’re in a forest.

MOST INTERESTING NEW DESIGNERJosh Bitelli is almost not a

designer, or certainly not in the way I am. Though he’s

trained in design, he operates in an unconventional way, more like an artist. He’s also very young, so I’m not sure quite where he is going to go yet. I bought some of his vessels (pictured) made from welding rods from his last show, which he called 3D drawings. They’re very lovely ( joshbitelli.co.uk).

BEST MARKETI go to Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park, which means getting up at five o’clock to get there in time to buy the good stuff. I use what I find mostly for props for photography and trade stands, but then it creeps into my home, too. The best thing I found there was a French decorative metal frame with an old foxed-glass mirror inside. It’s beaten up, but beautiful (sunburyantiques.com).

LAZY SUNDAYSThey don’t happen very often but ideally I’d start with some exercise, like ride a bike for a couple of hours or swim, so I could feel I could then slouch about. I’d watch films. I watch a lot of films and I’ll happily go to the cinema and then come home and watch a couple more on my Apple TV.

I was surprised but I really enjoyed Behind the Candelabra recently. It was funny and touching and it had interesting casting.

MY SECRET SHOPMint, just off Brompton Road. The owner, Lina Kanafani, is very on the ball and always has interesting things in her store, which are not necessarily objects I want to own but are always fascinating to look at, so I love popping in to see what’s new there (mintshop.co.uk).

Refreshing: a glass-topped dining table from Mint

Attraction: Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall

MOST COVETED OBJECTI’d love a Moulton New Series Double Pylon bicycle (below right) with space frame construc-tion. Beautiful design, works very well, hardy, light, fast and with tiny wheels. A very unusual bike and costs a fortune. About £15,000, I think (moulton.co.uk).

Sunbury Antiques Market: get there early for the good stuff

Timeless timepiece: Matthew Hilton models his first watch, designed for the Margaret Howell fashion range and just launched, £907 (matthewhilton.com)

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Va-va rooms

Racetrack chic adds glamour to London’s homes as the movie Rush packs cinemas with its story of the rough-edged rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, says Barbara Chandler

1 This Flying Finish bespoke wall mural is from the Getty Images Gallery Collection at Surface View. Priced £55 a square metre from surfaceview.co.uk (0118 922 1327).

2 The handmade Cobra Classic retro sofa costs from £669 and comes in various colours and trims to order. Available from GSMotorsport.co.uk (0115 9893488).

3 Racing car beds are popular with kids. This one is the Joseph Turbo, priced at £319, from click4beds.co.uk

4 Vamping up a car scrapyard (and adding his famous logo) is French fashion doyen Jean Paul Gaultier, whose tough-looking Fangio fabric is in fact a soft cotton velvet. Price is £119 a metre (in three colours) from Lelievre (020 7352 4798; lelievre.eu). 5 Enterprising engineer John Haigh picks over discarded car parts in the Red Bull Formula 1 Milton Keynes workshop to get the raw ingredients for his unusual home design, including floor lamps (pictured) mirrors and vases. The engines have an “inner beauty,” he says. He can add finishes that include chromium plating, or even gold, “but most people want the raw look of the machine, oozing racing history”, adds Haigh.

6 Gergely Bajzáth, based in Rigside near Lanark in Scotland, makes coffee tables from old engines (enginecoffeetables.co.uk). It started with a BMW M3, and was followed by a Ford V4, Subaru boxer, a Vauxhall 1600 and so on — 20 tables within a year. His customers are all over the country, and he has even shipped to Australia. Powder-coating, glass cuttings and sandblasted engraving is outsourced to local specialists. Prices start from around £350-£500. Shown here is his most expensive table so far — a

McLaren original Formula 1 engine, which came with a certificate from Ron Dennis (head of the McLaren team). It has a dual-toughened safety glass top, engraved with McLaren and Marlboro logos, and costs £2,300. 7 This Andrew Martin Grand Prix cushion costs £60 from John Lewis. See johnlewis.com or call 08456 049 049.

8 Designer Grant Macdonald loves the “engineering excellence” of Aston Martins, whose carbon fibre bodies have inspired this Carbon range of patterned china and silver. Dinner plates cost £150, with salad plates at £95. Mugs are £29.95, and a tea cup and saucer costs £150, with coffee cup and saucer at £140. Available from Harrods, SW1 or from grantmacdonald.com/astonmartin (call 020 7633 0278).

9 Gearbox oil filters from a Red Bull Formula 1 racing car have been elevated into salt and pepper pots. Details include pressure relief valves, filter end caps, dispensing inserts and carbon spacers. Price is £1,795 plus VAT. From Racing Gold (07786 066 222; racinggold.co.uk

10 Set of Ferrari Shield espresso cups, £29, from store.ferrari.com

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Winning smile: the late British Formula One champion James Hunt, left, and as played by Chris Hemsworth, far left, in the new movie Rush

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Making light of family life

Faced with narrow, dark Victorian rooms, architect and mum Cordula Weisser used glass, timber and dramatic black and white to add space and create a modern family home, says Philippa Stockley

HACKNEY once had lots of pilastered Victorian villas set in streets with grand names to match — such as Carlton and Leopold. The

area was steeped in Pooterish respect-ability, until Hitler’s bombs obliterated east London in swathes.

“Victorian houses used to be wasted on me,” German-born architect Cordula Weisser, says cheerfully, in the sunny new larch-lined extension she designed for the rear of her Victorian house — a suvivor of the blitz — off Victoria Park. “Now,” she concedes, “I love them. But while most architects tend to open everything up, I like to keep a lot of original elements.”

The new room takes up the width of the plot, going right across where the side return used to be. A big, pivoted window-door opens to the garden, mak-ing it very bright. The room is divided into cooking and dining areas by a long, teak-topped island that holds cooker, sink, and drawer-dishwasher.

There’s a nice relaxed, contemporary feel: you instantly know that the family practically lives in this room. “It’s brilliant being able to cook and chat to your friends at the same time,” Cordula says.

IN LOVE WITH LONDONCordula, 43, came to England to study architecture at UCL. She meant to go back home, “but I fell in love with Lon-don.” Then she met her future husband, Philip Borel, a student at LSE; now an editor at financial publishing company PEI. They bought a house in London Fields, but soon after the birth of their son, Caspar, now five, realised they needed a larger home.

“We looked at this one eight times,” Cordula says. “It took three months to Functional but fun: the black-and-white brilliance continues in Caspar’s playroom

Outside in: Cordula Weisser, husband Philip Borel and their son Caspar, five, right, seated at the pivoted window-door to the garden at home in Hackney


y.co.uk with Homes & PropertyOur homey.co.uk with

decide. A family had lived here for 20 years and had done nothing. There was a narrow, dark kitchen sticking out from the back, next to a narrow side return. Victorian houses are long, deep and dark. That was my main concern: could I bring light and width into it? Finally, two years ago, we bought it for £850,000.”

Next, Cordula, who admits to agonising over detail before making preliminary drawings, submitted a plan for an exten-sion. The planners rejected it as too long and too high. After she scaled it back, it went through.

Cordula’s subtle, thoughtful skills as an architect show in this house. Since it is her own home, she has experimented, too. The white front room, with its crisp cornice and wooden floors, still feels like a classic Victorian drawing room. But in fact, layers of beige wallpaper were stripped off and the smothered cornice painstakingly chipped away at. Mean-while, the floor was lifted, insulation put beneath, the boards repaired and closed up, and a lye wash put on by hand, giving a pale white sheen. Pure lye is caustic, but a thin wash, oiled after, is fine.

Behind this, the old back room is now sleek in Farrow & Ball black, with long MDF bookshelves cantilevered along the wall. The original house ends here in a shuttered French door that once led to

the garden but now opens into the exten-sion. Cordula kept it to mark the bound-ary between old and new — like something out of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The new section looks very modern. “I designed the profile of the tongue-and-groove larch and had it made in the West Country, then put white oil on it,” Cordula explains. “So that the room didn’t end up looking like a sauna.”

It doesn’t. The larch continues outside as cladding, only stained black, then protected with regular Ronseal varnish.

WHOLE NEW TAKE ON TEAKThe extension’s fashionable concrete floor turns out to be just the structural slab of the new-build, with underfloor heating. And the kitchen island has its own story. “We saw the teak on a skip in Brighton, thrown out by a geology lab,” Cordula says. “We gaffer-taped it to the top of the car. It still had a butler sink attached, and was so heavy that

passers-by had to help us load it. But it determined how the kitchen would look.” Under it, she designed purple cupboards, all economically cut and sprayed by one company. The doors on the opposite side open with your foot: very useful if you are busy cooking. Caspar, unimpressed by this cleverness, just uses his hands.

THERE are intelligent changes throughout the rest of the family home — such as build-ing the master-bedroom wardrobes into the wall,

making a doorway through from there into the principal bathroom, and hiding the big solar-gain boiler in the wall between hall and bathroom, so you don’t even notice it. Or, drawing light right up through the house from a glazed panel over the new kitchen — it’s a glass floor on the landing above — right up to a Velux window in the roof, so light cas-cades down the core of the building.

But the main work is the ground floor. “This new part give me most pleasure,” Cordula says. “Philip couldn’t imagine any of it from the drawings, but when it was done he was, like, ‘My God this is amazing’.

“All we’ve actually added is eight square meters, but it has completely transformed the house.”

A shuttered door marks the boundary between old and new, a bit like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

CORDULA’S TOP TIPS FOR STYLE AND MONEY-SAVING:

Always use an architect, it saves money — and you get fresh ideas

Put the job out to tender and get two or more quotes from prospective builders

Insulate floorboards and put underfloor heating for a cosy feel

In small rooms put one good thing (for example, handmade tiles in the second bathroom).

Kitchen cupboards sprung to open by foot are a boon when cooking

Use cheap socket plates, but get smart-looking ones

HOW TO GET A SIMILAR LOOK

Architect: Cordula Weisser at ZCD Architects (zcdarchitects.co.uk)

General builder: PG Construction (07815931873)

Ronseal varnish: ronseal.co.uk

Big pivoted window/door by Culmax (culmax.co.uk)

Blue-and-white bathroom tiles by made a mano (madeamano.com)

Micro-tiles in main bathroom by Waxman (waxmanceramics.co.uk)

Larch timber cut by Vincent Timber Mill (vincenttimber.co.uk)

Larch timber oiled with white oil by Osmo (osmouk.com)

Cupboards made by a specialist spraying company (ashleysmithfurniture.com)

Smart black nickel socket plates by screwfix.com

Drawer dishwasher by Fisher & Paykel (fisherpaykel.com/uk)

NEED TO KNOW:Cost of the house when

bought in 2011: £850,000Spend: an estimated

£210,000 (including architect’s fee)

Value of the family’s house now: estimated at £1.4 million

Island girl: Cordula found the top for her kitchen island, left, complete with butler sink, in a Brighton skip. Now it divides her generous new room perfectly into cooking and eating spaces

Photographs: Charles Hosea

For more pictures of this home, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/hackneyhouse

Having it larch: the extension’s white-oiled tongue-and-groove larch lining continues outside as black-stained and varnished cladding, right

Nifty space-saving measures: the wardrobes are built into the wall in the master bedroom, right


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Five things to see in October

By Barbara Chandler

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1 RIBA FORGOTTEN SPACESFrom Friday to 10 November at Somerset House, WC2 — enter from the southern side at Victoria Embankment (somersethouse.org.uk)COULD Londoners have a new zoo in the empty gas holders of Bromley-by-Bow? Could we splash in a platform pool at abandoned Aldwych Tube? Or maybe the River Fleet could flow once more through Camden’s St Pancras Gardens? These ideas and 23 others are the pick of a Royal Institute of British Architects competition to find uses for the capital’s neglected spaces, and are laid out in Somerset House’s own hidden spaces, from its Great Arch Hall through to its courtyard lightwells. Admission is free.

2 MIDCENTURY SHOW EASTSunday 13 October, 10am to 4pm at Haggerston School, Weymouth Terrace, E2 (modernshows.com)BROWSE the last-century treasures from 50 European dealers (this cool office suite is from the Rocket gallery in Shoreditch) and tour this recently refurbished school designed by Erno Goldfinger, who also designed west London’s Trellick Tower. Entrance is £8 on the day, or £7 web-booked before Sunday. 3 DESIGN NATION PRESENTSOpen now until the end of the month at the Southbank Centre, SE1 (southbankcentre.co.uk)LEARN the stories behind Britain’s best contemporary crafts, as leading members of the promotional group Design Nation fill the Festival Hall with their latest work. We love Carly Dodsley’s cocktail coasters (£6 each) and Gillies Jones’s spectacular “landscape study” glassware. This bowl is £3,500. “We want people to appreciate these beautiful objects and to understand why they cost what they do,” said Adam Thow, of the Southbank Centre Shop.

4 PAD LONDONOctober 16-20, Pavilion of Art and Design, Berkeley Square, W1 (pad-fairs.com)FILLING a spacious tent, built around the tree trunks of this London square, are 60 galleries showing upmarket modern design, such as silversmiths Juan and Paloma Garrido’s extraordinary Rotation Armchair. These pieces often end up in museums, or in the private collections of the very rich. The rest of us can go to gawp. Despite the £20 ticket price (students £10), it’s well worthwhile.

5 ANTIQUES & FINE ART FAIR October 11-13 at Esher Hall, Sandown Park Racecourse, Portsmouth Road, Esher, Surrey (01797 252030; esherhallfair.com)THOUGH much smaller than the huge shows in town, this “boutique” fair yields everything from Russian and Oriental textiles and carpets and Art Deco pieces, to 18th-century Swedish furniture. This Swedish Rococo commode is £4,000 from D Larsson Interiör & Antikhandel.

Tickets cost £5, and there’s plenty of free parking.

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Gardening problems? Email our RHS expert at: gardenproblems @standard.co.uk

RHS London Harvest Festival Show

Pattie Barron

Let’s uproot the lot and start afreshGive your tired pots a colourful makeover with the right kind of compost and new plants that will bloom until spring

JOIN apple tasting sessions, admire fruit and vegetables from the UK’s finest growers and boggle at exhibits in the heaviest pumpkin competition, at the RHS annual autumn show next Tuesday and Wednesday, at Lindley Hall, Greycoat St, SW1. Celebrate the season on Tuesday evening at the Harvest Festival Late party from 6pm-9pm, with fruit cocktails from the Midnight Apothecary, home-made cider from RHS Garden Wisley and beer from Hobgoblin, plus By Word of Mouth’s pasties and the Garlic Farm’s dim sum. Live music and a seasonal campfire set the scene. Tuesday 10am-6pm; Wednesday 10am to 5pm; tickets £8 at the door or £5 advance booking at rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events

YOU know what? Those win-dow boxes have had it and the pots have popped it. There are no prizes for drag-ging pelargoniums through

winter or coaxing past-it petunias back into bloom again. These plants are strictly summer stock, so pull them out, along with their compost, which has nothing left to give except possibly a few pests and a lot of disease.

Relish the fresh start and the chance to practise a little creative window dressing for the new season. A bag of John Innes No 2 compost has enough nutrients to keep plants happy and has more guts than a lighter, multipurpose compost. You will need to provide drainage, so make a base layer of polystyrene packing chips.

ENDURING BEAUTYThe new season’s bedding is built to last, so that whatever you buy should bloom, on and off, until early spring. What makes great sense is to invest in a basic backbone of evergreens — vari-egated euonymus, bay, lime-green dwarf conifers, upright rosemary, even bronze grass Carex comans — that can stay in year-round, providing a good foliage contrast to frothier flowers. Best to avoid box, because of the potential blight problem. Use ivy with care, snip-ping it frequently: a trail or two of dainty birds’ foot ivy looks pretty, whereas a cascade looks funereal.

For front-of-house chic, white or ice-pink cyclamen is unbeatable; the dinky size looks pretty at close quarters, but the larger blooms have more pavement appeal. Senecio foliage will enhance cyclamen, making a lacy, silver ruffle. Ornamental kale, with their frilly heads of lilac, pink, fir green and white, are novel, but they can outstay their wel-come, emitting school-dinner scent; they are cabbages, after all. Universal

pansies are surprisingly robust, and need regular dead-heading; avoid the tempting plums and violets because it is the paler colours such as sky blue, tangerine or navy-blotched white that will light up dark, wintry days. Smaller violas have country-garden appeal, and are better suited to patio containers.

Include berries for bright colour, but gaultheria, a long-living dwarf shrub, has the edge over more popular scarlet-berried skimmia, with larger, china-bead berries in colours from milk white to sugar pink and crimson; contrast the mass of berries with the upright flower-ing spires of tough-as-old-boots heather

— avoiding white, which tends to turn brown at the tips.

BULB ESSENTIALSWinter bedding will not spread as much as summer bedding, so plant more closely, but leave enough space to shoehorn in — and in fact a shoehorn is useful for this — a handful of bulbs, deep into the compost. My choices are blue grape hyacinth and Narcissus Tête-a-Tête, which generously pro-duces several golden flowers per stem, thus providing, come spring, the essen-tial host of golden daffodils, albeit on a small scale.

Autumn bounty: Carex grass adds a flourish, above, to cyclamen, dwarf asters and cheery, black-faced pansies

Fiery foliage: contrasting leaves and bright berries, left, make a vibrant container displayG

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£849,950A SPLIT-LEVEL flat in Crouch Hall Road with four bedrooms, a study and a kitchen/dining room. Through Hamptons International.

homesandproperty.co.uk/crouch


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£550,000A TWO-BEDROOM, split-level garden flat in Carysfort Road, moments from Priory Park. Through KFH.

homesandproperty.co.uk/carysfort

£1.15 MILLIONA FIVE-BEDROOM house, packed with period features in Park Avenue North, close to Alexandra Park. For sale through Foxtons.

homesandproperty.co.uk/park

£349,950THIS one-bedroom flat in Denton Road, close to Haringey station, comes with a large private balcony and is for sale through Winkworth.

homesandproperty.co.uk/denton

A creative village just a short trip from the bright lightsCrouch End is easily accessible from central London but maintains a secluded feel that the locals love, says Anthea Masey

CROUCH END in north London is not the easiest place to reach. Hidden away between Finsbury Park and Muswell Hill, its charm lies

in its relative isolation. Maybe this accounts for its self-sufficiency; with everything from butchers, bakers and greengrocers all still thriving in the busy shopping streets around the land-mark clock tower, why would anyone want to leave?

Ever since the heady days of student protests at nearby Hornsey College of Art in 1968, Crouch End has had an arty reputation. Locals like to call it London’s Creative Village and the success of the Crouch End Festival, launched two years ago and held each June, indicates that in spite of house prices and rental levels that now put the neighbourhood beyond the reach of struggling artists, there is still an appetite for the experi-mental and the zany.

The Crouch End collage map con-ceived by local artist Lucy Atherton,

on sale at local framers and art gallery Frameworks, tells the Crouch End story. It covers everything from the W7 bus, the community’s connection to the outside world via Finsbury Park Tube, and downstairs comedy nights at the King’s Head with Jack Dee and Eddie Izzard, to former Hornsey Col-lege of Art students Anish Zapoor, Richard Wilson and Richard Went-worth — not forgetting Ray Davies of the Kinks, who established Konk music studios in Tottenham Lane.

WHAT THERE IS TO BUY Many of the mainly late-Victorian and Edwardian houses were split into flats in the Fifties and Sixties when students were drawn to Crouch End by cheap rents. A good number of these proper-ties have been turned back into family houses, though plenty of conversions remain. The most expensive houses currently for sale are in Christchurch Road, Fairfield Road and in Crouch Hall Road, where Kinleigh Folkard &

Hayward (020 8348 8181) is selling a three to four-bedroom maisonette for £849,950. Local price per square foot ranges between £700 and £850.The area attracts: Barrington Dutton, manager of Crouch End’s Kinleigh

Spotlighton Crouch End

Old and new: the area boasts traditional pubs, such as the King’s Head, left, and also modern restaurants, including Spiazzo, right


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The best schools

The best streets — including the most expensive — in the area

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The local renting scene

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■WHAT HOMES COST:BUYING IN CROUCH END (Average prices)One-bedroom flat £264,000Two-bedroom flat £416,000Two-bedroom house £525,000Three-bedroom house £603,000Four-bedroom house £868,000

Source: Zoopla.co.uk

RENTING IN CROUCH END (Average rates)One-bedroom flat £1,192 a monthTwo-bedroom flat £1,561 a monthTwo-bedroom house £1,499 a monthThree-bedroom house £2,069 a monthFour-bedroom house £2,654 a month

Source: Zoopla.co.uk

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Folkard & Hayward branch, said the area has always had an arty feel. “The village-like atmosphere is popular and people go out of their way to sup-port local businesses. The excellent primary schools are also a big draw. There is a strong local property market, with people trading up and down, but families move in from all over London and when they arrive they are very well-informed.

“Parents know exactly which primary schools they want their children to get into, and will have whittled down their choice to a handful of roads. For the first time, Crouch End is attracting City bonus money.”Staying power: Crouch End is the kind of place people tend to stay — which can lead to a shortage of properties for sale. Postcodes: the area falls within the N4 Hornsey postcode, which also includes roads at the northern end of the Harringay Ladder.

SHOPS AND RESTAURANTSIt feels as if there is a higher concentra-tion of coffee shops in Crouch End than anywhere else in the country — and they all appear to be thriving.

There is a Starbucks, a Costa and a Harris + Hoole — part-owned by Tesco — but there are independent cafés as well, such as Haberdashery, Coffee Cake, Sable d’Or and Coffee Circus.

Dunn’s is a long-standing bakery where as well as fashionable cupcakes, a simple iced bun can still be bought. There is a fishmonger, Walter Purkis, and two butchers (Morley cures and smokes its own gammon) as well as branches of Waitrose, M&S Simply Food, the Co-op and a branch of Budgens that grows vegetables on the roof. Banner’s is a long-standing res-taurant with strong local support.

St James is an all-day brasserie, wine and cocktail bar, while Riley is a popu-lar ice-cream parlour. Esteban, a newly arrived tapas bar, is getting good

reviews. On the homes interiors front, the French country house and shabby-chic look is catered for by Floral Hall, Of Special lnterest and Little Paris, while Indish stocks brands including Marimekko and Alessi.

OPEN SPACEPriory Park has a children’s play-ground, paddling pool, café and tennis courts. The small Stationers Park has a stream, a waterfall and a children’s climbing castle. But the area’s best-kept secret is the wild, overgrown Parkland Walk along the four and a half miles of the old Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace railway line. It’s a favourite with dog walkers and joggers, and feels remote and rural. Highgate Wood, Queen’s Wood, Alexandra Park and Hampstead Heath are all nearby.

LEISURE AND THE ARTSThere is much excitement locally about the imminent opening of ArtHouse, a new cultural venue, in the former Salvation Army hall in Tottenham Lane. It will have a cinema run by the Curzon, a theatre, café, and a bar serv-iced by its own delicatessen. There is a small fringe theatre at the Moors Bar in Park Road, which also offers occa-sional film nights.

The Crouch End Festival Chorus, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, is one of the country’s lead-ing symphonic choirs. Prestigious dates in its diary include Sunday, October 13, when it will perform with baritone Sir Willard White in Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Barbican Centre. The chorus also sings locally in Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Highgate.

The Park Road Leisure Centre, the local council-owned facility, is about to undergo a face lift. It offers both an indoor swimming pool and a heated one outside. There is also a swimming pool at the private Virgin Active club in Tottenham Lane.

Travel: Crouch End’s main lifeline to the outside world is the W7 bus to Fins-bury Park Tube station, from where it takes 10 minutes to Oxford Circus on the Victoria line, and 15 minutes to Pic-cadilly Circus on the Piccadilly line. The No 91 bus goes to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall.

Other options to get about from Crouch End include the Northern line from Highgate Tube station, and trains from Hornsey (20 minutes to Moor-gate) and Crouch Hill on the Over-ground north London line. All stations are in Zone 3 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,424. Council: Haringey council is Labour-controlled, and Band D council tax for the 2013/2014 year is £1,487.32.

Peace and quiet: Parkland Walk, along a disused railway line, is great for a stroll — or even a jog

Tradition: Jade Stavin, 27, runs Scarlet Rage Vintage which supplies pieces for hit TV drama Downton Abbey, among other customers. The shop is on Topsfield Parade, just off Crouch End Broadway

Magnet: bustling Tottenham Lane will soon boast a new ArtHouse cultural centre

Historic: a clock tower, left, dominates The Broadway, Crouch End’s main shopping street

Saddling up: Shane Cawley, right, decides to ride so his mum Julia can wheel her new standard lamp home down The Broadway

Photographs:: Graham Hussey

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GOT A PROBLEM?IF YOU have a question for Fiona McNulty, please email [email protected] or write to Legal Solutions, Homes & Property, London Evening Standard, 2 Derry Street, W8 5EE.We regret that questions cannot be answered individually but we will try to feature them here. Fiona McNulty is a partner in the residential property, farms and estates team at Withy King LLP (withyking.co.uk).

These answers can only be a very brief commentary on the issues raised and should not be relied on as legal advice. No liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar issues, you should obtain advice from a solicitor.

Mysteries of the service charge

Fiona McNultyOUR LAWYER ANSWERSYOUR QUESTIONS

Q MY BOYFRIEND lives in a flat in Shoreditch and pays a large amount of money every six months

to some managing agents for his service charge. He says he never gets any information about what the service charge is spent on. The block is certainly not kept very well considering the amount he pays. Service charges are confusing — what should he know about this charge?

A LANDLORDS can levy such a charge in return for services they provide. There are various ways in which your

boyfriend can find out details about his particular service charge.

His lease should set out the services that his landlord covenants to provide, such as general maintenance and repairs to the building in which your boyfriend’s flat is situated, insurance of the building, lighting and cleaning of common areas etc.

The lease should also set out how and when the service charge is to be

paid, whether the landlord may appoint and charge for managing agents to manage the building, and it may also provide for the service charge to include a payment towards a reserve or sinking fund.

The lease will provide for the preparation of annual service charge accounts within a certain period after the end of the service charge year.

Your boyfriend can also request information about his service charge from his landlord, such as summaries of the service charge account and insurance, and he is entitled to inspect relevant accounts receipts and other documents.

Indeed the service charge demand should contain certain key information — for example, where to serve notices. If it doesn’t, your boyfriend could argue that the service charge is not payable.

QMY HUSBAND is buying a house with his sister as an investment.

Her marriage is a bit rocky and we worry that her husband will want a share of the house if they divorce. What can we do?

A IN DIVORCE, the sharing principle applies to matrimonial capital

assets. Usually they get shared equally.

The investment property that your husband and his sister are buying would not be classed as a matrimonial asset and so the sharing principle won’t apply unless it is necessary to “invade” that property to achieve a fair outcome in any divorce proceedings between your sister-in-law

and her husband. So, a lot depends on the value of the assets that she and her husband own.

If the matrimonial asset base is large enough, the non-matrimonial assets —which would include the investment property — will be left alone.

Assuming that the court will not ignore the investment property, the best solution would be for it to be purchased in your husband’s sole name, but that might be risky for your sister-in-law.

An alternative might be for a trust to be set up to buy the property, but that could have adverse tax consequences.

This is a complex area so make sure your husband and his sister get good independent legal advice.

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MOMENTS from Clapham Common, on the western edge of Clapham Old Town, the Macauley Walk

development, right, has been created from a former Victorian factory in a much-admired conservation area. And, in a perfect touch for busy Londoners, there are refrigerators in the basement for internet-ordered food and wine deliveries.

The former Ross Optical Works, makers of camera lenses, is now a courtyard scheme of 97 homes in a leafy avenue. It offers loft-style apartments in converted warehouses plus new-build blocks, penthouses, and a pair of new houses that mimic neighbouring Victorian villas,

together with in-keeping office studios aimed at local small businesses such as architects and graphic designers.

Contemporary architecture dovetails nicely with the refurbished heritage buildings. Grainger, the developer, has resisted carving up the interiors into small spaces, instead retaining the original high ceilings and windows, brick and ironwork features. Prices from £295,000. Call Savills on 020 7795 4600.

Clapham Old Town is the original Georgian quarter between the high street and the common. Left behind during the Eighties wave of gentrification that turned the wider area into Nappy Valley, it is making up for lost time. Gastropubs,

gourmet food stores, galleries and fashion boutiques have opened, while run-down heritage architecture is getting a facelift and

AFTER a seven-year planning battle, a residential tower block, above, overlooking Lord’s Cricket Ground has been given the go-ahead.

KSR Architects’ contemporary-design scheme of stone, glass and steel features double-height lateral apartments, some with vast terraces and views into the ground, pictured below, and across Regent’s Park. Construction will start next year. Contact developer Marcus Cooper Group on 020 7586 5060.

The scheme of 84 private flats and 47 affordable homes in a separate low-rise block comes as Regent’s Park homes are regaining parity with those in neighbourhoods ringing Hyde Park, according to James Simpson of estate agent Knight Frank. Values have doubled during the last three years and now reach £3,000 and £4,000 a square foot.

Residential tower gets its innings after seven years

Smart moSmart mSmart moooomoo


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swish new homes have sprouted up on derelict sites. Twentysomethings like the gyms, the cinema and the Tube links, while the child-friendly

cafés, the pond and gift shops attract yummy mummies from the Northcote Road side of the common.

A PENTHOUSE with a bird’s-eye view of the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace may not please the Queen’s security staff — but it will delight those who want the cachet of being the monarch’s nearest neighbour.

Part of a new development of 14 apartments, the 1,750sq ft penthouse has three terraces and is priced at £3.25 million.

Call Jones Lang LaSalle on 020 7201 6699. £3.25 million: see into the Queen’s back yard from your neighbouring penthouse

Goodbye supermarket depot, hello posh piazza . . .FULHAM is a development hot spot, with builders snapping up riverbank commercial sites and back-street plots for smart new housing.

Imperial Wharf, the giant waterfront estate built on the site of an old gas works, started the ball rolling. Following on is Fulham Riverside, right, between the green acres of polo-playing Hurlingham Park and sought-after Peterborough Estate. The 8.25-acre scheme replaces a supermarket depot and will have 463 homes either side of a central piazza and boulevard leading to the river. Prices from £525,000. Call Barratt on 0844 8114334.

Coming soon is Hurlingham Gate, with 13 four-bedroom houses and 68 apartments. Call St James Homes on 020 8246 4199.

DEVELOPER London Square’s Farm Lane scheme on the site of an old stables in Fulham is set to become a traffic-free retreat with 40 homes. Residents will be able to park in an underground private garage with direct access to their homes. Building is under way. Call 01895 627 300 for details.

Ten flats at 120 Broughton Road, below, between the river and fashionable Parsons Green, are priced from £500,000. Call Haus Properties on 020 7751 0400.

Boutique apartment schemes are a Clerkenwell staple and the latest is The Yard, a dozen homes on the site of a former timber merchant’s on Warner Street, close to the Mount Pleasant postal depot, where a masterplan is being drawn up for a new urban quarter. Prices from £850,000. Call Stirling Ackroyd on 020 7749 3810.

. . . and the Fulham renaissance seems to be spreading


MONDAYI’m doing a half marathon in three weeks — that means no alcohol and long, early morning runs in Regent’s Park and Hyde Park. My son was born with pyloric stenosis, a muscular disorder affecting digestion, and at six weeks old was successfully operated on at Great Ormond Street children’s hospital, so I am running to raise money for them.

After my run today, my first appoint-ment is with a client who bought a building not far from our office. I meet him on site and he asks for advice about how best to develop the place. I tell him I’d recommend splitting it into flats, as there is little or no outside space, and also because that way he won’t be putting all his eggs in one basket.

It’s great to be involved at such an early stage and in this case the architect has been forward-thinking, having already supplied drawings.

TUESDAYAnother early start. At 8am I meet an applicant for a new position in our com-mercial division at the Charlotte Street Hotel. It turns out he is doing the same half marathon so we exchange training tips before beginning the interview.

I am often asked whether I think the market is too hot, and today is no excep-tion. I believe all the signs are that it will continue to grow. Money is cheap to borrow, there is still a housing shortage, more land is not being made available, and new Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is committed to keeping interest rates low in the short-to-medium term. Plus, there is a lot of

foreign money still pouring into London. However, that’s what we all thought in 2007. Ultimately, you can never predict the top of the market. A rising market sees people keen to buy, so it’s a good time to sell, too, especially if you think an increase in interest rates or another downturn might put you under pressure. My advice is either to cash in while you are ahead or, if you can afford it, hold on for the long term. After all, history has shown property to be a great investment.

WEDNESDAYRobert Burwood, who heads up our busy Covent Garden department, has just been instructed on a two-bedroom

flat overlooking the Royal Opera House with very unusual decoration themed on living in Northern Cyprus. He is determined to find the right buyer as these flats do not come up very often.

Robert is known for being in the right place at the right time and getting instructions from unexpected sources. A few years back his hairdresser told him of a client (a popular club singer in the Sixties) who had a flat to sell. Within a week, Robert found a buyer who wanted it for accommodation for his staff in a nearby restaurant.

I leave work a little early today to meet a neighbour who works at an embassy. He is going to introduce me to the head of property there, which I am looking forward to, as the property he has accumulated over the years will be very interesting.

THURSDAYThis morning I go to the new Ivy Club in Covent Garden, which has a spectacular glass lift. I meet lots of high-

net worth individuals, one of whom is huge in property development, and we exchange business cards.

When I get home I find out that my son, now almost six, has been made school councillor for his year.

FRIDAYI complete my longest run, 12½ miles, around Regent’s and Hyde Park this morning, which makes me feel more confident about the race. I could have gone further but I have to work.

As I hobble into the office with stiffen-ing leg muscles, the team are talking about help for first-time buyers under

the Government’s scheme. We agree it is a good thing — but also that it’s wise for them to leave headroom in their budgets in case interest rates rise.

I check up on the Cyprus-themed Covent Garden flat and Robert already has two offers, including one at the full asking price. It’s great delivering good news for our client for the weekend. No team drinks for me tonight. I keep telling myself it will all be worth it… only 16 days to go.

Diary of an estate agent

Property — and half marathons — are good bets for the long haul

Jonathan Hudson is a director of Hudsons Property, based in Charlotte Street, W1 (020 7323 2277).

KINGSTON

HAMPTON WICK

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The accidental landlord

Only the best landlords get a Boris BadgeVictoria Whitlock finds out more details of the Mayor’s initiative to improve rental accommodation over a cuppa at City Hall

£725 A WEEKIn Kinnoul Road, Barons Court, W6, Faron Sutaria has this very stylish three-bedroom house available to rent.

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H OW many landlords are breaking the law, I wonder? I don’t mean deliberately — I’m not talking about those

dodgy geezers who cram illegal immigrants into sheds — but how many of us accidentally fall foul of the rules and regulations?

If you’re a landlord, do you know how often you should have a gas safety check? Do you also know whether your rental property must have smoke alarms and how many? What about a carbon monoxide detector? Should you have electrical appliances tested every year?

What about that deposit you took from the tenant? I’m sure you’ve registered it, but have you given the tenant all the necessary paperwork to prove it? And do you know how quickly you must return it at the end of the tenancy?

If you know the answers to all of the above, well done — you are top of the class, but if you don’t, you are not alone. I get quite a few emails from landlords who are pretty clueless, which is not surprising when you consider that some of us have fallen into letting property and don’t have any experience.

I suspect most of us eventually find the information we need, generally by trawling the internet or asking a good letting agent for advice, and I’m sure the vast majority of landlords try damned hard to stay within the law. But wouldn’t our lives be so much easier if there was a free-to-use

official website that told us everything we needed to know about letting?

Well, I’m told London Mayor Boris Johnson has a team beavering away on such a website, which will be launched by the end of this year. It will also include detailed information for tenants, making clear their rights and responsibilities, and there will be a section for letting agents, too, so we should all know where we stand.

I don’t yet know what the site is going to be called but never mind, you’ll soon find out because £250,000 will be spent promoting it early next year. There will be posters in high-profile locations, including on the Underground, so you won’t be able to miss it.

The website is a key part of Boris’s initiative to raise the standard of rental accommodation in London — the same initiative I wrote about in this column a few weeks ago when I said it was “ludicrous” of the Mayor to think that it would make much difference. That column prompted an email from deputy mayor for housing Richard Blakeway, suggesting we meet at City Hall. Conscious that the Mayor’s HQ is just

across the river from the Tower, I was a bit nervous, but Mr Blakeway was cool. Over a cup of tea so big I could have drowned in it (they must have a serious caffeine addiction at City Hall), he tried to convince me that the Mayor’s initiative would lead to 100,000 London landlords and letting agents joining one of several voluntary training schemes by 2015, earning them a new Kitemark of quality, nicknamed the Boris Badge.

I remain sceptical that the number will be nearly that high, or raise any standards, but admittedly my ears pricked up when Mr Blakeway said

landlords could be offered financial incentives, such as discounts on licensing for HMOs — Homes of Multiple Occupancy — and possibly even VAT rebates.

Details have yet to be finalised, but in the meantime I think the website is a good idea. I’m not sure it will make better landlords of us, but it could make it easier for us to stay on the right side of the law.

Mother-of-two Victoria Whitlock lets three properties in south London. To contact Victoria with your ideas and views, tweet @vicwhitlock

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