This week’s picks has a fairy tale theme, with a staircase made of glass, a house with a turret, and a dining room with a cabin-in-the-woods charm.
Big Buy
Vale of Health, Hampstead, NW3, £3,300,000
Move over marble, glass is having a moment. When it comes to updating a period property it offers the perfect solution, allowing light to flood in to previously dingy spaces. It’s also the ultimate example of money talking whilst wealth whispers; how else can one subtly show off a killer view of the London skyline, a gorgeous urban garden or simply imply that you have cleaning staff and the cash flow to fund an endless supply of windex.
The floating glass staircase in this Vale of Health home is a focus point and a feat of engineering. The Victorian end of terrace house has been thoroughly modernised, with interiors designed by Keith Tillman of award winning Guard Tillman Pollock architects. Set over four floors it has four bedrooms, a double reception room and a private south facing mature garden, views of which can be enjoyed through the expanses of glass on the lower ground floor.
Anscombe & Ringland, 020 7794 1151
Fixer Upper
Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, NW3, £430,000
Looking at property photos can sometimes take on a Sherlockian air. Who lives here? What clues can we garner from the artfully arranged objects and choices in décor? Too often agents ask us to look beyond the existing furnishings and project ourselves in to the room, but why not stop and think about the previous occupant for a moment. For example, here we can deduce the owner clearly loves owls, alpine mementos and dining areas clad like a Swedish sauna.
Of course, unless you plan to Single White Female yourself into the previous occupant you’ll want to make some cosmetic changes to this property. First things first, scrap the alarming amounts of wood. Rip up the carpet in the bathroom, refresh the tiles and put in a power shower. Structurally it’s fine, although you could always rejig a wall to make the kitchen/diner larger and create a bedroom, or knock it all through and go for the open plan lifesyle.
Try to resist the temptation to coat it all in minimalist shades of griege though; a little bit of property personality is always a good thing.
Anscombe & Ringland, 020 7794 1151
First Time Buy
Maitland Park Villas, Belsize Park, NW3, £460,000
The second bedroom is the unicorn of first homes in north London, so when you spot one you need to catch it pronto (for unicorns the folklore suggests only a maiden going into the forest alone can snare the mythical beast, but in this instance a mortgage and a deposit could be more successful).
Set in a lovely modernist red brick mansion block, this is truly a fairytale first home. Not only does it have the chimerical second bedroom that’s currently being used as a bookshelf lined study, it has a separate kitchen and a living room with a feature fireplace. There’s even a sweet little private balcony currently covered in flowering plants and overlooking the communal gardens.
Consider this your trail of breadcrumbs, Hansel and Gretel, a first home doesn’t come much better – or better priced – than this.
Salter Rex, 020 7431 1881
Rental
Hornsey Lane Gardens, Highgate, N6, £2,600 pcm (£600 pw)
We round of this week’s fairy tale theme (complete with glass slippers, wooden cabins and a storybook first time buy) with a rental property with a romantic twist.
Let down your long-ish hair with this two bedroom flat set on the first floor of a quirky turreted property in Highgate.
Along with two bright and cheerful bedrooms the home has two reception rooms, one of which sits within the tower. Period touches like cast iron radiators and a fireplace add charming touches, and the location with its proximity to the shops, restaurants and bars of Crouch End Broadway is pretty magical although you’ll need a lot of magic beans to stump up the £600 a week for the privilege.
Foxtons, 020 8432 4343
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