Scrolling on Rightmove presents many pleasures: glimpses inside aspirational houses, loads of questionable design decisions and —a Houses & Property favorite— these uncommon, quirky properties that make the thoughts boggle.
From a Grand Designs-esque Martello tower to a painstakingly created Tudor home in Kent, listed here are a number of the most uncommon properties to have hit the market this yr.
The final word commuter house
This property is situated inside Field Hill and Westhumble station, with two trains an hour to London
Ralph James/Rightmove
It isn’t attainable to dwell nearer to the native station than this: 1 Boxhill Station Home is situated inside Field Hill and Westhumble station, with the tracks proper outdoors the window.
The Surrey station is served by two trains an hour to London – which, clearly, it will be virtually unattainable to overlook. In-built 1867 by the Victorian architect Charles Henry Driver —well-known for utilitarian initiatives such because the Thames Embankment and pumping homes at Abbey Mills and Crossness— the previous station home was transformed into two cottages within the early Nineteen Nineties, whereas the station’s reserving corridor grew to become a industrial house. In September, it was listed for £850,000 with Ralph James. It’s nonetheless in the marketplace.
“It was even handier coming house, as a result of once you’re house you’re actually house, you haven’t bought to leap in a cab or stroll ten minutes,” the present house owners, who’ve lived there since 2006, informed The Instances. And it’s been nice for our two sons rising up right here. It offers them the liberty to leap on the prepare to enter London with their mates.”
Mysterious Notting Hill cottage
The Walmer Street property has been derelict for greater than a decade
Maskells
This Victorian cottage had sat derelict on a chief Notting Hill avenue for greater than a decade earlier than it was listed with Maskells for £1.75 million in January. Positioned subsequent to Avondale Park, the cottage is believed to have been constructed for a groundskeeper.
It was bought for a similar worth by Danish-born inside designer Julie Simonsen in 2015, whose plans to show it right into a grand residence by no means got here to fruition. “It is in a reasonably dangerous state inside, but it surely’s strong, the bricks are good. Somebody may make it actually particular,” she stated.
The boarded-up home had turn out to be a supply of native intrigue —and occasional ire— however doesn’t seem to have bought, in accordance with Land Registry data.
Regardless of its genuine Tudor exterior, development on Manna Home started in 2004
Wards of Kent
Manna Home appears to be like like one thing straight out of Elizabethan England, with its mullioned, two-storey oriel window jutting out into the road and its studded oak entrance door. However though this anachronistic home in Upnor, Kent, is each bit the Tudor masterpiece, it was inbuilt 2004.
Walter Roberts, the home’s earlier proprietor, designed the property for an imaginary Elizabethan naval commander, and used Tudor carpentry strategies to assemble it, with bricks produced regionally in Tudor type. Roberts chosen the timber for the wooden panelling inside himself, including leaded home windows, ornate mouldings, stained glass and a 10-inch-long entrance door key.
However after six years of development, Roberts’ assets had begun to dwindle, and in 2013, he bought the home to Richard and Anne Emerson, who accomplished the mission over two years. Roberts by no means noticed his dream house completed. “After we took it on, it was completed to medieval requirements, but it surely wasn’t liveable by another requirements,” says Richard. “I wasn’t anticipating to find it irresistible.”
After 11 completely happy years in Manna Home, the Emersons put their house in the marketplace for £400,000 with Wards in September, and it has since had a £25,000 worth discount. “In most methods it’s a very sensible, regular home,” says Richard. “It simply has extra carvings and massive oak beams.”
Duplicate of Captain Prepare dinner’s boat
The duplicate is 40% of the dimensions of Captain Prepare dinner’s authentic ship
Nationwide Enterprise Gross sales
The HMS Endeavour, which British explorer Captain James Prepare dinner sailed on his three-year expedition to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia, is certainly one of historical past’s most well-known boats. In September, certainly one of two present replicas of the boat was listed with Nationwide Enterprise Gross sales for £750,000.
The Endeavour duplicate was constructed between 2001 and 2002, constructed to round 40% of the unique boat’s dimension. It has been open to the general public as a vacationer attraction in Whitby since 2018 and was bought by its present proprietor in 2022. The unique Endeavour had been sunk by British forces in 1778, whereas the opposite duplicate was inbuilt Australia in 1988.
Spanning 4,306 sq. ft over three decks with capability for 250 individuals, The Endeavour was marketed with a spread of attainable makes use of, together with vacationer attraction, travelling restaurant, celebration boat, marriage ceremony venue, on line casino, vacation let or massive, one-of-a-kind houseboat.
“It’s the visible impression that folks get – there’s just one different boat prefer it on the earth, and that’s in Sydney,” stated Simon Burbridge, head of gross sales at Nationwide Enterprise Gross sales. “I feel it’s a superb, enjoyable alternative – it in all probability received’t go to your common homebuyer.” The Endeavour duplicate seems to have been bought.
Lighthouse keeper’s buildings on uninhabited Scottish island
Copinsay is an uninhabited island which lies north of John O’Groats
Tom O’Brian/Ok Allan Properties
This lighthouse keeper’s home on Copinsay, an uninhabited Orkney Island in Scotland, was the right property for consumers searching for solitude. Accessible by boat or helicopter —there have been two helipads— the sale included a seven-bedroom home in want of full refurbishment, 1.45 acres of land, two sheds, two quad bikes and a dinghy.
Within the Thirties, the buildings have been house to the lighthouse keeper’s household and the farmer, who had 13 youngsters, plus a resident instructor. The lighthouse, which was not included within the sale, was inbuilt 1915 and automatic in 1991, which was when the vendor purchased the adjoining constructing to make use of as a vacation house.
It was listed for £80,000 with Ok Allan Properties and marketed as “the renovation alternative of a lifetime”. After receiving “worldwide curiosity”, it bought lately to an area, who, say the brokers, “considered and understood the properties’ distinctive location…we sit up for watching this property be reformed into its former glory.”
This Martello tower has been used as an uncommon retreat
Clarke and Simpson
This Grade II-listed sea fort on the Suffolk coast was transformed into a unusual house by its earlier house owners, and bought by artist Julian Simmons and his companion in 2011. “The interior vault is unexpectedly cathedral like,” says Simmons. “It’s like being in Kubrick’s white rotating space-station, from 2001 [A Space Odyssey].”
Simons and his companion have used the property as a artistic escape —Simmons even used the “distinctive” acoustics to report a traditional guitar album there— and distinctive celebration pad. They listed the property for £450,000 with Clarke & Simpson this summer season, full with planning permission so as to add an expansive glazed room on the previous gun deck, an open-plan residing house on the primary ground and bed room, utility room, bathe room and cloakroom on the decrease ground. It has now been bought.
The bunker, utilized by the Royal Observer Corps, was constructed within the Fifties
SDL Property Auctions
In July, a nuclear bunker that ticked all of the bins went up for public sale: outside house (rolling Cumbria countryside), good transport connections (near Dent station) and, crucially, secure from nuclear assault. The bunker was constructed within the Fifties as a spot from which Royal Observer Corps volunteers may safely report on the ability, location and fallout of nuclear assaults. It was bought as a retreat in 2008, with the proprietor refurbishing the bunker and including a shed, driveway and gate outdoors.
“You may by no means inform who’s going to purchase, but it surely’s both going to be any individual seeking to do one thing entrepreneurial, or any individual that simply desires to whereas away the time and be at peace,” stated Jim Demitriou, valuer at SDL Property Auctions. The bunker, which had a information worth of £15,000, finally bought for £48,000 at public sale, attracting 65 totally different bidders.
It wasn’t the one piece of navy historical past to draw consideration this yr, although. A contemporary Cornish property with a 50-person, World Warfare Two air raid shelter within the backyard was listed for £799,950 with Clive Pearce Property, whereas a concrete bunker in Surrey from the identical interval was auctioned with Strettons for a information worth of £165,000.
The 2 related rooftops have been listed for £200,000
Subsequent Dwelling Ltd
In April, two neighbouring South Kensington rooftops hit the marketplace for £200,000 with Subsequent Dwelling Ltd. The agent, Glenn Jacobs, was approached after he efficiently bought a balcony close by for £35,000. “I like a unusual instruction,” stated Jacobs. “One thing that will get the artistic juices flowing.”
The rooftops, on Gloucester Street, have been related and registered as a separate handle with their very own title deeds. They have been owned by a retired lord who bought them in 2012 and wished to money in on his asset.
The rooftops have been marketed as a possible improvement alternative, topic to planning permission, with Jacobs receiving a direct surge in enquiries. Ultimately, Jacobs says there was a “contract race” between three purchasers, with the rooftops promoting to an area investor for £200,000 this month.
Savills
This 12.4-metre-high water tower close to Newbury was the right Grand Designs mission when it was put up for public sale for £45,000 with Savills in April. The property was marketed as “of curiosity to builders” and was bought with planning permission to transform it right into a three-bedroom house with a roof terrace and two automotive parking areas. Beforehand, it had additionally had permission to put in photo voltaic panels and a wind turbine on the roof.
The water tower was withdrawn earlier than it went up for public sale.
Taylors/Rightmove
This flat in Dudley’s former police station got here with an fascinating relic: a holding cell, full with floor-to-ceiling wrought iron bars and secured with a lock and key. The property was described as a “massive studio with a characteristic holding cell” and was listed to hire for £750pcm with Taylors property brokers.
“That is the primary flat I’ve ever supplied to let with such an uncommon characteristic, and it’s definitely an excellent speaking level,” stated Charlie Tank, Head of Lettings at Taylors. “A future tenant may have lots of enjoyable with it.”
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The Customary
#uncommon #property #gross sales #mysterious #London #cottage #nuclear #bunker
Emma Magnus , 2024-12-16 11:47:00
