Clerkenwell: the home of loft living
Clerkenwell has become so achingly cool that the affluent young entrepreneurs who work in its creative businesses are desperate to live there, too.
The best new homes 2012
Here we showcase this year's winners of our London Evening Standard New Homes Awards - the capital's property Oscars.
Spotlight on Camden Town
The shops and markets clustered around the high street and canal make Camden one of the most colourful of London's neighbourhoods. The area's period homes and loft-style apartments attract a mix of homebuyers.
Move to St Albans and you get two cities for the price of one
Moving out of the capital doesn’t have to mean a longer commute or even a change of job.
My design London: Elizabeth Hurley
Elizabeth Hurley reveals her latest design project; discusses friend Damien Hirst's artwork, as well as her favourite restaurants and design shops in London.
Find a rated tradesman
Want to add value to your property, make your house a home, or sell your place fast? With 1,000s of tradesmen nationwide, rated and recommended by previous customers, this is the smart way to find a reputable tradesman.
Buy of the week: high church
This former masonic chapel in Chiswick has been converted into a three-bedroom home (£1.175 million) with a 30-foot open-plan, double-height reception room. The kitchen is a black glossy affair, there’s a study, a cinema room and a decked roof terrace.
Swap of the week: Blackboys, East Sussex
Honeys Green farmhouse is a Grade II-listed pile that sits in a couple of acres and offers versatile living with an annexe and outdoor heated pool. Inside has character galore among four bedrooms and an attic room with pretty views.
Life-changer: South Petherton, Somerset
Willowbrook is a five-bedroom beauty (£1.15 million) with a 52-foot reception room and garages that could become a holiday apartment. Make a B&B business there and your guests could use the indoor pool and gym complex or roam your two-acre garden.
Spotlight on Tunbridge Wells
It may have temporarily lost its iron-rich spring but Tunbridge Wells has buckets of charm to make up for it.-
Buy of the week: high church
This former masonic chapel in Chiswick has been converted into a three-bedroom home (£1.175 million) with a 30-foot open-plan, double-height reception room. The kitchen is a black glossy affair, there’s a study, a cinema room and a decked roof terrace. -
Swap of the week: Blackboys, East Sussex
Honeys Green farmhouse is a Grade II-listed pile that sits in a couple of acres and offers versatile living with an annexe and outdoor heated pool. Inside has character galore among four bedrooms and an attic room with pretty views. -
Life-changer: South Petherton, Somerset
Willowbrook is a five-bedroom beauty (£1.15 million) with a 52-foot reception room and garages that could become a holiday apartment. Make a B&B business there and your guests could use the indoor pool and gym complex or roam your two-acre garden.
Property search
“I’m paying the price for others’sins”
By Ruth Bloomfield
Dr Priya Singh says she bought her flat in Manor House, Marylebone Road, unaware of its unapproved alterations
Dr Priya Singh told Westminster council she had “no idea” changes to her Marylebone Road flat in NW1 were carried out without approval. She believes it was remodelled in 1993 — and says the flat has been sold on three times since then.
Now the council is poised to refuse her “backdated” consent, which could lead to legal action if she fails to return the property to its original state by removing new walls and doors, a fireplace and coving added to the hall.
The alterations came to light when Dr Singh applied to make her own improvements to the flat. Council officers visited and noticed the illegal changes.
Dr Singh has engaged the services of one of the world’s top legal practices, Mishcon de Reya, Princess Diana’s divorce lawyers, to fight her corner.
She wants to be allowed to keep the current layout, but is willing to replace the offending fireplace and cornicing.
However the council is insisting all the works are reversed, an inevitably costly and disruptive process involving moving the kitchen and rebuilding lost walls.
It says it would be “wrong in law” to grant listed building consent – the legal permission required before any alteration can be made to a historic building – simply on the grounds it was done by a previous owner.
And it warns: “The current owner may be liable to enforcement action in respect of the breaches committed by her predecessor.”
Suzanne Bowman, associate at Adams & Remers and solicitor for the Listed Property Owners Club, said the issue should have emerged when Dr Singh bought the property.
“For some reason it seems questions have not been asked,” she said. “There are pitfalls when buying a listed property and Westminster is entirely within its rights.”
Bowman said that the council could give Dr Singh a time limit to restore the flat’s original layout and prosecute her if she fails to comply.
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