The Week in Brief: Inigo’s latest listings
Seeking inspiration? Take a tour of the most recent houses and apartments to join our books
It’s been quite a week here at Inigo, with six new listings launching on our site in seven days, each as delightful and desirable as the last. With such a bumper bunch on offer, it’s natural that some may have slipped under your radar, so we’ve collated the cream of the crop for you to peruse here, from a flat in a Victorian villa to a stone cottage deep in the Welsh Marches, by way of Oxfordshire and the Shropshire hills. Take your pick.
Ickburgh Road, London E5
You wouldn’t know, standing on this peaceful no-through road, that you were just a minute’s walk from Clapton Station. And inside this Victorian one-bed renovation, set over two floors, things are similarly tranquil. Light filters gently into the rooms, which have been finished to the highest level: surfaces and floorboards from Lassco, a British Standard kitchen, reclaimed Spanish tiles. A soft palette has been used throughout, but nowhere does it feel more calming than in the bedroom, overlooking the leafy greenery at the back of the building. This is a sliver of quietude amid the bustle of east London.
Llanwarne, Hereford, Herefordshire
On the edge of Llanwarne, a village deep in the Marches just a few miles from the Welsh border, this house has all the charm you would expect of a 350-year-old cottage – timber beams, bedrooms burrowed in the eaves, log burners – but, thanks to the current owners’ sensitive understanding of historic houses and urbane style, it’s been wonderfully adapted for the 21st century, with largely open-plan living areas, high-quality hardware and an elegant, unfussy kitchen. The main house has three bedrooms, while the converted barn, which has its own garden and gate, a spacious layout and a mezzanine bedroom, currently operates as a successful holiday rental, but could just as easily be used as a private annexe.
Mapesbury Road, London NW2
The garden! The glass! The sheer grandeur of it all! Inigo can’t get enough of this four-storey house in north-west London. Location-wise, it’s superb. For those that love the buzz of urban life, Kilburn sits to the east; Queens Park and Brondesbury, pleasant, peaceful and pretty, are a short walk south; the cosmopolitan community of Willesden Green isn’t far either. The house lies in the Mapesbury Conservation Area, designated as such in 1982, and is one of a clutch of suburban Victorian villas built within their own plots of land, but with easy access to the city. With six bedrooms, this would make a fantastically spacious family home, which benefits from a surfeit of excellent schools nearby.
Raydon Hill House, Wroxton, Oxfordshire
We’re used to thinking about houses as a series of rooms, but what about gardens? That was the idea behind the lawns, beds and terraces at Raydon Hill House. Here, the owners have cleverly divided up the grounds into discrete areas with distinct atmospheres, all gently united by their lawns – an enchanting use of the acre of space. Nearby is Wroxton Abbey, contemporary to the older, 17th-century parts of Raydon Hill House, whose rather more formal gardens are well worth a visit. But this is not just a listing for the horticulturally disposed. Set within the original ‘chocolate box’ village (it appeared on Cadbury’s packaging), the building is a confection of honeycomb stone, decorated in a refined classical manner and full of quiet splendour.
Highbury Crescent, London N5
With staggeringly high ceilings and large bay windows, this two-bedroom apartment, which forms part of an Italianate Victorian villa, feels even more spacious than it is – though at more than 1,020 sq ft, it’s hardly poky for a London flat, let alone one so close to the hustle and bustle of it all. Overlooking Highbury Fields, this is one of the most sought-after addresses in the surrounding conservation area. The apartment also has a shared garden, whose enviable size is a rarity for such a central spot. Inside, contemporary details jostle happily with period features: note how bravely colour has been used throughout, from the powder pink kitchen to the hall’s orange dado. Bravo for boldness, we say.
Cheney Longville, Craven Arms, Shropshire
“Give me a land of boughs in leaf, A land of trees that stand; Where trees are fallen, there is grief; I love no leafless land.” A. E. Hausman was talking about Shropshire at large when he wrote those lines but, taking in the luxuriantly leafy demesnes of the countryside surrounding this three-bedroom cottage, the poet could have well have been thinking of its mature gardens and meadows. Set down a winding sylvan track, there’s more than just a bit of fairy-tale magic to this bucolic beauty (perhaps it’s something to do with the rose bowers and honeysuckled arches). It feels incredibly peaceful, though in fact the cottage is just three miles from Craven Arms, which offers all day-to-day amenities, while Shrewsbury is just 40 minutes away. Its proximity to nature, however, is surely its pull. This is rural romance writ large in pretty pink plaster.
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