Royal Hill

This distinguished double-fronted Georgian house is situated within the West Greenwich Conservation Area, a few minutes’ walk from the centre of Greenwich and its glorious eponymous park. The house is Grade II-listed and was built in the 1770s as part of a terrace of houses along with the highly sought-after Royal Hill, a quiet residential street and community peppered with a charming selection of high-quality food and wine shops and excellent pubs. It extends to approximately 3,400 sq ft over four storeys with a private south-west facing garden and gated off-street parking for two cars.

Setting The Scene

The house is one of a small terrace of townhouses built in the late 18^th century, which extends along one side of Royal Hill’s desirable northern reaches. This particular house is an outlier to the tradition of tall Georgian dwellings that make up the row, positioned at the end and presenting a wider façade of two storeys and an attic level behind a slate mansard roof.

Its frontage has the warm tone of multicoloured stock with gauged flat brick arches and an irregular fenestration of traditional Georgian ‘six over six’ sash windows on one side and 19th-century three-light sashes on the other.

The Grand Tour

The house can be accessed via the formal entrance at the front or from a rear driveway on Circus Street, which leads to gated off-street parking at the rear. The formal entrance is positioned just off-centre through a prostyle Doric-pillared porch and frieze with guttae and a central decorative rosette. Beneath an intricate leaded transom, the front door opens to a vestibule and a generous entrance hall which turns in an L-shape to the central staircase. To the left, behind the two Georgian ground-floor windows of the front façade, is a reception, currently used as a study.

Remarkably, every room in the house contains at least one fireplace. Two can be found in the dining room, which is situated behind double doors to the right of the entrance hall and extends over 25 feet in length. At its rear are French windows that open onto a courtyard section of the garden.

The kitchen is situated at the end of the hallway’s wide turn, arranged around a kitchen island, with an electric Aga and original wide board pine underfoot. French windows open to the side section of garden, and a staircase offers a natural divide to create an intimate reading space with a recessed log burner. An exposed beam rests above the woodstove, one of a series of original timbers that continue into the boot room and utility. This charming and useful room contains an old cast-iron range, a wall of storage seating beneath windows to the garden, and offers a third route to the garden through glazed double doors.

There are two staircases to the upper levels, one in the kitchen that ascends only to the first floor, and a main staircase within the entrance hall for access to both the first and second levels.

An enormous reception occupies the front of the first floor, extending over 30 ft from end to end with two north-west facing sash windows, original wood flooring and wood-panelled walls. On the opposite side of the landing lies the principal bedroom, its bathroom containing a French roll-top bath, feature fireplace and separate steam shower. The bedroom connects to another room at the rear, currently arranged as a dressing room with built-in wardrobes.

There are two further bedrooms on the second floor, both with built-in wardrobes. Between them is a recently renovated bathroom, a pleasingly contemporary punctuation to the wonderfully faithful period aesthetic throughout. It is clad entirely in marble and has a free-standing bath and underfloor heating. Opposite is a sizeable storage space set within the eaves.

The lower ground level contains a huge open family room, currently utilised as a cinema and with a Monopoly-board floor and a utility leading off it.

The Great Outdoors

At the rear of the house lies a large walled garden with access from the dining room, kitchen and boot room. The main section of garden is paved, with a seating area and in-built bench and a generous area for parking in resin-bonded gravel.

Out and About 

Royal Hill is brilliantly served by a plethora of high-end artisanal shops on its doorstep. On Royal Hill alone, there is the Creaky Shed greengrocers, Drings butchers, the self-explanatory Cheese Board, Royal Teas café, Greenwich Natural Health, Maritime Books and two excellent pubs in the Richard the First and Prince of Greenwich. The house is also located within minutes of the multitude that Greenwich has to offer. The pretty old town, famous for its maritime history, has an excellent selection of restaurants, pubs and shops, as well as a Picturehouse cinema and a theatre. The Old Royal Naval College, designed by Sir Christopher Wren in the 18th century, hosts a popular programme of events in the gardens, including concerts, an open-air theatre and a jazz festival.

Greenwich station is a few minutes’ walk, running services to Canary Wharf and Bank on the DLR and rail services to London Bridge and London Cannon Street (taking eight minutes and 12 minutes respectively) as well as to Blackfriars and London St Pancras on the Thameslink. The Thames Clipper can be boarded from Greenwich Pier and runs services to Westminster in one direction and the O2 Arena in the other.

Council Tax Band: G