“During the time he was here, Pat lived very poorly. She had been at Bletchley Park during the war, so she was used to quite difficult conditions. The design consisted of a giant living room, 3 very small bedrooms and a bathroom. Terrace at the back of the building. His mentality was very, “This will help me get through. “
“Despite the spartan interiors, we have fond memories of spending time here with our 3 youngsters. We visited Pat at Easter and for a week during the summer holidays. She was a glorious cook and my little ones don’t forget to bake cookies with her, as well as fishing for tiddlers in the chalk stream that runs through Bere Regis. Pat was a wonderful nature lover, so she wouldn’t let young people catch the space spiders that lived here with her. One summer, young people discovered a line of ants walking on the kitchen counter and getting into an open bottle of blackcurrant juice. They still don’t forget the grandmother who pulled the ants out of the sticky syrup to save them.
“When the architects, Luke and Rob, first saw the house, they arrived at the site a little earlier than us and controlled the entrance through one of the huge sash windows. They were incredibly excited about the task from the beginning. I Rob saying, “It’s going to be amazing. “
“It soon became apparent that they were looking to use the entire existing area. To do this, the interiors were stripped of the original walls. Under the Victorian floor, we discovered an additional metre of floor area and, once the false ceilings were removed and the ceiling arrangement was exposed, we found that there was enough space to insert a mezzanine at one end. In the other, the kitchen remained in double height.
“The mezzanine houses two bedrooms and a bathroom accessed via a concrete staircase, conceals a recycled wood wall and concrete blocks. Cleverly, the architects suspended the mezzanine of the roof structure: there are no load-bearing pillars on the floor, so the view through the living room is absolutely uninterrupted. From one of the bedrooms you can open an interior window and look towards the kitchen. This is the room I like to sleep in the most.
“We opted for undeniable fabrics in the process. The exposed blocks we have behind the wood stove are historically used as insulation; At first I wasn’t entirely sure of the concept, but I was sure that if I didn’t like it, plasterers can simply cover them. Of course, as soon as the wall was erected, we enjoyed it. It’s incredibly tactile and makes it a lovely feature in the most intimate living space.
“In the kitchen, despite everything, we opted for brass countertops. When they first arrived, I thought I had made a big mistake: they were so bright and bright they made the kitchen look like something out of a 1970s James Bond movie. . But, over time, they have developed a beautiful patina. We have nothing valuable about them: you can cut a lemon and they will collect all kinds of glorious marks.
“The walls are painted ‘Strong White’ through Farrow.
“Before I moved to Kent, I lived in Ladbroke Grove. I spent a lot of time in the Portobello market, accumulating too much!After a while, I started getting up at 5 a. m. m. to set up my own post; I simply enjoyed the total vetting and selling procedure. We moved to Kent when the kids were young and I kept selling antiques. Although I am now retired, I still can’t go to auction houses.
“Our space in Kent is an indexed Georgian urban space and full of antiques, however, here I have selected the most common mid-century pieces that I have collected over the years: a Danish sofa, for example, and wall sconces by Arne Jacobsen that I have always enjoyed. The art we have here is most commonly made through friends. I’m a big fan of British fashion art; we have a portrait through Henry Lamb, an underrated artist on the outskirts of the Bloomsbury group.
“Outside is a mature walled garden, which is my favorite place in summer. I often lie on my back on the grass, watching the birds fly. During the lockdown, there were even sightings of a white-tailed eagle. It’s an amazing position for wildlife.
“Space alone is a trail leading to May’s Woods, a forest created through Queen’s Brian May. Brian is passionate about protective badgers, so he has planted 100,000 trees here to create a safe habitat for them. At Regis, we have Wild Woodberry, which is another incredibly successful network rebuilding project. And 12 miles south is the Costa Jurásica. De done, we are surrounded by incredibly beautiful, wild and open herbal environments and I hope anyone who chooses to live here. You can explore and enjoy them for years to come.