A converted water tower dubbed 'a jaw-dropping showstopper' by Kevin McCloud is on the market

Grand Designs is billed as a show that allows you to track Britain’s most ambitious home-building projects (from the comfort of your Loaf sofa, of course). But even by those standards, the transformation of a dilapidated, Grade II-listed water tower in the Channel 4 programme's 100th episode stands out as something of a marvel.

The costs, for starters! Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce bought a ‘crumbling giant of Victorian engineering’ (to quote presenter Kevin McCloud) in Kennington, south London, for £380,000 in 2011. The pair had expected the renovation to cost £600,000. But the grand total was more — much more — coming in at a reported £2 milllion.

Right from the start the costs began to spiral — with the builders apparently declaring that they’d need an extra £25,000 within 30 minutes of starting on site. A bill for £7,000 to remove more than 200 dead pigeons quickly followed, scaffolding ballooned to £70,000, and the glazing bill alone ended up at around a quarter of a million. Osborne and Voce had originally hoped to get over £6 million when they sold it on, but eventually settled for around £2.75 million in 2021. Five years later it's back on the market, again at £2.75 million, through DDRE Global and The Modern House.

Built in the 1870s, the 150-feet-tall tower provided water to Lambeth Workhouse, where Charlie Chaplin lived as a child. But by the time Osborne and Voce came across the place, it had been vacant and unloved for decades, with plants growing out of the brickwork and pigeons making themselves well and truly at home. It was, said Voce, a ‘sad, slightly sulky lump’.

The timescale was also tight, with Voce and Osborne originally having just five months to carry out the building work. They managed to negotiate an extension to wrap it up in eight months, but as anyone who has even tried to do a ‘mere’ side return or loft conversion will appreciate, even that is something of a miracle. McCloud said as much in the Grand Designs episode: 'It’s hard to convey the monumental scale of this building and the monumental expense as well. Leigh is spending at the moment £7,000 a day and that’s rising,’ he said. ‘It’s also hard to express just how fast work is proceeding.’

It all came together, though, and is as striking a home as you'll find in south London — and a place that McCloud memorably descibed as a ‘jaw-dropping showstopper’.

The house has been used both as a home and an AirBnB rental at various points since it was finished, but agents DDRE Global are pitching it very much as the former, calling it ‘a remarkable family-sized home that pairs Victorian engineering with contemporary design’.

There’s a gym and garage on the ground floor, five bedrooms above it — one on each floor — and a dressing room. The original York stone staircase runs from top to bottom.

It’s the very top of the water tower where things get really interesting. The cast-iron water tank — which held 38,000 gallons of water — has been transformed into an incredible space.

Located on the ninth floor, with large windows on each side, the Prospect Room boasts 360-degree views of the capital. Landmarks such as the London Eye, the Shard and Westminster, as well as the gleaming office towers of the City and Canary Wharf, are all within view.

Now, if you’re the practical sort, you may well be wondering if clambering up and down nine floors on a daily basis is really feasible.

But luckily, the architects came up with a plan for that. A new tower was built to contain a lift and bathrooms and now connects to the original water tower via glazed walkways.

A glass and steel extension — dubbed 'The Cube' — was also created to house the main living area. There’s a sleek and bright open-plan kitchen and dining room on the first floor and an equally pared-back reception room above it. Vast double-height glazed doors slide across an entire side of The Cube (hence that hefty glazing bill).

There’s one more extra to note: on top of The Cube is a roof terrace that’s large enough to fit areas for seating, dining and cooking — and as you'd expect, given its past appearance on AirBnB, there is of course an outdoor hot tub.

Still, though, the real selling point is that Prospect Room, the amazing space at the top of the tower, which Tommy Moore of DDRE Global describes as 'the crowning feature', both literally and metaphoraically. 'With openings on every side, it frames panoramic views across Westminster, the London Eye, the City, the Shard and Canary Wharf, making it a living or dining space without equal in the capital.’

The Water Tower is for sale at £2.75 million through DDRE Global and The Modern House.

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