A spectacular renovation opportunity in Surrey with romantic sweeping gardens and a magical stilted tree house
Buyers looking for a project will be delighted to stumble across Drummond House and the opportunity it presents to create a really special home surrounded by mesmerising gardens.


In the village of Charlwood near Horley, Drummond House — currently on the market via Knight Frank at a guide price of £2.5 million — provides a unique opportunity in that the vendors are already halfway through renovations and planning permission for a significant extension and remodel is in place, including heat pumps and solar panels, not to mention a new pool house next to the existing swimming pool.
The task in hand is by no means small: rooms have been gutted and the debris is currently piled up in the garden.
However, it doesn't take a trained eye to see the potential that this house has, and a transformation into something really special seems easily attainable — budget permitting, of course.
Once complete, it will be a handsome and sizeable family home, with five bedrooms and five reception rooms on four acres of sweeping lawns, specimen trees and a pond with a fantastic tree house.
The romantic gardens and surrounding landscape are already breathtaking. Willow trees stoop over the lawn and the pièce de résistance is without a doubt the magnificent stilted tree house that stands over the large pond.
Then there's that outdoor pool, in a beautiful setting, and the views. This is an already special property that is half way through its journey into becoming a sensational home.
Drummond House is currently on the market via Knight Frank at a guide price of £2.5 million — see more pictures, or enquire with the agent for further details.
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Norwood Hill: What you need to know
Location: The rural hamlet is located in-between Dorking, Reigate (approximately 6.7 miles) and Horsham (approximately 11 miles). Central London is just over 30 miles and trains run into London from Norwood Hill station via the Gatwick express and from Redhill station. London Gatwick airport is less than five miles away and Heathrow is 32 miles.
Atmosphere: The quiet hamlet enjoys a peaceful, rural atmosphere whilst benefiting from excellent transport links into the capital and further.
Things to do: The nearby towns of Dorking, Horsham and Reigate provide excellent shopping and recreational facilities. A range of sporting facilities can also be found in the surrounding area and further afield with racing at Brighton, polo at Cowdray Park, golf in Dorking and for sailing and water sports, head to Chichester or Brighton.
Schools: Downsend School, Reigate Valley College (rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted), Charlwood Village Primary School, Reigate Grammar School, St Bede's School and Epsom College are amongst the vast list of schools in the area.
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Credit: Strutt and Parker
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Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.
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