A Georgian home with a Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen living room that brings a touch of Hogwarts to one of the greenest parts of London
This fine, six-bedroom home in Blackheath has a living space created by the famed interior designer who once dominated the television schedules.
'I’ve always felt that, everything I do, I’m flirting with people’s pain barrier, like a moth to a flame — but I’m always on the right side of that razor-thin line before it tips over into “Oh my God”.’
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is famous for his way with interior design, but he's arguably just as gifted with words. The line above was just one of many from an interview he gave to Country Life last year; and six months before that he delivered half an hour's worth of similar bon mots when appearing on the Country Life podcast to declare war on retirement homes that are 'beige coffins' that 'smell of cabbage and wee'.
So when a house comes up for sale that has interiors designed by the most celebrated of the televisual world's interior designers, it's always worth a look. Particularly when the place in question is a six-bedroom, detached Georgian home in one of London's biggest green spaces. It's for sale via Dexter's at £2.5 million.
Built in the 1820s, this 'tea caddy' house — as the agents call it — sits on Blackheath Common, a 200-acre green space that runs from Blackheath Village itself down to Greenwich Park, another similarly huge area. Unusually for London, this is a place of sweeping views and vast skies overhead — and, thanks to Llewelyn-Bowen, that continues inside.
The main living space, you see, has the sort of touch viewers of Changing Rooms used to love: a trompe l'oeil ceiling painted with clouds and sky. Surprisingly, given the flamboyant decorator's CV, there are no angels and cherubs painted around the edges. You could always add them yourself, if you'd prefer the vibe to be less Hogwarts enchanted ceiling and more Sistine Chapel.
The rest of the house, it has to be said, is much more ordinary, and we're not quite sure why. Did the budget only stretch to a single Llewelyn-Bowen room? Has the rest of it been 'put back to normal' in later years? Was this once a place of walls slathered in orange paint, hung with curtains of crushed purple velvet? If so, could it be again?
That is a decision for whoever comes here next, and regardless of decoration the new owners will find themselves in possession of a grand, light, spacious family home. The amount of square footage here is impressive, as is the garden, which can be accessed directly from the open-plan kitchen-diner that dominates the lower ground floor.
The location is also a real plus. Blackheath Village is full of interesting shops and cafés, and a pleasant stroll in the other direction across the common gets you to Greenwich, where there's more of the same. A word of warning: a couple of large roads (and several other small ones) do bisect Blackheath Common, but thankfully this house is shielded from the traffic by a row of trees planted opposite.
For sale via Dexters at £2.5 million — see more details.
