A beautiful home on the medieval green next to one of Britain's greatest cathedrals
This wonderful home sits literally in the shadow of Salisbury Cathedral. Julie Harding takes a look.
Who wouldn’t love their address to be ‘The Close, Salisbury’ — one of the most sought after in the South-West of England, right on the green that houses Salisbury Cathedral.
It's a quite magnificent building, with a soaring spire that's the tallest in Britain — at 4-404ft high, it's some 40ft higher than St Paul's Cathedral — and is the medieval masterpiece that was the primary inspiration for Ken Follett's classic novel The Pillars of the Earth.
No 28, The Close — for sale with Myddleton & Major at £1.35 million — is a rare find. It looks straight out across to the cathedral itself, and sits alongside an eclectic mix of historic properties in the heart of the largest cathedral close in the country: 80 acres, securely locked at night, and with its own security team. Unusually, too, for this location, the house is freehold.
The house itself is extremely pretty and characterful, partly tile-hung, and with bay windows that offer fantastic views of the cathedral itself. Unsurprisingly, the current inhabitants have arranged the space so that one of the two sitting rooms is on the first floor, making the most of that view across the green.
What the current owners haven't done, however, is modernise this house: it's something of a timewarp, with the carpets, curtains and fittings a step back in time to the 1950s.
That's not to say it isn't cared for — quite the opposite — and it's all the more charming for its retro vibe. What happens next will be a decision for whoever takes it on
There are four bedrooms, one of the first floor, with en-suite bathroom, and three on the second floor, which share a bathroom. There's a further family bathroom on the first floor, opening up the possibilty for larger families to turn the firs floor sitting room into a bedroom.
There is a tiny garden to the front, but that's eclipsed by the one at the back that is mainly laid to lawn, and offers an enviable amount of outside space considering that this is a house in the centre of a medieval city centre.
And on that note, the house even has its own parking space on the road — not that you'd need to drive much. A few moments on foot take you through the archways linking the cathedral close to the rest of Salisbury, where you'll find a wealth of independent shops, cafés and restaurants.
For sale through Myddleton & Major — see more details.
