The Property: A disused Victorian water tower plus two gatehouses.

The Place: London SE11

The Price: £995,000 for the three properties, or £395,000 for the water tower, £350,000 for gatehouse 1, and £250,000 for gatehouse 2.

The Pain: Eight floors, all of them Grade II listed, with a water tank on the top. This is a challenging project, and if you don’t manage it well, it could very quickly become an expensive one.

The Gain: It’s unique, it has amazing potential and it could be your big chance to do the whole Grand Designs thing. Nice view from the top as well!

The Agent: Daniel Cobb, Tel: 0843 2834 915

£995,000, London SE11, Daniel Cobb, Tel: 0843 2834 915

£995,000, London SE11, Daniel Cobb, Tel: 0843 2834 915

£995,000, London SE11, Daniel Cobb, Tel: 0843 2834 915

For a home with the wow factor, it’s hard to beat a bespoke architect designed property.

We’ve found some fantastic examples from our listings but it’s worth bearing in mind that architects are there for everyone and not just for the grandest of designs.

Indeed, it’s thanks to the popularity of TV personalities like Kevin McCloud and George Clarke that more and more ‘normal’ people are opting to commission an architect to design or improve their home these days. Fine work, chaps.

Here are five of our favourite architectural creations from our current listings:

(Click on pics for more images & property details)

1. London SW8
£1,950,000

2. London SW19
£1,650,000

3. Esher, Surrey
£1,285,000

4. Orpington, Kent
£1,200,000

5. Bath
£645,000

It takes a certain amount of courage to go for contrast rather than seamless integration, but this wonderful cedar extension makes a fine job of it.

Although it stands in stark contrast to the existing brick and tile-hung house, the use of warm timber and the simple barn-like aesthetic also manages to complement the rustic original.

And there’s no denying that it really does add an extra dimension – a fine master bedroom upstairs and a wonderful kitchen/living area below that opens out onto a truly enviable garden.

Click pic for full details

£950,000, 6-bed house, Cranbrook, Kent. Savills (Tel: 0843 2821 593)

£950,000, 6-bed house, Cranbrook, Kent. Savills (Tel: 0843 2821 593)

£950,000, 6-bed house, Cranbrook, Kent. Savills (Tel: 0843 2821 593)

£950,000, 6-bed house, Cranbrook, Kent. Savills (Tel: 0843 2821 593)

OK, some of our younger readers may not be familiar with the name, but back in the early 70s the sight of Suzi Q in a leather catsuit had quite an impact on impressionable young lads.

Throw in the wailing voice, the thumping bass and the promise that Your Mamma Won’t Like Me and, well, old Suzi looked like she’d be a damn sight more fun, than, say, Karen Carpenter (”Ouff Suzi. You were always in my dreams when I was 14-15,” as one YouTube comment has it).

She now lives in rural Essex and is currently selling Hyde Hall, her rather lovely Elizabethan Manor.

While there’s always something a little depressing about rockers living in stockbroker mansions, Suzi, we’re very happy to report, has electric guitars affixed to the timber panelling on either side of the brick fireplaces. And she still looks pretty impressive in leather. Amen to that.

Strutt & Parker are selling Hyde Hall. Asking price: £2,300,000.

Suzi Quatro in her Essex home

£2,300,000, Strutt & Parker, Tel: 0843 2822 797

£2,300,000, Strutt & Parker, Tel: 0843 2822 797

£2,300,000, Strutt & Parker, Tel: 0843 2822 797

Here, for those of you who remember, and for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, is Suzi in action back in 1973 with Can the Can.

Well, who’d have thought it, eh? Liz Hurley used to live in a one-bed flat in Fulham.  How frightfully pedestrian, darling! 

That would be the same Liz Hurley who famously referred to non-celebrities as “civilians”.

And, from what I recall, the woman who became famous herself by virtue of a movie-star boyfriend and a Versace dress.  Dear oh dear oh dear.

But back in the days when she was a mere civilian herself, and trying to prove her skills as an actress – ahem! – old Liz once bunked down in this rather lovely but decidedly un-starry flat in SW6.

According to the Telegraph, Hugh was a regular visitor to the Sherbrooke Road abode.  Ooops, maybe I shouldn’t have included that picture of the bedroom…

Liz’s former flat is on the market with Foxtons.

After last week’s foray into how the other half live in Westminster, we thought we’d return to a more basic form of dwelling; namely the traditional two-up two-down terrace.

This humble house has been the starting off point on the property ladder for many, and it’s easy to see why. 

They offer more space than your average starter flat - often for significantly less money; they generally have an outdoors area; and there’s something reassuringly grown up about having an upstairs and a downstairs to call your own.

Although most commonly associated with northern regions, these houses can be found throughout the UK – we’ve looked specifically for examples that fall under the increased stamp duty threshold of £175,000.

So, for all you potential first-timers out there, here are five fairly cheap, very cheerful two-up two-down properties for sale:

(Click on pics for more images and property details)

1. Gravesend, Kent
£160,000

2. Cheadle, Greater Manchester
£157,950 (Offers Over)

3. Banbury, Oxfordshire
£139,995

4. St George, Bristol
£139,995

5. Lincoln, Lincolnshire
£110,000 (Guide Price)

Our latest House Prices & Affordability Index (published today) reveals that the average UK asking price is £218,654.

What, you might ask, can you get for that?

Well, in Wales – and apologies to all you Londoners who may be shelling out an equivalent sum for a one-bed basement flat – you can get this beautifully converted Victorian school house.

Click pics for full details

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336)

The property was used as the local school from 1872-1995 and is a rare and very early example of the use of concrete in construction (as is the nearby Gregynog Hall, on whose estate this school is built).

The highlight here is the large living/dining room (36′9″ x 18′1″) which features timber beams, a magnificent fireplace, stained glass windows and a fine hand-crafted oak staircase.

It’s all very lovely, and will, I think, arouse sharp pangs of property longing in those of us who live in the pricey South East.

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336).

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336)

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336)

Three-bed detached house, £225,000, Strutt & Parker, Shrewsbury (Tel: 0843 2823 336)

Weary of the high-tech digital age? Nostalgic for a world of brass, wood, iron and steam? For the dials, rivets, cogs and pistons of classic Victorian design?

Well, you’re not alone. The Steampunk movement, which filters the modern world through late Victorian science fiction (H.G. Wells, Jules Verne) and Victorian technology and design, is just as keen on all that boiler plated vintage stuff as you are.

Here’s a frankly fantastic Steampunk house on wheels built by members of the Academy of Unnatural Sciences in Berkeley, California (a “DIY  group of tinkerers, gearheads, and steam bohemians who fabricate steam-powered art pieces out of repurposed industrial detritus”).

Image: Christopher Michel

They describe it thus:

Neverwas Haul, a self-propelled 3-storey Victorian House, is made from 75 per cent recycled equipment and materials, with interiors, operating system, and collections from its travels around the world (i.e., oddities of the Jules Verne era including a Camera Obscura).

The Haul measures 24 feet long by 24 feet high and 12 feet wide and is built on the base of a 5th wheel travel trailer.

They sound a bit like steampunk estate agents, and it is, I fear, only a matter of time before someone suggests this as a low-cost alternative for first-time buyers … though I can’t see the Halifax being too keen to lend on one.

For more Steampunk lunacy get yourself over to the Oxford Museum of the History of Science - they’re currently running the first ever museum exhibition of Steampunk art and design.

Via:  Apartment Therapy.

Image: Mudstone

Image: AlmostJaded

Do you live in a house with a top class architectural pedigree?

If so, listen up, because the conservation body that looks after Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Fallingwater has come up with a crafty way to get the windows replaced: sell the old ones off to architectural relic hunters.

Their website explains that the old windows are suffering from decay (hmmm, wonder if all that falling water is to blame – the owner’s father dubbed the place ‘rising mildew’?).

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater

And this, architecture groupies, is where you come in:

“Naming opportunities range from $500 to $10,000 and up for each window, skylight, glass door, or set of windows, depending on the size and location.

“You will receive a commemorative piece of the old Fallingwater glass, framed along with a drawing of the house, specifying the window that you have endowed.

“Additionally, if you endow a window at $1,000 or more, you will be recognized on a donor wall in the Fallingwater Visitors Pavilion.”

$1,000 for a bit of old glass? Genius!

Here’s a nice video about the house:

Drum roll, please, for our latest list of property hotspots.

The ranking is based on the most enquiries (sales and rent) generated per area, which, we think, is a more genuine measure of actual activity than, say, the number of pages or properties clicked on.

City centres continue to do well, as does Bristol, but the most obvious change this month is the rise of suburban areas in Middlesex and Kent.