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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I’ve just read an interesting blog post by David Lawrenson over at Letting Focus about a potentially expensive pitfall for tenants in the whole lease option idea.
A lease option basically works like this:
• Tenant rents property in usual way
• Landlord offers option to buy within a defined period (a year or two, for example) at [...]

Here’s a very clever bit of extension invention in London N1 (Canonbury) – a basement conversion that makes smart use of an existing light well to create a glowing glass lantern that hovers over the new dining room.
The extension has a full-height sliding glass door opening onto a fanned staircase that leads up to the [...]

Interesting piece in The Times yesterday about a property that, at 7′7″ wide, may well be the narrowest house in London.
It’s in London SW11 and is owned by singer-songwriter Polly Paulusma – she’s supported Bob Dylan and Coldplay – and comes with an elongated reception room that measures  7′7″ x 42′2″ (Foxtons, Tel: 020 7801 [...]