Completely London // Issue 15 // Summer 2014

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kfh.co.uk Issue 15 · Summer 2014

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COMPLETELY · WELCOME · 03

Donna Hardie, editor donna@completelylondon.co.uk

Elementary.

ILLUSTRATION: PADDY MILLS/SYNERGY. PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL MITCHELL. COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK HERHOLDT. STENCIL ARTWORK: BEN JOHNSTON/DEBUT ART

What makes London?

Air, Fire, Earth and Water – we’re putting the components that make up the Capital’s curious chemistry under our microscope to find out just that. Meet the Londoners who are in their element, whether they’re communing with the earth or soaring above the skyline.

See the chefs who are playing with fire.

Immerse yourself in watery tales of that Thames titan, Tower Bridge. And marvel at the cathedral-like pumping station that’s been putting up with this city’s crap, literally, since 1865. Find out what constitutes your dream home for sale or rent at kfh.co.uk. And factor in our offers and prize draws. Why not tell us why your postcode matters at donna@completelylondon.co.uk?

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward COMPLETELY LONDON

Say hello to…

THIS ISSUE’S COMPLETELY LONDONERS Nick Clarke Journalist A self-confessed restaurant junkie, Nick writes on food and drink and travel, and blogs at yourweekendstartshere.com.

He visits the Capital’s hottest chefs on p40-44.

Dan Funderburgh Illustrator A Brooklyn-based artist and wallpaper designer, Dan brings to vivid life our feature on the saucy history of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens on p66-67.

Simon Lewis Journalist Simon interviewed Londoners from Boris Johnson to Ricky Gervais as an editor for the Mail On Sunday and is now writing his debut novel.

He talks to the man with the keys to Tower Bridge on p70-72.

Kate Sutton Illustrator Kate has a passion for animals, yoga and the outdoors. She spends her time illustrating all manner of things, from birds and plants to unicorns eating cheese sandwiches. See p30.

kfh.co.uk

04 · COMPLETELY · ELEMENTARY

1

TL

Tower of London

4

GT

Globe Theatre

10

CN

Cleopatra’s Needle

18

StP

St Paul’s Cathedral

32

CS

Cutty Sark

47

HP

BACKGROUND IMAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO

Houses of Parliament

62

RAH

Royal Albert Hall

77

NC

Nelson’s Column

2

WA

Westminster Abbey

5

LI

London Eye

11

Mo

COMPLETELY LONDON PERIODIC TABLE Impossible to name all the elements that make London what it is?

At Completely London, we’re never ones to duck a challenge so we’ve had a go at categorising and listing landmarks, people, places, travel lines and zones – each of which is an integral part of the big picture

Monument

19

Sd

The Shard

33

Bf

20

Hillingdon

34

HMS Belfast

48

Gh

The Gherkin

63

BB

Big Ben

78

Bu

Hi

Ea

49

Ho

Hounslow

64

RT

35

Bt

Brent

50

HF

Hammersmith & Fulham

65

Ww

Wandsworth

79

80

KT

89

90

BM

British Museum

99

BP

Bushy Park

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

Harrow

Richmond upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames

The Thames

Hw

Ealing

Buckingham Palace

T

21

Mt

Merton

91

DM

Design Museum

100

GP

Green Park

22

Ba

Barnet

36

Ca

Camden

51

KC

Kensington & Chelsea

66

L

Lambeth

81

Su

Sutton

92

IW

23

En

Enfield

37

I

Islington

52

W

Westminster

67

S

Southwark

82

Cr

Croydon

93

LT

Imperial War Museum

London Transport Museum

101

102

GrP

Greenwich Park

HP

Hyde Park

24

Ha

Haringey

38

Hk

Hackney

53

TH

Tower Hamlets

68

Lw

Lewisham

83

25

WF

Waltham Forest

39

Rb

Redbridge

54

Nw

Newham

69

Gw

Greenwich

40

BD

Barking & Dagenham

55

Hv

Havering

70

Be

Bexley

Br

Bromley

94

ML

Museum of London

103

KG

Kensington Gardens

95

NH

Natural History Museum

104

ReP

Regent’s Park

96

RM

Royal Museum

105

RP

Richmond Park

COMPLETELY · ELEMENTARY · 05

3

AH

Alfred Hitchcock

6

CC

Charlie Chaplin

12

JR

Johnny Rotten

26

Bx

David Beckham

41

MQ

Mary Quant

56

GC

Geoffrey Chaucer

71

JK

John Keats

84

CB

Charles Babbage

97

SM

Science Museum

7

AA

AA Milne

13

CA

Clement Attlee

27

JT

Joseph Turner

42

DB

David Bailey

8

ZGY

David Bowie

14

SP

Samuel Pepys

28

TC

Terence Conran

43

JN

John Nash

9

B

Bakerloo

15

C

Central

29

D

District

44

HC

Hammersmith & City

57

58

59

Tim Berners-Lee

King Henry VIII of England

Metropolitan

72

73

74

TBL

MF

Michael Faraday

85

RF

Rosalind Franklin

98

VIII

JB

Joseph Banks

16

M

O

Overground

86

V

Victoria

Cr

17

Circle

30

DL

31

Docklands Light Railway

45

J

N

P

Piccadilly

87

WC

Waterloo & City

back to basics Taking a look at the Capital from the four very different perspectives of air, fire, earth and water. what’s inside?

46

Ze

Zone 3

61

Northern

75

Zt

Zone 2

Jubilee

60

Zo

Zone 1

Zf

Zone 4

76

Zv

Zone 5

88

07 12 22 24 28 32 40 45 46 48 52 60 64 66 70 74 76 82

GET OUT THIS SUMMER SUBURBAN DREAM HOUSE THE MAN WHO KNOWS CLOUDS FLYING WITH THE AIR AMBULANCE AL FRESCO ACTIVITIES HIGH-RISE LIVING CHEFS PLAYING WITH FIRE NEWS FROM KFH BLACKSMITH WITH AN IRON WILL PUKKA PECKHAM THROUGH THE KEYHOLE IN THE KNOW: SEALED BIDS LAND ROVER THE DIRT ON VAUXHALL’S PAST 120 YEARS OF TOWER BRIDGE A WILD SWIMMER CROSSNESS: PUMP ACTION UMBRELLAS OF HOLBORN

offers

Zs

08 WIN! A TOUR OF THE LONDON DISTILLERY 09 WIN! A TED BAKER SUITCASE

Zone 6

VA

V&A Museum

106

SJP

St James’s Park

kfh.co.uk

COMPLETELY · ELEMENTARY · 07

17 WAYS TO UNEARTH THE CITY’S CURIOSITIES

1: BREATH OF FRESH AIR For those looking for the truly unique to grace their space, public home shows can often err too much on the side of cautious conventionalism. Tent London, however, shuns the banal and embraces the extraordinary. Taking place at the Truman Brewery from 18-21

September, it presents interior design, lighting and furniture from both established independents and undiscovered talents. And the Tokyo Designers Week exhibit explores the city’s creativity in design, art, fashion, music and the graphic arts. tentlondon.co.uk

! outer sight! Famous London features including the Thames and Hyde Park can be seen from the International Space Station kfh.co.uk

08 · COMPLETELY · ELEMENTARY

2. exposure Film4 Summer Screen, Somerset House courtyard, from 7 August

MILE HIGH DINING A far cry from your average foil-wrapped fare, the cuisine being served at Dine Mile High is a four-course banquet created by ex-Moro chef Oliver Templeton and served by your captain and air hostesses.

This is like a pop-up party in the sky (only on the ground).

Be transported back to the golden age of air travel with a check-in cocktail and themed aperitifs. Next destination: 1950s Andalucia. dinemilehigh.com

4

Y DOGDGLE D PA

8WWKPM[ _Q\P XI]VKPM[ IVL LWO[ _Q\P RWQV\ XZWJTMU[ KIV JMVMÅ\ from Dogtown’s hydrotherapy in Chiswick – ideal for building muscle tone and improving joint support. dogtown.uk.com

firewater… win two tickets to tour the london distillery

The first London distillery since the closure of Lea Valley distillery in 1903 has begun its debut production run in Battersea in a copper whisky still named Matilda, after founder Darren’s godmother. londondistillery.com ≥ For a free tour including a tasting of Dodd’s Gin, email your name, address and contact number to londondistillery@completelylondon. co.uk. Closing date is 31 August 2014. For prize draw rules, see p11.

! set sail Navigate your way to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, to see Ships, Clocks and Stars: the Quest for Longitude, from 11 July. rmg.co.uk Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY ¡ ELEMENTARY ¡ 09

6. dig this Uncover history in a public excavation, museumoflondon.org.uk

8

FROM THE ASHES

PHOTOGRAPHY: ADVERTISING ARCHIVES, ISTOCKPHOTO

Joseph Paxtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Crystal Palace, venue of the 1851 Great Exhibition, is set to rise again â&#x20AC;&#x201C; just like property prices in the area. One of [Q` [PWZ\TQ[\ML =3 IZKPQ\MK\]ZIT Ă&#x2026;ZU[ _QTT JM [MTMK\ML \PQ[ []UUMZ \W ZMKZMI\M \PM WZQOQVIT /ZMI\ -`PQJQ\QWV 0ITT _PQKP _I[ LM[\ZWaML QV I Ă&#x2026;ZM QV ! +WV[\Z]K\QWV WV \PM VM_ J]QTL _PQKP _QTT JM UILM QV Âť\PM [XQZQ\ WN \PM UIOVQĂ&#x2026;KMV\ WZQOQVITÂź IVL KZMI\ML I[ I UIRWZ VM_ K]T\]ZIT LM[\QVI\QWV _QTT JMOQV QV

Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ER LAND AND SEA Evocative nautical images and maps from two great London institutions are featured on Surface Viewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s range of wall murals, canvasses, prints and posters â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all of which embody the spirit of the intrepid British explorer. Both the National Maritime Museum and the British Libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collections explore every aspect of seafaring history, from navigational charts and maps to shipsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; blueprints and vintage photography. surfaceview.co.uk

take ďŹ&#x201A;ightâ&#x20AC;Ś win a ted baker suitcase worth ÂŁ245

Ted Bakerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ rst range of luggage, Take Flight, features striking botanical prints on an ultra -lightweight frame with smooth rolling corner wheels. This Opulent Bloom design has a Birds of Paradise lining and is available from John Lewis. â&#x2030;Ľ To win a case worth ÂŁ245, email your name, address and contact number to tedbaker@ completelylondon.co.uk. Closing date is 31 August 2014. For prize draw rules, see p11.

! ice ice baby During the severe winters of the Little Ice Age between the 17th and 19th centuries, frost fairs were held on the thick ice covering the Thames kfh.co.uk

10 · COMPLETELY · ELEMENTARY

10. land-scape Constable, The Making Of A Master, V&A, 20 September, vam.ac.uk

MAKING WAVES

11 The very gallery that was attacked when militant suffragettes staged their protests in favour of votes for women is, a century later, hosting an exhibition that looks back on the protagonists and the reactions of the police, the press and the National Portrait Gallery itself to their actions. Suffragettes: Deeds Not Words includes photographs of Emmeline Pankhurst as well as surveillance photographs of suffragettes that were issued to the gallery by the Criminal Records Bureau in 1914. The exhibition runs from 2 July. npg.org.uk

WHO ?

K N EW

59% of London’s children can’t swim more than 25m, but new initiative makeasplashlondon.org is set to change this by bringing a mobile swimming pool to communities across the Capital.

! bricks and mortar See inside some of London’s most iconic buildings at Open House London 2014, 20-21 September. londonopenhouse.org Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · ELEMENTARY · 11

13. outsiders Love Parks Week, 25 July-3 August, loveparksweek.org.uk

PHOTOGRAPHY: ISTOCKPHOTO, ENGRAVING: SIDNEY PAGET, DEC 1892, ‘THE ADVENTURE OF SILVER BLAZE’ © MUSEUM OF LONDON

IN FULL FLOW Classic ceramic drinking fountains could make a return to London streets following the success of a design competition. The Architects’ Journal and ceramics company Turkishceramics asked top architectural firms to draw inspiration from original ceramic Turkish Ottoman kiosks and to imagine fountains in Exhibition Road, Soho or the South Bank. The shortlisted designs, including submissions from Olympic Aquatic Centre architect Zaha Hadid and Google HQ architects Allford Hall Monoghan Morris, proved so popular that the organisers are now in talks to see if the fountains can be made into reality. The aim is to reduce the number of plastic bottles used in the Capital.

SAVE !

R ATTY

14

The Canal & River Trust is on a mission to save London’s dwindling water vole population. They’re creating vole homes and even building them mini ladders. canalrivertrust.org.uk

AIR OF MYSTERY ‘It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of London,’ declared Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Both Holmes and the city that featured as his backdrop will come under the microscope at a new exhibition, Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived And Will Never Die, at the Museum of London from 17 October. museumoflondon.org.uk

17

DOWN TO EARTH

Soil from Flanders Fields has been transported from Ypres and up the Thames into central London by soldiers and a Belgian Navy Frigate, before being accompanied by a military escort \PZW]OP \PM KQ\a 1\[ ÅVIT LM[\QVI\QWV' <PM Flanders Fields 1914-2014 Memorial Garden at Wellington Barracks next to Buckingham Palace, planted to mark the centenary of the Great War and opening on 9 November at a ceremony to be attended by the Royal Family.

PRIZE DRAW RULES 1. Open to UK residents aged 18 and over, except employees and immediate families of August Media Ltd, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, prize draw offerers or their agents. 2. The closing date for the receipt of entries is 31 August 2014. 3. Prizes valid for a limited period and subject to availability. 4. One entry per person. No third party. Spammers and bulk entries will be disqualified. 5. Proof of entering is not proof of receipt. No responsibility can be accepted for entries incomplete, delayed, damaged, corrupt, wrongly delivered or not received for whatever reason. 6. Prizes must be accepted as offered and are non-transferable and non-refundable. There are no cash alternatives. 7. The winner will be notified by post within 28 days of the closing date. 8. The promoter’s decision is final and binding. No correspondence will be entered into. The winning entry will be the first to be drawn at random by an independent person after the closing date. 9. August Media Ltd reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. If the prize is not claimed within three months, a re-draw will take place. 10. Names and counties of winners can be obtained by sending an SAE to Completely London Results, August Media Ltd, Zetland House, Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ, 28 days after the closing date. Promoter: Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Registered office: KFH House, 5 Compton Road, London SW19 7QA.

! current freedomaffair fighter Discover Scottish London’s rebel William lost rivers, Wallace including was hung, the Fleet drawn and and thequartered Westbourne, for high on atreason guided at walk West with Smithfield Paul Talling. on 23 londonslostrivers.com August, 1305 kfh.co.uk

12 · COMPLETELY change · of· scenery ZEN

WHO LIVES HERE? Gaze up at the sky in the back garden of Paul Austin and his wife Jodie’s three-storey house in leafy Chislehurst, BR7, and you could almost be in California. The garden is crowned by a skyline of glossy, evergreen trees and the far end of the huge terrace ascends in a series of tiers made of reclaimed railway sleepers, which are carpeted with plants and provide perches to sit on. Paul, a graphic designer and co-founder of London branding agency Made Thought, and Jodie, who works for a property firm, describe these as ‘different entertaining spaces’.

Designed in 1969 by Robert Byron, the listed property typifies the modernist aesthetic of blurring indoors and out via its multitude of windows, skylights and white walls, creating a fabulously airy, West Coast-inspired interior.

Paul and Jodie have lived here with son Theo for six years. ‘It was in need of TLC as the original owners had concealed modernist features like the exposed brick walls,’ says Paul. The couple spent two years redesigning the interior and created a new lower ground floor. ‘I’m an ardent modernist so it was great seeing the house restored.’

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

change COMPLETELY · of scenery · ZEN · 13

With its modernist interior that appears open to the elements and nature impinging on all sides, Paul Austin’s Chislehurst house transports you Stateside, discovers Dominic Lutyens

Completely kfh.co.uk London

14 路 change 路 of scenery

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

change COMPLETELY · of scenery · ZEN · 15

‘it’s easy to imagine this home in the hollywood hills’

NATURAL SELECTION Nature is built into the house’s very fabric thanks to its economical palette of organic materials: earthy limestone and oak floors; a hulking, elemental black granite worktop in the kitchen; and striated black and white marble partitions and slate floors in the bathrooms. Although a modernist fan, Paul didn’t want their home to have an identikit mid-century interior. ‘We didn’t want it to feel like a museum exhibit.’

He owns up to having several classic pieces however – an Eero Saarinen dining table, Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chairs and a poster by Josef Müller-Brockmann, an exponent of 1950s Swiss graphic design. Yet there are more recent pieces too – Barber Osgerby’s Loop coffee table, sofas by B&B Italia, an eerie photograph of an Icelandic landscape by Dan Holdsworth and a typically cheeky Banksy print. It all suggests a relaxed lifestyle and the pair have thrown ‘fantastic parties here. It’s a great entertaining place. The spaces flow easily from one to the other’.

Completely kfh.co.uk London

16 · COMPLETELY change · of· scenery ZEN

The Zen-like calmness of the house continues upstairs where the main bedroom boasts a freestanding bath. In fact, water feels everpresent as there’s a bathroom on every floor.

Most impressive are the wooden beams spanning most of the ceilings, resembling a giant rib cage. ‘The timber’s warmth introduces colour into the house,’ says Paul. ‘It’s allowed us to live minimally without the space feeling cold.’

As well as the retro, Valleys style of this home built into a slope, Paul says the location was another draw. ‘Royal Parade in Chislehurst has great interiors shops and restaurants. There’s also Scadbury Park nature reserve nearby. Plus it’s only 20 minutes by train to Charing Cross.’

Camden Park Road, BR7, £1,550,000 Located on one of Chislehurst’s most sought after private roads, this is a stunning architecturally designed five bedroom detached house.

Contact Laura Knight-Smith KFH Chislehurst Tel 020 8285 9900 Email lknight@kfh.co.uk

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

PHOTOGRAPHY: BEN ROBERTSON. STYLING: ABIGAIL EDWARDS

HILLSIDE RETREAT

change COMPLETELY · of scenery · ZEN · 17

‘i’m an ardent modernist so it was great seeing the house restored’ Completely kfh.co.uk London

18 · COMPLETELY · EXPANSIVE

TOWN AND COUNTRY QUEEN OF THE SUBURBS

1

Boasting wide open spaces, ancient woodlands and country pubs, alongside generously sized properties, Chislehurst is the epitome of suburban living.

To buy 1 Mayfield Road, BR1

2

2

Located close to Bickley station, this is a spacious and well presented three/four bedroom detached house with three reception rooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen/ diner and a 100ft garden. The property also has planning permission to allow for further expansion. £675,000 Laura Knight-Smith at KFH Chislehurst 020 8285 9900, lknight@kfh.co.uk

2 Elmstead Lane, BR7

3

This beautifully presented four bedroom, two bathroom detached property is located within close proximity to Elmstead Woods and to the railway station of the same name. It has a generous dining/ living space, garden room and an attractive 65ft rear garden. £750,000 Laura Knight-Smith at KFH Chislehurst 020 8285 9900, lknight@kfh.co.uk

3 Willow Grove, BR7 Located in the leafy heart of Chislehurst and close to local attractions such as the Chislehurst Caves, this is an amazing five bedroom detached and gated house. It has six reception rooms, five bathrooms, wonderful gardens and offers stunning views of the surrounding area. £1,800,000 Laura Knight-Smith at KFH Chislehurst 020 8285 9900, lknight@kfh.co.uk

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · EXPANSIVE · 19

Looking for the quiet life within easy reach of the city? Find more suburban properties to buy or rent at kfh.co.uk 4

4

To buy 4 Faringdon Avenue, BR2 Close to Petts Wood station and wonderful green spaces including Sparrow Wood and Richmal Crompton Fields, this three bedroom extended semi-detached home also boasts two reception rooms, a fitted kitchen, family bathroom, cloakroom, off street parking and private garden. £375,000 Laura Knight-Smith at KFH Chislehurst 020 8285 9900, lknight@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

COMPLETELY · AERIAL · 21

PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK HERHOLDT

AIR SOARING OVER THE CAPITAL

The man who knows clouds p22 Flying with the Air Ambulance p24 Al fresco activities p28 High-rise living p32

kfh.co.uk

COMPLETELY · SKY HIGH · 23

Meet the Londoner who spends his days…

CLOUD BUSTING

PHOTOGRAPHY: TIM E WHITE

I

’ve always thought of clouds as a part of nature that we don’t appreciate enough.

If you can find what’s beautiful and surprising in the everyday, mundane stuff around you, then that’s good for you and your wellbeing.’

Gavin Pretor-Pinney loves clouds. So passionate is he about those gigantic cotton balls in the sky that he founded the Cloud Appreciation Society in 2004. Now, over 35,000 members from 168 countries agree with his manifesto: ‘We believe that clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.’

For Gavin, cloud appreciation is more than just finding shapes in the sky.

A moment spent staring up calms our mind, stimulates our creativity and gives us a new way to cope. ‘From the centre of London, the sky sometimes feels like the last wilderness available to us’, he explains. ‘But it’s so accessible. You can just take a moment or two to pause your earthly concerns and all the day-to-day stresses that come with living in a capital city, and spend a moment putting your head in the clouds.’

Cloud spotting is a reaction to ‘the banality of blue-sky thinking’, he says. ‘Thinking life would be brilliant if there weren’t any clouds around isn’t realistic. If we had blue skies all the time, at first we might find it amazing. But after a few weeks maybe people would feel like there’s something missing. Here in the UK, we have ever changing skies that are in a perpetual state of flux, so that means every day is a new page to read.’

London’s hills and high-rise blocks make front-row seats for budding cloud spotters.

‘Height is good because you have fewer obstructions. I’ve often enjoyed watching the sky from Primrose Hill or the Greenwich Observatory – and John Constable captured his cloud studies from Hampstead Heath in 1802,’ says Gavin. ‘If you work in an office high up, then you’re in a fantastic cloud-spotting location. The contrast between the chaotic shapes of the clouds and the formal, concrete shapes of the city below can be great.’ Londoners, it’s time to look up and take notice. · miranda thompson cloudappreciationsociety.org

did you know?

ON A HIGH NOTE

Tottenham-born Luke Howard invented his still-used cloud classification system in Essay On The Modification Of Clouds, published in 1803. His home at 7 Bruce Grove, N19, bears a blue plaque reading, ‘Luke Howard, Namer of Clouds, lived and died here.’

kfh.co.uk

24 · COMPLETELY · PROPELLED

FLY GUY LONDONERS IN THEIR ELEMENT: AIR

A cockpit veteran from the age of eight, Neil Jeffers now flies life-saving medical expertise to people in need all over the city as London’s Air Ambulance’s Chief Pilot

! jet set The world’s first jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1, took off from London and flew to Johannesburg in 1952. A one-way fare was £175 Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · PROPELLED · 25

NEIL JEFFERS, AIR AMBULANCE PILOT

PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN USBORNE

N

eil Jeffers nearly didn’t become a pilot. Despite having his first lessons aged eight at the knee of his father, a Royal Air Force pilot, and pressure from school careers advisers to follow a similar route, Neil was ‘about three weeks from joining Hendon Police College when I thought, “I’d better have a flying lesson, just to check.” After half an hour in a helicopter, I knew.’

Some 7,000 flying hours later, Neil is the Chief Pilot of London’s Air Ambulance, a world-leading pre-hospital emergency medical service that, since its launch in 1989, has treated more than 30,000 critically injured patients across the Capital, performing life-saving interventions at the scene of the incident. ‘London’s uniquely complicated airspace means that, unusually, we always fly with two pilots, as well as a minimum medical crew of an advanced trauma doctor and paramedic. Within 10 minutes of getting a call we might have to land in Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, or on

the M1,’ Neil explains. His role also includes helping his medical colleagues give in-situ treatments as extreme as open-heart surgery. ‘The team dynamic that develops as a result is incredibly close,’ he says.

Beyond his job’s high-octane demands – and his recent on-screen turn on the TV series An Hour To Save Your Life – Neil’s dedication to the service that as a charity depends on donations is such that he ran eight sponsored marathons in six days in the Jordan desert in 2012. And despite the number of flying hours he’s put in, he still loves to fly. ‘I’m still in awe of helicopter flight and of flying through London’s extraordinary cityscapes. I’ll never forget returning to base after attending an emergency on the day of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant and seeing the river covered in thousands of boats.

We did a little detour, put our sirens on and flashed our lights to be part of it.’ · rupert mellor To help London’s Air Ambulance team, visit londonsairambulance.co.uk/donate

! plane sailing Take a 3D flight with the RAF Red Arrows at the Science Museum and experience an aerobatics display. sciencemuseum.org.uk kfh.co.uk

COMPLETELY · LOFTY · 27

Looking for a home with light and space? Find more properties to buy or rent at kfh.co.uk 4

4

To buy 4 Queens Mews, W2 A wonderful house on a cobbled mews close to Hyde Park offering spacious, bright and expertly designed modern living space. It has three/four bedrooms, two reception rooms, a bespoke kitchen, media room, integral garage and private roof terrace. £3,500,000 Paul Hyman at KFH Bayswater 020 7724 1222, phyman@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

28 · COMPLETELY · OUT THERE

OPEN AIR LONDON Beers and bands as the sun sets, swimming under wide skies, feeling the wind in your hair or simply kicking back and catching some rays – turn over for all the al fresco fun the world’s greenest capital can offer

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · OUT THERE · 29

Once a burial ground serving a nearby leper hospital, Green Park is unusual in having no cafés, buildings or ponds, and very few monuments – just trees and green, green grass. The park was a haunt of highwaymen and duellists until, in an early example of gentrification, it was landscaped by Regency architect John Nash in 1820.

kfh.co.uk

WORDS: JANETTA WILLIS. PHOTOGRAPHY: TIMOTHY ALLAN. ILLUSTRATIONS: KATE SUTTON/HANDSOME FRANK

30 · COMPLETELY · OUT THERE

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

SADDLE UP

FILMS IN THE FRESH AIR

DEVELOP A TWITCH

Go for a gallop at Deen City Farm & Riding School, SW19, Lee Valley Riding School, E17, or Dulwich Riding School, SE21.

The Rooftop Film Club runs programmes at Queen of Hoxton, EC2, Kensington Roof Gardens, W8, and the Bussey Building in SE15.

Head for the WWT London Wetland Centre, SW13, to spot urban birdlife, including buzzards, sandpipers, jack snipes and linnets.

WORK UP AN APPETITE

ANIMAL MAGIC

LOVING THE LIDO

No street food shortage these days in the Capital with the likes of Broadway Market, E8, and Brockley Market, SE4, leading the way.

Always a fun and cheap afternoon out, London boasts city farms from Forty Hall Farm in Enfield to Vauxhall City Farm, SE11.

Go for a sunlit swim at one of London’s lidos, which include Brockwell Park, SE24, London Fields, E9, and Tooting Bec, SW16.

FLOAT YOUR BOAT

RIDE ON

BARGE IN

Hire a row boat or pedalo at Hollow Ponds, E11, Hyde Park, W1, Regent’s Park, NW1, Battersea Park, SW11, or Finsbury Park, N4.

Raise some dust on the newly opened mountain bike tracks or road race circuit at VeloPark at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, E20.

Enjoy a scenic 90-minute round trip along Regent’s Canal from Camden Lock through London Zoo to Little Venice and back.

PARK YOURSELF

I’M WITH THE BANDSTAND

FESTIVAL FEVER

It’s not quite a throne but head to one of central London’s Royal Parks to bag a deck chair in the sun at £1.60 per hour.

Bandstands are a throwback to a time of civic pride – the Victorian ones in Clapham Common and Queen’s Park are Grade II-listed.

Join MIA and Katy B at Lovebox (18-19 July), or Pixies and Metronomy at Field Day (7-8 June) – both in Victoria Park, E3.

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For more property with gardens of all styles and sizes throughout the Capital, visit kfh.co.uk

GARDENERS’ WORLD

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Whether you love decking or potting sheds, lawns or water features, there are plenty of London properties with outdoor space ready for your vision.

To buy 1 Grove Avenue, N10 In a great location close to Alexandra Palace Park and Muswell Hill Broadway, this attractive Edwardian conversion has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, interlocking reception rooms and a modern kitchen/diner. £800,000 Andrew Hunt at KFH Muswell Hill 020 8883 0123, ahunt@kfh.co.uk

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2 Ashen Grove, SW19 A great family home in Wimbledon Park, this four bedroom, two bathroom property has a particularly appealing garden. It is also close to both Wimbledon Park and Earlsfield stations. £995,000 Jennifer Young Thompson at

KFH Southfields 020 8871 9655, jythompson@kfh.co.uk

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3 Drakefell Road, SE14 Set in the desirable Telegraph Hill conservation area and with an attractive rear garden, this exceptional three bedroom house is spacious and flexible. £865,000 Jason Davis at KFH Peckham 020 7639 2029, jpdavis@kfh.co.uk

To rent 4 Westerham Road, BR2 With wonderful gardens at the front and back, this four bedroom detached house in a leafy Bromley location is available to rent unfurnished. £3,000pcm Shelley Matczak at KFH Bromley

020 8464 5353, smatczak@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

Around 100 feet above your head, a few fortunate Londoners enjoy a different way of life. One of epic, horizon-nudging views, discovers Jessica Cargill-Thompson

LIVING THE SKY LIFE on 020 3542 0147, rbenson@kfh.co.uk

The Perspective Building is managed by KFH, for more information contact Richard Benson

central location behind Waterloo, from where he could walk to work, made the Perspective Building the perfect bachelor pad for now-retired corporate executive David Jones when he bought his 19th-floor duplex in 2004. What made the refurbished MI6 HQ really special though, were the views.

With windows facing both south-east and south-west, the flat takes in the whole of South London, from Battersea Power Station right round to Canary Wharf.

‘When the sun is in the west you can pick out Greenwich Observatory – with my telescope I can actually see the ball that goes up and down at one o’clock. And you can see the old water tower on top of Shooter’s Hill as well as the Tower of London.’

But what closed the deal for David was the big sky. ‘Coming here was a real lift for me. I got this sense of feeling on top of the world and of space and superiority.’

Despite the fact that many residents disappear at weekends to country abodes, there remains, says David, a strong sense of community. ‘You pass people in the entrance in the morning rush and get to know faces. And we’ve got a fairly lively social scene – a summer party and a Christmas party.’

Is there a downside to high-rise living? ‘Pigeons are a problem. I’ve put netting up to keep them off, otherwise they – excuse me – crap everywhere.’ Would he ever go back to living on the ground? ‘It’s a strange thing. It lifts my spirits just walking in here, it’s so light and bright, even on a gloomy day. I’ve done it thousands of time but every time I think, what a great place. I don’t think I could leave.’

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DAVID JONES F;HIF;9J?L; 8K?B:?D=" I;' Q'/J> <BEEHS

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‘coming here was a real lift. i got this sense of feeling on top of the world’

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ANDREA KLETTNER SIVILL HOUSE, E2 [15TH FLOOR]

PHOTOGRAPHY: ANTONY CROLLA

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t was a visit to architect Berthold Lubetkin’s 1960s tower block on Columbia Road in Bethnal Green for her blog lovelondoncouncilhousing.com that introduced Andrea Klettner to what would eventually become her home.

‘The flat felt quite safe compared with a ground-floor or basement flat, which were the only other things in my price range. But five people before me had tried to get a mortgage to buy it and failed because it’s so high up,’ says Andrea.

Sivill House is essentially three 20-storey towers: a round central core with a wing of one bedroom flats to the north and two and three beds to the south. ‘The façade is brilliant. It looks really simple, but it’s actually a complicated pattern of six different elements.’

Inside, the one bedroom flat is refreshingly light and spacious. ‘Compared to most new builds, the layout is so big.

And you’d never get windows like that these days.’

From the balcony you can see Alexandra Palace to the right and Crystal Palace to the left. ‘Because it faces west, it gets the sun all afternoon and you get some glorious sunsets.

‘I think you get a different perspective from up here. When I first moved here, my boyfriend and I spent so long trying to identify what things were. Nothing is where you think it is.’

And the downsides? ‘It can take ages to get out of the building, especially if everyone’s going to work and you’re trying to get your bike in the lift. Even going down to the shops can feel like a long way. But they’re relatively small problems.’

‘it gets the sun all afternoon and you get some glorious sunsets’

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LIVING IT UP RISE ABOVE IT ALL

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Lift your body and your soul with these high-rise properties that provide a lofty perspective on the hustle and bustle of city life.

To buy 1 Kersfield Road, SW15 This stunning newly built duplex penthouse apartment has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a bespoke kitchen, study area, parking space and a spectacular wraparound terrace offering wonderful views across the city. £970,000 Adrian Dyer at KFH Land and

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New Homes 020 8222 7200, adyer@kfh.co.uk

2 Spa Road, SE16

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This is a truly stunning two bedroom apartment in the highly sought after Bermondsey Spa. Built in 2011, it is a beautifully presented and airy property that offers city-wide views from its balcony. It is close to Bermondsey Tube, where the Jubilee Line offers quick access to Canary Wharf and the West End. £580,000 Chris Early at KFH Surrey Quays 020 7231 3800, cearly@kfh.co.uk

3 Wharf Street, SE8 This bright and brand new apartment is located in Deptford on the banks of the Thames. It has two bedrooms plus balcony and parking space, and is also close to the amenities and transport links of both Greenwich and Deptford. £475,000 Chris Early at KFH Surrey Quays 020 7231 3800, cearly@kfh.co.uk

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For more flats that hold their own on the London skyline, visit kfh.co.uk

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To buy 4 Blythe Road, W14 This is a stylish flat presented in great decorative order throughout. The property has two bedrooms, both en suite, as well as a guest cloakroom, terrace and parking. The amenities of the Kensington West development, which is located close to High Street Kensington, include a 24-hour porter and access to a gym and pool complex. £1,525,000 Paul Cooney at KFH Chiswick 020 8987 0090, pcooney@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK HERHOLDT. LETTER FORMS: THE WOODEN LETTERS COMPANY

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Chefs playing with fire p40

ĕ Blacksmith with an iron will p46 kfh.co.uk

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FIRE

IN YOUR BELLY

Hereford Beef Skirt Steak caramelised over very hot charcoal

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

BEN TISH, EMBER YARD, W1 Offering tapas with a twist, Ember Yard opened in January this year to great acclaim. The man behind its menu is Ben Tish, chef director of the Salt Yard Group.

‘Being packed to the rafters is a great feeling,’ says Ben. ‘But you have to stay on top of your game.’ And he clearly has, renowned for top tapas and singlehandedly making smoking cool again. Smoking food, that is, using a big, custom-made, charcoal-fired grill and taking tapas to the next level. ‘We use single-species charcoal – hazel, silver birch – for cooking most of our dishes.’

But it’s the meat that really gets diners hot under the collar, such as the Basque Beef Burger, Ibérico Pork Ribs and Hereford Beef Skirt Steak, which Ben says ‘is grilled over very hot charcoal to caramelise, seasoned with lots of sea salt and left for a good few minutes to tenderise’.

But what is tapas without tipples? Ben says, ‘There’s a trend for creative cocktails in London so we decided to play on the restaurant’s smoking techniques.

Smoked spirits are big in the States so we used classics but kept the ingredients strictly Spanish and Italian.’ So, there’s a Negroni that smokes Campari and a Sazerac that smokes sherry brandy.

Both homely and heady, Ben’s charred flavours of Spain are firing foodie imaginations across the Capital. emberyard.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHY: MING TANG-EVANS

Arriving in a blaze of glory these three top London chefs aren’t afraid to use flames, smoke and spicy heat to light up our eating-out experiences

‘we use single-species charcoal – hazel, silver birch – for cooking most of our dishes’

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‘kombu is a giant kelp. i dry it out and pack it with flavour for a dish that blows your socks clean off’

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SCOTT HALLSWORTH, KUROBUTA, SW3 Have you heard of kombu before? No, neither had we.

But Scott Hallsworth has. In fact, it’s a seaweed staple the Australian chef swears by to spruce up the Crispy Skin Duck Confit at his King’s Road pop-up-gonepermanent, Kurobuta. ‘Kombu is a giant kelp that grows in the ice-cold waters off northern Japan,’ he explains.

‘Once it’s dried out, I pack it with flavour for a dish that blows your socks clean off!’

Taking elegant, Eastern dishes and giving them a wild-Western spin has resulted in intriguing dishes, such as Tea Smoked Lamb with Smokey Nasu and Spicy Korean Miso and Squid Kara-Age with Jalapeño Dipping Sauce, dusted in flour and deep-fried. Both of them are fiery and intense, and a far cry from cold fish.

‘I like to create dishes I’d want to eat myself,’ says Scott.

And certainly one of the reasons for his success since leaving behind the starched white tablecloths of Nobu is his approachability: from his take on ‘dude food’ – BBQ Pork Belly in Steamed Buns with Spicy Peanut Soy and Sashimi Pizza with Truffle Ponzu and Green Chillies – to beer with frozen heads and his signature Green Bastard, a lethal cocktail of Hendrick’s, Midori, egg white, sugar, lime juice and cucumber. No sake here, thanks. kurobuta-london.com

Crispy Skin Duck Confit: made potent by the addition of spicy seaweed kombu

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‘the edible candle is lit tableside and eaten by mopping up the wax with hunks of sourdough’

TOM SELLERS, RESTAURANT STORY, SE1 Within a year of opening Restaurant Story in a disused toilet block in Bermondsey, chef Tom Sellers – a gin-loving, tattooed, loud-mouthed lad from Nottingham who was expelled from school – had earned himself what most only dream of: a shiny, covetable Michelin star. ‘It’s a dream for nearly all chefs and for me it was no different,’ admits Tom. The dish that has made a particular impact is his edible candle. ‘It’s inspired by my dad and his love of bread and dripping,’ he explains. The candle is lit tableside and eaten by mopping up the wax with hunks of sourdough. But that’s not his only plate with profile. His Three Bears’ Porridge – ‘one salty, one

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

sweet and one just right’ – became a cult classic in its own right. Burnt Onion, Apple, Gin and Thyme was a nostalgic nod to a childhood memory that resonated with many, while his Smoked Scallops, Cucumber and Dill Ash divided opinion clean down the middle – it was described as ‘the slippery sweetness of a first snog’ by one critic, although several bloggers were less kind.

‘The haters spur me on,’ Tom says defiantly.

‘The next chapter at Story is to continue working hard and grow as a restaurant,’ he says. ‘We’re always creating but it is important these things are not rushed. My goal is to do a little better every day.’

· nick clarke restaurantstory.co.uk

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LONDONERS IN THEIR ELEMENT: FIRE

HOT SHOE SHUFFLE

A farrier for the Met for 30 years, Tom Burch now supports horse welfare worldwide while keeping his anvil ringing as the shoesmith of choice to the steeds of the City of London Police

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verlooked by glossy office blocks and the quirky Gothic relic of St Alban’s Church, the City of London Police stable is at the corner of Wood Street and Love Lane. Here, once a month, farrier Tom Burch rolls up in his van with its built-in gas furnace and shoeing tools to craft bespoke footwear for the force’s nine highly trained horses.

‘The kit has changed since I did my apprenticeship in Kent 40 years ago,’ Tom says, ‘but the job stays the same – to help every animal move to the very best of its ability. I take off the old shoe, trim the hooves, make a brand new shoe on the anvil for each hoof’s exact shape and nail it on. With experience you learn to read each animal’s mood and how to approach it. Some horses like to be shod clockwise, some diagonally. Fortunately, the City police horses and I have an understanding. I don’t hurt them, and they don’t hurt me!’

At the time a blacksmith making train parts for British Rail, Tom became one of three farriers looking after the

Metropolitan Police’s 260 horses back in 1979. Based at the forge next to Bow Road police station, he also served as a duty farrier on special occasions such as Trooping the Colour. It was a job he held for 30 years.

Since adding the City’s police horses to his client base in 1998, Tom has also expanded his remit ‘to give something back’. A liveryman for the Worshipful Company of Farriers, he helps the 650-year-old guild maintain farriery standards, monitors the quality of UK apprenticeship training as a field officer for the National Farrier Training Agency and has taught farriers worldwide for the charity World Horse Welfare.

Right now, Tom is preparing for a trip to Ethiopia with equine charity The Brooke, and then a return to Poland with charities Progressive Ideas and the Animal Welfare Foundation. And as you’re reading this, he’ll have just picked up an MBE at Buckingham Palace for his work supporting the wellbeing of horses everywhere. · rupert mellor

! hit squad One night of Blitz bombing on Sunday 29 December 1940 was so fierce it became known as the second great fire of London Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

PHOTOGRAPHY: LEVON BISS

TOM BURCH, BLACKSMITH

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! regal roasting Residence of the monarchy from 1539, the Palace of Whitehall burnt down in 1698 when a washerwoman dried clothes too close to a fire kfh.co.uk

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GET IN THERE

south london

peckham

PHOTOGRAPHY: ADRIAN BRISCOE. ILLUSTRATION: ALEX HEDWORTH/EYE CANDY

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erhaps still associated in the popular imagination with Del Boy, market stalls and dodgy dealings, Peckham has made a virtue of getting by on a cheeky grin and laughing in the face of adversity. A stroll through the thumping heart of the neighbourhood, rye lane, brings a riot of noises and smells – exotic fruit and vegetables spill out onto the pavements, pound stores do a brisk trade and locals bond over cheap cosmetics and bargain bananas. Just off the heaving thoroughfare is the peckhamplex, a disused supermarket building transformed into a thriving independent cinema loved for its low prices. Next door, the top of the multi-storey car park, another unlovely concrete edifice, hides one of London’s worst-kept secrets – pop-up cocktail bar frank’s, the height of trendiness in the height of summer. At the junction of Rye Lane and Peckham High Street among the faded Victorian grandeur the eye is drawn to the shining ‘box on stilts’ of the Stirling Prize-winning peckham library. Its uncompromising modern design is a symbol of Peckham’s regeneration and is a much-loved feature of the local landscape.

Away from the gleeful urban melee of Peckham’s main drags, bellenden road offers a gentrified canvas of independent bookshop review, which is run by a local author, delicatessen general store (yes, they stock Peckham Spring Water), alongside assorted vintage shops, cafés and gastropubs. Mosaics by Tom Phillips have enhanced the shopfronts, while antony gormley-designed bollards add a touch of stylish eccentricity. A wander uphill takes you to the south london gallery on busy highway Peckham Road with its café/restaurant no 67 worth seeking out in its own right for its popular brunch offering and very decent coffee. peckham rye common and Peckham Rye Park provide large green spaces with intermittent community gardens also lending an air of leafiness to the backstreets. Peckham Rye connects with East London via the Overground network, while bus routes will whisk you towards Waterloo and the centre of town in a matter of minutes. · janetta willis • By train Peckham Rye is part of the London Overground, taking around 20 minutes to reach Shoreditch High Street. Peckham Rye and Queen’s Road are also served by Southern trains to London Bridge with journey times of eight to 10 minutes and Peckham Rye also by Southeastern into London Victoria taking 18 minutes. • By bus 12, 36, 37, 63, 78, 171, 197, 343, 345, 363, 436

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GET IN THERE

HAVING LIVED IN THE LOCAL AREA FOR 26 YEARS, GRIERSON AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR AND MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER ADEYEMI MICHAEL SHARES WITH US HIS PASSON FOR PECKHAM. ADEYEMIMICHAEL.COM

‘a bubbling ball of energy’

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eckham was the first place my parents moved to when our family emigrated from Nigeria and I’ve lived here for 26 years.

One of my favourite things about the area is the food shops and market stalls on the High Street, which bring international cuisines to your doorstep. You have the local shops like Daphanie’s Jamaican café and takeaway and M Manze’s pie and mash. I love the area for that mixture of places offering traditional British grub combined with the more contemporary face of Peckham, such as the recent crop of coffee shops like Café Viva on Choumert Grove and Peckham Refreshment Rooms on Blenheim Road – as well as a few undercover Nigerian food shops. The Bussey Building (an arts centre and club venue on Rye Lane) obviously gets a shout-out because there’s nothing else like it.

And I love the new and old blood in the area – when they both mix it’s great, it could soon be the Ladbroke Grove of South East London!

Peckham is a bubbling ball of energy and entrepreneurship. I’ve set up several communitybased projects and community spirit here is one of the strongest in London.

Green spaces are very accessible in Peckham.

You’ve got Burgess Park and Peckham Rye Park, which takes you into Honor Oak where there’s a lovely park and view. Dulwich is also just around the corner so you’re well-served with green-leafed opportunities. A few hidden gems are a lovely park/ garden called Warwick Gardens, Sceaux Gardens and the beautiful and traditional Lyndhurst Square. How’s that for outdoor living?

‘i love the new and old blood in the area – when they mix it’s great, it could soon be the ladbroke grove of south-east london’

KFH INSIDER KNOWLEDGE TAKING PECKHAM’S PULSE ‘Peckham has been transformed over the past decade and is now firmly established as a hip neighbourhood. It attracts artists, architects and all kinds of young professionals who love its creative and buzzy vibe, as well as the Overground link (known affectionately as ‘the Ginger Line’), which opened in 2010 and provides a direct link with East London and Islington.’

CONTACT Jason Davis Sales manager, Peckham Tel 020 7639 2029 Email jpdavis@kfh.co.uk

! doppelgangers Only Fools And Horses, the David Jason-fronted sitcom that made Peckham a household name, was mainly filmed in Acton and Bristol Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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For more property of all proportions in Peckham, visit kfh.co.uk

PUKKA PECKHAM

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With some seriously substantial period properties among the urban mix the area is best known for, there’s plenty to interest a wide range of buyers.

To buy 1 Nunhead Lane, SE15 This is an attractive two bedroom two bathroom period conversion featuring high ceilings and oak flooring and conveniently located for Peckham Rye Common. £524,950 Jason Davis at KFH Peckham 020 7639 2029, jpdavis@kfh.co.uk

2 Quantock Mews, SE15

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This is a modern townhouse set in a gated development located close to the shops and restaurants of Bellenden Road and Peckham Rye station, and which has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. £765,000 Jason Davis at KFH Peckham 020 7639 2029, jpdavis@kfh.co.uk

3 Trafalgar Avenue, SE15

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A fabulous property on a sought after residential street, this four bedroom home is Grade II listed, arranged over four floors and includes a selfcontained one bedroom flat and 97ft rear garden. £999,999 Jason Davis at KFH Peckham 020 7639 2029, jpdavis@kfh.co.uk

4 Bellenden Road, SE15 In a wonderful location on one of Peckham’s most attractive roads, this is a stunning split level two bedroom flat which is close to boutique shops and restaurants as well as Peckham Rye station. £549,950 Jason Davis at KFH Peckham 020 7639 2029, jpdavis@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

THROUGH THE KEYHOLE These four properties contain all the elements to create wonderful new homes

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BAYSWATER, W2

PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL RAESIDE. STYLING: JOANNA THORNHILL

TOP OF THE WORLD Only a career-based move to Amsterdam could tear this family from their seventhfloor three bed, three bath apartment in the heart of the West End. The seven years they’ve spent there have been glorious.

Key to their happiness has been the airy feel throughout the flat and easy access to Hyde Park. And two terraces plus an additional balcony don’t hurt…

‘We’d been looking for a place for a while.

As soon as we saw this flat we knew there was something exceptional about it – it was so open and the light was fantastic, even on a grey day,’ the owners reveal. ‘One of our criteria was having our own outside space. We were thrilled with what this property offered – a place almost in the clouds! We use the terraces all year round.’

The apartment has enviable views. ‘We can see the London Eye, the Shard and even Wembley depending on where you are in the flat. It’s even better at night when you see all the lights of London twinkling,’ they say.

‘Despite the fact that we’re in a fairly busy area in Bayswater, our home is a peaceful oasis. It’s a very easy place to live and particularly good for families.’

Moscow Road, W2, £1,400pw This spacious and bright three bedroom apartment offers approximately 1,800sq ft of stunning living space in central London.

Contact Jonathan McCormack KFH Bayswater Tel 020 7563 5090 Email jmccormack@kfh.co.uk

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PECKHAM, SE15

PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL RAESIDE. STYLING: JOANNA THORNHILL

A WARM GLOW ‘I bought this place because it’s so beautiful – the ornate ceilings and double-height rooms, the period detailing,’ says art director Steve Dunn. His professional eye for the aesthetically pleasing is in evidence from top to bottom of the four floor, four bedroom house. Over 2,000sq ft of Georgian splendour is complemented by a secluded garden backing onto Burgess Park. ‘The best thing about living here is the garden in spring and summer. As strange as it seems, you could be in Morocco or the South of France. It’s very private and filled with magnolia, orange, banana, apple and fig trees, so it’s very fragrant and sun-filled, and all you can hear is birdsong.

‘The ground floor rooms have beautiful, grand fireplaces, which come into their own when a winter fire is lit. We have three kids and one thing I was determined the house would never be is a shrine to design. It’s great to be surrounded by lovely things but, first and foremost, it’s a home. When we all gather round the fire, it’s perfection. I will sorely miss this place. It has one of the nicest, most welcoming atmospheres.’

Trafalgar Avenue, SE15, £1,250,000 This wonderful four storey 200-year-old property has double height ceilings, an amazing 86ft garden and is minutes from local amenities and transport links.

Contact Jason Davis KFH Peckham Tel 020 7639 2029 Email jpdavis@kfh.co.uk

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GREENWICH, SE10

PHOTOGRAPHY: BEN ROBERTSON. STYLING: SAM GRIGG

ALWAYS GREENER Rick and his wife viewed Grey Coat House in 2007 despite knowing it was over their ideal budget. But so stunned were they by the four bedroom Grade II-listed former school that they pulled out all the stops to make it theirs.

From the start, the potential to develop a distinctive garden was clear.

‘We designed it with low maintenance in mind,’ Rick says. ‘It’s a great suntrap and is bathed in light from 11am until sunset in summer. We love throwing the doors open and listening to music in the evenings, and it’s also just about the right size for small gatherings. We’ve had some great parties, aided by the flowing layout – the living room and kitchen open on to the garden. We’ll miss this garden a lot – and the fact the house is so close to town yet feels like it’s a million miles away.’ The garden is one of many highlights of this house.

‘It was built in 1809 for a charitable school founded by John Roan, who the street is named after,’ Rick divulges. A plaque commemorating the school can be seen on the exterior of the garden wall. ‘We hope that whoever lives here next cares about the history of the house as much as we do.’

Roan Street, SE10, £1,600,000 This four bedroom school conversion in a central Greenwich location retains period features but also has a high-tech finish.

Contact David Yuill KFH Blackheath Tel 020 8852 9451 Email dyuill@kfh.co.uk

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RAYNES PARK, SW20

PHOTOGRAPHY: BEN ROBERTSON. STYLING: SAM GRIGG

SOAKING IT UP The Bednarz family have lived in their spacious four bedroom 1930s home for nearly a decade. They were drawn to Raynes Park for the good schools and easy commute to central London. But it wasn’t always the sleek, airy property of today.

‘It was a veritable time capsule,’ laughs owner Darius. ‘Avocado suite in one bathroom, heavy patterned carpets, curtains from various eras… But it was in good structural order with a lot of potential to put our own stamp. So we’ve remodelled and extended – and we’re particularly proud of our “boudoir” in the loft’.

This indulgent room features a roll top bath and capacious wardrobes. ‘Pretty much every bit of the house is my wife’s idea. While she’s not an interior designer she has a fashion design background and, more importantly, loads of imagination and creativity. She used the shell of a new loft space to create a light, practical and sophisticated room for us. Being able to relax in this great room, while drinking a glass of bubbly with dimmed lights and scented candles, is a perfect treat for either one or both of us.’ · kathryn reilly Linkway, SW20, £799,950 A stunning semi detached family home with planning permission in place to extend further on both the ground and first floors.

Contact Stewart Fisher KFH Raynes Park Tel 020 3542 2000 Email sfisher@kfh.co.uk

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IN THE KNOW: SEALED BIDS

Standard practice north of the border, sealed bids are increasingly common in London, but what are the main pros and cons of this way of doing business?

Sealed bids – otherwise known as best and final bids – are an efficient, if slightly brutal, way to sell a property. They tend to happen most when the number of potential buyers outstrips the number of potential sellers. In Scotland sealed bids are the standard process for selling your home; and in the KFH Southfields branch, the majority of properties were sold this way at the beginning of the year – though this has become less common in recent weeks as more stock has come on the market.

‘Because of the shortage of properties we’re experiencing in the London market, there have often been multiple offers on a

property which is up for sale. Going to best offers, in these situations, is a way of bringing things to a swift conclusion, rather than going to a “Dutch auction” situation, with people bouncing offers between each other,’ says Jennifer Young-Thompson, Sales Manager at KFH Southfields branch.

GETTING THE BIDS IN ‘Sealed bids are often the best way of getting the best price possible for the seller, but it’s also fair for the buyer in such a competitive marketplace,’ she continues.

How the process works is buyers are given a deadline to view the property, by which time an offer has to be submitted. This deadline can range from a day to several weeks. Most viewings take place in a concentrated period of time – launch weekend, usually – and then the offers will start coming in on Monday. By Wednesday best and final offers will be called for.

For sellers, Young-Thompson recommends considering the amount of deposit the would-be buyer has (if buying with a mortgage) – as the bigger the deposit the fewer problems the bank is likely to throw up. Buyers who are not in a chain, for obvious reasons, are preferable in terms of ease and speed of a sale. Other questions to ask: has the buyer appointed a solicitor? Do their timings – i.e. when they want to move – fit in with yours?

FROM THE BUYER’S SIDE For buyers, it’s a good idea to remember that a winning bid might not be the highest amount.

‘Many assume that in a sealed bids scenario you need to offer the highest amount, but often this just isn’t the case,’ says YoungThompson. ‘Sellers are primarily concerned with how “proceedable” a buyer is – the likelihood of the sale going through to completion.’

To convince a buyer of your proceedability, it’s a good idea to include lots of detail with the offer.

Provide a copy of the mortgage agreed in principle, tell the seller how progressed the sale of your property is and, if you are a cash purchaser, include a letter from your solicitor confirming you have the funds to hand. Find out about the sellers – if they need to find somewhere to buy, tell them you’re happy to wait as long as it takes. Offer as high as you feel comfortable to go – don’t count on being able to up your offer at a later date – but not so high that you will regret it.

And always offer an odd number of pounds and pence – YoungThompson remembers a buyer offering £730,000.01 (with the 1p from their kid’s piggy bank). If bids are close then that extra few pence could make all the difference.

Jessie Hewitson is a property writer for The Times

KFH Got a question about London property we can answer next time? Email donna@completelylondon.co.uk Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

WORDS: JESSIE HEWITSON.ILLUSTRATION: CLEAR AS MUD/FOLIO ART

This issue we turn the spotlight on sealed bids, which are becoming more of a feature of the London property market as demand continues to outstrip supply in many areas

PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK HERHOLDT. ILLUSTRATION: BEN JOHNSTON/DÉBUT ART. STENCIL CUTTING: LASERCUTIT

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Land rover p64 The dirt on Vauxhall’s past p66

kfh.co.uk

64 · COMPLETELY · DOWN TO EARTH

LONDONERS IN THEIR ELEMENT: EARTH

LAND LADY As Head of Ecology across London’s eight Royal Parks, Julia Clark plays a vital role in tending the mighty metropolis’s ancient roots in nature JULIA CLARK, HEAD OF ECOLOGY

PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN USBORNE

R

ichmond Park in the year 3PF (post-Fenton, the plucky Labrador whose rogue herding here made him a YouTube megastar in 2011), and the grounds’ longer-serving animal attractions are proving elusive.

‘Typical!’ laughs the Royal Parks’ Head of Ecology Julia Clark. ‘I see deer every morning when I cycle in for work.

But as soon as you go looking for them…’

From Richmond’s ancient oak-studded grassland, nibbled low by generations of red and fallow deer since Charles I established his new royal hunting reserve here in 1637, to the waterfowl-rich reed beds fringing the lakes of Regent’s Park and the stately plane tree colonnades of St James’s Park, it’s Julia’s job to keep a portfolio of landscapes that draw some 37 million visitors a year in the rudest of health.

‘Given that they are surrounded by one of the most densely urbanised environments on Earth,’ says Julia, who works closely with various botanic and wildlife specialists to keep

the parks as close as possible to how nature intended, ‘the range of wildlife the Royals Parks is home to is pretty spectacular. As well as red deer, there are 67,000 trees supporting over 280 species of insect. Mammals include hedgehog, rabbit, badger and nine species of bat. There are butterflies, bees, great crested newts, stag beetles and birds including tawny and little owls, kestrels and kingfishers.’

And while much of Julia’s work involves protecting these unpaved oases from the encroachments of contemporary city life, she and her colleagues also enlist ground-breaking innovations to their cause. Most recently, they launched a new island on Hyde Park’s Serpentine, a floating artificial wetland made of recycled plastics and landscaped with native plants, which is providing new nesting areas for waterbirds and sheltering fish. ‘Ecology is still an evolving science,’ says Julia, ‘and we’re continually learning new ways to give nature a hand.’ · rupert mellor

! ear to the ground A bench dedicated to musician Ian Dury sits at Poet’s Corner in Richmond Park. Plug headphones into the armrests to hear his tunes Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · DOWN TO EARTH · 65

! duck tails In 2012, a dog owner was fined £315 for letting five dogs chase ducks in the park. Commercial dog walkers now need a licence kfh.co.uk

Once an urban idyll for polite promenaders, the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens became a draw for rogues and villains – their impropriety bringing about its demise. Keith Barker-Main digs the dirt…

EARTHLY DELIGHTS

ILLUSTRATION: DAN FUNDERBURGH/DÉBUT ART

W

hen Londoners long for escape, a wallow in warm Med waters is as peasy as Easyjet. But for our 1660s forebears, mired in the miasma of an overcrowded city, such exotic flight was unimaginable. But from 1661, respite came in the shape of New Spring Gardens.

During the Restoration, under Charles II, public entertainments were the fashion. So too were palace grounds modelled on grand French chateaux. Why not, then, turn a tract of wilderness into the sort of pleasure gardens hitherto restricted to the aristocracy and open them to nobs and nobodies alike for a modest admission fee?

Created from part of a wealthy family’s estate at Faulke’s Hall, New Spring Gardens was an overnight sensation.

Festooned with gay flowers, shaded bowers and woodland pathways, it was a landscape regular visitor Samuel Pepys initially reported as a fairly modest affair. But as the new fad for blossom-scented promenading took off, visitor numbers soared. A bucolic idyll where families could commune with nature, and the opposite sexes meet and mingle freely, was a revolutionary concept. Safe in a patrolled environment, man could breathe easy, literally and figuratively, away from the city’s filth and felons. To the hoi polloi, unaccustomed to such earthly delights, this mini Versailles could have been the Garden of Eden.

Over the next 200 years, rivals such as Chelsea’s Ranelagh and Cremorne Gardens and Southwark’s Paris Gardens vied for the top spot, but the brand leader was New Spring Gardens. Rebranded Vauxhall Gardens by the Bermondsey entrepreneur Jonathan Tyers who acquired them in 1729, they now extended from Kennington down to the Thames between Lambeth Palace and Nine Elms.

A showman and patron of the arts, Tyers effectively created Britain’s first theme park. Vauxhall’s innovative live entertainments were a major draw. Lords and ladies, lackeys and low-borns perambulated Vauxhall’s pathways. As dusk fell, thousands of lamps were simultaneously lit, bathing the gardens in a spectacular glow; dinner was served in supper-boxes and revellers were plied with plonk.

Housed in a vast rotunda, orchestras played major new works. There were dramatic son-et-lumière displays; balloon ascents; conjurers, contortionists and clowns; dancing fountains, dancing bears, dancers – the 18th-century’s Britain’s Got Talent with Tyers as Simon Cowell.

Not all the entertainment was as wholesome. Pickpockets, pugilists and prozzies – female and male ‘molly boys’ – were a tawdry sideshow. An account by Dresden diarist Hans Robert Necker reads thus: ‘in a glade, rouged harlots and godless rapscallions all the while fornicated whilst others of low breeding covertly espied such dissolution from a thicket’.

Was his the first recorded instance of dogging?

In the 1850s, the newly built and still wholesome Crystal Palace stole Vauxhall’s thunder. Powering across viaducts that cut it off from the river and spewing soot over the gardens, steam trains stole Vauxhall’s punters, carrying them to the coast for a more modern away-day thrill. In 1859, the gardens closed, their contents auctioned off for £800. To commemorate the Pleasure Gardens, in 2012 two illuminated pillars were erected at a former entrance behind The Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

Their inauguration was attended by one of that hostelry’s former artistes, Lily Savage, a latter-day rouged and bewigged strumpet whose own lady garden once gave pleasure to the masses, according to her alter ego Paul O’Grady.

! marble maestro In the 1740s, a statue of composer Handel in his dressing gown and slippers presided over the entrance

COMPLETELY 路 IRREVERENT 路 43

completelylondon.co.uk

COMPLETELY · IMMERSED · 69

PHOTOGRAPHY: JULIA ODORISIO

WATER LONDON’S LIFE FORCE

120 years of Tower Bridge p70 A wild swimmer p74 Crossness: pump action p76 Umbrellas of Holborn p82

kfh.co.uk

70 · COMPLETELY · SUSPENDED

Like a bulky bouncer monitoring entry to the central section of the Thames, Tower Bridge has been faithfully minding London’s maritime gap for 120 years this year.

Simon Lewis finds out more about this towering titan

! leap of faith In 1952 a red London bus jumped a three-foot gap as the bridge started to lift after a traffic light got stuck on green Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

PHOTOGRAPHY / ILLUSTRATION: FABIENNE RIVORY

COMPLETELY · SUSPENDED · 71

! don’t look down The Tower Bridge walkways will be open for weddings from this summer at a cost of £6,000 plus catering kfh.co.uk

72 · COMPLETELY · SUSPENDED

T

he highest visitors can go on Tower Bridge is the Level Four walkways, 43m in the air. From Level Five, the staff-only turret level, you can step onto a tiny, crenellated balcony and see the Olympic Park in one direction and Wembley in another. Put your hand on the roof – its lead scored with ancient graffiti – and you can feel the vibrations when the bridge goes up, or the sway of the tower in a high wind. This is where Adam Blackwell comes for a bit of fresh air.

Yorkshire-born Adam has been Exhibition Manager of Tower Bridge since 2011, overseeing 90 staff on the only tourist attraction in the world where the duties involve lifting 1,200 tonnes of road into the air 900 times a year. (They’re paid, by the way, from a 1,000-year-old fund started by monks in a riverside tollbooth, now worth £850 million.)

Adam’s office is in the North Tower and, until last year, if he missed the last train he was able to stay in a grace-and-favour flat inside the bridge – once the Bridge Master’s residence but from this year destined to be a classroom. Adam’s is a unique London job, but one not without its downsides.

‘We get illegal traders, con artists, protesters,’ says Adam.

‘There’s obviously the threat of terrorism, which we train for.

Then there are suicides, about 20 a year. The police respond within two minutes, but it’s very rare to survive because the current is so strong.’ Adam’s team is trained to recognise potential jumpers by their body language. ‘They’re instructed to keep back and keep them talking, though one man rugby-

tackled a jumper and got a commendation from the police.’

Then there’s the machinery, no longer steam-powered but still using the same titanic cogs and gears installed in 1894. ‘When a bearing snapped last year, there were only two men in the world who knew how to fix it,’ Adam says.

‘They used a huge five-foot spanner that had been hanging on the wall for 120 years.’ The bridge has only failed once – briefly – when summer heat made it expand. ‘Generally it’s up and down in five minutes.’

It hasn’t been a dull three years. Adam’s seen stuntman Robbie Maddison jump the raised bridge on a motorbike. He’s witnessed a helicopter fly under it for the Olympic opening ceremony. And he’s watched Bill Clinton get stranded on one side of it while his motorcade was on the other. (‘River traffic takes precedence over road traffic,’ Adam proudly says.) And he’s watched the Queen sail beneath it for the Diamond Jubilee Pageant – having almost killed himself a few hours earlier changing the duvet-sized flags on top of the bridge. ‘I came in early that morning because they were looking a bit grubby,’ he says. ‘I normally don’t mind going out on the roof but it was wet and windy and I nearly lost the Union Jack, which would have been embarrassing.’

So what’s the best thing about working here? ‘I like it when the Royal Navy comes through and the sailors stand to attention,’ Adam says. ‘But the best thing is pointing to this global landmark and saying, “See that? That’s my office.”’

! health and safety When David Bowie asked for a private tour of the bridge, he said the bascule chambers under the river would be perfect for a gig Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · SCENIC · 73

For more flats that make the most of the riverside, visit kfh.co.uk

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT

1

Peaceful and picturesque, a Thames-side location adds an extra special dimension to any home.

To buy 1 Strand on the Green, W4 With picture-postcard views over the Thames and Kew Bridge, this riverside five bedroom, three bathroom house is part of the prestigious Strand on the Green. £1,550,000 Paul Cooney at KFH Chiswick 020 8987 0090, pcooney@kfh.co.uk

2 Rotherhithe Street, SE16

2

3

With two balconies from which to enjoy fantastic views over the Thames to the Shard and Tower Bridge, this three bedroom, two bathroom property has allocated parking. £795,000 Chris Early at KFH Surrey Quays 020 7231 3800, cearly@kfh.co.uk

3 Rotherhithe Street, SE16

4

This smart and modern two bedroom riverside apartment has a private balcony offering views over the Thames to Canary Wharf. £575,000 Chris Early at KFH Surrey Quays 020 7231 3800, cearly@kfh.co.uk

To rent 4 Surrey Quays Road, SE1 This is a furnished two bedroom, two bathroom apartment in the exclusive Ontario Tower, which offers underground heating, parking, access to a residents’ gym and communal roof terrace. £2,145pcm Lucy Metcalfe at KFH Surrey Quays 020 7237 3222, lmetcalfe@kfh.co.uk

Completely London

74 · COMPLETELY · AFLOAT

LONDONERS IN THEIR ELEMENT: WATER

WET AND WILD Lane swimming is lame swimming, says Sefryn Penrose.

Whether lido, lake, pond, sea or river, this open-water swimmer wants in, and she’s making London her liquid playground

! seal the deal Sammy the Canary Wharf seal had been dropping into Billingsgate for a free fishy lunch every day for the past 10 years Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

COMPLETELY · AFLOAT · 75

PHOTOGRAPHY: LEVON BISS, MEN’S BATHING POND ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH

SEFRYN PENROSE, WILD SWIMMER

L

ooking back’, says Sefryn Penrose, ‘it may have been learning how to “safety roll” a capsized canoe within sight of Battersea Power Station and MI6 with watersports charity Westminster Boating Base many years ago that first made me mad for swimming in the Thames.’

Sefryn has always preferred her swims sans roof. In 2006 she joined the Outdoor Swimming Society, a group set up in response to burgeoning interest in rejecting the chlorinated confines of indoor pools and safely and sociably reclaiming rivers, lakes and seas as our communal aquatic playgrounds.

‘There’s something so elemental about complete bodily immersion in natural water that has a bank or shore rather than the kind of concrete boundary that delineates so much of modern life,’ she says. ‘It’s a kind of reclaiming of the self, and our overregulated environment.’ Back then, Sefryn was one of around 300 OSS members. Today there are more than 16,000 and the society’s online Wild Swim Map identifies

some 27 open-water swim sites around Greater London.

A regular visitor to Oxford, where she has been studying for a PhD, Sefryn took on the running of the local OSS chapter in 2010 and, after a particularly invigorating winter dip in the frost-fringed Thames, conceived with her co-bathers the idea of swimming the river’s whole length in stages. They started fortnightly swims in April 2011 and 17 months and 150 miles later, reached Teddington obelisk. That point marks the end of the non-tidal Thames and, given the legal complications of swimming further, their final destination – for now at least.

‘I’ve taken tentative dips off Vauxhall beach, before it was outlawed, so I had an idea what to expect,’ Sefryn says. ‘The inner-city experience wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but I loved the rogue feeling of swimming where crowds of people are walking or in cars. As we swam, we encountered an evangelical church doing baptisms. I thought, “Here we are then. Hello London!”’ · rupert mellor outdoorswimmingsociety.com

! ebb and flow The Romans founded Londinium around the River Walbrook in the City of London. The choked, filthy river was paved over in the 1460s kfh.co.uk

76 · COMPLETELY · ENGINEERED

PUMP IT UP

Left to rust for 80 years, the glorious cast-iron cathedral that is Crossness Pumping Station is being diligently restored by a devoted crew of volunteers, writes Ellie Fazan

O

ur host for the day is volunteer Dave Coles.

The further he drives us from Abbey Mills station in south-east London, past postapocalyptic-style 1960s high rises, the more end-of-the-worldish the landscape becomes. Although, as he points out, Crossrail is coming. We’re heading for the bleak riverside outcrop that’s home to Crossness Pumping Station that a group of retired engineers and other enthusiasts have spent over 30 years restoring.

The world’s first sewage plant, Crossness opened in 1865 and marked a turning point in the history of London and the world. Before that, the city wallowed quite literally in its own shit. Conditions were abhorrent. The Thames bubbled with effluence, disease was rampant and the odour repulsive. So bad was it that in the summer of 1858, plans were put in place to evacuate Parliament because of the smell.

The surrounding site, owned by Thames Water, is still home to a working sewage plant and all of south London’s human waste comes here – 275,000 million gallons of it is treated and incinerated here daily.

It’s easy to smell why the Victorians chose such a remote location. Dave laughs. ‘When the wind blows in the wrong direction, it can get quite ambient.’

But the smell and the subject matter belie the unexpected beauty of this place that was built as a solution to the city’s Great Stink. It’s a glorious castiron cathedral, a marvellous feat of engineering that came about when a competition was launched and the finest Victorian minds were called upon to solve the Capital’s rancid problem. The solution came in the form of Joseph Bazalgette’s system of intercepting sewers, with giant steam-powered pumps built by James Watt and Co. on the north and south sides of the river. These giant engines would pump waste into the Thames on an outgoing tide.

An outstanding achievement, the sheer scale of the pumping station is impressive even by today’s standards. The pumps remain the largest of their type anywhere in the world. Each flywheel weighs 52 tonnes and there are four of them, regally named Victoria, Prince Consort, Albert Edward and Alexandria.

! cleaning up our act Raw sewage was still being dumped at the mouth of the Thames as recently as 1999 Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

76 · COMPLETELY · PUMPED

‘every bit has to be done by hand, filing rust off with lathes and emery files’

! new town The on-site sewage workers at Crossness formed a community and had their own school, formal gardens and cricket team Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

PHOTOGRAPHY:ADRIAN BRISCOE

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Such was the pride and pomp with which it was opened that Prince Albert himself first started the engines of the pump that bore the name of his father, The Prince Consort, as the Royal Marines band played. The plant succeeded in cleaning up the city, by 1870 there was only one further outbreak of cholera in London.

‘The Victorians weren’t like us. They approached everything from the point of view of form as well as function,’ explains Simon Hodges, one of the retired engineers who volunteers here. ‘Yes, it had to work, but it had to look good too. These days you think, why would you go to so much trouble for poo?’

Despite this illustrious past, the pumps were abandoned in favour of diesel in the 1940s. In the 1950s, the basement was filled with sand and concrete, and vandals stripped the machinery of its brass. The Crossness monster was left to the elements. ‘The whole place was covered in 80 years of decay, grime and pigeon poo,’ explains Simon. Their mission is to bring the beast back to life. It’s a painstaking task with personal pride and satisfaction as a reward. ‘We get paid in tea and coffee,’ says Dave. ‘But the average age here is 72, so that’s fine with us. I’m nearly 60 and they call me “young man”!’

The oldest volunteer is 94. ‘Harry has been coming here every Tuesday and Sunday since the beginning.

This place gets under your skin,’ Simon explains. He’s been coming himself for 10 years. ‘I tried to take a sabbatical once, but was back within three weeks.’

The restoration has so far taken 30 years: 18 years to get Prince Consort up and running and probably another 10 before Victoria sees action again. ‘Imagine what it was like when they first started: just a handful of volunteers with a spade, some spanners and the idea they could restore it. That’s a bigger vision than the bloke who built it in the first place.’

Aside from the intricate beauty emerging from under the years of rust, the sheer scale is awesome. On open days members of the public are agog. ‘They are amazed by this 150-year-old technology,’ says Simon.

The Crossness Engines Trust hopes to open as a museum some time next year. Sadly two of the pumps will never work again; their rusted arms lie dormant. ‘They’re like sleeping dinosaurs,’ Simon says affectionately. ‘But it’s good to leave them – so you can appreciate how much work it’s been to wake the others.’

Open five times a year to the public, crossness.org.uk

! new town The on-site sewage workers at Crossness formed a community and had their own school, formal gardens and cricket team kfh.co.uk

80 · COMPLETELY · YOURS

Find a KFH service KFH RESIDENTIAL SALES AND LETTINGS BALHAM 124 Balham High Road, SW12 9AA Sales: 020 8675 1123 sba@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8675 3639 lbc@kfh.co.uk BATTERSEA 108 Northcote Road, SW11 6QP Sales: 020 7228 2666 sbc@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7228 8688 lbp@kfh.co.uk BATTERSEA PARK 242 Battersea Park Road, SW11 3BP Sales: 020 7924 1944 sbp@kfh.co.uk BAYSWATER 23 Leinster Terrace, W2 3ET Sales: 020 7724 1222 sbw@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7563 5090 lbw@kfh.co.uk

BECKENHAM Albemarle Road, BR3 5HZ Sales: 020 8650 8268 sbe@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8658 8443 lbe@kfh.co.uk

BROMLEY 1 High Street, BR1 1LF Sales: 020 8460 6066 sbr@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8464 5353 lbr@kfh.co.uk

EALING 45 The Mall, W5 3TJ Sales : 020 8799 3890 sel@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8799 3899 lel@kfh.co.uk

HIGHGATE 58 Highgate High Street, N6 5HX Sales: 020 8341 6666 shi@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8342 7030 lhi@kfh.co.uk

BROOK GREEN 134 Shepherd’s Bush Road, W6 7PB Sales: 020 3542 2020 sbg@kfh.co.uk

CHISLEHURST 57 High Street, BR7 5AF Sales: 020 8285 9900 sch@kfh.co.uk

EARLSFIELD 517-519 Garratt Lane, SW18 4SW Sales: 020 8944 6464 sea@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8875 2980 lea@kfh.co.uk

HOLLAND PARK 128 Holland Park Avenue, W11 4UE Sales: 020 3542 2111 shp@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 3542 2120 lhp@kfh.co.uk

CHISWICK 163-165 Chiswick High Road, W4 2DT Sales: 020 8987 0090 sck@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8987 0099 lck@kfh.co.uk

EAST DULWICH 107-109 Lordship Lane, SE22 8HU Sales: 020 8299 8800 sed@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8299 8980 led@kfh.co.uk

ISLINGTON 298 Upper Street, N1 2TU Sales: 020 7226 2487 sis@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7359 3636 lis@kfh.co.uk

FINCHLEY 767-769 High Road, N12 8JY Sales: 020 8970 7856 sfi@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8980 7858 lfi@kfh.co.uk

KENNINGTON 292-294 Kennington Road, SE11 4LD Sales: 020 7582 7773 ske@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7582 4040 lke@kfh.co.uk

FOREST HILL 7a Dartmouth Road, SE23 3HN Sales: 020 8699 1596 sfh@kfh.co.uk

KINGSTON 55-59 Fife Road, KT1 1SF Sales: 020 8939 8191 ski@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8939 8181 lki@kfh.co.uk

CLAPHAM 44 Abbeville Road, SW4 9NF Sales: 020 8675 5436 scs@kfh.co.uk CLAPHAM COMMON 30 The Pavement, SW4 0JE Sales: 020 3700 8555 scc@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 3700 6300 lcc@kfh.co.uk CROUCH END 36-37 Topsfield Parade, N8 8PT Sales: 020 8348 8181 sce@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8341 1110 lce@kfh.co.uk

BELSIZE PARK 38 England’s Lane, NW3 4UE Sales: 020 7483 4302 sbz@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7586 9006 lbz@kfh.co.uk

FULHAM 29 Effie Road, SW6 1EN Sales: 020 7731 0051 sfb@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7736 6737 lfb@kfh.co.uk

BLACKHEATH 25-27 Montpelier Vale, SE3 0TJ Sales: 020 8852 9451 sbl@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8297 0181 lbl@kfh.co.uk

CRYSTAL PALACE 15-17 Westow Hill, SE19 1TQ Sales: 020 8766 5920 scp@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8766 5930 lcp@kfh.co.uk

HAMMERSMITH 180 King Street, W6 0RA Sales: 020 8563 9633 shm@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8563 9889 lhm@kfh.co.uk

LONDON BRIDGE 44-48 Borough High Street, SE1 1XW Sales: 020 3465 9230 sbo@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 3465 9240 lbo@kfh.co.uk

BROCKLEY 355 Brockley Road, SE4 2AG Sales: 020 8469 0202 sbk@kfh.co.uk

DULWICH VILLAGE 39 Dulwich Village, SE21 7BN Sales: 020 8299 4499 sdv@kfh.co.uk

HAYES 4 Station Buildings, BR2 7EN Sales: 020 8462 2246 shy@kfh.co.uk

MARYLEBONE 235-237 Baker Street, NW1 6XE Sales: 020 7486 5551 sbs@kfh.co.uk

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

LEE 1 Station Approach, SE12 0AB Sales: 020 8857 9494 sle@kfh.co.uk

… we’ll be raising the city’s rafters and having a rare old time in our next issue

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward

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The team MUSWELL HILL 206 Muswell Hill Broadway, N10 3SA Sales: 020 8883 0123 smh@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8883 2340 lmh@kfh.co.uk PECKHAM 48 Peckham Rye, SE15 4JR Sales: 020 7639 2029 spe@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7635 0034 lpe@kfh.co.uk PUTNEY 1 Putney Hill, SW15 6BA Sales: 020 8780 0033 sph@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8785 3433 lph@kfh.co.uk RAYNES PARK Station Buildings, Coombe Lane, SW20 0JY Sales: 020 3542 2000 srp@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 3542 2010 lrp@kfh.co.uk SOUTHFIELDS 251-251B Wimbledon Park Road, SW19 6NW Sales: 020 8871 9655 ssf@kfh.co.uk SOUTHGATE 83 Chase Side, N14 5BU Sales: 020 8882 3333 sso@kfh.co.uk ST JOHN’S WOOD 41-47 Barrow Hill Road, NW8 7AH Sales: 020 7586 8001 sjw@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7586 8817 ljw@kfh.co.uk STREATHAM 1 Leigham Court Road, SW16 2ND Sales: 020 8769 8744 sst@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8769 3337 lst@kfh.co.uk

SURREY QUAYS Redriff Road, SE16 7LR Sales: 020 7231 3800 ssq@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7237 3222 lsq@kfh.co.uk TOOTING 58-60 Tooting High Street, SW17 0RN Sales: 020 8767 1400 sto@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8767 2666 lto@kfh.co.uk WEST DULWICH 113 Rosendale Road, SE21 8EZ Sales: 020 8761 0900 swd@kfh.co.uk WEST HAMPSTEAD 199a West End Lane, NW6 2LJ Sales: 020 7328 2238 swh@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 7604 5150 lwh@kfh.co.uk WEST PUTNEY 81-83 Lower Richmond Road, SW15 1EU Sales: 020 8785 2122 slp@kfh.co.uk WEST WICKHAM 76 High Street, BR4 0NH Sales: 020 8777 2381 sww@kfh.co.uk WIMBLEDON 49 Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19 7QW Sales: 020 8944 4000 swm@kfh.co.uk Lettings: 020 8944 4040 lwm@kfh.co.uk

RESIDENTIAL LETTINGS AND MANAGEMENT Lettings Management KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2100 llm@kfh.co.uk Lettings Client Accounts KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2110 lca@kfh.co.uk Lettings Renewals KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2190 lrd@kfh.co.uk

CHARTERED SURVEYORS Greater London KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2040 surveyors@kfh.co.uk SURVEYORS ALSO COVERING: Bedfordshire, Birmingham, Cambridge, Essex, Gloucester, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Oxford, South Wales, Suffolk, Surrey 0800 328 8898 surveyors@kfh.co.uk

FINANCIAL SERVICES Greater London KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2068 smoody@kfh.co.uk

LAND AND NEW HOMES Greater London 180 King Street, W6 0RA 020 8222 7200 newhomes@kfh.co.uk South East Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Redriff Road, Surrey Quays, SE16 7LR 020 7740 2640 newhomesse@kfh.co.uk

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2090 commercial@kfh.co.uk

BLOCK MANAGEMENT Nelson House, 58 Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19 7PA 020 3542 0200 propman@kfh.co.uk

HEAD OFFICE KFH House, 5 Compton Road, SW19 7QA 020 8739 2000 ho@kfh.co.uk

Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward is the trading name of Kinleigh Limited, registered in England 913323.

Registered office: KFH House, 5 Compton Road London, SW19 7QA

The prices of properties featured for sale and to let in this publication are believed to be correct at the time of going to press. Before arranging to view any of the featured properties, please contact the relevant KFH office to establish whether or not they are still available, the current asking price and, in the case of properties to let, whether or not they are furnished. Any internal photographs are intended as a guide only and it should not be assumed that any of the furniture/ fittings are included in any sale or letting.

editorial Creative director Jules Rogers Editorial director Sarah Bravo Group editor Kitty Finstad Editor Donna Hardie ·email· donna@completelylondon.co.uk Art director Richard Murray Chief sub editor Janetta Willis Assistant editor Miranda Thompson Picture editor Clare Limpus Production manager David Sharman Creative consultant for KFH Stuart Youngs at Purpose Contributors Timothy Allan, Keith Barker-Main, Levon Biss, Adrian Briscoe, Nick Clarke, Antony Crolla, Abigail Edwards, Dan Funderburgh, Sam Grigg, Frank Herholdt, Jessie Hewitson, Simon Lewis, Dominic Lutyens, Rupert Mellor, Paddy Mills, Paul Mitchell, Julia Odorisio, Paul Raeside, Katherine Reilly, Fabienne Rivory, Ben Robertson, Kate Sutton, Ming Tang-Evans, Jessica Cargill Thompson, Martin Usborne, Peter Watts, Tim White Thanks to Laura Hill

publishing Managing director Mark Lonergan Account manager Heidi Smith Ad sales 020 7749 3300, KFHads@ augustmedia.com Published by August Media Ltd, Zetland House, Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ. 020 7749 3300. info@augustmedia.com

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PHOTOGRAPHY: TIM E WHITE

82 · COMPLETELY · WATER RESISTANT

BROLLY GOOD Umbrella specialist James Smith & Sons has a long history of providing Londoners with protection against the elements

that it is a ‘typical high-class late Victorian or Edwardian shop and as such is a rare survival in London’. The shop has been occupied by James Smith & Sons since 1867 and while there have been some hen you first stumble upon updates – a new till, electric lighting – James Smith & Sons, it’s much of the façade and interior date to tempting to believe you have slipped through a timewarp and landed that time. ‘There have been some changes in Victorian London. The plate windows but not many,’ says owner Robert Harvey.

‘A few years ago we spent a considerable of the New Oxford Street shop are amount refurbishing the shop and on the crowded with umbrellas and walking day we opened a customer came in, sticks, while the polished frontage of looked around and said, “I thought you carved mahogany, brass, enamel and were having it redecorated?”’ engraved glass boasts that James Smith Fittingly for such a classic-looking shop, & Sons was ‘Established 1830’.

James Smith & Sons, which is still owned The interior is every bit as spectacular by descendants of the original James as the outside, and English Heritage has listed the whole thing at Grade II*, noting Smith, specialises in the very British trade

W

of umbrellas and canes. The umbrella is still a key piece of kit for the wellequipped Londoner in this most rainy of cities, and an umbrella from James Smith & Sons (many of which are made on site) is as desirable as a suit from Savile Row. They also once sold items like swordsticks and swagger sticks – according to legend, one American customer asked for walking sticks made from every English wood possible and received more than 70.

But while the appearance remains Victorian, the attitude is very modern.‘We try to retain that original character,’ says Harvey, ‘not as a museum piece but as an example of 19th-century commercialism in the 21st century.’ · peter watts james-smith.co.uk

! lethal weapon In 1978 Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated on Waterloo Bridge by an assailant using a poison-tipped umbrella Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward