Haven or hell? – historic homes and the problems they throw up for their loving renovators

HAVEN OR HELL?

Ramsgate boasts a host of period properties built for the growing maritime workforce in Georgian times and wealthy Victorian promenaders. Today, all around town scaffolding attests to efforts being made by a new generation to ensure these sometimes careworn buildings last into the next era. Lynsey Fox seeks solace from others like her who have taken on the restoration challenge

Owning your own home is a privilege, and a historic home has seen generations come and go. The building might be home for now, but in its lifetime you are its custodian before the next inhabitants move in. For many like me, being part of that chain of history, unveiling past works and having the opportunity to care for and give new life to a home, is just the challenge we look for. Until, that is, it throws things at us we couldn’t have foreseen.

When I purchased my Eastcliff 1820s Grade II-listed home four years ago (lovingly dubbed “wonky house” due to its lopsided top floors) it was a dream come true. I had always wanted to live in a home with a rich history. I’ve spent many hours, wide-eyed, researching the lives of previous owners. James Foss was one I discovered through the British Newspaper Archive website, and learned he had unfortunately died at home. On 26 July 1929 the Thanet Advertiser ran with a headline that reads more like modern-day click bait: “Prophetic Words Precede Sudden Death.” Earlier that summer’s day Foss had remarked, “This heat will kill me.” I wonder if the weather also played havoc in other ways and if, like me, he had been awoken on stormy nights with rainwater dripping on his face from a leaking roof.

The rainwater problem has improved my knowledge of Georgian architecture. The featured sleek front elevation disguises an M or butterfly-shaped roof behind, where valley gutters send rainwater to internal pipes, which are all too easily blocked by leaves or seagull nest debris. If the gutters aren’t properly maintained, and when there is too much rain, water finds its way into the attic space and floors below. As I type, roofers are replacing rotten wood and cracked lead, but I won’t know until the next storm if it’s solved the problem once and for all.

RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD

 Illustration of the ‘Wonky House’ by Betty Boo Onion

@wonkyhouseramsgate

THE GHOSTS OF TENANTS PAST

Account director Anna became intrigued by a Georgian former commercial space with a beautiful frontage after going past it many times on the Loop bus on her visits from Margate, and realised it was for sale. The former milliners, tailors and hairdressers soon revealed some interesting surprises.

As a commercial space, the right care and attention hadn’t been given to maintaining the building, especially to preventing damp. The first job was to treat and waterproof the basement, leading to the discovery of two hidden vaulted spaces filled with a previous owner’s mouldy junk, all sealed up behind plasterboard. “The price of the damp-proofing almost tripled from what we thought it would be,” recalls Anna. Unfortunately no clues about the property’s history, which she is researching, could be found in the pile of old clothes and unwanted items. But a local medium has reported seeing an apparition of a Victorian carriage pulling up outside the house and a lady in a burgundy dress entering. Anna intends to investigate. ►

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Retired headteacher Sue purchased her West Cliff house ten years ago and discovered traces of how her Edwardian home once looked. When the old lathe and plaster was removed from the bedrooms, hand-painted wallpaper featuring delicate patterns of cherry blossom and Chinese lanterns was revealed. Sue created collages with the paper remnants, now framed and hung proudly in the house.

Other works have been less joyful, not least the oversized and draughty front windows. “It was a big headache deciding whether to go with warmer modern plastic replacements or retain the original wood,” says Sue. “Eventually I decided to honour the history of the house and managed to find a company to install double-glazed panes into the original wood sashes.” No easy task, it required a level of craftsmanship to fit the new doubleglazed panels in the original woodwork, and involved cutting a groove around each frame. Finally new weights and ropes were installed to rebalance the now much heavier windows. Sue now plans to add the original house name “Granville” to the pane above the door, to complete the look of the updated house frontage.

FRUITY HISTORY

Bethany Chater grew up in Ramsgate and has always lived in Victorian houses. So when she and her carpenter partner Dom Holloway bought in 2019 they knew they wanted an old doer-upper. However there were quite a few surprises, including asbestos in the chimney breast, dry rot in the original kitchen tongue-andgroove walls, and some very old and out of control cherry trees. The house was built in the 1860s, along with six other neighbouring houses, on what was once a cherry orchard. The large gardens still have part of the original walls, and some of the 160-year-old trees remain in neat rows. Upsettingly, one of the trees had to be removed from Bethany’s garden as it was causing a neighbour’s wall to bow and become unsafe. Patience is often required with a restoration project. “It’s our forever home,” says Bethany, “so we are taking the time to do it up and restore it carefully. We are lucky that Dom is a carpenter so we can do a lot of the work ourselves, however this always takes longer than you think.”

The upstairs bathroom is finished and features a cast-iron bath lovingly restored by Bethany – a place of calm among the building chaos. “The bathroom is the best and most luxurious room in the house,” she says. “I can lay in the bath and look out to the treetops full of parakeets, our family of dancing blue tits and the occasional bat flying past.”