Writing in Country Life in 1997, the magazine’s then-Architectural Editor the late Giles Worsley referred to stately Grade I-listed Trafalgar Park, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, as ‘the Flying Dutchman of the property world, endlessly seeking an owner and being sold on while the fabric slowly decayed’.
The fine country house built by John James of Greenwich in 1733 for City grandee Sir Peter Vandeput was nevertheless described as ‘an estate agent’s dream, a house that always seemed to come back on the market’.
On the gentle slope of Richmond Hill, Grade I-listed The Wick is a secret Georgian paradise that feels like a country house, albeit hopping distance from the heart of the capital, enjoying as it does the only view protected by an Act of Parliament.
Lush terraced gardens meander down to an idyllic swimming pool and pool house, with the Thames elegantly curving in the distance.
Location: Richmond, or the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames, is an affluent district that boarders the River Thames. It is approximately 10 miles from central London. It has both national and city rail links, with Richmond rail station and Richmond Underground station that offers District and Overground services.
Atmosphere: Richmond has a community feel, much similar to that of a village, rather than a borough on the outskirts of London. It benefits from a number of independent cafes, shops, restaurants, bars and pubs — many of which take advantage of the river-side setting.
Kilberry Castle is the epitome of historic Scottish Baronial Tower Houses— built in the 15th century, it has undergone everything from a pirate attack, being besieged during the 1643-1645 civil war, to almost being destroyed by a fire.
In 1550, the Campbell family acquired the Kilberry lands and the castle has, quite amazingly, stayed in the same family ever since.
Today, the property is a gateway for stepping back in time. Yes, there are original open fireplaces, decorative cornicing and galleried landings, but in one of the 10 bedrooms is a museum-like shrine to the era.
In Camogli, an exclusive Ligurian town located just a few kilometers from the renowned Portofino, there is this majestic property in a fantastic position with a stunning view of the sea for sale. Located in one of the most enchanting areas of the Gulf of Tigullio, with panoramic views of Liguria’s crystal-blue sea and the mountains, this house is surrounded by a large terraced park that measures 4,000 square meters and features centuries-old trees, fruit trees, a romantic rose garden, and a fantastic, perfectly-equipped panoramic swimming pool offering views of the Riviera.
Camogli is a fishing village and tourist resort located on the west side of the peninsula of Portofino, on the Golfo Paradiso in the Riviera di Levante, in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, Liguria, northern Italy. As of 30 April 2017 its population was of 5,332.
Owned by the vendors for 20 years or more, elegant, Edwardian Plas Penhelig, was built in 1908. It stands in just under 12½ acres of gardens, paddocks and woodland and boasts ‘six different views over the picturesque Dyfi estuary’.
Thanks to the waters of the Gulf Stream, rare plants and flowers flourish in Plas Penhelig’s sheltered valley, where the hillside is planted with a mass of shrubs, flowers and trees—from peonies and azaleas to camellias, magnolias, lavender, laburnum, lilac trees and a monkey puzzle.
Everything about Avon Court has a opulent yet whimsical air about it — from the large wrought iron entrance gates, to the mature Willow tree in the garden that leads down to a mooring on a private stretch of river.
Avon Court’s glorious setting on a bend of the Avon — with private frontage, a mooring beside a lovely willow and dipping opportunities through the bull rushes on hot days — is hard to beat.
Julien Cohen’s first home was carved into the side of a hill in La Roque Gageac, a troglodytic village stacked against a sheer cliff. He spent 5 years in this sliver of a home where the stone face is everywhere: as the ceiling of his closet and shower, behind the refrigerator, and in the wall looming over the bed. During the Hundred Year’s War,
La Roque Gageac, was one of the few towns that never fell to the English, thanks to a fort perched on the cliff at the top of town whose only access is a tiny staircase (It still stands). The views from the cliff are panoramic perspectives on the Dordogne River and surrounding castles; this is an area Henry Miller called the “Frenchman’s paradise”. Here, Cohen lived for five years until his growing family made the small space too difficult.
La Roque Gageac is one of France’s most beautiful villages. In a stunning position on the north bank of the Dordogne River, and backed by a steep hill / cliff, with little to suggest that much has changed there in the last 300 years, La Roque-Gageac is truly the perfect picture postcard village. It is about 8km from the historic town of Sarlat.
Elton Hall, near Peterborough, is a house of many faces. It is formal and Classical on the approach, yet reveals on inspection a complex architectural history stretching back to the Middle Ages. All this with gardens that extend and frame it with a kind of painterly stillness. Inside, the house has one of the best private art collections in the East of England.
John Goodall
June 27, 2021
As it survives today, the house bears the stamp of important changes undertaken from 1857 by Granville Proby, the 3rd Earl of Carysfort, which is remarkable, given that he was 74 when he inherited the estate in 1855. He had grown up on the family’s Glenart estates in Co Wicklow, Ireland, fought at the Battles of the Nile and Trafalgar asa naval officer and later rose to the rank of Admiral. What inspired him to undertake this work is not now clear, but it may have been the poor condition of the building.
The architect he chose was Henry Ashton, a pupil of Smirke who served as an assistant to Sir Jeffry Wyatville from 1828 during the latter’s transformation of Windsor Castle (and who edited Wyatville’s posthumously published Illustrations Of Windsor Castle, 1841). It must have been through Windsor that Ashton caught the eye of the anglophile Willem II (Prince of Orange until 1840), who commissioned him, in 1838, to design a summer palace at the Hague. Nothing came of the project.
The house reveals itself slowly. On a remote stretch of the Dominican Republic coast, a stone footpath winds its way through a dense landscape of old-growth trees, zamia, and native flowers. Gradually, a timber structure comes into focus, its undulating form seemingly afloat above the jungle floor.
Only upon stepping past that wood-clad volume, under a 70-foot-wide span and up into the central courtyard, do you see the ocean.
That progression is all expert choreography on the part of architect Bryan Young, principal of the Brooklyn-based studio Young Projects and nowadays very much a name to know. “Every decision facilitates the experience of the landscape,” he notes of the property, which includes two additional houses of his design. One is a low-slung string of four adjoining stucco bungalows, the other a monolithic enigma—chamfered at the corners and covered in graphic, almost pixelated tile, earning it the name Glitch House. Together this trio of buildings provides the ultimate escape, a place for friends and extended family to come together and decompress, as envisioned by his intrepid clients, Mike and Sukey Novogratz, a New York City couple with wellness on the brain.
Life’s A Beach takes readers into beach homes around the world – from the hills of New Zealand to beaches of Brazil to the remote islands of the Aegean – exploring the many ways to decorate a cozy home by the sea.
Handmade touches, natural materials and eclectic interiors all imbue a sense of wellbeing, and are found throughout the homes in Life’s a Beach. From humble little beach cottages to extraordinary modern bungalows, these spaces are designed for respite and relaxation, and for enjoying the beachy surrounds.
Boomers Daily 