UK Housing Market
World Book Day -
3 homes with literary connections
Occupying a prominent position on Gertrude Street, Chelsea, is an impressive double-fronted new-build house, which is the first new home to be completed on the street in over 170 years and perfectly blends traditional styling, with generous lateral space and state-of-the-art home automation.
Gertrude Street, Chelsea
£5.35 million – Home with connections to Samuel Beckett
Occupying a prominent position on Gertrude Street, Chelsea, is an impressive double-fronted new-build house, which is the first new home to be completed on the street in over 170 years and perfectly blends traditional styling, with generous lateral space and state-of-the-art home automation.
The street has strong links to the literary community including poet and novelist George Meredith OM, whose presence is commemorated with a blue plaque. Meredith’s close friend and fellow novelist Thomas Hardy resided nearby on Hobury Street, whilst novelist and dramatist Samuel Beckett lived next door to this new home at 34 Gertrude Street in the 1930s. Beckett’s novel Murphy, published in 1938, is partly set in the local area.
23 Gertrude Street is available for £5.35 million through Maskells, contact on Tel: 0207 581 2216 or visit: www.maskells.com
The Pankhurst house at Newland Park – a 200-acre private gated development surrounding a Grade II listed mansion house in the Chalfonts, London (Zone 8) – provides exceptional private garden space, as well as access to the private landscaped grounds that have inspired some of the country’s finest literary minds.
Newland Park, Buckinghamshire £1.275 million – A place that inspired literary history
For the esteemed writers H.G Wells, George Bernard Shaw and John Milton, Newland Park served as the perfect place for peace and inspiration to translate their thoughts onto paper, using this exquisite setting as the backdrop for some of their most seminal works.
John Milton, who was known for his fascination with the wilderness and environment regularly walked the grounds of Newland Park, which is a short walk from a timber framed 16th Century cottage, that now bears his name, where he wrote the epic blank verse poem Paradise Lost.
Towards the beginning of the 20th century the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and English novelist H.G. Wells stayed at the mansion house at the heart of Newland Park, where Well’s used his time in the Chiltern countryside to complete short stories such as The Country of the Blind and The Door in the Wall.
Both stories draw on incredibly vivid descriptions of nature and the timeless beauty of the outdoors, which were undoubtedly inspired by the natural setting that surrounded the country manor at the heart of Newland Park.
Now a place to call home. The Pankhurst House is priced at £1.275 million the exceptional three/four-bedroom 2,045 sq. ft. semi-detached house provides a fresh twist on the traditional Chilterns country home with eye-catching brick façades, slate gable roofs and large windows that fill the interiors with natural light.
Blending perfectly with their rural surroundings, the houses benefit from generous, planted front gardens and large rear gardens with stylish part-patio part-landscaped lawns, as well as private off-street car parking and ample visitor parking, with electrical charging facilities.
This sensational two-bedroom penthouse crowns New Concordia Wharf, an iconic converted Victorian grain mill and warehouse, which will be recognised by fans of the silver screen as Fagin’s lair from the revered 1968 film Oliver! - an Oscar winning adaptation of Oliver Twist, one of Charles Dickens’ most celebrated novels.
The 1,700 sq. ft. waterfront property was the backdrop to numerous scenes featuring revered actor Ron Moody, whilst the building was derelict after its closure in the 1930s, who’s performance as Fagin in the musical epic was awarded one of the film’s five Academy Awards.
Dating back to 1882, New Concordia Wharf is the most authentic original former warehouses on the Tower Bridge waterfront and was first constructed as a grain warehouse and steam powered mill (taking its name from a small town in Kansas, USA, home to the building’s founder American tycoon, Seth Taylor).
New Concordia Wharf is directly opposite the former site of Foley’s ditch, a tidal ditch in London that was part of the boundary of Jacob's Island, a notorious slum and location used to hang petty criminals. It is this spot that was an inspiration for Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and where Fagin met his demise in the book.
Set across the fifth and sixth floors of New Concordia Wharf, with an extensive roof terrace that offers views onto the River Thames and across the water to Canary Wharf, this sizeable penthouse is one of New Concordia Wharf’s finest properties. A rare opportunity to own a piece of London’s history the home benefits from eye-catching features, such as bare brick walls, exposed wooden beams, arched windows and a fantastic vaulted ceiling on the upper floor.
Contact Anderson Rose on 020 3324 0188 or visit www.andersonrose.co.uk
