For all the benefits there are in buying a brand new home, it may not occur to many of us that there is more to a new development than simply building and apartments, and that the history of a site and any retained buildings can add a significant ‘extra’ as a place to live.
We recently took a look at some developments around London which all have an interesting story behind them, be it industrial, social or cultural, but there’s plenty to tell about sites across the country. So this time, we’ve discovered a number of developments of different sizes where housebuilders are bringing elements of the past into the new homes and communities they are creating.
In Stannington, just south of the Northumbrian market down of Morpeth, Bellway is working on Stannington Mews at a former ‘lunatic asylum’ site, which opened in 1914. It was requisitioned for military use in both World Wars and eventually closed in 1995. With some 300 new build homes being delivered, the Grade II listed, former hospital chapel has been restored to become a new village hall and one of the old hospital administrative buildings is a gastropub called St Mary’s Inn. The new development offers one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, and three- and four-bedroom townhouses arranged around landscaped green spaces. Prices currently start from £131,995.
Stannington Mews
Haseley Manor is a Grade II listed, 19th-century manor house dating back to 1873, which is situated in a medieval deer park around four miles north-west of Warwick and previously owned by Richard I, Henry VIII and Mary Tudor. Spitfire Bespoke Homes has restored its Gothic and Elizabethan-style splendour and converted it into 12 apartments which themselves retain original features such as beams, windows and brickwork. These are set within landscaped grounds and provide uninterrupted views across the surrounding Warwickshire countryside. The development also includes a grand private drive, formal courtyard and terraced lawns, landscaping and footpaths throughout the parkland environment in addition to nine brand new houses. Apartments are available from £600,000.
Haseley Manor
A Gold winner at the WhatHouse? Awards 2018, The Playfair at Donaldson’s is a landmark development from specialists City & Country which is bringing a new life to a much-loved Category A building on the western boundary of the Edinburgh World Heritage Site. The creation of a Hospital for Boys and Girls was bequeathed by wealthy printer and publisher James Donaldson in 1830. Eminent architect William Henry Playfair designed it and construction took place between 1842-51. It’s now become a collection of apartments providing a range if appealing views, from a panoramic sweep across the city and the Pentland Hills, to an attractive internal courtyard, to sweeping lawns leading to period gate lodges. Prices range from £475,000 for a one-bedroom apartment to £1.55million for a three-bedroom penthouse.
The Playfair at Donaldson's
Donaldson's Hospital
As motoring became more popular between the wars so did ‘roadhouses’, destinations for drivers to head to for some fun. Eric Norman Bailey, famous for his cinema designs, brought ‘The Showboat’ to Maidenhead, Berkshire in the latest Art Deco style in the early 1930s. This offered a heady mix of nightclub and bars with outdoor features for sunbathing, swimming and sport. It won the nickname of “The Palm Beach of Maidenhead”. Though it lost its glamour to industrial use over the years, Inland Homes has restored style to the site and created Venue, a development of 39 one- and two-bedroom apartments which it launched in early March. Prices start at £310,000.
Venue
The Showboat on the site of Venue
On the books of Finest Properties at the moment is Tom’s Hideout, a recently converted cottage which was originally a fishermamen’s storage building. It overlooks the harbour in Craster, Northumberland, a village most renowned for its production of smoked kippers. This home comes with an outdoor patio area and off-street parking for two vehicles. It is currently for sale with another cottage, Maggie’s Den, for a combined price of £1.2million.
Tom's Hideout
The White Building @ Chapel Gate is the restoration by Barratt Homes of the former Eli Lilly factory in Basingstoke, known for its classic Art Deco entrance and windows. The original factory building was designed by notable pre-war industrial architect Arthur George Porri and opened in 1939, but it was made redundant by the pharmaceutical company in 2007. Subsequently it became neglected, falling prey to vandalism and the elements. The landmark building is now been sensitively transformed, with the preservation of and restoration of original period features, into 96 one- and two-bedroom apartments. Prices start from £210,995, with Help to Buy available.
The White Building
Eli Lilly factory which is becoming The White Building
In Houlton, just outside Rugby, Crest Nicholson is building Hansford Park, on the site of Rugby Radio Station – nothing to music, news and travel, but a pioneering radio tower than provided the first Public Telephone Service from Europe to the USA, and operated in top secret during World War II and The Cold War. The new community being created in this area has taken its name from the Houlton receiving station in Maine, of the east coast of the USA, which passed that first transmission from Rugby in 1927 and passed it on to New York. New homes coming here include one- and two-bedroom apartments, and two-, three- and four-bedroom houses. Available properties range from £165,950 to £421,950.
Hansford Park
Bellway is refurbishing listed buildings from their function as part of the Northumbria Police’s former headquarters to create 22 homes as part of its Ottermead at Jameson Manor development in Ponteland. These include the Superintendents’ House and a range of Grade II listed cottages built in the early 1900s to house children away from the Newcastle workhouses. Other buildings were opened in 1981 and while many were no longer considered ‘fit for purpose’, The Northern Communications Centre and Command Suite, which was added in 1999, will be retained. This is part of a larger development of 275 homes by a consortium of Bellway and Ashberry Homes. Prices at currently start at £124,495 for a two-bedroom home.
Ottermead at Jameson Manor