The Villa, a splendid Victorian home

Andrew Kay finds a splendid Victorian home is given an exciting new lease of life

Step on a train at Brighton Station and 14 minutes later you can be stepping off at Burgess Hill Station. From there to The Villa is a comfortable eight minute walk. Why am I telling you this? Because when you discover the price being asked for The Villa, the rest of the article may seem pretty unbelievable, a fairy story even.

I say fairy story because the owner, a lady of great imagination and skill, has the ability to spread a little magic into the properties that she restores – or should I say revitalises.

This time it’s a proud double fronted Victorian house on a grand scale – an impressive area covering 5,000sq ft in fact. There’s a hint of gothic, but not oppressively so, and the work already done (and now being completed), has given The Villa a lightness and sense of modernity. The large pebble drive, modern gates and walls add to this.

Inside the good work continues. Beneath the surface – rewiring and plumbing, on the surface – refurbishment and restoration, done with the deftest hand. Where appropriate, period details have been lovingly retained and restored or stylishly replaced. It’s an impressive vision of how an old property can be brought bang up to date without losing any of the character and in truth, increasing the character.

Reception rooms have lovely matched original fireplaces, bedrooms are given stunning modern en-suite bathrooms. And there are plenty of bedrooms too, with six in total, three of them with en-suite bathrooms. There are a further two family bathrooms. On the second floor there are two bedrooms, a bathroom and a room currently used as a games room. But it is easy to see that this floor could be used to contain a home office or indeed a self-contained suite of rooms for an adult family member. There really is a lot of space and a lot of potential – and nearly all of the hard work of modernisation has already been completed.

The restoration is only a part of the story, as this property has been brilliantly extended with a seamless transition from the old to the modern. On the ground floor to the rear, the owner has created a vast open space that combines cooking, dining and relaxing in vibrant and versatile ways. It’s both a party space and a family space – fun, whimsical but also practical. There is even a second utility kitchen, ideal when catering for really large parties.

Vast sliding windows open from this room onto a huge decked terrace where the space is subdivided by furniture into further ‘outdoor’ rooms, one for lounging and relaxing, one for dining. Beyond, there is a huge lawned garden surrounded by mature trees that add privacy, a raised vegetable bed and a vintage summer house.

The upper floor of the modern extension is equally, if not more stunning. The master suite is accessed from the first floor landing. A door leads into a beautifully lit corridor. To the left is yet another luxuriously glamorous bathroom, a study in monochrome. Ahead a door opens into a bedroom that for once, truly deserves the words ‘wow factor’. Double height, the main space is dominated by a striking Louis IV poster bed, created by British designer John Reeves, and two huge, dandelion-like pendant lights. Above in a minstrel’s gallery is the home gym and opposite a huge expanse of bi-fold glass doors, that pull back to access what the owner describes as her ‘Bali roof garden’, another massive terrace with vast sofas and a low table. It makes the word balcony seem utterly inadequate!

Throughout, the owner has expressed her skill at using colour, furnishing and accessorising any interior, from the serious to the flippant, from classical to modern. But much of this is surface dressing and any buyer would see that, on close inspection, all of the rooms are beautifully finished neutral canvasses on which they could make their own mark.

The Villa is a masterful re-invention of the Victorian family home, innovatively conceived, wittily interpreted and stylishly realised. As for the price, I am confident that for a property of this scale and quality, 14 minutes by train from Brighton, one would be looking at a figure twice as large.

> The Villa, Burgess Hill OIRO £1,200,000

Mishon Mackay
01273 834602
www.mishommackay.com