Surrey Homes | SH30 | April 2017 |Gardens supplement inside

have proudly framed in the downstairs loo.
The fact that the boarded-up property was so derelict and
rat infested the estate agent refused to step through the door
and they had to make their first inspection by torchlight
did nothing to put them off. “It was love at first sight,” says
Adrian. “It took us ten years to do it up on a very strict
budget, but it was so much fun. It was an adventure.”
The main structural work was to add a new two-storey
extension at the back to create the large kitchen/breakfast
room and two extra bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs.
“The original 1842 building, put up by an alms trust which
was created in 1611 to provide housing for the poor, was
built as two tiny houses with a shared staircase,” says Adrian.
“When we took it on, it was still set up as two dwellings, with
a flat-roofed 70s single storey extension at the back containing
two miniature kitchens and a bathroom. Luckily, the front is
listed but the ugly extension wasn’t so it was fine to knock that
down and start again. Although the outside loo is listed…”
The main feature of the lovely spacious new kitchen,
with French doors out onto the garden, is a huge
classic kitchen dresser, which Adrian’s parents bought
at an auction in Rye. “It was so big we had to have
it cut down to fit in the space,” says Sven.
Left: Gladys the mannequin stands in one corner of the kitchen
wearing a chic red cloche hat, made by Adrian Below: Major
Lynch – a male shop window dummy dressed in a guard’s uniform
and a crash helmet – stands next to a station map from a Jubilee
Line underground station. The Jubilee line station sign was bought
as a tribute to Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
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