Buildings, new or old?

[Ian H]

This Victorian pile, built by one Edmund White, is loads of work but has a certain character.
Conversely, a friend sold a vast troublesome old stone house & bought a well-built (by a small local builder) new property, larger than average & nicely proportioned.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I don't think you should conflate construction and design. There is good and bad construction at all periods of history. Where radical new materials or ways of construction are introduced, some of the pitfalls are not seen for decades later even if constructed 'properly'.

I'm a fan of the Georgian town-house, the Victorian terrace, Deco and the '30s semi.
I love mid-century design such as the Span house of which I'm a big fan (examples):
https://www.google.com/search?q=Spa...VxuHEKHQOKC0sQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1920&bih=979
And there is a wealth of great and imaginative modern designs out there IF you have the money:
https://www.themodernhouse.com/

What saddens me is that mass housing currently being built (and for the last X years) has looked backward not forward....

 

[Accy cyclist]

One of my favourite local houses has gone up for sale.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110817992#/?channel=RES_BUY


I know the previous tenant,so i've been in the house quite a few times. I was brought up on the street behind it. It has quite a history. A young lad i knew of committed suicide in there with a shotgun, after the cemetery warden's daughter ended their relationship. Then a few years ago it was used by Vietnamese cannabis growers,resulting in it being raided by the police and dope worth £500,000 discovered! No wonder the downstairs blinds were always drawn. The previous tenant i know told me that the drains have been affected by the heavy goods traffic using the main road it's next to and it needs a new roof...according to him.

Imagine how it'd be to live in a cemetery eh!

 

[Mark Grant]

One of my favourite local houses has gone up for sale.

View attachment 600803

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/110817992#/?channel=RES_BUY


I know the previous tenant,so i've been in the house quite a few times. I was brought up on the street behind it. It has quite a history. A young lad i knew of committed suicide in there with a shotgun, after the cemetery warden's daughter ended their relationship. Then a few years ago it was used by Vietnamese cannabis growers,resulting in it being raided by the police and dope worth £500,000 discovered! No wonder the downstairs blinds were always drawn. The previous tenant i know told me that the drains have been affected by the heavy goods traffic using the main road it's next to and it needs a new roof...according to him.

Imagine how it'd be to live in a cemetery eh!

You couldn't get a 1 bed studio for that around here!

 

[Accy cyclist]

You couldn't get a 1 bed studio for that around here!

If someone buys it and rents it out for the going rate around here for such a property of around £700 a month i'd be interested as i know a few who'd like to live there and share the rent,the community charge,the gas and electricity bill etc,but could i live with someone else?🤔

The answer to that is probably no. I'd like the place just to myself!

 

[Accy cyclist]

You couldn't get a 1 bed studio for that around here!

How much would that house be up for where you live?🤔

 

[Rusty Nails]

Talking about modern little identikit houses reminds me of the 150 year old ancient identikit terraced miners cottage that I lived in until I was 20.

Cramped rooms, almost non-existent foundations, draughts and damp everywhere, freezing in any room without a fire, icicles indoors on the bedroom windows in winter.

People forget about the slums that have had to be pulled down because of their poor standards.

Give me a Barrett's house on a modern estate any time, and even more so the greener, energy efficient housing available today.

Not everyone lived in large, well built Victorian or Edwardian villas.

Land availability has always affected house and garden sizes.

 

[Mark Grant]

How much would that house be up for where you live?🤔

If it was on a nice road near me in Hounslow borough, £600,00 ish.
If it was a mile or so away in a nice road in Hampton (London Borough of Richmond), getting on for 1.25 million.

 

[Deleted User]

Old building to look at, new building to own and to live in.

Depends, not once during the recent hot spell have we had difficulty sleeping as its so 'cool' in our house (ie freezing in Winter).

Maintenance is always ongoing but I prefer something a bit different to everything else in the street.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Our house (a semi) was built in 1899
According the paperwork that we got when we moved in, dating back to then!, it was built on a local brick manufacturers land, as a mixture of 'show-house' & managers accommodation
It's got a basement with (as it is now) 4 rooms (& an atic)
Painting the hallway/staircase is a pain, as the ceilings are just short of 12 foot (barring basement & kitchen)

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Everytime I go to Ilkley, I have to go & look at this, known as 'The White House'
A 1930s build, with a 10 year old (or so) 'replica' next door

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/71-curly-hill/ilkley/ls29-0ba/13769588/

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/25749621#/?channel=RES_BUY

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Equally, whenever I go to Castleford, I have to look at Chatelaine, just to imagine how it must have looked when it was first build, in such an industrial/coal-mining town!
Built for a local Doctor, she must have wanted a statement house
Whether a coupe of downstairs rooms were used as consulting rooms, I have no idea?

https://www.wowhaus.co.uk/2019/04/1...chard-art-deco-property-castleford-yorkshire/

https://www.themodernhouse.com/past...TtPcPG5c-woARBCPBHnthmNxXvU1vCjGY93avuAC2HsYg


View: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10217294830875072&set=a.10216637029910459

 

[Fnaar]

I went out with a woman in the 1980's who was from a family of dentists. Her parents lived in a 4 bedroom Victorian house up a private lane. Her brother lived in a similar house,but his had a kind of ornate tower with an all round view. His house also had a cellar and a spiral staircase,along with other such wonderful things of the time. I was so shocked to hear one day that he had sold this house to move into a 4 bedroom new build on a curtain twitching,'jam butty land' estate. I thought he had style and intelligence,but i kind of lost all respect for him when he moved to that brand new boring house.

I'd take some pics of his old house and post them,but it's 13 miles away and i ain't travelling that for to take a few photos.

Perhaps dentists like to "uproot" 😄
Was he called Phil McCavity

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Friends of mine, live in a rather nice converted 'Tower'
He; very good triathlete, & can generally podium in most age-group events (& held/still holds?) almost every age-group distance record for his running club, has also work GB colours in multi-national age-group events
She; a very good duathlete, & been a national champion (in age-group/federation - association)

It's known as two names, the Jubilee Tower & The Dovecote, and is at the edge of that villages graveyard

Whilst it wasn't derelict when they moved in, they've had a lot of work to do to it
I went just after it was finished (2019) and it's wonderful, as many of the old features that can be have been kept

 

[stephec]

Equally, whenever I go to Castleford, I have to look at Chatelaine, just to imagine how it must have looked when it was first build, in such an industrial/coal-mining town!
Built for a local Doctor, she must have wanted a statement house
Whether a coupe of downstairs rooms were used as consulting rooms, I have no idea?

https://www.wowhaus.co.uk/2019/04/1...chard-art-deco-property-castleford-yorkshire/

https://www.themodernhouse.com/past...TtPcPG5c-woARBCPBHnthmNxXvU1vCjGY93avuAC2HsYg


View: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10217294830875072&set=a.10216637029910459

Can't beat a bit of deco.