Much as I like Victorian architecture.....

[Feltwell]

.. this one just doesn't do it for me at all. The front elevation just doesn't look right - too much of a mish-mash of different elements. But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder........

http://www.expressandstar.com/pictu...dteachers-home-could-be-your-castle-for-600k/

 

[Penners]

Ye Gods!! The architect (if architect there was) threw everything but the kitchen sink at that! (Oops - actually there's a kitchen sink, too!)

What a monstrosity!

 

[a twig]

I rather like it, a bit of tidying up of the greenery etc and it could look really smart.

For me the only thing that jars is the tower on the right, without that it would still be "busy" but just a bit more coherent. Interior looks nice.

 

[mims&pip]

We've driven past that house a few times since moving to the West Midlands. Pip and I both consider it rather interesting, but it definitely ranks in the OTT school of architecture :wink: An amazing price too.....it's unbelievable how cheap property is up here compared to darn sarth where we hail from.......and how here such property invariably sits on the market for ages, either as a result of being overpriced for the area or being unfashionably large/too characterful! A similar house would be approaching £1.5 million, even in need of work back in my home town - and as for London, well I'm sure I mentioned before that DS sold a 600 sq ft flat for the same price as our 2500 sq ft Wilts house in 2014 :shock:

 

[Feltwell]

Ye Gods!! The architect (if architect there was) threw everything but the kitchen sink at that! (Oops - actually there's a kitchen sink, too!)

What a monstrosity!

Come on Penners - say what you mean, don't hold back! :wink:

I agree by the way - looks that only a mother could love! It's the leaded lights for the stairway in the middle of the front elevation that get me - it's almost as if someone decided they would look great on the inside, and forgot what they would look like on the outside. The tower on the right looks as if the owner came on site one day as it was nearly finished and said "I fancy a tower, be a good chap and plonk one over there will you, do some sort of fancy round roof" to his builder.

But, what one person finds unattractive another will love, just as well for some of us!

 

[Feltwell]

.....it's unbelievable how cheap property is up here compared to darn sarth where we hail from.......

I'd argue the opposite way - it's unbelievable how expensive property is round here, let alone in many parts of "darn sarf". I do wonder how it can ever be affordable for those starting out now without a "Bank of Mum & Dad" to assist.

 

[Longdogs]

Ew No! Don't like it.

 

[plasticpigeon]

It's a bit mad, but there is a lot of stuff I like in there. I think it could be very nice but the tower and the entrance, which I assume also houses the stairs are messing it up a bit. I imagine the windows would have been leaded when built. That might make a difference. Nice materials and plenty of interest. Not elegant but I wouldn't be embarassed to call it my home if I had the means.

Round where I live property is affordable, but there is a shortage of nice places. I wish I had bought a bigger better more expensive place 4 years ago. perhaps I still can but stamp duty is a killer now. The biggest problem in the midlands is that lovely places are cheap enough to be bought by morons who just want a cheap big house, who then go about destroying everything of value about the property. Then incredibly when they sell, they can make a profit as there are a queue of morons with similarly crass tastes waiting to pounce.

 

[plasticpigeon]

The Wolverhampton house reminds me of a similarly syled property near me that has been bashed around a bit recently and will no doubt be converted to rubble when it is sold. However I think it is a nicer facade than the Wolverhampton house.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-55647146.html?premiumA=true

 

[Penners]

a similarly syled property near me

I'm afraid I can't agree that it's "similarly styled" at all, PP! Your choice is a very handsome Victorian property.

 

[88v8]

Oooooh, lovely. and the interior. Oooooooooooh.
Yes, all the windows should be leads, what twit put those picture windows in the tower!!
For me, two problems with the exterior - first the Dutch gables which look rather odd.
And secondly, yes, the tower. When new, with its copper roof glowing in the sun, it would have been fine, but it seems the architect forgot that copper goes green.
So cheap. Now if it were in Cornwall, or the Cotswolds where they speaks proper........

Ivor

 

[mims&pip]

Round where I live property is affordable, but there is a shortage of nice places. I wish I had bought a bigger better more expensive place 4 years ago. perhaps I still can but stamp duty is a killer now. The biggest problem in the midlands is that lovely places are cheap enough to be bought by morons who just want a cheap big house, who then go about destroying everything of value about the property. Then incredibly when they sell, they can make a profit as there are a queue of morons with similarly crass tastes waiting to pounce.

What we've noticed since moving here is that there are quite a few lovely, older, characterful residential buildings that get planning permission to demolish and start again. We actually considered moving to the area back in 2011 when moving from Essex - when we ended up buying the Georgian thatch in Wilts - and looked (online, not in person) at a lovely 1930s detached of around 3000 sq ft on a largish plot on the Bridgnorth road. I later discovered it sold for only 270k and was demolished, only to be replaced by something attempting to replicate it, but lacking all the character (and I guess the warren of smaller rooms) of the original :roll:

There is another much larger 'stockbroker Tudor' type house close by that was demolished last year and the replacement is now almost complete. It is a vast mansion of a house in a vaguely traditional style - ie, not the kind of contemporary structure you'd see going up somewhere like Poole - but I'm guessing it won't be a patch on the original building.

In our road (a Conservation Area with some very nice early-mid Victorian detached houses) there's a nine bedroom house on for 850k. Admittedly it's a plainish, 1950s house with very little to recommend it, but a few years back it was apparently granted planning permission to demolish and replace with three smaller detached houses. It's very obviously overpriced as it's been for sale in excess of five years :shock: Round the corner a very charming, unmodernised 1930s bungalow on a huge plot was last year pulled down and three fairly large detached three-storey homes are in the process of being built. For once, the exteriors of these look to be reasonably characterful, with a nod to the local vernacular style and hints of Arts & Crafts (think Wightwick Manor which is five minutes away)......I bet inside they'll be boring boxes though!

Mims x

ps, I think (based upon the location of the property you linked), that we were in your vicinity the other day, PP. We were checking out a car that was for sale and actually stopped and turned directly opposite that building! We both remarked how lovely it was and when we arrived home I checked it out on RM.......

 

[Flyfisher]

I can't say the OP house is entirely pleasing to my eye, I think it's the stepped gable that spoils it for me.

However, to paraphrase Evelyn Beatrice Hall "I disapprove of what you build, but I will defend to the death your right to build it"** - it's certainly a more interesting building than the typical 'Barrett Box'



** I've always though this was a Voltaire quotation but thinking I'd better check before the pedants revolted, I discovered it's a common misattribution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall

 

[Penners]

Well, FF, I've learned something this afternoon! I, too, always thought that was a Voltaire quote.

However, Voltaire had more than his fair share of quotable quotes anyway:

It is forbidden to kill. All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

And presaging today's cult of celebrity: "It is a heavy weight, a name too quickly famous".

He knew a thing or two, that Voltaire!

 

[plasticpigeon]

Hello Mims, you werte very close. You should have let me know, you could have seen our wreck. Unfortunately that big old house is in danger. It is sitting on a lot of land and the owner is broke and it may well get reposessed. If that happens i would put money on it being auctioned off and demolished to build a few hundred well insulated chicken coups as that is all the locals deserve according to the council planning dept.

Did you buy the car? I bet you didn't!

Mind you I have seen a Lagonda series 1 running about. One of only 7 ever made, if you were buying that I am very jealous!!!!

 

[foppish]

actually - I love it! whilst many a Victorian house is a restrained character on the outside they were quite often eclectic and bonkers on the interior. A bit like the victorians themselves i suspect! this house just externalises that, like a black sheep of the family, it's lots of fun - and who doesn't want a tower?

 

[skier-hughes]

It looks a lot more downhearted and in need of TLC in real life (looking at the outside) than in those pictures. I pass it buy several times a week.

 

[mims&pip]

Hello Mims, you werte very close. You should have let me know, you could have seen our wreck. Unfortunately that big old house is in danger. It is sitting on a lot of land and the owner is broke and it may well get reposessed. If that happens i would put money on it being auctioned off and demolished to build a few hundred well insulated chicken coups as that is all the locals deserve according to the council planning dept.

Did you buy the car? I bet you didn't!

Mind you I have seen a Lagonda series 1 running about. One of only 7 ever made, if you were buying that I am very jealous!!!!

So sad that yet another lovely old building is at risk of being lost, PP

No, we didn't buy the car (a pre-facelift Disco that turned out to have a full complement of bald tyres, so not the gorgeous Lagonda, lol!) and had we realised at the time we were close to your abode we would loved to have popped round (by prior invitation only of course!)

Mims x

 

[skier-hughes]

Which facelift are you on about?
I have a 1997 disco that will be being sold very shortly.

 

[mims&pip]

Which facelift are you on about?
I have a 1997 disco that will be being sold very shortly.

Sorry for the confusion (I is a girlie so don't do car speak :wink: ).......it was a 2004 reg, so pre Disco 3 was what I meant.

We ended up with something else entirely, but v v sad to see our old Defender go

Mims x