Property of the Week: Church Grove in Kingston, an enormous Victorian treasure on the edge of a royal park, is on sale for £2.695m
If you have a conservatory in your house, you’re considered pretty lucky.
But few have one that was built in the 19th century that’s secured with a stable door straight from Hampton Court Palace.
Church Grove, a six-bedroom house in Kingston-Upon-Thames, does though. Foxtons has been marketing the unusual feature as a “sun room”, but its owner, Adrian King, who moved in in 2007, says his family prefer to call it ‘the indoor/outdoor room’. “That’s one of the nicest things about the house – the history means there are a lot of original features.”
The impressive house was built by Edward Lapidge, a Victorian architect who also built Kingston Bridge and St John’s Church next door to the house. An extension was added 60 years later, and the Lapidges eventually moved out around 1930. It also overlooks Bushy Park, the second largest of the capital’s eight royal parks, and it’s a five minute walk from Hampton Wick railway station, which takes commuters into Waterloo in 25 minutes.
“Kingston waterfront has been developed hugely,” says King. “You’ve got a lot of modern apartments along there now and 10 or 12 riverfront restaurants.”
Surprisingly for a house from this period, it doesn’t have a heritage listing, so renovation works should be relatively straightforward and there’s plenty of flexibility in the old beauty. The house can be split into a three-storey 4,500sqft townhouse with a self-contained 1,500sqft garden flat underneath, or simply bask in all 6,000sqft of this capacious treasure.
Church Grove is on sale for £2.695m. Call Foxtons Kingston on 020 8879 2121