‘Beautiful, a delight, an inspiration,” enthused Kevin McCloud, the Grand Designs presenter, about a cabin in mid Wales carved from wood, sweat and marital breakdown by a DIY builder. Eddie McIntosh’s off-grid “tree house”, Mellowcroft, which was featured on the Channel 4 series Man Made Home, comprised a drover’s cabin, outdoor spa, footbridge and wind turbine on a five-hectare (12 acre) site. If only he had had planning permission, too. In a turn of events unlikely to inspire a spin-off series, McIntosh’s dream cabin is at the centre of a court battle brought by Powys county council, which alleges that he did not have permission for Mellowcroft, and has ordered him to tear it down.
It is not the only Grand Design build to start out as “truly inspiring” only to end in a flurry of tabloid schadenfreude. Here are other architectural triumphs that ended in ignominy – or, worse, as a B&B.
The Medway eco-barge
Four years after the cameras stopped rolling on the bold (or, in non-GD speak: insane) plan to turn a 100ft houseboat into a dream family home, it was found … washed up on a beach in Essex. The £80k fantasy to swap cramped city living for a more unmoored life had run aground, providing the nation with the opportunity to laugh at the misfortunes of privileged Londoners.
The Dome House
A £1m eco-lodge with a geodesic roof that McCloud called “awe-inspiring”, the Dome in Bowness-on-Windermere was reportedly abandoned by its owner, Robert Gaukroger, in 2016. “I built it nursing an ego,” he admitted of the futuristic lodge nestled into a hillside. Following a reported eight-year land dispute, the building fell into disrepair until an anonymous donor – later revealed to be Yvonne Malley – started running it as a luxury guesthouse. It could inspire a GD spin-off: Woman Made Home, in which pragmatic women sort out the messes of hubristic men.
Hellifield Peel Castle
This castle ruin in Yorkshire cost architect Francis Shaw just £165,000 in the mid-00s. Fast-forward two Grand Designs appearances and a fraught restoration, and Shaw listed it for sale for £1.7m in 2016. It was reportedly taken off the market, unsold, and is currently being run as a boutique B&B. An announcement on the website states that Shaw and his wife retired in 2016.
The Curve
During this epically stressful build, artist Barry Surtees spent £1.8m on an architectural love letter to modernism in the midst of Brighton suburbia, and underwent five heart bypasses in the process. Three years later, it was listed on the market for £3.5m; Peter Andre was reportedly renting it. When it did sell, the new owners apparently completely gutted the property. It might have been better renamed as the Curveball.
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