An initially unassuming-looking townhouse in the northern town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Northumberland, is now on the market for £400,000 which, from the outside at least, looks every bit the traditional home.
However, the prospective buyer of this magnificent Grade II-listed property will need to have a colourful taste in home decor, with the house boasting two kaleidoscope-esque bedrooms, each with a full-sized art installation.
The property is currently owned by Tod Hanson, an installation artist best known for his work with Greenpeace. Back in the 1990s, Hanson memorably suspended an 8ft cut-out of Earth above the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival.
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Hanson is now selling the unique bedroom installations alongside his home which, with walls filled with mesmerising patterns, give the feel of being inside a kaleidoscope.
Sharing pictures of the house, which is listed on Rightmove with an asking price of £400,000 by London-based estate agents Inigo, on Twitter, Hanson wrote: “I am selling my house, including two installation interiors.”
As per the sale description the "magnificent Grade II-listed" is understood to unfold "over five storeys" with the four/five bedroom house extending to more than 2,400 sq ft internally.
The description continues: "Principal glazing within overlooks a small green in front of the house, while a well-sized private courtyard garden lies to the side. The current custodian is artist Tod Hanson, who has transformed two of the rooms into truly extraordinary art installations, using the influence of the architecture to inform the optics of the works.”
The house - named Waxwing - is understood to have been built around 1750 for a merchant interested in the port and nearby River Tweed. Waxwing backs directly onto the walls of the coastal town, allowing for river views.
According to Inigo's sale description, “beautiful joinery can be found in abundance" inside the property with "the cupboards and much of the architectural hardware being" original.
The house includes an "impressive hall" with "large flagstones underfoot", which the agents write are "wonderfully patinated from the thousands of footsteps it has received since its original purpose as an external passage through to the city wall".
A large first-floor room that runs the width of the building is now said to form "the pinnacle of Tod’s installation". Believed to have once been the drawing-room in days gone by, it's said that this space "could easily be returned to its original use as a drawing-room" while serving just as well as the main bedroom.
The description reads: “Ascending another level leads to two generously proportioned bedrooms. One of these contains another of Tod’s brilliant installations, focusing on a frame-grid motif that directly interacts with the structure of the room.”
Tod, who is said to be painting his home to reflect the outside world, has a number of permanent installations showing in London, with one seven-story mural currently being displayed at the LSE.
Although Tod's bedroom installations are undoubtedly beautiful, they aren't everyone's cup of tea, with one person joking: “Sunglasses and migraine tablets - what could be done with that?”
Another wrote: “Gorgeous house -all rooms seem normal apart from those two - don’t think I could live with that -would give you dizzy spells and a headache!”
A third person took a more extreme view, vowing that “the first thing I would do is get a big tin of white paint", arguing that the art was "not in keeping with the style and period of the house.”
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