Snooping around: Homes handy for motorways

Property of the week: Streatham High Road, London. Hollywood giants cavorted across Streatham Regal’s cinema screens from 1938 until 2000, when it began a wilder career as an illegal rave venue. Three years ago, all but the facade was demolished to make way for flats, including this one-bedder with a 36ft living room. The pre-war foyer serves as the communal entrance hall. It’s a shame Streatham High Road is so unlovely. Cost: £285,000.
Townends, 020 8769 9911 Photograph: Townends/Townends

Wreck of the week: Middleton, Belford. This £175,000 three-bedroom estate cottage has no kitchen fitted, the bathroom needs reinventing and general updating is required. You might also want to expand into the coal shed and pantries to make a bigger kitchen and bathroom, all of which could cost at least £20,000. It has celestial views to the coast and the holy island of Lindisfarne.
Smiths Gore, 01289 333033 Photograph: Smiths Gore/Smiths Gore

Take three: homes handy for motorways. This five-bedder offers the quaint looks of rural life just a mile and a half from junction 13 of the M1, near Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire. Your £695,000 buys three receptions, a kitchen/breakfast room, cellar, bathroom and outbuilding. The kitchen has also been extended into the old coach house to create a lavishly sized feasting space.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01525 290641 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff/Jackson-Stops & Staff

Take three: homes handy for motorways. Many rooms in this first-floor apartment near Tiverton, Devon, have the aristocratic proportions once required by clergy (this was a rectory) and have been expensively embellished by interior decorators. For £399,000 you get two receptions, three beds, two shower/bathrooms, cellars and a garage. The M5 is just three miles off. Beware the leasehold status.
Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01823 325144 Photograph: Jackson-Stops & Staff/Jackson-Stops & Staff

Take three: homes handy for motorways. Situated two-and-a-half miles from the M27, this thatched cottage near Romsey, Hampshire, was built in the 1920s to house staff at the Embley Park estate, once home to Florence Nightingale. Olde worlde charm has survived in the brick hearth and chimney breast, and wall and ceiling beams. For £450,000 you get two reception rooms, three bedrooms, a shower room, double garage and workshop.
Nicholas Zorab, 01794 511911 Photograph: Nicholas Zorab/Nicholas Zorab