A modernist house lovingly restored to its original Sixties design is on the market for £1.85 million with Savills.
Sussex House in Loughton, Essex, was built by architect Geoffrey Bateman for himself and his family in 1965.
When current occupants Alan and Sandy Walker bought the house in 2013, they carefully reversed changes made in the Eighties by the second owners and restored it exactly to Bateman’s original plans.
“My wife used to take our next door neighbour's dog for a walk around the block where we lived, just up the road,” Alan Walked tells Homes & Property.
“She came back and said, ‘Oh, this house is up for sale, it's really fantastic’.”
Alan was initially taken aback by the state the house was in when they first viewed it, but as a professional designer Sandy could see the vision.
“I remember coming out of there that evening saying, ‘There was such disrepair’ and she said, ‘It's got potential’,” says Alan.
“The following morning I woke up and said ‘well, if you think he's got potential, we’ll go for it’. It’s probably one of the best decisions we’d made.”
It took six months for the sale on the property to go through due to its unique nature and the amount of work to be done, and another seven months to complete all the renovations.
“Our builder, who was a personal friend of ours, actually lived in the house whilst he did, he did the work,” said Alan.
“He sadly passed away last year, but he he knew this house like the back of his hand by the time he finished.”
Luckily the previous owners hadn’t made any structural changes, so once they took out most of the Eighties decor they set to work restoring all its original features to their former midcentury glory.
“We found an article that was in the Architect and Building News back in 1965 and enlarged the pictures so we had the template of the original house,” explains Sandy.
“We stripped out all the changes that had been made and brought it back as far as we could to the original photographs.”
One alteration they did decide to keep in homage to the Eighties, however, was the “famous pink bathroom” with a groovy pink ceramic suite and navy blue tiles.
They were delighted to find all the original door and window frames still in situ, and the original flat roof passed its survey with flying colours.
The original brickwork, it transpires, was award-winning. A golden plaque inside the house announces that Thomas Saunders of King Ford won a craftsmanship award from the the Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Society of Architects.
When they went to update the electrics they realised how smart Bateman’s design was.
“The architect was so clever. You don't see a single wire, he's managed to hide everything, and it's it's been very cleverly done,” says Sandy.
“There's no drain pipes on the exterior, no guttering. There's there's nothing that's ugly.”
The only unexpected expense was the garden, which turned out to be much larger than they initially realised once they cut back the overgrowth.
“We thought it was quite a small garden, but when we started clearing back, it went back to 60 feet,” Alan remembers.
“I kept on expecting to see an alligator in there, it was that thick.”
With no marauding fauna amongst the flora, post renovation the Walkers set about collecting furniture to compliment the architecture.
“We’ve been going to the Midcentury Modern design shows in Dulwich to source furniture,” explains Sandy. “Everything is from that period of time.”
They recently managed to snag some vintage Rosewood chairs to match their dining table.
“I’m not allowed to sit on it,” jokes Alan, “but it looks good.”
Having worked for Vitsoe for 19 years, Sandy also had the iconic Sixties shelving system created by furniture designer Dieter Rams installed in “virtually” every room.
The furniture collection will be coming with the Walkers when they downsize, but they hope that the next owners are as much a fan of midcentury modern design as they are.
“We put our heart and soul into it,” says Alan.
“We feel that we've been a bit custodian to the building, because we've tried to do it with respect,” says Sandy.
“We hope that the potential next people that live here do the same. We hope to pass it on to someone who loves it as much as we do.”
