The pretty Victorian houses at the city end of South Circular Road tend to attract restoration-conscious owners. As a result, this always fashionable area has shot up in value in recent years. Number 18 Lombard Street West, a two/ three-bedroom terraced house, is a perfect example of what imagination and hard work can achieve with these small but attractive houses.
Selling agent Lisney is guiding in excess of £300,000 prior to auction on March 29th. This guide price may prove conservative, however. Last autumn a refurbished house on the street sold at auction for £400,000. Number 18 has been fully refurbished and has an extension to the rear that almost doubles the size of the original floor.
The owners have used specialist Farrow & Ball paints to match the period. The hallway is deep gold and cream and the banister rail is polished mahogany. To the left, a formal sitting-room has ointment-pink walls, a high corniced ceiling and the original sash window with working shutters. An 18th century slate fireplace has green patterned Victorian tiles.
What was probably the kitchen at the end of the hall has been turned into a bedroom with French windows to the garden. The kitchen/dining-room is the main living area of the house - a long airy space floored in cherry-wood timbers salvaged from a ballroom in Portarlington.
There are old blue-painted china dressers, a cast-iron fireplace and a porcelain sink at the kitchen end. This leads through to a large bright dining-room with an entire wall of windows looking out on an enclosed terrace garden. The false ceiling is curved and has concealed lighting around the edges. At the far end, there is a small study which doubles as a guest bedroom. A tiled conservatory off the study opens on to the terraced garden. All the rooms at the rear of the house overlook this garden, which is terracotta-tiled and covered with honeysuckle, vines and an old climbing fig. A tall mimosa tree reaches up to the second storey.
Upstairs, the owners have converted an original bedroom into a decadent bathroom, with a claw-foot bath, sash window, painted wood panelling and a cast-iron fireplace. A bookshelf runs along the two walls above the bath. The main bedroom next door looks out on the flat roof of the kitchen extension and would make an excellent sun terrace.
The house has a neat railed front garden with a box hedge, and jasmine and pyracantha growing on a trellis.
The introduction of disc parking has transformed the area for residents, who pay a £20 annual parking fee.
