(posted 7936 days ago)The Times
August 04, 2002Why I Moved: Our refuge in the city
When life in Surrey proved too dull, Stephen Hoare knew a return to the bright lights of London was the only option for his familyWe moved from Wimbledon, in southwest London, to Farnham in Surrey in 1994, following the well-worn trail of jaded urbanites in search of a more relaxed pace of life, good state schools for our daughters and fresh air. And, of course, there was the attraction of trading up: we sold our three-bedroom Victorian terraced house for £120,000 and bought a detached house with a big garden and garage for £160,000.
To start with, life seemed like a holiday, particularly in those first summer weekends when we rode our bikes down sleepy country lanes, stopping to rest at quaint pubs. My wife, Pauline, started a new job as a head teacher and I gave up a long commuter journey to start freelancing.
But holiday romances are soon over. Boredom set in. The nearest theatre, cinemas and big shops were in Guildford, a 10-mile drive away. As Pauline and I found ourselves becoming an on-demand teenage taxi service for our daughters, we were also becoming disenchanted with what Farnham offered us. We might be middle-aged, but we hankered after noisy parties, crowded Tube trains, intellectual debate, art, culture, and dead sheep in formaldehyde — not green fields full of the real thing.
Life got worse when Pauline changed her job and started working as a university lecturer in Bloomsbury. But earlier this summer, we finally made it back to London. And right to the heart of London, too, a mile from Westminster. Capital-dwellers may joke that the streets of north London are distinguished by blue plaques while south of the river we have yellow police crime-scene placards, but Kennington is a community.
Our move to Kennington was the result of a long-term exit strategy, a result of how far apart London and provincial prices moved in the eight years we were away. In fact, we had to trade up within Farnham to be able to make the transition to a family home in London. The three-bedroom Victorian terraced house we had sold for £120,000 was now worth a cool half a million. The house we had bought for £160,000 in Surrey had risen to just £300,000. Three years ago, realising the market was moving against us, we took out an extra mortgage to fund a Farnham house that would keep pace with London prices — at least in the short term. We bought a neglected detached house with double garage for £295,000, thinking that by adding improvements we would get nearer to a London price. But we would be stuck there still had we not discovered a unique selling point: our driveway was the only access to a potential building plot — back land cut off by gardens.
After a determined campaign of informing local agents and talks with the owner of the plot, we got an offer from a developer and moved fast. On what must have been the wettest day on record, I went to Kennington to meet Sid Griffiths, our estate agent from Winkworths, who had some good news. He had just taken on a new instruction: there were no printed details but it was Georgian, it was big, and did we mind doing a spot of DIY? I walked through the door with Sid, met the owner, and within five minutes had offered the £435,000 asking price.
So what does everybody think now that the dust has settled? Well, the girls are certainly delighted, while Pauline is happy to have exchanged her fraught commuter journey for a 10-minute bus ride and a leisurely stroll across St James’s Park.
Farnham v Kennington
Farnham: Situated next to Alice Holt Forest in Holt Pound, this four-bedroom detached house is on sale for £465,000 with Andrew Lodge, 01252 717 705Kennington: A three- bedroom, listed mid-terrace Georgian house in Hanover Gardens is on the market for £455,000 through Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward, 020 7582 7773