Betsy Jarvis Trials and Tribulations

   Water Tower Envy

Wowsers.....now I love my home...I adore it....I am besotted with it, but occasionally....not often....just occasionally I get house envy....or in this case Water Tower envy.

Kennington Water tower - 99 feet worth of Grade II listed building , situated in Central London was featured on the hundredth edition of Grand Designs. Now being the hundredth episode was just a clue that the restoration in store was going to be special....very special.

Kennington Water Tower.

 Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce the new owners of this extraordinary building set about the immense task of restoring what was a decaying, crumbling yet non the less stunning piece of mid nineteenth century architecture complete with its six foot deep walls and huge steel water tank crown.... the scale of the task was monumental, before any-form of restoration/structural work had even begun a whopping seven thousand pounds was paid in order to clear around two thousand dead pigeons from the building....hmm...nice.

However a whirlwind eight months pass and the tower is transformed (with the help of an Army of contractors and every trades person imaginable) oh and a injection of money ... a huge injection of money!!

The proud (....rightly so) and extremely brave (...or completely bonkers) owners now have a unique, edgy and contemporary living space....and what a space it is!

....along with the Water Tower itself which is now transformed into a  9 story  4 bedroom house (all en suite, but of course) complete with lift (which only goes about half way up...but to use the tag line of a well known supermarket....every little helps!!)it also has two additional adjoining modern and  contemporary structures nicknamed 'the cube' which house the kitchen among other things....but the real selling point for me....the real clincher....the jaw dropper...the part that fueled every envious bone in my body was the view from the top of the tower....which is now a lounge with huge glass walls giving a 360 degree vista of the capital.....oh my oh my oh my .... you don't even need a wrist watch or a clock up there ....just look out of the window.....you can see Big Ben!!....it is simply awesome!!....sigh...

 Anyhow having reviewed my finances I have come to the conclusion that an extra lottery ticket is called for this week end...I feel lucky....although when I do move in (note the word 'when'...I feel a positive approach is called for) I am going to ('I'?!!..who am I kidding?!!...I will be a lottery zillionaire)...OK .... some nice contractor chappies will create a fab New York loft style interior for me.....as below...

also I am going to commission a chair to replicate the one Kevin Mcloud made on his man made home project (if you haven't seen it its well worth watching!)...I could happily sit and while away many an hour gazing over the London sky line in this..

However I feel my most crucial investment when I move in ...(there I go again with the positive vibe!!..) is  a few kettles....I don't fancy trotting up and down nine floors every time I need a  caffeine fix!!

Betsy Jarvis - Urban Textiles for Contemporary Living