THE precincts of Winchester Cathedral contain as many covetable houses as the Close at Salisbury. Colebrook House stands in a quiet street which once skirted a medieval nunnery. Yet few passers-by are aware of its existence, as the handsome front is at right angles to the street and well screened by trees. Even the entrance gateway, brought there in 1889 by George Ridding, a headmaster of Winchester College, has its show face towards the garden and so barely attracts a glance.
It opens on to a terrace and lawns brought alive by three medieval leats, or water channels, that race past the house on both sides. Those were turned to stunning advantage by Sir Peter Smithers, politician and plantsman extraordinary, who came to live there in 1951 after his mother’s death. When Smithers left he sold the house to Sir David Calcutt, QC, then Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and retir ed to Switzerland, creating a still more spectacular garden on a hillside above Lugano, from which he regularly bombarded the Times letters page.
At Colebrook he made a place of enchantment. To protect his view he bought up three derelict cottages, creating a delightful Italian garden just across a lane leading to the inner close of the cathedral via the aptly named water close. This garden is on show to all passers-by. The wall opens to reveal a balustraded pool flanked by handsome hedges of clipped yew and a leafy bower sheltering a large Classical bust.
In the main garden Smithers, who died in June, made equally clever play with the water, creating a keyhole-shaped bubbling fountain pool flanked by columns and flowing out along a brick channel that disappears under a miniature arched bridge by his new sun room.
The garden front of the house is built of the warm red brick used in many parts of Winchester and sports a pair of splendid rainwater heads shaped like punch bowls and bearing the initials TB and the date 1720. Strangely, though the names of numerous tenants and owners are known, there is a gap between 1664 and 1747.
The front is not as symmetrical as it appears at a quick glance. The windows on the right are more widely spaced with shallow buttresses between. All becomes clear when you enter the hall. On the right the wall incorporates large structural posts and beams, making it evident that a complete 16th-century timber-framed house is enclosed within the brick building. This presumably is the “new Frame” house that Simon Trippe was licensed to erect in the 28th year of Elizabeth’s reign — 1586. Trippe was a local apothecary and physician.
At the back of the hall is a very handsome and typically early 18th-century oak stair rising round a spacious open well. Remarkably the characteristic corkscrew balusters — three to a step, not the usual two — continue not just to the second floor but all the way to the attic.
The layout of Colebrook House, with a large room on either side of the hall, repeats itself on the upper storeys. The surprise is to find a succession of impressive stone fireplaces in all the main rooms. These have shallow stone Tudor arches and, because of their grandeur, one assumes they must be later introductions. The extensive linenfold panelling in the drawing room, all in mint condition, must also be a later import.
Several rooms are still hung with loose fabrics introduced by Smithers rather in the manner of Old Master paintings. He also built the very elegant music room at the back of the house.
Today Colebrook House has all that could be desired of a large townhouse: seclusion, tranquillity and the peace of mind that comes from bordering cathedral precincts as well as nearby Wolvesey Palace, the bishops’ residence. The upstairs bedrooms have lovely views of the cathedral’s soaring east front. This is a house made for those with many visitors. Smithers provided for alfresco living, with a sun room opening off the main drawing room and large glazed arches opening to the garden. Colebrook House may be due for another stylish makeover but equally you could move in tomorrow and be in as blissful surroundings as any English city can offer.
Price: £2.5 million. Contact Jackson-Stops & Staff, 01962 844299
FACTFILE
WHAT YOU GET: Grade II* listed house, five bedrooms, four bathrooms, staff flat, half an acre of garden with three medieval streams. Total of 6,940 sq ft.
WHERE IS IT: By Winchester Cathedral, with quick access to the M3. Fast trains to London Waterloo take 58 minutes; 15 minutes’ drive to Southampton airport.
SCHOOLS: Winchester College; The Pilgrims’ School, Winchester.
WHERE TO EAT: Hotel du Vin, Winchester.
NOTEBOOK
THE Age of Wren, named after Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), spans one of the most glorious periods of English architecture and craftsmanship. The red brick houses of this period, built by master bricklayers, are also known as Charles II, William & Mary, Queen Anne and Early Georgian. Colebrook House has the white-painted sash boxes, flush with the façade, which give these houses a particular brightness as a well as a typical sprinkling of “burnt headers” — kiln-darkened end-on bricks that add texture and patina to the brickwork.
THE NUMBERS... THE LOWDOWN ON PRIME LONDON PRICES
ONCE upon a time the top prize on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? seemed like fantasy riches. Now it wouldn’t even buy you a pad in a nice part of London. New figures available from primelocation.com, the property sales website, show that the average price last month of a “prime” London property for sale was £1,015,450, the first time that the average has ever passed £1 million. “Prime” here refers to location, not price.
Tooting is judged desirable enough to make the grade, Streatham is not.
Prime London prices have increased by 11.9 per cent since October 2005, falling to 11 per cent in Central London. Don’t worry about the middle of town, though: a flat here still costs an average of £1 million, and a house will set you back £2.7 million. The usual suspects are to blame — foreign buyers and City bonuses — but so is a shortage of homes for sale.
Owners of prime London properties are not selling. Stock levels of all types of property have fallen by 20 per cent since last year, with houses down 30 per cent, leading to a particularly intense market in family homes, where good houses are snapped up pronto, and sellers have the luxury of capitalising on demand by inviting sealed bids. Landlords, too, are able to hold out for the highest offer. Prime London rental prices have risen 9.3 per cent in a year, and the average weekly rent is now a whopping £923.
Again, a lack of stock — down 6.5 per cent since last year — is driving demand. Predictably, Central London comes out on top: renting an average prime property in Zone 1 costs £1,150 a week, and if you’re trying to rent a house your landlord will be pocketing £2,000 of your hard-earned cash each and every week. LUCY ALEXANDER
