IF YOU have always coveted one of those spacious multistorey early Victorian terraces in Chelsea but feel short of a million or five, it is time to cross the river and head to Stockwell in South London. Better known for muggings and shootings, Stockwell is also home to some fabulous houses on quiet leafy streets such as Stockwell Park Crescent. Here, among the imposing Victorian homes you will find 11 new-build homes that are no less majestic. There are six five-bedroom semis and five three-bedroom terrace houses, all built in period pastiche but artfully done.

Unlike so many bad copies of the past, numbers 14-24 Stockwell Park Crescent are identical to the semis and detached houses that surround them, both in proportion and in detail. There was no scrimping and saving, no meanness with window sizes and no cheap building materials substituting for the real thing. The local planners made sure of that. The crescent is a conservation area and the development is built on the site of what was an empty old people’s home, so even the iron railings outside had to be replicas of those in the properties opposite.

Behind the front doors, however, the interiors tell a different story. The postcode might be SW9 but the finish is very SW1, down to the underfloor heating in the master bathroom and stainless steel door knobs. “We wanted to bring Chelsea south of the river. Our approach here has been no different from what we have done in our developments in Knightsbridge and Kensington,” says Julian Mercer, of BMB Property Investment, the developers behind the project.

His thinking is clear the minute that you enter the show home, one of the six five-bedroom semis. If you are looking for a high-spec family home, this ticks all the right boxes. Unsurprisingly, the house has already been reserved. The entrance hall is wide, welcoming and would still be roomy with a pushchair parked beside the front door. The floors have broad oak planks.

The limestone fireplace in the vast reception room has been fitted for a gas fire. The limestone continues in the three bathrooms and utility room on the lower ground floor. The basement also houses the sort of kitchen that comes as standard in all top-end properties. The units are gloss white, the worktops are granite and there is a fancy American-style fridge. The only thing missing is a free-standing range cooker.

The real attraction of this house, however, is its amount of space: 2,228 sq ft and a garden big enough for kiddie football. Being a new-build, the space is divided exactly as you would want it. The reception room takes up most of the ground floor with a window at each end. The kitchen and dining room are beautifully open plan. You could have some great parties here and your guests would have somewhere to park.

As well as your own back garden, there is a communal garden and off-street parking for all the houses, although there seems to be plenty of residents’ parking to go round. “Women especially have been bowled over,” says Rupert Dawes, of Knight Frank, the agents selling the development. “Stockwell does not have the reputation of Clapham but you are not going to get a five-bedroom house with this much space for the same money.”

Homes like these are hard to find anywhere in London; there are very few five-bedroom new-builds springing out of the ground. In the past few years, it has been more cost-effective for developers to cram as many units as they can into a plot rather than build bigger properties. But the market is crying out for larger family houses and buyers are prepared to pay the price.

These homes are not cheap but they are good value. Prices start at £695,000 for the three-bedroom houses. The five-bed ones are going for £895,000, although the show home has been reserved at £925,000. In more fashionable postcodes, homes like these would fetch substantially more. That said, living on Stockwell Park Crescent is always going to be a bit of a compromise, however beautiful the houses. This peaceful green enclave lies between Brixton Road, Stockwell Road and Clapham Road — big council estate territory. The decent restaurants, trendy bars, good gyms are a 15-minute walk away in the Clapham direction. No wonder some agents bill this area as Clapham borders.

The transport links are good. Stockwell station, infamous for the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, offers the Victoria and Northern lines. You are six stops from Leicester Square and from Bank. Better still, Sloane Square is only four stops away; you can easily still do all your shopping at Peter Jones.
Knight Frank: 020-7823 5906 Daniel Cobb: 020-7735 9510

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