EAST DULWICH is one train stop and a world away from fragrant Dulwich Village. Alighting at East Dulwich station (a ten-minute trip from London Bridge), you are in southeast London proper — grey, grotty and peppered with graffiti.

Pockets of gentrification do, however, exist. Those keen to hover on the edge of Village life may wish to note that an apartment block by a developer called Bespoke Homes is about to be unveiled on Dog Kennel Hill, next to a vast 24-hour Sainsbury’s. The brochure for this development, known as DKH, is an ambitious piece of puffery. What house-hunter could resist an interior “themed on iMac twists with Swiss chalet, and the exterior, Paul Smith meets Paul Klee”, where “delicacy will excite”? Who would not covet “bespoke postal storage”? That, says the architect, John Smart, “just means a meeting place where people can interact”. Over takeaway flyers perhaps? To be fair, Smart, who also runs Bespoke Homes and the building contractor Urban Eye, is not remotely pretentious, and DKH is not as gimmicky as it sounds. Dog Kennel Hill is a good 20-minute walk from Dulwich Village, and the much-touted glass walls and “fantastic views” will, in the case of the lowest floor, mean eye-level vistas of a vandalised youth club. One floor up, however, and the views really are as good as promised. The hillside site means that the building is visible from afar, and the exterior, with its alternating brightly coloured panels, will make DKH a landmark.

The block consists of 14 two-bed duplexes of 807 sq ft, costing £350,000, and five three-bed penthouses of 1,130 sq ft, costing £485,000, for sale through the estate agent New London. The building, which has been erected on the site of a derelict Scout hut, will be completed in February.

The show-flat interior is a bit Scando-cliché — blond wood floors, functional furniture, low beds — but Smart emphasises that Bespoke Homes offers “a whole service of furniture options, from budget to specially designed pieces. We can work with people long after they move in, at no extra cost unless it’s an advanced project. The experience should be like going to the tailor.” The brochure gives the impression that every last detail is “bespoke”, but all this really means is that more thought has gone into the design than in your average new-build. “All the shells and fittings are the same” throughout, says Smart, so the buyer can only personalise the furniture and decor.

The details are impressive. The kitchen hob and sink are made of concrete, which also pops up on the stairs and is exposed in the ceilings to dramatic effect. The kitchen has a wire-mesh cage suspended from the ceiling for storage, and the bathrooms have low, atmospheric lighting, rubber flooring and “unfinished” finishes. The living room and the master bedroom directly above have a glass wall, and the bedroom floor is missing a corner, allowing a small double-height section, giving a sense of space and light — though you couldn’t go to bed if someone was watching TV in the living room. The bedrooms have no built-in cupboards, to encourage you to install nice wardrobes, and no ceiling lighting, to encourage lamps. Wood panels break up the white walls and matching blinds will be installed, to stop the glass wall acting as free television for the area at night.

DKH is undoubtedly a step up from what Smart calls “burger-box housing”, and this, he says, is due to customer demand: “Everyone watches home improvement programmes, so they’re always asking what wood the floor is made from.” A local estate agent, William Drey, of Haart, says the flats are “pricey” compared with neighbouring Victorian two-bed flats, which cost £325,000. “But it is a landmark building, so it’s not totally out of order.” Design comes at a price, even on Dog Kennel Hill.

www.bespokehomes.com, 020-7703 3300 www.newlondon.co.uk, 020-7549 1050

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