Penny Churchill looks at Godden Green House, a 140-year-old house with some bold and wonderful modern touches.
Godden Green House, near Sevenoaks, is a substantial Victorian house for sale through Will Peppitt of Savills with an eye-opening price tag of £10m.
Originally built in the Gothic style for Thomas Usborne in 1879, the house was sold by him to London stockbroker, Francis Forbes, whose daughter, Janet, married the Arts-and-Crafts architect C. R. Ashbee. On her father’s death, the couple moved to Godden Green in 1922.
For Ashbee, the house, with its enormous slate roof, twisted mock-Tudor chimneys and stone porches, was ‘a monstrosity’ and he immediately set out to remodel it, demolishing the roof, chimneys and various arches, and redesigning the windows and much of the interior.
Last seen on the market in 2014, today’s Godden Green House is a handsome country house set in 16¼ acres of lovely parkland grounds, with a swimming pool and pool house set within former walled kitchen gardens, close to the pretty hamlet of Godden Green.
It comes with a self-contained one-bedroom cottage, garaging, garden stores and a greenhouse, with further summerhouses and pavilions laid out around the grounds.
Carefully modernised and refurbished by its present owners, the main house offers 9,200sq ft of well-proportioned accommodation on three floors, including three main reception rooms: a striking drawing room with a wide bay window, an impressive dining room and a double-aspect sitting room.
There is also a study, a charming family room adjoining the kitchen/breakfast room, and various domestic offices.
A splendid guest suite with double doors opening onto the garden completes the ground floor. The first floor houses the principal bedroom suite, comprising a double aspect bedroom, two dressing rooms and a luxurious bathroom.
There are three further en-suite bedrooms on this floor, and a sixth bedroom on the floor above.
Godden Green House is for sale via Savills at £10m — see more details and pictures.
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