When you spend as much time writing about other people’s houses as I do, it’s always immensely pleasing to find something you’ve never seen before. It is also rare. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. An entire living room wallpapered with Mickey Mouse cartoons. Memories, never to be lost in time because the internet never forgets.
However, I have never seen a kennels designed by long time Country Life favourite Sir Edwin Lutyens. I have certainly never seen kennels designed by long time Country Life favourite Sir Edwin Lutyens that you can live in. That was, until I saw Deerpark, which is for sale with Fine & Country for £1.35 million.
The property, which is near East Grinstead in West Sussex, offers four bedrooms and lots of space in just under 2.5 acres of gardens and grounds. What’s perhaps most interesting about this house, is that it is one of two facing matched originals. So you can sit in your house, while admiring a house that looks just like your house out of the window. The best of both worlds.
And who wouldn’t want to admire those fun Grade II-listed colonnades? Deerpark was originally built as a kennel, with its sister building opposite as a stables. The buildings were commissioned by Henry Rudd, who made lots of money selling weapons of war in the early 20th century. The estate house they were supposed to be attached to never materialised.
The property is set over a single floor, and offers a large dining hall, kitchen/breakfast room, sitting room and conservatory. The highlights, however, are the spacious gardens, from which you can walk directly through a bluebell wood to the nearest pub.
There is also a detached annexe offering a further bedroom and a double garage.
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