Grand Designs houses: what happened next?
The UK may be blessed with ancient castles and rolling estates, innovative concert halls and iconic towers. But some of the most ambitious buildings in the country have only been completed since 1999.
Grand Designs has made a household name of Kevin McCloud, nearly bankrupted several dozen couples and left the country with a more diverse range of homes as people choose to share their turbulent extreme DIY dilemmas on national TV.
The programme has been consistently beloved since its launch nearly two decades ago, namely because the producers haven’t had to play with the format, such is the appeal of people’s bespoke-windows-from-Antwerp crises.
In recent years the programme has developed enough architectural largesse to see it name the official RIBA House of the Year. Here we remember some of the most memorable Grand Designs ventures and ask - what happened next?
Lammas eco village
Billed as the "cheapest house ever built in the Western Hemisphere", a house made entirely of reclaimed materials by Simon and Jasmine Dale burnt to the ground on the first day of 2018.
The three-bedroom abode was the brainchild of owners Simon and Jasmine Dale, who spent ￡27,000 and six years building their dream home. But it was also constructed using straw, meaning an electrical fire ended up destroying the entire house.
Now friends of the couple have launched a JustGiving page in the hopes of raising funds to repair the house, and has so far raised ￡8,000 of its ￡20,000 goal.
Hellifield Peel Castle
This seven-bedroom castle, near Skipton in Yorkshire, cost architect Francis Shaw a mere ￡165,000 in the mid-2000s. He’d spotted the home nearly three decades earlier, as a child, and had nurtured a love for it ever since. Shaw landed himself on Grand Designs with the email: “Restoring a castle in the dales, total ruin, previous owner hung, drawn and quartered. Are you interested?” and wound up appearing on the programme twice - once in 2007 and again, to continue the mammoth restoration, in 2009.
In 2016, however, Hellifield Peel Castle had been put on the market for ￡1,650,000 - potentially netting the couple a profile of ￡735,000 after renovations. But estate agents Carter Jonas told The Telegraph that the property was taken off the market, unsold, in September 2016. The current owners have, they say, “a keeness to move”. The castle was on offer as a bed and breakfast for several years, but is now closed.
The Woodland House
In 2002, woodsman Ben Law built his home out of carefully selected whole tree trunks for a mere ￡28,000 and became an advocate for forest living in the process. Law has gone on to have the kind of Grand Designs fairytale befitting a cottage that looks like this, and has launched his own company - The Roundwood Timber Framing Company - to build shops, homes and schools out of renewable timber.
He's won awards, written books and generally spread the word of living in a wooden house with aplomb, all while enjoying the good life living in his own woods. McCloud told The Guardian it was his personal favourite Grand Design. Good work, Mr Law.
Kennington Water Tower
In McCloud's words, this Grand Design - featured on the show's 100th episode - had "everything: conservation, ridiculous debt – he borrowed his grandmother’s credit card and owes ￡95,000 just to finish this thing – ludicrous ambition and extraordinary vision."
The result is a glossy pad worthy of a Bond villain in central London. In April 013, owners and Grand Designers Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce put their Grade II listed building on the market for ￡6.5million. Not a bad profit considering it cost ￡380,000 originally.
The pair spent nearly ￡2 million turning it into a 10-floor family home, complete with fantastic views of London. But by August, a lack of interest in the property saw its value slashed to ￡4.75million.
Fast-forward a year and there is little sign of the Water Tower selling. You can, however, experience life in a Grand Designs property for a mere ￡99 per night - considerably cheaper than most London hotels. Osborne has listed the property on AirBnb - as The Grand Designs Water Tower, no less. As one happy customer put it: "It will make you feel like a hedge fund billionaire".
The Curve
Artist Barry Surtees underwent five heart bypasses and spent ￡1.8 million building the sprawling modernist home of his dreams on a two-house plot in Brighton that he purchased in the summer of 2007. But by 2010, he had listed it on the market for ￡3.5 million, which caused quite a stir in property circles. Indeed, as Zoopla asked on their blog: 'Why is a Brighton Grand Design being sold so soon?'
Turns out the property didn't - not for a while, at least. While pop star-turned-reality TV star Peter Andre was reportedly eyeing up the place as a new home, Knight Frank estate agents tell The Telegraph they it sold in 2012.
The new owners "completely gutted and totally renovated the whole property," said Knight Frank agent Freddy Mack in 2015, and were selling it for ￡4.5 million with "all the furniture, fittings and fixtures. They have also installed a lift at great expense".
Six weeks later, the owners moved the property went to another agent. "It looks like it hasn't sold," Knight Frank said, "it's a very quirky property"
The Dome House
The eco-lodge was described as "awe-inspiring" by McCloud when it appeared on Grand Designs a decade ago. In 2011, the project was finally completed with the assistance of an anonymous donor - but strife lay ahead for owner Robert Gaukroger and his family.
By 2015, Gaukroger was again in the media spotlight as he attempted to sell The Dome House for ￡2.3m home. He had kept the property as a guesthouse with his wife, but decided to sell and move down to London so he could further his studies - and build another family home in Kent.
But the house proved difficult to shift. As Gaukroger told The Telegraph: "It’s not everyone’s cup of tea and moving down to London has made me realise it’s an obscene waste of space for one family. I built it nursing an ego." He tried to turn it into flats, but, according to the Daily Mail, suffered an eight-year-long land dispute with a neighbour before eventually "abandoning" the "dilapidated" building by the summer of 2016.
Instead, it transpired that Gaukroger had sold the property to Yvonne Malley, the anonymous donor who had helped to save the house five years earlier. It's now been totally refurbished and is up-and-running as a collection of guest suites and self-catering accommodation. Wildly popular it is too - as one person recently claimed on TripAdvisor: "it's the pinnacle of luxury and relaxation".
The Medway Eco-barge
We've all had late night, possibly inebriated conversations that may have led Chris Miller and wife Sze Liu Lai to move out of a cramped London flat and into a converted Lighter houseboat. Something along the lines of "We'll wake up to the sound of sea birds!", "We'll be free of space constraints!", "We'll be able to change scenery whenever we like!"
It is unlikely that the notion of the houseboat coming free off its moorings after being subject to vandalism as a result of being rejected from all local boatyards entered their minds.
The couple spend ￡80,000 converting the old boat into a stylish home, as featured on Grand Designs. But McCloud's assertion that the project was more of a "floating scrapheap challenged" proved somewhat true after the family abandoned it as their home.
In January, local paper Basildon Canvey Southend Echo ran a feature entitled 'The mystery of the floating home', six years after the houseboat washed up on a beach. Peter Wexham, Lib Dem Southend councillor for Leigh, criticised the owners for leaving the houseboat in the estuary.
"During the filming of the programme it was moved from boatyard to boatyard and wherever they went it was causing problems and they were told to clear off. At the last one, people were all complaining and they got fed up with it.
"Nobody appears to have asked the council if it can go there. It's just been stuck there."
But while there doesn't appear to be much evidence of life on the boat, which is now covered in graffiti, the Southend Pier and foreshore office said the mooring had been paid for.
Lymm Water Tower
Nearly 20 years after TV presenter Russell Harris became an early frontrunner in Grand Designs history, the converted Lymm Water Tower went on the market days before Brexit last year.
While the news was greeted excitedly by the media - Harris had bought the Chester property "on a whim" in 1997 and put in a winning bid for ￡138,000.
The property has more than kept itself since then, with revenue from telecoms companies hiring the mast on the turret mustering ￡50,000 a year.
But the unfortunate timing of the listing may have hampered the sale - more than a year later, Rightmove lists the property as both under offer, rather than sold, and off the market.
The Rockhouse Retreat
In 2015, Angelo Mastropietro astonished viewers with his ambition and nerve as he transformed an 800-year-old cave into a home. Well, nearly. It transpires that caves aren’t technically recognised as homes by planning authorities, so he's actually renovating a five-bedroom property that he bought nearby.
Instead, though, you can stay at the Rockhouse Retreat, which Mastropietro has enhanced for festival and party purposes with an outdoor kitchen and more room for bushcraft. It's available for inquiries through its website or Airbnb.
Dairy Cottage
This New Forest find was never meant to be a grand renovation, but a devastating fire just three days before the birth of Cheryl and Alex Reay's child in 2003 rendered it prime fodder for Grand Designs. They meticulously restored it, inspiring McCloud to claim, "I want to live here!". It now runs as "a luxury thatched holiday rental" with a bespoke service that includes breakfast supplies from Waitrose.
The Peckham House
Monty Ravenscroft was met with great skepticism by viewers after squishing his immaculate home into a sliver of space in Peckham in 2005 - approximately seven years before the area started to become properly gentrified. But the actor is now sitting on prime real estate after buying the plot of land for ￡40,000 and creating a pioneering green home on it.
He's yet to be tempted to sell The Peckham House to the highest bidder, but instead has become an integral part of the South East London community, opening his home to the public on visiting days and sharing his advice on the project through his website.
The latest development? Letting the property on Airbnb. Ravenscroft joined the short-term letting brigade in June. "Why am I so worried they won't like it?" he Tweeted, nervously. He needn't have worried: Ravenscroft and his wife Claire have since racked up a five-star rating.
