Victorian Briars is a new addition to our location library and a member of the jj Exclusives club. As soon as owner Francesca registered the property with us we fell in love with this moody and atmospheric property.
London’s 19th century housing boom brought us the Victorian terraces we see in the vast sprawl surrounding the city today. In the mid-to-late 1800s, and as the population of London swelled, the salaried middle classes elected to move further away from the grimy and industrial confines of the city. Commuting on a more ambitious scale was made possible by engineering advances that defined and expanded satellite towns of the city’s periphery. Away from the cold indifference of the city centre, individuals escaping to the suburbs bought homes they could put their own personal stamp on, and the occupants of these houses have been exhibiting their own style and ideas inside these personal havens ever since.
The brilliance behind Victorian Briars is the owner’s objective to retain the sentiment of a Victorian terrace in its heyday and then play around with the vintage look, stripping the house back to reveal raw materials in an entertaining and stylish manner. For example, the kitchen has high-end mod-cons (American-style fridge, top of the range cooker and streamlined storage) but is set against a backdrop of tongue-and-groove walls, a thread-bare Persian rug, scrubbed wooden floorboards and distressed furniture to balance out any modern touches. The newly exposed brick wall on the opposite wall would give the discerning Victorian as much of a fright as an uncovered piano leg, but is a perfect addition to a spacious kitchen that is a tasty contender for the most desirable kitchen in town.
The smokey, mildly distressed floorboards are a continued theme throughout the house; they make a good pairing with the abundance of rich, creamy white walls that dominate many of the rooms in the house. Francesca avoids crowding this canvas, allowing some key antiquities and colours do the talking for the rooms. The density of the cream paint, that also adorns a lot of the built-in furniture, provides a substantial canvas for still life shots, in addition to fashion and lifestyle photography.
Francesca is a skilled artist and this becomes apparent in the house’s artist’s studio, an additional space that ensures a authentic creative element to the family home.
The children’s bedrooms and bathrooms are all in tune with the through-line of design. There’s room to manoeuvre around the free-standing tub in the master bathroom, which is an inviting, spacious room unlike so many rooms belonging to properties of the same size and era. The children’s bedrooms are equally salubrious and tastefully decorated, perfect for filming.
Victorian Briars is available now for filming and photography shoots. Get in touch with us today to book the property with one of our agents: locations@jjmedia.com // 0207 749 0500
Link to the Victorian Briars page on our website here.
Look forward to hearing from you soon!
Emma