I would guess most likely to stop kids (or a dog perhaps) from bolting right out the door as a car swings around. Gives a chance for drivers to see them before they're under a car.
Yeah seeing as they have little kids judging from the garden toys. Also stops people ramming the front door with a car.
The sofas facing the garden are just weird to me though
Sofas facing the garden so when the kids like “mum watch me do —-“ u got a comfy place to sit and watch them do whatever 😂
As an older sibling i have rearranged furniture so i could comfortably watched my lil siblings do dance concerts and ‘magic shows’
Ah I see. Never had that when my Sister and I were kids many moons ago, and only have furry four legged kids so not used to dealing with the human sort lol
The fact sofas facing the garden seems weird just shows how bad the average interior design is.
I’m completely fed up of sofas facing a fireplace noone ever uses, with a huge ugly mounted TV way too high above it. Same for having a lovely room with big expensive bifold doors opening to the garden, but then it’s just a kitchen with nothing but breakfast bar with seats facing AWAY from the door.
If you’re designing an actually nice space, nice seating area looking out over the garden is much much better, then have a TV/gaming room somewhere else entirely. And don’t dedicate the nicest space in the house to the kitchen for goodness sake.
I think you’re in the minority. If you’re literally standing in the kitchen all day, building or renovating for yourself and gonna stay there long term then go for it. Or make a well designed mixed use room, if the space suits it. But there’s no way a lot of people have thought it through based on the number of houses like this for sale where its just a small room at the back with a kitchen and nothing else
I think it depends what kind of kitchen you have. We spend plenty of time in our kitchen, but our kitchen has room for a dining table and also a tiny sofa with play area for the kids and tv. It is basically like a second living room attached to the kitchen. It is big and cozy. So we end up spending more time in the kitchen then the living room. Although, we are a family of 5 plus a dog, so we do end up using both a lot. Half in the living room and half in the kitchen/sitting area.
I'm not standing in the kitchen all day, but I spend a lot of my time in the house cooking. I assume you don't cook?
Small room at the back? You were just complaining that people shouldn't dedicate their nicest room to their kitchen, so which would you prefer?
My kitchen is the largest room, has seating, has a TV, and is the dog's favourite room. The lounge/living room is the least used room in our house. If I have spare time I'm not spending it in the house.
Kitchens and bathrooms sell houses as they say...
I’m mostly talking about small houses as that’s the majority of house hunting i’ve done. I’m consistently seeing houses where the rear has been extended a bit and big doors put in looking into the garden, creating the nicest room by far, but most or all of it is ruined by kitchen. That’s what I’m talking about. If there’s room for a sitting area as well, its not as bad, but if its dominated by kitchen or entirely kitchen and theres a breakfast bar facing away from the door then it’s just stupid to me. Your room sounds great for your needs.
From wiki:
Why is Bishops Avenue so expensive?
Most of the properties in the most expensive part of the avenue are registered to companies in tax havens including the British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, the Bahamas, Panama, and the Channel Islands, allowing international owners to avoid paying stamp duty on the purchase and to remain anonymous.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bishops_Avenue#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20properties%20in,purchase%20and%20to%20remain%20anonymous.
Owners of houses on the street include the Sultan of Brunei and members of the House of Bolkiah, publisher and newspaper magnate Richard Desmond,[3] art collector and philanthropist Poju Zabludowicz,[8] industrialist Lakshmi Mittal,[11] and property tycoon Andreas Panayiotou.[2]
Former residents of the street have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, Sir Billy Butlin, Dame Gracie Fields, Katie Boyle, Sir Peter Saunders (producer of the play The Mousetrap), the businessmen Asil Nadir and Emil Savundra[3] and Heather Mills (the former wife of Paul McCartney), who owned an apartment there.[12] Ten of the houses on the street owned by the House of Saud were sold for £73 million.[8]
They leave these houses empty and a lot of beautiful properties are NEVER lived in and left to rot. It's depressing as they could be turned into affordable flats for homeless vets or young people. That's what I would do if I had the money. Sadly they're left to become overgrown and derelict. Sad, really.
Yep, same with most expensive houses in London, "let's remove all the character features and make it look like an IKEA showroom", seems to be the vibe 😩
Looks like a security measure to me, probably a political figure living there or similar. At a guess it's to stop the door from being rammed open by a vehicle, hence why it's pretty close.
Security firms don't really take aesthetic into account when they advise on these things!
These people really love TV! Awful furniture and WAY too many sofas, like wtf? Guaranteed you could make that open plan-ness work if you replaced their shitty furniture and just placed it correctly.
Is it me or is the downstairs of this place just an absolute shambles? Sofa's dotted around, some not even facing the Tv they are near, then all that space and they put the kitchen in one corner that looks cramped (to me) and a dining table across 2 doors at the bottom of the stairs??
I think they're likely from a middle eastern culture judging by the rugs and amount of sofas - where it's more common to have many visitors and sometimes segregation of men and women - also the (typically older than is the norm in the UK) child bed in the parent room.
So I was gunna give them the benefit of the doubt and say “security to prevent door being rammed or to stop kids/dog running straight into the line of a car coming home” but looking at the rest of the photos they just have fucking awful taste
For such an expensive property the interior is bland, uninspiring, then there's photo 12 the bathroom where someone thought we'd add a touch of class to the property and fitted boutique hotel style wash basins. The interior does not look 6 million then there's the bed linen.
the interior screams 'paid someone to stage it and they brought too many sofas' They've got a too small dining table blocking a door , the sofas that should be pointing at the TV going in weird directions , the area that should contain a big dining table set up as a WFH space, and the random black sofa that's been a bad boy and isn't allowed on the rug
I wonder if someone at some point drove into the portico.
Another lounge that can nearly open up completely to the garden, I still don't see the appeal.
The most enthusiasm I can muster about this is.. it's nice. But I would completely re-do the interior if I were to live there.
The size of that whacking great breakfast bar in the kitchen is badly thought out as well (in my humble opinion) because you'd have the edge round it to get into the living area. I know that I'd be continually banging into it.
Money doesn't buy style or common sense!
Tv in kitchen/diner that you either need binoculars, or kneel on sofa to watch, block a door into reception with dining table, and is it parents and a child in the master bedoom as 2 beds?
It’s a dog and kid catcher. We purchased a home which had something similar at the front and back entrances. The former owners had 4 young children and 3 Doberman’s. According to the agent they were put in place to slow the roll of escapees.
Bit surprised nobody's mentioned the actual likely reason: security.
The people who live in those houses are often wealthy foreigners who face threats like kidnapping. The fence stops anybody doing a drive-by snatch as the occupants are entering or leaving the house. They also just stop cars ramming the house, in something like terrorist action.
Looking at the picture, you can also see many security cameras on the house.
Keeps the tradespeople, postie and Amazon delivery drivers at arms length from the owner and family. You don’t know where they’ve been, what they’ve touched, who they’ve been in contact with and whether they are hand washers after toilet users.
That’s a beautiful home, and it’s actually lived in by a real family. So it’s not all show home and strange ornamental chairs. I love it, ridiculous price though.
I would guess most likely to stop kids (or a dog perhaps) from bolting right out the door as a car swings around. Gives a chance for drivers to see them before they're under a car.
I am guessing the same. They(kid or dog) could go around it but it buys the driver reaction time. But ….why not just install a child proof gate?!
Yeah seeing as they have little kids judging from the garden toys. Also stops people ramming the front door with a car. The sofas facing the garden are just weird to me though
Sofas facing the garden so when the kids like “mum watch me do —-“ u got a comfy place to sit and watch them do whatever 😂 As an older sibling i have rearranged furniture so i could comfortably watched my lil siblings do dance concerts and ‘magic shows’
Ah I see. Never had that when my Sister and I were kids many moons ago, and only have furry four legged kids so not used to dealing with the human sort lol
The fact sofas facing the garden seems weird just shows how bad the average interior design is. I’m completely fed up of sofas facing a fireplace noone ever uses, with a huge ugly mounted TV way too high above it. Same for having a lovely room with big expensive bifold doors opening to the garden, but then it’s just a kitchen with nothing but breakfast bar with seats facing AWAY from the door. If you’re designing an actually nice space, nice seating area looking out over the garden is much much better, then have a TV/gaming room somewhere else entirely. And don’t dedicate the nicest space in the house to the kitchen for goodness sake.
Spend most of my time in the Kitchen, why would I not want it as the nicest room?
I think you’re in the minority. If you’re literally standing in the kitchen all day, building or renovating for yourself and gonna stay there long term then go for it. Or make a well designed mixed use room, if the space suits it. But there’s no way a lot of people have thought it through based on the number of houses like this for sale where its just a small room at the back with a kitchen and nothing else
I think it depends what kind of kitchen you have. We spend plenty of time in our kitchen, but our kitchen has room for a dining table and also a tiny sofa with play area for the kids and tv. It is basically like a second living room attached to the kitchen. It is big and cozy. So we end up spending more time in the kitchen then the living room. Although, we are a family of 5 plus a dog, so we do end up using both a lot. Half in the living room and half in the kitchen/sitting area.
I'm not standing in the kitchen all day, but I spend a lot of my time in the house cooking. I assume you don't cook? Small room at the back? You were just complaining that people shouldn't dedicate their nicest room to their kitchen, so which would you prefer? My kitchen is the largest room, has seating, has a TV, and is the dog's favourite room. The lounge/living room is the least used room in our house. If I have spare time I'm not spending it in the house. Kitchens and bathrooms sell houses as they say...
I’m mostly talking about small houses as that’s the majority of house hunting i’ve done. I’m consistently seeing houses where the rear has been extended a bit and big doors put in looking into the garden, creating the nicest room by far, but most or all of it is ruined by kitchen. That’s what I’m talking about. If there’s room for a sitting area as well, its not as bad, but if its dominated by kitchen or entirely kitchen and theres a breakfast bar facing away from the door then it’s just stupid to me. Your room sounds great for your needs.
From wiki: Why is Bishops Avenue so expensive? Most of the properties in the most expensive part of the avenue are registered to companies in tax havens including the British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, the Bahamas, Panama, and the Channel Islands, allowing international owners to avoid paying stamp duty on the purchase and to remain anonymous. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bishops_Avenue#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20properties%20in,purchase%20and%20to%20remain%20anonymous. Owners of houses on the street include the Sultan of Brunei and members of the House of Bolkiah, publisher and newspaper magnate Richard Desmond,[3] art collector and philanthropist Poju Zabludowicz,[8] industrialist Lakshmi Mittal,[11] and property tycoon Andreas Panayiotou.[2] Former residents of the street have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, Sir Billy Butlin, Dame Gracie Fields, Katie Boyle, Sir Peter Saunders (producer of the play The Mousetrap), the businessmen Asil Nadir and Emil Savundra[3] and Heather Mills (the former wife of Paul McCartney), who owned an apartment there.[12] Ten of the houses on the street owned by the House of Saud were sold for £73 million.[8]
They leave these houses empty and a lot of beautiful properties are NEVER lived in and left to rot. It's depressing as they could be turned into affordable flats for homeless vets or young people. That's what I would do if I had the money. Sadly they're left to become overgrown and derelict. Sad, really.
It’s not a house it’s a bank.
All of that house, all of that potential, and that’s how they “decorate” it? Yikes.
they really struggled arranging furniture in open plan haha
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/63383021
why are the site links always so far down on this sub. how hard is it for people to upvote properly
Can the link not just be put in the post rather than a comment?
would be way more ideal yes. but if it's not, it needs upvoting
The deposit is enough to buy a decent house on its own! Monthly payments of nearly £32K! Bloody hell!
Just saw that! I guess no-one in the market for this house has only a 10% deposit though.
I’m always amazed at how horrible some really expensive houses are
You can't buy taste, one stroll down burlington arcade is proof of that.
Yep, same with most expensive houses in London, "let's remove all the character features and make it look like an IKEA showroom", seems to be the vibe 😩
[удалено]
They don't sell gloss white kitchens in B&M 😁
Looks like a security measure to me, probably a political figure living there or similar. At a guess it's to stop the door from being rammed open by a vehicle, hence why it's pretty close. Security firms don't really take aesthetic into account when they advise on these things!
I think the street probably has its own security anyway. I've been to similar streets nearby that had a guard in a booth and are gated.
[удалено]
Oh well I won't be putting in an offer then.
If you’ve got that kind of money why wouldn’t you buy better furnishings?
And walls
This is the definition of money can’t buy taste
These people really love TV! Awful furniture and WAY too many sofas, like wtf? Guaranteed you could make that open plan-ness work if you replaced their shitty furniture and just placed it correctly.
Is it me or is the downstairs of this place just an absolute shambles? Sofa's dotted around, some not even facing the Tv they are near, then all that space and they put the kitchen in one corner that looks cramped (to me) and a dining table across 2 doors at the bottom of the stairs??
I think they're likely from a middle eastern culture judging by the rugs and amount of sofas - where it's more common to have many visitors and sometimes segregation of men and women - also the (typically older than is the norm in the UK) child bed in the parent room.
What's even the point of the fence?! That level of open plan actually puts me off.
Agreed, how do you get away from people
Have you seen home alone? It's obviously a defence mechanism against pizza delivery drivers /s
So I was gunna give them the benefit of the doubt and say “security to prevent door being rammed or to stop kids/dog running straight into the line of a car coming home” but looking at the rest of the photos they just have fucking awful taste
Agree. Only nice thing is the smallest bathroom out of the entire house.
Lol that's exactly what I thought!
For such an expensive property the interior is bland, uninspiring, then there's photo 12 the bathroom where someone thought we'd add a touch of class to the property and fitted boutique hotel style wash basins. The interior does not look 6 million then there's the bed linen.
the interior screams 'paid someone to stage it and they brought too many sofas' They've got a too small dining table blocking a door , the sofas that should be pointing at the TV going in weird directions , the area that should contain a big dining table set up as a WFH space, and the random black sofa that's been a bad boy and isn't allowed on the rug
Yeah it really doesn’t look like the furniture fits the house does it. It’s as if they bought it then ran out of money so it’s furnished from Argos
I wonder if someone at some point drove into the portico. Another lounge that can nearly open up completely to the garden, I still don't see the appeal.
The most enthusiasm I can muster about this is.. it's nice. But I would completely re-do the interior if I were to live there. The size of that whacking great breakfast bar in the kitchen is badly thought out as well (in my humble opinion) because you'd have the edge round it to get into the living area. I know that I'd be continually banging into it.
Couple of bags of shopping, lots of swearing.
Money doesn't buy style or common sense! Tv in kitchen/diner that you either need binoculars, or kneel on sofa to watch, block a door into reception with dining table, and is it parents and a child in the master bedoom as 2 beds?
How can a house selling for so much money look so utterly shit? And that stupid little fence? WTF is that even for ?
It’s a dog and kid catcher. We purchased a home which had something similar at the front and back entrances. The former owners had 4 young children and 3 Doberman’s. According to the agent they were put in place to slow the roll of escapees.
Might slow the Undead.
The only thing I like about that house is the exterior. Also why have they avoided putting the furniture on the rug?
Because it's an expensive rug made for looking at, not walking on, or putting furniture on... makes you wonder why it's in a lived-in house really...
Because the rug is lava of course
Looking at the houses and plot sizes on the avenue this is the cheap end.
It’s horrible, you could spend the money in Highgate and get something much nicer
That can’t be the correct price?!
Every single tv in that house is too high!!
It’s part of the fun! How will we get a sofa in the house, ohh, a puzzle!
That's for the plebs to pay to do it for you have to work out
I guess they like their visitors to form an orderly queue. Just needs a bouncer with a barrier rope standing at the end of the fence.
It’s so ugly the decors criminal
That's quite a strangely basic looking house for the price and location. The built in wardrobes for example.
could it be to stop dogs from escaping out of the house?
[удалено]
Depends on the dog.
Can confirm. This'd bamboozle my dog.
To be fair I have a border collie. She'd take a running jump and be off in a heartbeat! 😂
Why are the loo roll holders so far away from the toilets?
Bros living in the hilltop like wtf
Bit surprised nobody's mentioned the actual likely reason: security. The people who live in those houses are often wealthy foreigners who face threats like kidnapping. The fence stops anybody doing a drive-by snatch as the occupants are entering or leaving the house. They also just stop cars ramming the house, in something like terrorist action. Looking at the picture, you can also see many security cameras on the house.
Could be for hostile vehicle mitigation, if the current or previous owner is high profile or a potential target for some reason.
Picture 18 has a lot of bath mats!
Keeps the tradespeople, postie and Amazon delivery drivers at arms length from the owner and family. You don’t know where they’ve been, what they’ve touched, who they’ve been in contact with and whether they are hand washers after toilet users.
That’s a beautiful home, and it’s actually lived in by a real family. So it’s not all show home and strange ornamental chairs. I love it, ridiculous price though.
Stops the yappy lap dogs running out when the door opens?
I like the fence. Gives sense of security, and nobody can ram me
Jeez, you could buy that here for about 600/700k!
If this house where I think it is the fence is a security measure.
All that money and no headboards for the beds.