The unusual, three-bedroom property is moored on the River Thames by Wandsworth Park
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For nautically inclined house hunters, this London houseboat that’s floating just off the south bank of the River Thames, might be the ideal investment.
On the market for £1.65 million (US$2.1 million), the three-bedroom vessel is moored just next to Wandsworth Park, according to the listing with Knight Frank, which brought the unorthodox home to the market at the beginning of this month.
Houseboats “rarely appear on the market, but when they do they attract a specific buyer who is after a unique way of living,” said Sarah Bennett, associate in Knight Frank’s Battersea and Riverside office. “This houseboat comes to market in excellent condition and contrary to any stereotypes, it is very spacious.”
At almost 2,000 square feet of living space, the houseboat is roughly twice the size of the average London dwelling, which, according to government statistics, is about 904 square feet. The two-story home has a light-filled reception room, a fully equipped kitchen and dining room, and three decks, including a sprawling roof terrace with city and water views.
The bedrooms are on the lower level, and include a primary suite with a walk-in wardrobe and an en-suite bathroom—both of the boat’s two bathrooms are large enough to accommodate bathtubs—and a study, complete with wine storage, could easily be converted into a fourth bedroom, according to the listing.
Mansion Global couldn’t determine who owns the property, or when it last changed hands.
Other amenities include an automatic boat launcher, “offering ease of access for aquatic adventures,” and the mooring is securely gated and privately owned “so the houseboat comes with a share of the freehold of the mooring,” the listing said.
Owning a share of the mooring gives greater security of tenure, unlike cruising licenses, where you have to move your boat regularly, Mansion Global previously reported.
Residents can also “enjoy external facilities that come with mooring rights such as access to the gym and swimming pool at [nearby] Prospect Quay,” Bennett said.
In London, houseboats “offer the remarkable experience of living right next to the action of city life whilst also being amongst nature, truly the best of both worlds,” she added.
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Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
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A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
