10 May 22, 2022The Sunday Times
Home
creating an energy-efficient
dream house that would still
be less expensive than some
grade II listed honeypot.
“Surely it’s a no-brainer,
unless you really care that
much about what other
people think. Why is this type
of architecture undervalued?
It’s purely snobbery.”
Bell thinks 1960s
architecture gets an unfairly
bad rap. “This house is a solid
little thing. By the 1960s
builders had learnt something.
The council was building good
stock. There was a damp-proof
course and they were built
with fibreglass insulation in
the cavity walls.”
OK, the house isn’t clad in
the honey-coloured limestone
that is synonymous with the
Cotswolds: it’s done up in
Bradstone, a reconstituted
stone made from aggregate
that many homeowners are
now covering up. Bell left his
exposed and boosted the
overall aesthetic with a
complementary modern
timber extension made from
weathered larch. “A good
modern addition elevates the
value of the house.”
The original house was 818
sq ft, with a sitting room,L
iving in a chocolate-
box cottage in the
Cotswolds is the
dream for many a
British homeowner,
but very few can afford it these
days, as the area morphs into
an affluent outpost of west
London. That hasn’t stopped
Tom and Sophie Bell from
finding their dream home in
one of the most desirable
Cotswold villages for a
relatively modest sum. The
secret? They bought a 1960s
ex-council house.
In 2018 the couple decided
to leave their tenth-floor flat in
Wapping, east London, so
they could bring up their two
daughters in the countryside
near where they both grew
up, and to be closer to family.
They looked at several period
houses — Tom grew up in a
17th-century forge — but
soon realised they were out
of their price range and full
of flaws: damp, mould and
leaks, not to mention poor
energy efficiency.
When they came across a
three-bedroom former local
authority house built in 1968
on the edge of Churchill in
Oxfordshire they were
entranced by the rural setting
— backing on to a hayfield —
even if the postwar exterior
did not pass the chocolate-box
test. They bought the semi for
£300,000 and spent £336,000
renovating it and extending it.
Tom reckons buying a similar-
sized period house in the same
area, would have cost from
£800,000 to £2 million.
“We started questioning,
what provides value?” says
Bell, 44, director of Freehaus
Architects; Sophie, 41, is
managing director of Toast, a
creative agency. “Is it visual
aesthetics and kerb appeal to
other people? Or is it about
what you can see out of the
window? Is it about location, is
it about proximity to school
and community? Those sorts
of things resonated with
Sophie and me far more than
the character of a period
property. People shouldn’t
overlook these houses.”
They reasoned the money
they saved buying a non-
period property could go intoFROM COUNCIL HOUSE TO
COTSWOLD
COTTAGE
How one family turned a 1960s council house
into their dream country home for £330,000
HUGH
GRAHAM
@HughGrahamST