We have a two-year lease, and we are
hoping to extend it. Renting was the best
option for us,because we wanted to give
our plan a go without too much commit-
ment, and to see howan area might suit
us. And it gives usthe chance to live in a
house that we would not be able to buy
at this stage in our lives.
I began searching intensely in and
around favourite haunts: Fonthill
Gifford in Wiltshire, Frome in Somerset,
Petworth in West Sussex. There were
false starts. We pined for a folly: a Gothic
gatehouse with quatrefoil windows,
or anI Capture the Castle-esque half-
ruined tower with moat and swans. We
longed for fanciful and romantic, but
we soon discovered that gargoyle-
topped lodges do not often pop up for
rent on Rightmove. We did manage to
track downan enchanting gatehouse,
but it was more or less derelict. Our
search continued.
One April morning, our country
home appeared on my screen. I knew
instantly that we could live there. I liked
the handsome grey stone exterior ithw
its chimneys at each end and arched
windows.It was a house, not a folly, but
its location looked exquisite. I could see
from the photographs how it sat entirely
by itself, surrounded by a stone wall and
a patchwork carpet of sylvan green.
Duncan visited the following day and
we drove up together a few days later.
Approaching the house down a single-
track road ith its canopy of trees andw
banks of daffodils, we were almost hys-
terical with excitement. We scrambled
around the cottage and garden and fell
in love with it all: the Arcadian views
from every window, the garden with its
gates opening into neighbouring fields,
the fireplaces and Stanley oven, theflagstone floors, the bathrooms with
their huge baths (practically swimming
pools for me).
The house felt just the right size: big
enough for friends to spend a weekend,
with just two main rooms downstairs.
We stopped for lunch on the way back to
London and with a phone call to the
estate office a few hours later, we had
committed to the Cotswolds.
Before then, we had been a bit mean
about the Cotswolds. The English often
are. Yes, a farm shop will add a shot of
CBD oil to your morning oat milk cap-
puccino for an extra £2 and several
nearby pubs serve negronis on tap, but
what is so bad about that? Fill me up.
It is easy to be cynical about others
who are working hard to make things
that are actually pretty good, and I find
that boring. Besides, there is so much
choice around here, we can do what we
like.Visit the vintage steam fair, dog
show or church flower arrangingContinued on page 2A
fter yapping on about it for
years, we have hit the
chintz-covered button. My
partner Duncan and I have
moved to the country.
Well, sort of. We show our faces in
London when we feel the need to
remind people we are not dead and still
very much available for hire. But on Fri-
day afternoons since the beginning of
June, we have been packing the car and
driving from Camden to Gloucester-
shire to spend long weekends at our
newly rented cottage.
I am already feeling the benefits. As
we drive out of the city, my mind clears.
When I return to London, I am ener-
gised and ready to work. And I have
been working well in the quiet of the
English countryside, too. Friends are
booked in for weekend visits until early
December. Luckily we are all on the
same page; we work hard in town, so
spending the weekend together cooking
and planting tulip bulbs is bliss.
Are we typical of our generation?
According to a recent report by the Res-
olution Foundation, a UK think-tank,
second homes are mainly an older phe-
nomenon. Baby boomers, on average,
have more than three times the amount
of “additional property wealth” than
those born after 1980. Many people of
my age are, of course,struggling to buy
their first homes —let alone a second.
But even those of my generation who
have the resources to fund a rural bolt-
hole seem less interested.
So what prompted our move? I did not
grow up in the countryside, but every
summer I would spend time in Somerset
and Devon. These trips brought peace
and this warm feeling would tug at me
after I moved to London 12 years ago. I
was 18 when I arrived in the capital,
nervous and eager with my hand-
painted clothes and portfolio bursting
with morose black-and-white photogra-
phy. I moved into a flat in Bethnal Green
for a couple of years, started at Central
Saint Martins art college, met Duncan
and moved to Camden a year later. Wefortune in 48 hours, being little
pigs ourselves and eating everything on
any menu. Those nice pubs are, more
often than not, decked out ina style we
refer to as “safe vintage” — agreige sort
of sub-Soho House look (though I
appreciate it is probably what most
punters want).
Often we would ask ourselves why we
had paid to stay in a room that we liked a
lot less than our flat in London. Then we
remembered: we had made these trips
not for the Roberts Radios nor the grey
tweed armchairs, but for the country-
side. The great outdoors! Mother Nature
herself! Literally anywhere other than
the Tesco garage on Camden Road!
Late last year, Duncan and I got seri-
ous about hunting for a country cottage
of our own. We needed the city for work
and friends, but we were ready for
adventure. We had both been savingup
to rent a place in the country, or to throw
a wedding party in Italy. (Now, conven-
iently, we think we will probably get
married in the barn next to our cottage.)(Clockwise from
above) Luke and
his partner
Duncan
Campbell in
their Cotswolds
living room; the
bedroom; the
repainted
kitchen; the
garden for
entertaining
friends
Photographs by Sam Pelly for
the FThave spent the past decade in this big,
boisterous, brilliant city, working,
building our interiors businesses and
generally getting on with life.
But we often found ourselvesescaping
to hotels andcountry pubs with rooms,
in search of the peace I remembered
from childhood. Time in the country
gave us clarity — the ability to enjoy the
city rather than let it wear us down.
I became a mini-break expert.
Friends would ask me for recommenda-
tions on where to stay, not quite expect-
ing an annotated map of the south-west,
with notes on where to find the most
exquisite bathroom potions, the most
faithfully sourced kitchen garden pro-
duce, the most natural ofwines, the
most attractive towns with the most
charmingbeauty spots, ancient sights
and shops selling the best-curated selec-
tion of knick-knacks.
I still love some of the places we fre-
quented (The Pig,a small chain of
hotels, does an excellent job). But prob-
lems arose. We would spend a smallSaturday 19 October/ Sunday 20 October 2019
Town house, country nous
Property After more than|
a decade living in London,
Luke Edward Hallis putting
his stamp on a new country
home. But can this young
urbanite adapt to rural life?
The home of prime property: propertylistings.ft.com Follow us on Twitter @FTProperty
2020 visionHow we will live in the coming decade— FUTURE TRENDSPAGES 8 & 9
Follow us on Instagram @ft_houseandhome
A gamekeeper instructed
us to slow to a crawl on
our lane to avoid mowingdown his pheasants
OCTOBER 19 2019 Section:Weekend Time: 16/10/2019- 17:47 User:elizabeth.robinson Page Name:RES1, Part,Page,Edition:RES, 1, 1