ADVERT I SEMENT F EATURE
THROUGH THE KEYHOLE
ADDING THE EXTRA TO THE ORDINARY THE 1234 HOUSE, OVER, CAMBRIDGESHIRE
In the first of a series of visits to interesting houses around Cambridge, Sam Cooke, partner at local estate agents Cooke Curtis and Co, journeys west of the city to a village whose name can be heard ringing out across hundreds of English greens during the summertime: Over
standard. Then there’s the one with light grey powder-coated windows, the people carrier and the garden that’s slightly less neat than the neighbouring houses. That’ll be the hard-working young family who moved in four years ago and have been renovating. They’ve probably knocked the kitchen through into the dining room. These cul-de-sacs are probably the very last place you’d expect to find bold architecture. That’s no doubt a big part of what makes the 1234 House so exciting to some and so challenging to others. It stands out a bit. In actual fact, as a drawing on a builder’s plan, it’s entirely in keeping with those around it. The new volumes added front and rear by Hugo Keene of QOCA Collaborative Architecture perfectly mirror the proportions and scale of the original
here’s something restfully unpretentious about Cottenham Close and the many thousands of similar cul-de-sacs that have
dominated suburban and village housing in Britain since the 1960s. Photographed four years ago, it might be anywhere in the country, from Over to Little Whinging. Neat lawns, clean cars, polite neighbours. These houses are sensible, practical, devoid of frippery. Nice places to live. Well-to-do families have successfully You can often correctly assess the length of ownership from the briefest of external inspection. That one in the corner with the original teak-stained wooden windows, impeccable garden and Honda Jazz in the garage. That’s raised balanced, respectable next- generations in them for decades.
the woman who has lived there since new, maintained with care and love. It’s probably got the original kitchen. Next door has white plastic windows, a porch extension, new block paving, a Mercedes saloon and solar panels. Clearly a couple in their late 50s/early 60s, kids left home, retired or just about to be, new kitchen fitted 15 years ago to a very high
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