"What characterises this house is its ingenuity. Jim’s grandfather was a radio engineer for MI5 and Jim remembers visiting his house as a child and marvelling at his post-war oak furniture piled with scientific equipment. ‘Our own home probably looks quite similar now,’ he says. Certainly Jim’s office does conjure images of fervent creativity and invention with the piles of reference books and a 1970s educational telephone.
"Elsewhere, his own handiwork can be spotted. The bookcase, displaying 3,000 books, that runs the four floors of the back staircase was built to hide pipes and electric cables, while the light above the kitchen island was created by Jim from salvaged pieces. ‘I couldn’t find an original chandelier to go here so decided to make one. I stripped a broken 1940s light of its original white globes and brass galleries and fixed them to a brass pipe, then hung it all from an original 1920s ceiling rose. It wasn’t a dissimilar process to making a clock.’"
Read the full article online at Homes & Antiques.
Words: Kate Hallett Photography: Brent Darby
