FORTUITOUS NEIGHBOURS
If you’re the sort of person who thinks gossiping over the fence with your neighbours every day is a living hell, then two unusual opportunities to secure solitude have come on to the market.
Agent Knight Frank is offering two sand forts for sale, both several miles outside the entrance to Portsmouth harbour. They are two of four forts built in the Solent during the late 1770s as part of fortifications designed to prevent an expected French invasion of the UK.
The oldest is Spitbank Fort, which is for sale at £5 million. Refurbished to luxurious standards in 2012, it’s currently operated as a boutique hotel with nine bedrooms, a 60-cover restaurant, pool, sauna and a pub. It’s also licensed for civil partnership ceremonies and weddings.
The other fort for sale, which is a short boat ride from Spitbank, is less salubrious. Horse Sand requires substantial effort and cash to bring it up to residential use. In recent times it has been run as a museum, and consequently although preserved and renovated, remains in basic shape. It’s for sale at £1 million.
Knight Frank suggests it could become a 23-room residence, as has a very similar fort nearby called No Man’s.
All the Solent forts, as they are known, were decommissioned during the 1960s and subsequently offered up for sale, although it took 20 years to find buyers for all four.
Let’s hope it doesn’t take so long this time. For more information, contact Knight Frank’s coastal properties specialist Christopher Bailey on 01392 848822.