LIQUID ASSET A GRAND DESIGN
An unusual converted water tower featured in the Channel 4 property programme Grand Designs was initially described by presenter Kevin McCloud as a ‘brute of a building’ during the programme, which first broadcast in 2006.
Happily, he changed his mind and went on to say the conversion was one of his three favourite projects on the show. During the early noughties the couple who converted the tower, Bruno and Denise Del Tufo, initially bought a Victorian Cottage in the Kent village of Rolvenden, which happened to have a water storage tank at the end of the garden. But after being alerted to its residential potential, and the fact that it had been designed by worldfamous architect Edwin Lutyens, they sold the cottage and set to converting the water tower, all under the watchful eye of Kevin McCloud.
The couple spent 11 months and £300,000 completing the project and at one point had to endure living with their four dogs in a tent alongside the building despite snow falls. Eleven years on and the couple, who were already retired at the time of the conversion, say they need somewhere more practical to live as they “approach their dotage”.
The Water Tower, which is on the market with agent Knight Frank (01892 515035) has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two reception rooms, a detached double garage, gravel drive, formal garden, paddock and vegetable patch. It also offers stunning views over the local countryside.