British house and gardens

Rebecca Hayes Interiors

Cornish Interiors

11. A third of Brits like to watch TV in bed
38% of Brits have a TV in their bedroom. If we add to them those 4% who have a bath in the bedroom, then we can safely say that a certain number of Britons are clearly not indifferent to hotel chic!

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How the British live.

The British are in love with their homes. In 2018, 85% of the population lived in private cottages: detached, designed for two families, terraced - it doesn’t matter. People give them names, lay out beautiful gardens in front of the entrance, use a fireplace in the old fashioned way (at least an electric one), tightly furnish living rooms with tables, ottomans and sofas ... In general, they do everything to make the house cozy and comfortable!

The British give their houses names

Despite the fact that the UK has a well-developed house numbering system (which cannot be said about the UAE), locals often give names to their properties.

Most often there are names-descriptions associated with nature. For example, with a garden in front of the house and plants in it (Rose Villa - rose villa, Buttercup Cottage - buttercup cottage), animals (Crow House - crow house, Lion House - lion house) or geographical and climatic features of the area (Sunbeams - sun rays, South Wind - south wind).

The simplest option is to name the house based on the type of building, for example Manor (estate) or Cottage (cottage). Often the names are given on a functional basis: The Vicarage (priest's house) or The Surgery (doctor's office). Even more often, the owners add some adjective to the name of their housing: Little House - a small house.

A detailed description of the house with the name Chelsea read here

As a rule, derogatory or dissonant names are not given to houses, although some can afford the comic The Hovel (shack) or The Hole (hole). However, this choice is rare.

Sometimes preference is given to some obvious, visible sign of an object or detail that, in the opinion of the owner, deserves special attention. So, if he is proud of his fireplace, then the house can get a name associated with this element of the interior. If the room is replete with stairs, then this, quite possibly, will be reflected in the name (for example, Five Steps). See the bright, eye-catching blue door? Probably, the owner indicated this in the name of the house - Blue Door.

The names of buildings often reflect their location, even in detail - say, House-on-the-Bend (a house at a bend in the road) or Bridge View (a view of the bridge; of course, instead of the second word there may be other objects - a church, park, fortress, mill and so on).

In addition to descriptions, the titles often use the names of literary characters and the titles of favorite works, important family events, fusions of truncated owners' names, and even borrowed Greek and Latin words.

Also, the British sometimes give the house a wish-name, which, apparently, should determine the fate of its inhabitants: Lucky Den (happy lair), Merry Day (fun day) or Little Paradise (little paradise).

Average houses are quite small

A true Briton will always prefer a house to an apartment. However, due to the high cost of real estate, he will have to put up with a small footage: the average area is from 70 to 100 squares, there are options for 50 meters!

At the same time, quite often (about 30% of cases) the footage is not indicated in the advertisements for sale or rent, and the photographs taken with a wide-angle camera do not convey the real picture.

This row house in Manchester is only 60 square meters. m

To date, the average area of ​​English real estate is less than 68 square meters. Directly in London and even less - only 65.5 square meters. m. The largest houses are located in the northeast and northwest of the country: their average area is 69.5–70 sq. m. m

Data from 2018

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Low ceilings are the rule rather than the exception

Older buildings tend to have really high ceilings (3. 5-4m), which is not the case with new buildings where the standard ceiling height is 2.5m. Explained this is the desire of developers to save space as much as possible and to extract housing benefits from every available meter.

However, it is worth recognizing that such a feature is successfully combated with the help of finishing. It is performed in light, neutral colors, which creates a feeling of openness and light. Glazing also affects this: panoramic windows are often found in English houses.

The British compensate for low ceilings with light-colored finishes and panoramic windows

If, in any new building, the ceilings are higher than the standard ones, for example, 2.6–2.7 m, this will definitely be indicated in the ad as an indisputable advantage of the object!

High ceilings - from three meters - can be found in new penthouses.

You can live on the basement floor!

For a Russian-speaking inhabitant, the basement floor is often associated with a basement - dark, damp, unsuitable for habitation. The Greeks, by the way, also do not favor such real estate.

However, in the UK lower ground floor is a common phenomenon. Such objects are often found in London buildings of the Victorian and post-Victorian eras (at that time, servants lived in the basement). These are even in some new buildings!

This is what a room in a basement apartment looks like. First of all, these are high ceilings - sometimes even under 3.5 m, which may not be on the upper floors of the same house. Secondly, almost all residents of the basement floors have a separate entrance and access to their own front garden. And thirdly, the price per square meter in such properties is about 40% lower than in apartments on subsequent floors.

By the way, precisely because there is a basement, the second floor in England will be called the first (first floor). Don't get confused.

The British live vertically

If we are not talking about one-story construction, then a standard English house is a dwelling extended over several levels.

It looks like this: on the first floor there is a kitchen and a living room (in older houses these rooms are divided, in new ones there is a tendency to large combined open areas), and on the second and third floors there are bedrooms and bathrooms.

This is what most private houses in the UK look like, but even in high-rise new buildings you can find duplex apartments. In this case, the essence is the same: on the lower floor there are common areas, on the upper floor there are sleeping areas.

A standard English house is a multi-level dwelling

And if the locals are accustomed to a "vertical" dwelling, then for expats it often becomes a test. Just imagine what it's like to run all day (even worse after a working day) up and down stairs, often very narrow...

Unpleasant neighbors - dampness and mold

There is no central heating in the UK, heating with gas and electricity is very expensive - in general, everything is like in the rest of Europe. Therefore, the British, one might say, are accustomed to spending winters in rooms with an average temperature of 16 degrees.

During relatively warm winters (the temperature rarely drops below zero), high humidity, leaks in the roofs (especially in old houses) due to frequent rainfall, mold appears in the houses.

By the way, because of the constant dampness and weak heating (or lack of it at all), unpleasant odors often remain in houses. Not every owner will weather them with a draft: when the house is obviously cool, the locals prefer not to open the windows so as not to lose heat.

Fireplace - in every home!

Fireplaces appeared in England as a response to the cool and dank climate and the lack of central heating. They were especially widespread due to the cheapness of coal for kindling.

By the beginning of the 19th century, fireplaces were installed in every English house, in fact, in almost every room. This, of course, led to air pollution - English smog formed by smoke from chimneys is legendary! In addition, the firebox created air draft, which led to drafts in the houses. Therefore, over time, people began to switch to boiler heating.

Nevertheless, the British still love fireplaces. More recently, in 2017, London experienced an environmental disaster caused by the operation of furnaces. Then the level of pollution in the capital set a record, exceeding the smog in Beijing! And, according to experts, home fireplaces have affected the situation no less than emissions from enterprises and exhaust gases.

Read more about this home with a fireplace here.

It is estimated that more than a million houses in London alone have fireplaces or wood-burning stoves today. And annually about 175 thousand new ones are installed there.

True, it is worth saying that many Britons now consider fireplaces exclusively as a decorative element, sometimes replacing the traditional firebox with an electric counterpart.

Repairs and alterations - with restrictions

Under British law, the property owner is responsible for any alterations throughout the history of the property. Even if they were not held with him and he did not know anything about them.

And if it turns out that work permits have not been obtained, the municipality can legally demand that the premises be restored to their original appearance. The cost of this will be borne by the current owner. However, there are relaxations in the law: in some cases, after four years, such permission is no longer required. True, this does not apply to objects of historical value.

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Lease agreements are concluded for 999 years

In the UK there is a special form of property ownership - leasehold. The buyers only rent the title from the freeholder (owner of the land under the building). The maximum duration of such a lease is 999 years, but in new buildings, as a rule, this period is much shorter (125–200 years).

Formally, at the end of the specified period, the landlord loses the right to own it. However, if the right to lease is extended in advance, then the property is retained by him. Such an extension costs several tens of thousands of pounds, which, of course, is cheaper than buying property again.

The issue of renewal has its own nuances. For example, if the leasehold is 110 years (out of 125 years in accordance with the contract of sale of real estate), then you will not be able to extend it until it "falls" to 90 years. But after that, you can extend it for another 90 years, and then you get 180 years.

The shorter the remaining leasehold period, the higher the cost of renewing the lease. Therefore, if the leasehold of an object is only ten years, then it will be sold for about half of the market value, because the same amount a person will have to pay extra for renewing the lease.

Once a year, the British open the doors of their houses to everyone

By the end of the 18th century, a tradition arose in Britain: wealthy landowners opened their doors to everyone, essentially turning their mansions into tourist attractions. This event is reflected, for example, in the novel "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.

Every landowner was supposed to be hospitable to travelers before, but only over time this phenomenon acquired such large-scale forms and even received the name "out-of-town tourism".

Ethics and social rules required every homeowner to show hospitality to travelers, but only a few wealthy aristocratic houses really aroused the interest of people - hundreds of people!

Pengersick Castle can be visited during "open days"

Such a flow of visitors inevitably led to the formalization of processes: official opening hours of the mansions were determined and even organized tours were offered, which, as a rule, were conducted by housekeepers. Then they even began to develop guidebooks telling about what a visit should be like - what guests should appreciate and what to ignore.

The locals still invite outsiders once a year.

Thus, in a number of small towns and villages, the Open Gates Day project has been operating for many years. During this period, which lasts for several days, anyone can enter the territory of the house participating in the event, wander around the garden and appreciate the gardening skills of the owners. Some especially hospitable owners invite strangers to tea in the house, usually in the living room or kitchen.

Charity event, held in late May or early summer. All proceeds from tickets are donated to various aid funds.

London has its own separate project Open House London (at the end of September), Manchester - Manchester Curious (at the end of October). Their counterpart in the rest of England is Heritage Open Days, also known as HOD.

Each of these festivals opens doors to buildings of architectural and historical value, as well as institutions and organizations that are otherwise inaccessible.

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