A Private View: an expertly updated Georgian townhouse for all seasons in the heart of Leicester

Drew Harriman and James Hempsall’s end of terrace is situated on a smart street adjacent to Leicester’s picturesque New Walk. In stark contrast to its neighbour, the façade is painted a stand-out shade of dark charcoal. Needless to say, the interiors – which have been thoughtfully restored and reimaged by the current owners – are equally stylish. “When people find that the house is painted black, they often ask, ‘But don’t you want to fit in?’” shares James. “And I always think, ‘Why would we want to do that?’”

The couple bought the property – which has an enviable central Leicester location, just 10 minutes from the station – at the end of 2015. “The first thing that struck me when we came to view the house was the staircase,” recalls Drew, who had spent the years prior to buying the home living in New Zealand and Australia. “I’ve always loved period homes and I was looking for as much original detail as possible. I loved that there was still the original relief pattern on the archway in the hall, and the original doors and fireplaces too. It had been an auctioneer’s office so a lot of it remained intact.”

This neighbourhood was once among the most prosperous in Leicester, at a time when the city was rich thanks to its links to the textile trade. In many ways, you can imagine that those who lived in here – including the historic clockmaker Edward Thomas Loseby, whose timepiece still ticks in Leicester’s landmark clock tower and old city hall – are very much the spiritual ancestors of the current owners.

Many original details had been preserved, although there were plenty of more recent – and rather questionable – design decisions in situ when the couple moved in. The couple subsequently embarked on a four-month renovation project, preserving the historic features of their home, while reconfiguring the space for 21st-century living.

Their generous house is split across four floors with quirks at every turn. One of its most striking features is the interconnected living room, dining room and kitchen on the raised ground floor, which allow you to look from one end of the house to the other. The effect is maximised by the high sash windows in the living room at the front of the house and the floor-to-ceiling glass walls in the kitchen that open out onto the garden, with light streaming in and filling the entirety of the ground floor.

The kitchen, which the couple extended, is particularly homely, with natural wood and marble fixtures and fittings, plus a deceptively high ceiling thanks to a mono-pitched roof. Situated at the end of the hallway, it has a magnetic quality, drawing people into it as soon as they enter the house. “It’s where people start parties,” shares James. “People come in and take a seat at the island. Often we end up staying in there for most of the evening rather than moving into the dining room and sitting around the table.”

The sweeping wooden staircase leads to the main and guest bedrooms and bathrooms. On the first floor, the space has been reconfigured to create a primary suite that stretches the full width of the house encompassing an enviable walk-in wardrobe. On the top floor, two further bedrooms are just as loved and layered as the rest of their home.

The basement is the house’s “pièce de resistance”, according to James. A no-less-considered space, as opposed to a dark junk room, it has been masterfully transformed into a WC, a stylish laundry and pantry and James’s naturally-lit and helpfully sequestered office space. That said, James is equally drawn to the kitchen, particularly in the summer when he likes to work on the island with Wimbledon on in the background. “The way the sunlight hits the pink of the kitchen walls is beautiful,” says Drew.

Yet as a lover of all things cosy (it was, after all, his idea to paint the outside of the house black) it’s the winter that Drew likes best in his home.  “For me, the house really comes into its own in winter,” he says. “I love it at that time of year, especially between 3 and 4pm, during twilight, with the ritual of lighting the candles – it’s so cocooning.” He particularly likes the living room for this, which has been confidently steeped in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Inchyra Blue’.

The interiors of the house are testimony to one of Drew’s design principles, that a home should convey something of the personality of its owners. An avid collector, their rooms are filled with Virgin Mary statuettes, coptic crosses, antlers and – uniquely, and rather fragrantly – vintage soaps. The art has been largely chosen by James. “What I love about the house is that wherever you look, you can see things that spark a memory of a trip,” he says. “Our collections are what have brought layers into the space. I always advise our customers to do as we have here: to take their time, to mix it up and be eclectic in what they do.”

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