Bold interior choices allowed these first-time buyers to utilise every square inch of this 19th-century building to create something special
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leanor and Dominic Charles’s wishlist was typical of most city dwellers looking to get a foot on the property ladder: a bit of outdoor space, ideally a house rather than a flat, and somewhere with character. But they ended up being bolder than most first-timers, taking a punt on a run-down, pint-sized 19th-century coach house in Camberwell, south London.
“We’d viewed other properties, but often they’d been flipped and had uninspiring interiors we’d want to rip out, which just felt wasteful,” says Eleanor.
The couple stumbled across the auction listing for the coach house and were drawn to its cottage-like features and quirky character. It had been converted into a residential property some time ago but had fallen into complete disrepair. “It was like a Georgian doll’s house,” says Eleanor. “Not even wide enough for rooms either side of the central door – there was just one room downstairs and a lean-to toilet at the back; upstairs was split into two with no hallway.”
