The insider guide to buying your own private Soho Farmhouse
It’s not quite a case of ‘last one to leave London, please switch off the lights’. But the appetite among Londoners for rural living is at a high since lockdown. Zoopla reports an 80% increase in demand for rural property since the first week of March, compared to a 60% increase for urban properties, and buying agents are at their busiest seeking out the perfect country homes for city types with a roving eye.
“They are no longer anchored by offices or commute times,” comments Jo Eccles, founder of SP Property Group, of the city dwellers leading the charge into the countryside.
For those who have been missing the pampering pleasures of their favourite boutique hotel or private members’ club in recent months - and fear more such torturous self-denial if there’s a second lockdown later this year - there’s one solution: to recreate the Soho Farmhouse or Babington House-style experience in their own homes.
There’s the added bonus, too, of avoiding the whole communal thing. “Although you can’t replace the social side at home, the idea of using spa facilities where others have been before you is not terribly appealing, particularly at the moment,” says Charlie Wells, managing director of Prime Purchase buying agency.
When it comes to design, you could copy the Beckhams (whose Gloucestershire home is next door to the real Farmhouse), the Clooneys in Sonning or the Sussexes at Frogmore Cottage and hire interior designer Vicky Charles, the mastermind behind Soho Farmhouse’s look, to handle the renovations. But she’s pretty busy these days bringing the now iconic and much-imitated look to the rural piles of the rich and famous.
Charles insists “it’s not a cookie-cutter thing you can just drop in”, but there are instantly recognisable features that should appear in any Farmhouse pretender, from the roll-top copper bath at the end of the bed and hearth-side snug to the hot tub and firepit. Throw in several acres, a swimming pond, and barns converted into cinema and wine tasting dens and you have the kind of country home that’s in hot demand.
Even the experiential side can be catered for in lockdown, with everyone from chefs and sommeliers to personal trainers coming up with creative solutions via Zoom. “We’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from clients about vineyards and distilleries who have delivered samples to their homes, then offered personalised virtual tasting sessions,” comments Paul Clarke, founder of Mr & Mrs Clarke estate agency.
One of the properties he’s marketing - Hogbrook Farm in Leamington Spa, a 400-year-old property set in seven acres, on sale for £1.15m- “undoubtedly takes its design inspiration from the Soho Farmhouse playbook,” says Clarke.
“Think lived-in and unspoilt country home meets chic, contemporary bolthole with all the touches you would expect to see at your favourite out-of-London retreat,” he adds of the beautifully styled, beamed house with a paddock, orchard, hot tub and summer house perfect for real or virtual yoga classes.
“I’ve never been asked by more people for properties that offer everything,” adds James Mackenzie, head of Strutt & Parker’s country department, which is marketing the ultimate remote, rural retreat: the North Cassochie Estate in Perthshire.
Its 172 acres include a wild swimming pond, equestrian facilities and huge swathes of parkland. The sporting estate on the River Almond also has a gym, cinema and indoor pool and is priced at offers over £3.75m.
“For this type of buyer, first on the list are pools, cinemas and gyms, and then it’s spas, saunas and tennis courts. Buyers want these things in an old house that’s been updated – not something brand new – and with a canal nearby that they can run along, or a footpath for good walks,” says Mackenzie.
The desire for “all the toys”, he adds, stems from London buyers with £2m-£30m to spend, and who “just haven’t had these things before. The other buyers are expats – those who have been living in stunning apartments in The Peak in Hong Kong and are now coming back and want what they’ve been used to.”
While museums and pubs have been among the casualties of the lockdown, there’s a house for sale in Benenden, Kent that comes with its own. The Moat, a historic nine-bed house surrounded by a moat and priced at £4m through Knight Frank, not only has 110 acres to play with; it has a traditional Kentish-style car museum and fully equipped pub, The Plough Inn.
“As a result of social distancing restrictions, people are eager to go about their daily routines and socialising rituals in the comfort of their own homes,” comments Rupert Sweeting, Knight Frank’s head of national country sales.
You needn’t leave London, however, to create a home that pays homage to your favourite rural boutique retreat. Inspired by their favourite members clubs and hotels, the owners of Chandler’s House in Clapham - a former coach house set around a courtyard, on sale through Marsh & Parsons for £1,399,950 - have brought a Cotswolds country feel to south-west London.
The Farmhouse look is most redolent in the large open kitchen, with its flagstone floor and log pile, and the elegant drawing room with its battered leather armchairs.
“Our favourite room at Babington House - in the attic, with a log fire – definitely inspired a lot of the look and feel of our home,” says Chandler House’s owner, James Jeffery.
But a highlight for visitors is the downstairs loo, which has been a riverside lodge and beach hut, complete with sand, in its time, and is currently decorated as a ski shack, with a photographer’s backdrop found on eBay.
“The inspiration came from a pop-up experience on the roof of the Montague on the Gardens Hotel in Holborn. The real immersive part is the hidden speaker that plays a recording of the sounds of a blizzard,” says Jeffery.
Who needs to leave home to have fun these days?
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