When Clive Mead and his partner Stephen Hewson went to view their early 18th-century townhouse, they definitely weren’t in the market for another move. They were just being curious, having already found their forever home nearby. However, things didn’t go to plan.
‘We’d agreed that we were not going to move again,’ Stephen explains. ‘But we decided that we wanted the house within 10 minutes of seeing it.’ They have since fondly named it ‘Fanny’s Dilemma’: a reference to a portrait that hangs above their fireplace, and the property’s imagined chatelaine.
Part of a stuccoed terrace, distinguished by architectural detailing intended to elevate it from its neighbours, the house transports you back in time as you step through the doors, enveloping you in a dark and deeply bewitching atmosphere.
Exquisite, original pine panelling and that impossible-to-fabricate smell of age set the imagination racing: what were the past inhabitants like and how did their lives play out? Fortunately for Clive and Stephen, the couple they bought the house from had commissioned an in-depth report on the history of the house.
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A shopkeeper, cow keeper, dairy man and fish hawker are just some of the people who have called the house home since it was built in 1715. By the time Stephen and Clive looked around, however, it needed reminding of its past.
‘I’ve always lived in old houses, apart from when I bought a loft overlooking the Regent’s Canal,’ explains Clive. ‘I ended up hating polished concrete and realised that new is definitely not for me.’ A 1980s renovation and awkward layout needed to go, along with beige carpets, which were tossed in the skip.
Once everything had been cleared, a major rethink of the flow of the house took place, which also involved the renovation of a low-ceilinged extension and the repurposing of the original kitchen as an atmospheric dining room: the site of many a dinner party, including one recently where the entire central leaf of the table dropped to the floor, taking everything on the table with it.
‘Luckily no one was injured,’ Clive laughs. ‘But we did lose rather a lot of nice glassware.’ Bolts for said leaf have since been strengthened.
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The cosy front parlour is exceptional, too. ‘This room is a particular delight at Christmas and through the winter,’ Stephen reveals. ‘We often squish eight or 10 guests in there, before and after a dinner party.’ Local estate agents insist that the built-in display cupboards are wig cabinets, but they’re more likely to have been designed to show off china – highly prized when the house was built.
‘The blue-and-white china collection was started by Clive’s late mother, Cynthia. Clive continues to add to this, very much on instinct,’ says Stephen. ‘The fake Tudor coffee table belonged to my grandparents. It was a wedding present to them in 1938. Clive would happily chop it up for firewood, but it holds so many happy childhood memories for me that its presence in the house is non-negotiable.’
In total contrast to the moody and historical feel of the front rooms, the lofty kitchen is bright and full of light. This offers a more informal place to gather and eat. Up the typically steep, winding stairs with essential ‘climbing rope’, the historical feel returns.
‘I collect very much for aesthetics and fun,’ Clive says. ‘My friends tell me I should have been a set designer as I enjoy telling a story through objects. Also, I think it’s because I’m good at the overall effect of decorating. Just don’t look too closely – all is not what it seems!’
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For instance, he says, ‘on the mantel shelf in the master bedroom I arranged an antique Japanese cup (from my grandparents), a small oval Spode platter (a gift from a dear friend), a ship in a bottle (charity shop) and a Chinese figurine (given to me by my mother). Placed together they remind me of another time when luxury goods from the Orient were smuggled to Deal in the dead of night.
At least to me they hint at that past.’ Especially so, because the bedroom has a smugglers’ drop hole – a secret space to store contraband – under the floorboards at the back of a cupboard. ‘Fixed to the side of the brick shaft that drops down to behind the china cupboard in the front parlour is an old wooden pulley and rope, which would have been used to lower bales of silk, rum, porcelain and other swag,’ he explains.
Behind the master bedroom there is another double bedroom and Jack and Jill bathroom; the layout is repeated again on the top floor where a clever rooflight highlights more antique joinery, including a mystery ‘bordello’ window in the door of the back bedroom. Clive has set the scene perfectly but, as with many older homes, it’s a work in progress.
‘We have stacks of paintings in the basement that haven’t made the grade to upstairs,’ he says. Once they’ve found a home, the cellar will no doubt undergo a magical transformation to imagine Fanny’s servants hard at work below stairs.
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