A Private View: fine-tuning faultlessness, in a timeless townhouse in Woolwich

Love conquers all, they say. And, in the case of Elizabeth Draper’s relationship with a handsome Victorian building on Woolwich’s Herbert Road, the adage proved true. “My falling for it was what won us the house,” she says. “The people who were selling it were also passionate about it – it’s that sort of a house. We had been competing with about 26 potential buyers – and I think I jumped to the head of the queue because I loved it so much.” Fergus Downey, her husband, laughs. His approach had been more head than heart. “I’d tried to be pragmatic about the process. The kitchen was ghastly and it was beyond our budget but…” He trails off. Heart won out.

At the time, the couple had just had a child. Given that their daughter is now 24 and the house is only now on the market, one might infer that Fergus was won over too. He admits it didn’t take long. “It has such an interesting history and its bones are so very beautiful that it would be hard not to be swayed by it,” he says.

As well as being the bedrock of the couple’s family life, the house, built in 1870, has also been a formative presence in both Elizabeth and Fergus’ professional lives. When they bought it, the house had “possibly more space than three people need”, Fergus says – unless one of them is an antique dealer with a hoarding habit. Having cut his teeth in the markets of Greenwich and Portobello, Fergus now has two bricks-and-mortar establishments too: Vanbrugh West Antiques and an art gallery, Alveston, both in W11. Elizabeth, meanwhile, who used to work in film, used the expansive and elegant kitchen here as the laboratory for her vegan and gluten-free cake business; Elizabeth D Bakes started as market stall and was later picked up by Whole Foods. She’s now segued into producing food content.

That Elizabeth’s kitchen won six Great Taste Awards (albeit for blondies and cookies) feels poetic. Looking around at the way the house’s grand proportions and finely preserved original details mingle with the couple’s contemporary-art collection and timeless furniture, one feels both she and Fergus are deserving of such an accolade. They’re both modest when complimented on the refinement of it all, however. “It’s the house, really,” Fergus says. “It has a great, long story of which we’re a part. I’m sure the next person will bring their own mark to it.”

Fergus: “This has been just the most wonderful family home. But it’s also been a working house. It was the focus of a lot of my dealing – not least as it held so much of my stock. Many beautiful things have come through the front door – and out again. Since we’ve known we were moving, we’ve streamlined considerably. We’ve even removed most the art, which drives me crazy.”

Elizabeth: “Whereas I look at it and think: Wow. There’s still so much! I suppose that gives you a sense of how much there was before…”

Fergus: “It does look brilliant now. It’s much tidier than perhaps it used to be… Except every December, when we would have a big clear-out before our annual Christmas Eve party.

“The house absorbs people beautifully – even 30 or 40 of them. The table in the kitchen seats 14 as happily as it does three, which is great when you’re married to an American.”

Elizabeth: “We’ve had huge Thanksgivings! We once had more than 100 people, which was pretty crazy.”

Fergus: “There’s a legacy of entertaining here. The house seems made for it, almost. The previous owner was a concert pianist – her Bechstein grand piano lived in what’s now our sitting room – and she’d host recitals that would be recorded for the BBC.”

Elizabeth: “The history and the architecture suggest it too. We know that it was built as an officer’s house, the biggest on the street, and was designed with visitors in mind – or at least the downstairs was, which is arranged as a series of reception rooms organised around a central staircase.”

Fergus: “What’s wonderful about it is that almost everything here is original. There isn’t anything you can do to this building to make it better than it already is. Over the years we have changed very little about it, save for the kitchen, which was in dire need of redoing. We had a builder for nine months who, like Elizabeth, immediately fell for the house; he built our kitchen by hand.

“He also rediscovered the original weighted shutters that had been hidden in the floor. It’s funny, because when we’d looked round, I’d noticed the curtains in the sitting room and felt they didn’t quite work in the room. Now I realise it’s because they weren’t meant to be there. The house was designed with shutters. With them reinstated, it feels right again – and because they slide up rather than across the windows, they give us the option of privacy without blocking too much light.”

Elizabeth: “People do fall in love with this place. There’s something about it. As well as being elegant with incredibly tall ceilings, it somehow manages to be homely too. I’ve always lived in historic houses – as a child my parents bought what’s known as the Charles Addams House in Rhinebeck, upstate New York, which was very decrepit then and is rather well known now. So perhaps it’s the period details that speak to me. I have always tried to celebrate those here, while ensuring it’s not a showcase home; it’s a place for us to live with the things and the art we love.”

Fergus: “I’ve always used the gallery to promote up-and-coming talent, which is what I’m interested in. As a consequence, we’ve got a lot of work by young, interesting artists at home too – Dan Hollings, for instance, and Jesse Grylls, who’s just 19. I love the way the Victorian architecture of this house lends itself to contemporary art in a way that you might not imagine. It’s very light, for starters, and the ceilings are high, which makes the proportions work when hanging. But I also think it’s worth bearing in mind that when this house was built, it was quite forward-thinking. It feels only natural to me that it would work well with modern art.”

Elizabeth: “Rather than change everything here, we’ve tried to be caretakers of this house, which is what living in a historic home is all about I think. We’ve brought our personality in with the art we’ve chosen to hang and the colours we’ve painted the walls, rather than by knocking down walls. It takes colour in an amazing way.”

Fergus: “This house can’t be played with because it doesn’t need to be played with. That said, it feels like quite a different place to the one we bought. It has shifted with us as we’ve shifted through life – as it will again, when somebody else moves in. And that’s lovely.”