Member Article

Headingley estate agent lists historic home

IT’S renowned for being one of Leeds’ most eye-catching streets – exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum and once home to a famous son of the city.

It has even been the subject of a book called “A Respectable Terrace” - chronicling the fascinating history of its distinctive setting, unique sloped gardens, and first residents.

Now a new chapter is set to be written in the 149-year-old life of Woodbine Terrace, nestling in the heart of the Headingley Conservation Area

For Number 14 - the biggest property on the street and the final one to be built - is up for sale following its rescue from auction and a major restoration programme which has seen it retain its original Victorian features throughout.

The seven-bedroomed, listed stone building is being marketed through the specialist North Leeds estate agency, Castlehill, with an asking price in the region of £695,000 – a far cry from the 40 pence a week it cost to rent a property on the terrace when it was first built.

Woodbine Terrace was developed by James Wood, who also helped to build Leeds Grand Theatre and the city’s Municipal Buildings at around the same time. Among the street’s early residents was John Dyson, the well-known Leeds watchmaker and jeweller, whose shop in Briggate became a city landmark - not least because of its giant clock under which many a lovers’ meeting was arranged.

“There are few streets in Leeds about which a book has been published but, thanks to local resident and historian Eveliegh Bradford, Woodbine Terrace is one,” said Castlehill director Simon Ketteringham.

“This property has the feel of a spacious country house and sits at the end of a handsome row of terraces full of character - with a Victorian communal garden, once described as being like a ‘private park’, a real focal point for the fourteen properties that share it.

“Its special charm was recognised in an exhibition at London’s V&A Museum celebrating ‘One Thousand Years of British Gardening’.”

The restoration of the period home has been a labour of love for vendor Oliver Gwinnell who said:

“We never imagined living somewhere quite like this, our beautiful family home has been a joy to live in. We also feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to restore this fabulous and historic house to its former glory.”

Number 14 is the double-fronted, end terrace on the street, added some 20 years after the first houses to be built and designed to fill in the space down to Grove Lane.

The first properties to be built on Woodbine Terrace - which remained in the Wood family’s ownership for a century until offered for sale to occupiers in the 1970s - commanded an annual rent of just £21.

According to the book, another resident of note in the terrace’s early days was the flax merchant James Boyle. His father, Humphrey, was a well-known political activist jailed for his part in the famous press freedom campaign led by Robert Carlile, the London bookseller who was also imprisoned for printing prohibited works, including Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man”.

Since being bought at auction, the building has undergone a full programme of renovation works, refurbishing, repairing and replacing all the original features such as the cornices, doors, woodwork and fireplaces. The aim was to restore all the wonderful character of the property, whilst adding modern luxury.

· For further information, visit www.castlehill.co.uk

ENDS

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Watts .