4 bed Semi-Detached House - Offer Accepted, Guide Price £825,000

Property Description

** Vendor's comments** "We knew as soon as we walked in that this house was exactly what we wanted – a practical family home with plenty of space for our 3 young daughters. Within the catchment area of an outstanding primary school, we knew it would make a perfect home. In the 9 years we’ve been here, we’ve carried out extensive renovation, balancing new and restored Victorian features with fresh and light living spaces designed to meet the demands of a busy family. We’ll be very sad to leave our lovely home, but a new job in a new county awaits us.

The house is situated on a quiet residential road, with gated off road parking and a small low-maintenance front garden. We decided to keep the original wide front door, replacing the glass insert for a stained glass panel reflecting the woodpecker we saw in the garden on the day we moved in. Downstairs there are 10-foot high, coved ceilings throughout the main living areas, with parquet flooring in the hallway and dining room. The hallway opens to roof height with a large (opening) sky light – great for ensuring light floods across all floors and for moon watching on clear nights.

Leading off the hallway, the light spacious living room benefits from a large bay window overlooking the front garden, complete with and original arts and crafts fireplace, black granite hearth and multi-fuel wood burner.

Next along the hallway is the dining room which, for us, doubles up as a music room and library. Although the Victorian coving and ceiling rose are recent additions, the fire place, oven and mantle are original. The dining room leads to the most practical spaces in the house – the utility room and downstairs shower room. The utility room has space for both a washing machine and dryer, solid wood worktops and handy wall cupboards.

Finally, the kitchen. Replaced around 5 years ago, the kitchen has ample floor and extra-tall wall units (solid wood doors), black granite worktops and Fired Earth ceramic floor tiles. Under and over-counter LED lights and French doors leading into the rear garden ensure plenty of light. There’s ample space for a 6-seater dining table, making this room the real heart of our home.

On the first floor there are 3 bedrooms. Two are large, high ceiling doubles and the third a large single (although technically it takes a double bed). The main bathroom can be either accessed from the master bedroom or the hallway, it has an over-bath ‘rain-head’ shower, low level sani-flo WC and free standing sink. There’s also a second bathroom with WC and Victorian marble basin. The expansive second floor loft room is used as our guest bedroom and study, and has extensive cupboard space built into the eaves.

On a very practical level, the house gives lots of storage options with large under-stair cupboards on both ground floor and first floor landings, and a ‘lean-to’ down the side of the house giving abundant storage space for buggies, bikes, scooters and a whole host of other family-clutter!

The property also has considerable development potential, ranging from adding an extension or conservatory to the rear or developing a second storey space above the ground floor utility room and bathroom. In addition, currently only half of the loft space is utilised for the fourth bedroom, meaning there is substantial space to extend the third floor of this amazing family home.

The back garden is mainly laid to lawn with a range of mature shrubs which give good privacy and shade on sunny days. At the bottom of the garden is a 4m x 4m wooden shed and greenhouse.

While Penge has a strange ring to it, it is great neighbourhood. Mentioned in the Doomsday book, the area has lots of open green space, and a genuine sense of community fuelled by the likes of Facebook-based Penge Tourist Board, and free local SE20 monthly magazine. There are several local shop within a few minutes’ walk (Tesco express, Co-op, a post office, dry cleaner and several small cafes and takeaways) but you must visit the family run Penge Fish Bar on Marlow Road that has been serving outstanding fish and chips to the area for over fifty years. A little further is Penge High Street, which has come a long way in the last 10 years with a variety of shops cafes and restaurants including, Friends of Flavours (odd name but amazing Italian cuisine, probably the best meal you’ll get for miles). There are now some excellent pubs including The Goldsmiths Arms and the Alexandra both with an excellent choice of real ales and wines.

We are within walking distance of a number of train and tram station options, including Birkbeck, Elmers End, Norwood Junction and Anerley. These stations give fantastic access to both mainline London and East London Line stations, including London Bridge, Victoria, Canada Water, Highbury & Islington and Charing Cross. Timed right, I can be in my London Bridge office just 35 minutes after leaving the house".