Wealden Times | WT168 | February 2016 | Wedding supplement inside

Above: Much of the furniture in Belvidere Place, such as this elegant pedestal dining table, came from Jilly’s former home in Peckham, south London. Jilly was
inspired to paint the downstairs breakfast room in dark grey after using, and liking, the colour of a grey undercoat she had been using to paint woodwork
As well as bringing many of her London friends with her, Jilly also brought the
contents of her London home – items which fit perfectly with
the pared-down rustic interior of Belvidere Place
In the latest film adaptation of Alan Bennett’s
The Lady in the Van, Miss Shepherd escapes her
unconventional Camden existence to spend short
spells by the sea in Broadstairs. Admittedly, she is far
from your average holiday-maker but, nonetheless,
her attraction to this unspoilt Victorian seaside
town is something many of us can understand.
In 2007, Jilly Sharpe was also an escapee from
London, but from Peckham in her case and, rather than
living in a van, her former home was a large London
townhouse. “I already had a house in Broadstairs, so
knew the town, but moving here was a matter of survival.
I was a single mum who needed to make a living – so
it wasn’t just a case of escaping to the seaside.”
It should also be noted that the huge Georgian building
she was about to buy, was not an entirely tempting
holiday destination or home. “Nobody had repaired it
in 200 years and it was rotten to the core,” says Jilly. “It
had been run as a B&B, although initially I bought it
simply as a home for my son Gus and me. It was horribly
institutional, with fire doors and glass partitions everywhere
and many of the original doorways were boarded up.”
In its current incarnation, this is difficult to imagine
– and Jilly has had to put in an immense amount of
work, and a certain amount of money, to get it to its
current state. “It took every penny I’d got,” she says.
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