Surrey Homes | SH35 | September 2017 | Education supplement inside

Previous pages: The wilder side of John and Anna’s
creativity comes out in their choice of artworks, with large
scale original paintings – and some quirky eBay finds – in
every room, mixed in with some very special photographs.
Top Left: A Luke Hannam painting hangs in the sitting
room Left: Glass doors lead out from the sitting room and
dining area onto a deck shaded by a pergola
Above: Outside, there are two timber decks, both with
tables and chairs to eat out on. The deck outside the guest
cabin has an outdoor ping pong table and an adjacent fire
bowl, surrounded by tree trunk stools. For even closer river
watching, there’s a large jetty at high tide level
Some houses are like the Tardis – you need to get all the
way inside them to appreciate their charms (and I can
tell you from personal experience, that Giorgio Armani’s
palazzo in Milan looks like a garage from the street…).
Others reveal their full fabulousness the moment you are
over the boundary – Chandler’s Reach is one of these.
The back view, visible from the road in Rye, is of a cluster
of weather boarded buildings painted a uniform matt black.
It looks chic enough, but the minute you get through the gate
and take in the setting, the only possible reaction is: wow!
The house, within a compound of a garage/studio,
guest cabin and separate office building, backs right
onto the River Rother and uninterrupted views across
the salt marshes, with their lush green grass and thickets
of vegetation. To the east, the river curves round to the
left in an arrangement Capability Brown would have
approved as a natural effect so pleasing to the eye.
Adding the kind of visual punctuation Mr Brown achieved
via carefully sited oak trees, just around the river bend is
the railway bridge with its pleasingly antique industrial
iron frame structure – and sitting on top of it all the
characteristic big sky of this marsh and marine landscape.
“You can walk all the way to Camber Sands from
here,” says John Carver, looking out across the view
with fond familiarity, “crossing only one road.”
Yet, it was the less outstanding rear view which first
caught the attention of John and Anna to the property.
“I drive around and notice things,” says John. “I’d seen
this place, it was on my radar, but we decided not to look
for anywhere to buy until our previous house was under
53 wealdentimes.co.uk