How a spacious London house stole former Hong Kong residents’ hearts
A couple of globetrotting Australian empty nesters were planning to downsize to a small London flat ... until they walked into this 5,000 sq ft light-filled house
“We thought downsizing was going to be straightforward – simply shedding a few large items, like our grand piano, and relocating to a chic, smaller apartment in the city, but nothing went quite as planned,” says globetrotting Australian entrepreneur Gail Chapman, who recently moved from a seven-bedroom house in the Kent countryside, to southwest London.
She and husband Richard, a banker, have led a peripatetic life since 2002, when they left Australia for Tokyo. After six years in Japan, the family relocated to Hong Kong before upping sticks again, in 2014, to move to Britain. The couple’s children left the nest last year.
Plans to scale back, however, evaporated the instant they walked into a six-bedroom 5,000 sq ft house in London, perfectly located for Richard’s office in the City and Chapman’s frequent Heathrow Airport runs. She blames their uncharacteristic change of heart on the natural light that floods each room, as well as the bonus – a garden for their labradoodle, Milo.
The rental had been renovated to a high standard, with pure white walls and heated oak flooring in a simple, minimalist palette, so all the family had to do was unpack, an exercise they completed in 48 hours.
The greatest challenge was to resist the temptation to fill the large, empty spaces. Chapman, who trained as a lawyer, says she and her husband try to buy furniture and art as lifetime investments and not to suit just one house.
It is important to buy something to remember, otherwise money gets spent and later you can’t remember what it went on
