Haverstock Road, Knowle

'This is a much loved home that has been in our family for 65 years with five generations having lived here. It has seen us though different stages of our lives and has been an amazing house to bring up a family. Over the years we have renovated and modernised while retaining the best of the original features.

The local area has served us very well with Fox and West, Co-Op and Southside bar at the end of the road. Our boys have loved going to Hillcrest School which has a great community feel given the close local catchment. Raising small children here has been great as there are so many parks on the doorstep: Perretts Park for snow days, watching hot air balloons and secret dens; School Road Park for a little explore and play in the sand; Victoria Park for open space, playground, coffee and watching trains; Redcatch Park for playing cricket, playground, coffee and treats and more secret dens.

The area is also great for work. I’ve worked in Bristol but also commuted to both Cardiff and London and the proximity to Temple Meads is amazing. The Elizabeth line through Paddington now means you can get to central London in just over 2 hours from the house (with a pastry from Harts Bakery for the journey).'

The position of the house on the impressive Haverstock Road, provides a fantastic setting, just metres from the bowl-shaped Perretts Park and its fantastic cityscape views. Haverstock is a quiet road of substantial and attractive period homes. The road is flanked on one end by Perretts Park, at the other there is the rapidly developing Wells Road, home to several popular independent shops and eateries, such as Fox and West Deli, Boona Boona, Acapella and Southside Bar, with its indoor and outdoor seating and serving local craft beers. Knowle is an extremely popular family area, with a brilliant combination of large houses, good schools and a choice of great parks. Hillcrest Primary School is just a short walk away and is very well-regarded. Haverstock Road is also close to Arnos Vale Cemetery, Perrett Park and Victoria Park, all offering a great escape from the city and open green spaces. For commuters, the area is very well placed, with Temple Meads and the several major employers around Temple Quay just around fifteen minutes away on foot, even close by bike or Voi. From Temple Meads there is a fast train to London taking around an hour and a half. Bristol’s scenic harbourside and city centre are also within walking distance, along with the independent shops, bars and cafes of North Street in Bedminster, whilst also being a short drive from the beautiful Mendips and Chew Valley to the south.

The house itself has a beautiful balance between its character and history within the family alongside the extensive renovation completed throughout the home over recent years by the current owners. The kitchen extension was designed by the locally renowned and highly regarded Barefoot Architects. It was completed in 2017 to create a 7 x 5 metre room, with an abundance of natural light. The space has been finished to a high quality, with a Intoto kitchen topped with quartz worktops including a 2.2 metre kitchen island, Neff cooking appliances, a Bosch full height fridge and separate freezer and a Quooker boiling water tap. The bifold doors lead to a garden which was levelled and landscaped at the same time as this extension work.

The house itself measures over 1680 square feet in total and also benefits from several original features which can be hard to find. From the front garden, original tiles have been re-laid to give the house a great feeling from the front, with stonemasonry and repointing having been done by the current owners as well. The house has original doors throughout, with ceiling roses in both downstairs reception rooms. The room proportions are also striking, with 10 foot ceiling height in the reception rooms.

Upstairs, the bedrooms are all a generous size, with a family bathroom on the first floor and an en-suite on the spacious second floor. To the front, the main bedroom is an eye catching space and also benefits from an open view to the right, where the hills on Dundry can be seen in the distance, where planes head in to land at Bristol Airport.