St George's Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK40

LATE-VICTORIAN HEAD-TURNER IN COVETED PART OF COUNTY TOWN - WITH WALLED GARDEN

An impressive, unlisted, detached, 19th century, 5-bedroom house in a leafy side-street within the conservation area, yards from Bedford’s beautiful Victorian park. With over 2500 square feet of gorgeous space, double garage, driveway parking, balconies and walled garden, Lackanagrowr is some home.

Your new home was built in the 1890s, a few years after the creation of the English Heritage park, a few hundred yards from your front door. Lackanagrowr’s first family, Anna Wilson, her sister, 18-year-old daughter and their servant, would have loved ambling around Bedford Park’s lake, perhaps stopping at the Refreshment Pavillion and listening to music at the bandstand. The sound of leather on willow might have echoed across the water. And it’s much the same today, albeit without carriages trundling by and with the addition of tennis courts, swimming pool, bowling green and play parks.

And as well as Bedford Park, you have all the facilities you’d expect of the county town, from restaurants to pubs and music venues, galleries, theatre and cinema, surgeries and dentists, and one of the finest embankments in the country alongside one of the finest rivers, the Great Ouse.

You have the world-renowned Harpur Trust private schools (Bedford School is just around the corner) and the outstanding Bedford Free School. And you have the station from where fast trains reach London in less than 40 minutes. Cambridge, Milton Keynes and Luton Airport are all within easy reach.

An amazing home in an enviably peaceful spot and with every facility within walking distance. It’s little surprise that the Wilsons stayed at Lackanagrowr for long into the 20th century and that this is the first opportunity in over two decades of the 21st for any other family to follow in their footsteps.

MORE ABOUT THE PROPERTY

Even in a street with its fair share of lovely Victorian properties, Lackanagrowr stands out, with its timbers and balconies complementing the red brick and old clay tiles, iron railings sitting atop the low wall of the front garden, from where a beautifully blossoming cherry tree witnesses the admiring glances of passers-by.

Step through the open porch into the hall, beautiful Minton tiles beneath your feet, William Morris wall coverings between dado rails and corniced ceilings high above your head, lovely warm-wood staircase, with carpet runner and brass rods, beckoning you upstairs, and you cannot help falling in love with your new home.

Two floors of beautiful bedrooms, no less than four bathrooms - and a family debate as to who claims which. One thing’s for sure, friends will find it hard to leave if they stay overnight in the guest bedroom, with its own shower room, lovely, original fireplace, sunlight filtering through stained glass, and wonderful arched door leading out to morning coffee on the balcony – as long as they realise that they’ll be waiting a long time if they rely on the servant’s bell push.

With, a practically perfect bathroom, complete with slipper bath standing on beautiful, original floorboards, a separate shower and space for an easy chair; the top floor makes a fabulous main suite, with views to the Park from its vaulted-ceilinged bedroom and a dressing room, perhaps, in the old servant’s room. Though any teenagers might make a hopeful case for their own quarters.

With space comes versatility. Two sitting rooms, one open to the bay-windowed dining room and, through French doors, to the garden, is ideal for entertaining. And the second, with its magnificent marble fireplace (with jet black insets as a nod to the Queen’s mourning for Albert), is breathtakingly beautiful. In the kitchen, the original range is simply wonderful. And the space continues outside such that you could extend if you ever wish.

An unexpectedly large, walled outdoor space – for children, nature and keen gardeners alike. Pick your own apples, figs and pears. Morning coffee on the terrace overlooking the pond; evening glass of wine in the summerhouse, catching the last of the day’s sun. A delightful garden for a special home.