Pheasants Hill, Hambleden, Henley-on-Thames, Buckinghamshire RG9

Bussetts was designed in 2006 by Níall McLaughlin, one of the most distinguished architects working in Britain today. He won the Stirling Prize in 2022 and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2026.

The original Victorian cottage was taken back to its frame. The footprint was doubled and almost everything rebuilt to a high modern standard of insulation, airtightness and warmth. Traditional materials meet a striking modernist dining room, with long sightlines drawn right through the house. The dining room has a wood-burning stove and a vaulted ceiling, and opens to the valley, terrace and the garden beyond.

The house is reached by a gravel driveway and opens into an oak-floored entrance hall with a cloakroom. The kitchen is built around a 4.5m island and breakfast bar. It catches both morning and afternoon sun and opens directly onto the south-west facing terrace. It is fitted with a Bulthaup System 25 kitchen and Gaggenau appliances, including two ovens, a steam oven, warming drawers, two dishwashers and a coffee machine. A separate utility room holds the washing machine and dryer. Fittings include Quooker, Vola and Hansgrohe, with recirculating hot water, engineered oak over underfloor heating, Hwam wood stoves and remote-opening Velux skylights.

The L-shaped living room offers flexible space for sitting, dining or study. It has one open fire and one Hwam wood stove, and opens to the rear garden. A further part of the living space rises to a double-height vaulted ceiling, full of light. A second reception room has its own en suite and works well as a guest bedroom. Upstairs, the principal bedroom is generously sized with outstanding views over the Hambleden countryside. Its en suite has a standalone copper bath and an open shower. An adjoining room serves as a dressing room or study and connects through to the second bedroom, also a double with its own en suite. Two further double bedrooms share a family bathroom.

To the front is a private tennis court and a gravel driveway with parking for several cars. The court is laid in Doe Sport Olympus needlepunch grass, the same surface Tim Henman's parents chose for him to develop his game. It plays like fine grass in all weather and is gentler on the knees. To the rear, a south-west facing terrace is made for outdoor dining as the sun goes down. Beyond it, a gated and fully enclosed garden holds a natural swimming pond, one of the first built in the UK, by Gartenart. It uses no chemicals. The water is recirculated and cleaned, oxygenated by a waterfall and kept clear by reed beds. It is swimmable year-round and only improves with age. An abundance of newts and dragonflies are proof of the water quality.

A two-storey annex sits in the grounds, built to full house standards with insulation, underfloor heating and its own hot water. It is an art studio today, with a separate office, bathroom and full height living/storage space above. It is designed to take a permanent staircase and function as a guest annex, art studio or gym. The garden is wrapped in wildflowers, orchids and native and specimen trees, including holm oak, copper beech, Himalayan birch and acer. The whole house is oriented to catch the sun all day, with open views west to the valley's sunsets.

Set in a secluded position close to the sought-after village of Hambleden, with its café, shop, pub, tennis club and sport institute, and surrounded by countryside walks. Henley-on-Thames and Marlow are both about five miles away. Pheasants Hill is within the catchment area for Sir William Borlase Grammar School. 

Larger centres including High Wycombe (9 miles) and Reading (13 miles) provide further shopping and leisure facilities, along with mainline stations offering services to London Paddington, including the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail). Road connections are excellent, with the M40 (J4, Handy Cross) approximately 9 miles away and the M4 (J8/9) around 12 miles, whilst Heathrow Airport is about 27 miles distant.