Audley Road, Saffron Walden

An important Italianate Grade II Listed villa in the heart of one of the country’s most sought-after market towns. This impressive, Victorian, family home offers spacious accommodation of 3,418 sqft and sits within a 0.41 acre plot with a detached coach house and outdoor heated swimming pool.

Falcon Grove is one of Saffron Walden’s landmark houses. Dating from 1850, this imposing Grade II listed butter yellow house sits quietly in the heart of the town, concealed behind electric gates, mature magnolia trees and private, fully walled gardens extending to approximately 0.41 acres.

Coming to the market for the first time in over 30 years and built in the Italianate style that was fashionable in the mid-Victorian period, Falcon Grove adopts the symmetry and proportions of earlier Georgian architecture while drawing on Renaissance and Mediterranean influences. With decorative corbels, balanced elevations and tall sash windows, the house has a strong architectural identity with delicate details.

The entrance hall sets the tone for the rest of the house, featuring a grand, sweeping turned staircase. With marble floors, oak panelling, stained glass and four-metre-high ceilings, the hall is flooded with natural light. Original features continue throughout the house, including decorative architraves, picture rails, sash windows and working shutters, all of which have been carefully preserved by the current owners.

The drawing room is decorated in neutral tones and filled with natural light from oversized Victorian sash windows, with a feature original marble fireplace. Similarly, the study has impressive ceiling heights, patterned wallpaper and overlooks the courtyard. To the opposite side of the house, the kitchen, dining room and sitting room form a series of interconnected family spaces that create a large open-plan space, or can also be divided. The kitchen has a red four-oven Aga, stunning handcrafted oak cabinetry by Clive Christian and a Bora induction hob, with doors opening directly onto the gardens. From the kitchen, the dining room has space for a large table and views to the terrace. From the dining room is a cosy sitting room with a black marble fireplace with a woodburner. The sitting room is lit by a large, box sash window which has views down to St Mary’s Church. There is also a concealed staircase which leads to a substantial basement level incorporating a games/cinema room, utility room and wine cellar.

Upstairs, the first-floor landing is flooded with light thanks to a vast roof lantern and two tall windows which look over both the town and the gardens. There are four large double bedrooms, together with a jack and jill bathroom with decorative tiles, an oak vanity and a large shower. There is also an impressive family bathroom with a roll top bath and views over the garden.

Outside, the gardens have been designed to mirror the house’s Mediterranean influences. A purple and white wisteria-covered pergola leads from the courtyard to the heated outdoor swimming pool which is mosaic-tiled and features a Renaissance-style fountain. The pool area is walled to one side and flanked by the pergola to the other. From the pool area is a large terrace which with Italianate decorative details and an unusual cylindrical folly built in brick and flint which houses a wood-fired pizza oven. Tucked away to the rear of the plot lies a flint-panelled pool house and air source heat pump for the pool, both of which are cleverly disguised by mature pleached hornbeam and beech hedges.
The lawn has a number of specimen trees and shrubs and a large ornamental border with a huge ceanothus, an ornamental oak tree and a series of flowering perennials and shrubs, creating a patchwork of colour throughout the year. From the lawn is the front garden through a wrought-iron pedestrian gate and a path which leads to an imposing bottle green door to the front of the house.

Falcon Grove sits in the middle of its plot and from the gardens, leading back across the courtyard, is the original coach house. This stunning period building includes a large garage/workshop and a vaulted games room above with a feature window overlooking the swimming pool.

Viewings - By appointment through the Agents.