Oxhey Road, Watford, WD19

Set back behind a driveway of individually laid grey slate, framed by fencing painted in anthracite, this six-bedroom Edwardian house is imposing without effort. A box bay rises through two storeys at the centre of the facade, divided at mid-height by a band of terracotta tiling. To its right, the front door sits recessed behind black timber detailing, a motif the house repeats at the rear; to its left, a pair of outward-opening garage doors, painted dark, stand in quiet contrast to the off-white pebbledash, and above them the hip-to-gable roof begins, broken by the window of the fourth bedroom. The house measures just under 2,400 sq.ft across three floors in a postcode sector where owners rarely leave; the step from a smaller terrace to a house of this scale is the natural one, and this is as complete an example of it as the area offers. Bushey Station is a short walk away, with Euston 17 minutes beyond it; in the other direction, Eastbury Road leads towards Moor Park and the Metropolitan line.

Inside, the tone is set at once. The hallway opens around an Edwardian staircase with an open balustrade, lit by two windows to the right, with a cloakroom opposite. The palette throughout is neutral, and nothing asks to be changed. The principal living room lies at the front of the plan, organised around the box bay and measuring 19’3” x 13’11”. It has been finished with evident intent: a fireplace in dark, weathered grey, panelled wallpaper to the alcoves either side of the chimney breast, wall lights, original coving and a ceiling rose with a hanging pendant, all flooring in a natural tone. The second reception room, to the rear, answers it in a different register. A deep navy feature wall meets a pine fire surround with a log burner set into the chimney breast, and a large mirror above carries light around the room. Black bi-fold doors open outwards, so as not to take from the footprint, onto a covered terrace framed in the same black timber as the front of the house, tiled and furnished with characterful seating overlooking the garden. This room also leads to the garage, fitted out and most recently used to receive clients, and equally suited to a gym or an office; its double doors to the front mean visitors need never pass through the house. It could be returned to a garage, though with parking for four cars on the drive there is little reason to. The kitchen and breakfast room completes the floor. Once two rooms, it was opened up by a previous owner who, rather than concealing the join behind a steel, retained a central pier and shaped the openings either side into gentle curves, so that the two spaces read as one without losing their definition. The kitchen has cabinetry to three walls, a five-burner gas hob and, in keeping with the age of the house, tall windows onto the garden.

The first floor holds four double bedrooms. The principal bedroom sits directly above the living room and all but mirrors it, at 19’2” x 14’11”, with the same box bay and its own en suite shower room. Together with the ceiling height, that window gives the room, and the floor as a whole, an unusual sense of air. The remaining three bedrooms are well-proportioned doubles, the second especially so at 18’7” x 12’11”, and a family bathroom in the same neutral palette serves the floor. From the landing, a U-shaped staircase continues to the second floor and two further bedrooms: the fifth a generous double of 14’2” x 10’3”, the sixth equally suited to a child's room or a study, with a door through to eaves storage. For a house of more than a century, it has been kept exceptionally well. A buyer may wish to put their own stamp on it in time, but there is nothing that needs doing before they move in.

To the rear, the south-facing garden extends to some 120 ft and has been landscaped into a sequence of distinct spaces, each holding the sun for most of the day. Beyond the covered terrace, a patio offers room to dine outside, and a crazy-paved path follows the left-hand boundary alongside the first lawn. At the centre of the garden, a paved clearing set around an outdoor log burner makes a second place to sit as the evening draws in, and beyond it lies a further lawn. Mature planting encloses the whole, and the garden is not overlooked. At £1,000,000, the house equates to £420 per sq.ft, which, for a home of this specification and condition, represents considerable value: a great deal of house, on a street that seldom offers one.