Beautifully Designed Homes: Emsworth, Hampshire

Originally constructed around 1905 by the Admiralty to house senior Naval Officers returning from overseas postings, it occupies a prominent corner plot just 300 metres from the foreshore of Chichester Harbour, and it carries that history with quiet confidence.

One of only nine homes built for that original purpose, the property has been extensively renovated and remodelled over the last thirteen years, with the care and investment of a family who understood what they had. Rewired, replumbed, reroofed and beautifully reimagined, it arrives on the market as a genuinely turnkey home, with all the work done and nothing left to compromise on.

The character of the original house has been preserved throughout. The glass veranda, with its distinctive black and white tiled floor, wraps around two sides of the property and gives the house an elegance that is immediately apparent from the street. Original fireplaces remain in the drawing room and study, sitting comfortably alongside the contemporary additions that make this a home for today as much as a house from another era.

At nearly 3,500 square feet across three floors, the accommodation is generous without ever feeling imposing. The kitchen and dining room is the heart of the house: a magnificent space at over 26 feet by 21 feet, anchored by a large central island with breakfast bar, stylishly fitted with integrated appliances and a Quooker tap, and flowing directly into a family room that floods with natural light and opens onto the garden. This is a house that has been designed around the way families actually live.

The sitting and reception rooms offer a range of moods and uses. The drawing room is wonderfully proportioned at over 25 feet in length, the TV room provides a more intimate retreat, and the separate study is a considered space that works as well for quiet reading as for focused work. Log burners in the kitchen, family room and TV room add warmth and atmosphere, and the solar PV array on the family room roof speaks to a home that has been thought about practically as well as beautifully.

Upstairs, the principal bedroom is exceptional: nearly 29 feet by 15 feet, with generous walk-in wardrobes and an en-suite that reflects the same quality of finish found throughout the house. A guest bedroom with its own en-suite, two further well-proportioned bedrooms and a family bathroom complete the upper floors, with the top floor bedroom offering a particularly characterful space that works beautifully as a teenage retreat.

Outside, the gardens have been professionally designed and landscaped to the same standard as the house itself. The rear terrace centres around an outdoor kitchen equipped with a gas barbecue and pizza oven, sheltered by a steel pergola with remote-controlled louvres that extend the entertaining season well into autumn. The front garden is planted with white hydrangea paniculata and pleached Portuguese laurel, lit by automated border lighting and maintained by an irrigation system that takes the effort out of the growing season entirely.

Tucked into a corner of the garden, a detached studio and home office with its own cloakroom and private terrace provides a genuine separation between work and home life. A greenhouse, raised vegetable beds, a car and boat port with EV charging point, and parking approached from both Beach Road and West Road complete an outside offering that is as practical as it is beautiful.

Emsworth itself is a town that rewards those who discover it. The quayside, the two sailing clubs, the independent shops and restaurants, and the direct access to the coastal paths around Chichester Harbour make it one of the south coast's most genuinely appealing places to live. A mainline station with services to Chichester, Portsmouth, London Victoria and London Waterloo, combined with easy access to the A27 and proximity to some of the region's finest schools, makes it as well-connected as it is peaceful.

A home with this combination of history, scale, quality and setting on the Hampshire coast is a rare thing. Beach Road is the kind of address that, once found, is rarely let go.

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