A substantial detached home with an exceptionally large, independently accessed studio space, courtyard garden and parking in the heart of Rochester’s conservation area.

The current owners, both designers, of this unusual property, had been searching for a home with a substantial space suitable for working, with fast reliable rail links to London.

The mid-Victorian architectural landmark building is close to the Castle, Cathedral and buzzing High street. Rochester plays host to many concerts and festivals throughout the year. The property was likely to have been built as a coach house, with the coachman’s residence above and has been through various commercial incarnations over the hundred and fifty years of its life. When the current owners discovered it, it had been the headquarters of an electrical company, and required considerable renovation. This afforded the opportunity to install a new central heating system and new wiring; create bathrooms, turn offices into comfortable rooms. Fortunately, the original features of the building were still in place including the five working fireplaces and surrounds. At present the residential part of the property is a successful holiday rental property, comfortably offering accommodation for five guests. Rochester is a desirable holiday destination.

You reach Love Lane by walking up from the High Street between the castle and the cathedral. It is a narrow attractive lane, with number 2 standing on the right at the end a of a long wall covered in grape vine Entering the house, a small hall leads on the left to the sitting room, and on the right the dining room and the rest of the house.

The sitting room, with high ceiling and cornice, can be made extra cosy in winter with a real fire framed by the elegant cast iron fireplace. The large original sash window has been renovated and draft proofed, as have all the sash windows in the house. The dining room is light, with windows to the front and rear of the house.

From the dining room you enter a vestibule and the entrance to the large walk-in shower room, with slate tiles and underfloor heating. Two tall windows look out to the mews behind the house.

The kitchen also has a slate tiled floor and cupboards with integrated appliances. The large south-facing sash window overlooks Love Lane and just outside the part glazed door is a pantry with a new combination boiler and steps down to the studio. The internal staircase winds up a high stairwell with a large window to reach a corridor with windows looking out over roof tops to the Cathedral and far beyond. The bathroom was installed during the conversion to residential use, using Fired Earth products with a Victorian period look and also has views to the Great Lines monument in Chatham.

Off the corridor the bedrooms are light and spacious, with high ceilings and large sash windows and attractive cast iron surrounds to the working fireplaces. The greatest surprise was the large working area on the lower ground floor which is reached from the external staircase from the kitchen. When the office partitioning was stripped away it revealed white glazed Victorian tiles, this 48 square meter room became library, photographic area and painting studio. The second room has been used as a video graphics studio, and the area is completed by a shower room and WC. The working area is separate from the upper floors, so that living and working are defined. A newly installed and tested specialist acoustic ceiling is part of the specifications for the planned conversion to an apartment for which planning permission already exists.

The parking space accessed from the Mews is bordered by the fences which also enclose the attractive courtyard, part brick-paved, part of which is planted.

The entire property is titled as being one property and is also deemed for working space.