Regular Unique Property Updates…

Hot Picks & News Clips Every Few Days

Welcome to our new internet-friendly Unique Property Bulletin. We add unusual buildings for sale directly onto this front page every few days. Also worth keeping an eye on the Facebook & Twitter pages. Plus our editor includes EXTRA unique properties and news onto his timeline, so you may like to pop a “friend” request across to the oldfella and check out what he has rummaged out of his special big box of Unique Properties: Click Here.

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Unique Property Bulletin – Latest Addition: 12th July 2018.

Amazing Tonwell Tower For Sale

Pre-planning Enquiry Positive For Residential Conversion

Guide: £30,000.

Tonwell Water Tower, Temple Lane, Ware, Hertfordshire, SG12 0HP

Photograph Kindly Taken By Melvyn Cousins

This is one of the most remarkable water towers for sale that we have ever featured. Designed by renowned architect Edmund Percey, it has some relatively simple, yet striking features that mark it out as an exceptional building.

The guide of £30,000 is worth reflecting upon, given the spate of water towers we have had on Unique Property Bulletin over the past few weeks. Especially when you see the completed conversions going for £500,000+. Maybe time to get the slide rule and calculator out. If not for the love of the building, then a look at the numbers and upcycling of a fine piece of architecture may well give you a fascinating adventure – and a tidy next egg into the bargain.

Tonwell Water Tower, Temple Lane, Ware, Hertfordshire, SG12 0HP

The old water authority that commissioned this spent more than required for a bog standard utilitarian structure. For decades this building has drawn interest. From ourselves admiration at what Edmund Percey created. For the love of buildings is a mantra we are fond of reciting and this was built with that in mind.

Constructed in 1964, it wasn’t until 2007 that the design captured a prestigious Grade II listing.

Tonwell Water Tower, Temple Lane, Ware, Hertfordshire, SG12 0HP

Tonwell water tower has a capacity of 50,000 gallons and this capacity, now disused, should help you get a ballpark idea of the room you would have to play with. Bet you wish you’d paid more attention to the maths teacher in school! No use looking at us for an idea of how many square feet or cubic metres you can fit into a cylindrical 50,000 gallon container – none of us have a Scooby Clue! Though we bet that somewhere on Google, a little detective work and a slide rule (calculator to anyone under 50) will help immeasurably in establishing if you can fit a 2 bedroom house into that big tank in the sky!

Tonwell Water Tower – Land To Be Conveyed Shaded Light Blue On The Plan

Subject to the normal conveyancing due diligence.

On the ground, there is a relatively small plot of 0.1 acre, mainly laid to grass with chain linked fence panels. It is entirely possible to build extra house accommodation there, subject to the requisite planning permissions.

Tonwell Water Tower – Design Ideas?

The estate agency handling this sale has made enquiry of the local authority planning department and advises that they have had feedback to a pre-application request with a positive response for a potential conversion of the property to residential. Further details are available from agent. Prospective buyers should, of course, satisfy themselves as to the full planning process along with listed building consents that may be required prior to purchase.

Tonwell Water Tower, Temple Lane – Location Guide

Courtesy of Google Maps

Further Details…

Telephone: Dalcour Maclaren 01622 609905
Tom Seckington: 07557 651210
Richard Sabin: 07342 074730

Click Here For Tonwell Water Tower Brochure

PDF Version: Click Here

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Unique Property Bulletin: How we intend to help our readers, for free and forever: Click Here

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Unique Property Bulletin – Earlier Addition: 10th July 2018.

The Penthouse For Sale

The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley, Hertfordshire

Guide: £750,000.

Penthouse Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley, Radlett, WD7 9LL

This is an impressive conversion of a 84 year old water tower within the former Shenley Hospital grounds, Black Lion Hill, Shenley-Radlett, Hertfordshire. The scale of the facility when first opened on 31st May 1934 was expansive…

The Former Shenley Hospital, Hertfordshire. Now Converted To Housing

Following closure of the hospital on 28th February 1998 substantial investment was made and the facility was converted into houses. The penultimate property on this site is now at the top of the water tower…

Penthouse Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley, Radlett, WD7 9LL – Guide: £750,000

Not so keen on the ‘Juliet’ balcony just outside this room. Much happier keeping those very big windows closed so as to keep the vertigo under control. 

Penthouse Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley, Radlett, WD7 9LL – Guide: £750,000

Penthouse Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley, Hertfordshire, WD7 9LL – Guide: £750,000

Penthouse Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley, Hertfordshire, WD7 9LL – Guide: £750,000

Penthouse Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley, Hertfordshire, WD7 9LL – Guide: £750,000

View From The Penthouse

The eyecatching centrepiece has to be the principal tower. Redevelopment completed around 2006 with the first resales started occurring around May 2007 and the price progression has so far been similar to living in the tower…. On the up!

Price Information Courtesy of Rightmove & HM Land Registry

This table of actual sale/sold prices for the tower is well worth studying

The layout of Penthouse Flat is provided for guidance…

The penthouse encompasses the top two floors of this impressive building and offers a unique opportunity while allowing modern living in a quiet village setting

3 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
1 Reception Room
Share of Freehold
Communal Entrance
Lift
Cloakroom
Living Room/Dining/Sitting Room

The Penthouse Flat is available at a guide of £750,000 and has spectacular views across Porters Park, Shenley, Hertfordshire. The property was converted 12 years ago from the original water tower and now comprises 6 individual apartments.

Further Details…

Telephone Hamptons Estate Agents: 01727 294790.

Click Here For Penthouse Flat Details

Archive: Here

An amazing conversion of this empty space up with the angels!

The penthouse flat is very highly priced, but for those with a penchant for the unusual abode, this has a great many features. Our favourite is probably the fact there is a lift now installed into this building. Having ended up in A&E on the back of climbing many lighthouse steps, the luxury of modern elevators is something to be treasured as much as the wonderful views from living in the clouds.

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If £750,000 is a tad steep, you could try another level in the Tower for around £595,000…

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Mid Level Flat In This Tower For Sale

Hertfordshire – Hospital Tower – Floors 8 & 9 For Sale

Guide: £595,000 

8th & 9th Floor Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Hertfordshire – Guide: £595,000

What jumped off of the Rightmove page was the fact this high level apartment has been for sale since April 2017 – 15 months ago. Being empty may also motivate the seller to negotiate in your favour. Perhaps someone was a little ambitious with their original listing valuation?

The aroma of bargain is in the air. Fancy a haggle on price?

We would recommend folk ascertain from the estate agent exactly which flat number this is, and then double check the historic prices tabulated further up this page for these flats. Were we bidding to buy this one, the offer would start with the number “4”. Bon chance to all who fancy living the high life in Hertfordshire.

8th & 9th Floor Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Hertfordshire – Guide: £595,000

8th & 9th Floor Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley – Guide: £595,000

8th & 9th Floor Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Hertfordshire – Guide: £595,000

8th & 9th Floor Apartment, The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Hertfordshire – Guide: £595,000

8th & 9th Floor Apartment – Amazing Changes To This Big Water Tower

The original hospital campus was quite grim back in the day. Also there is filming history with the site featuring as the borstal in one of actor Ray Winstone’s first outings. Pretty brutal movie if memory serves…

Ray Winstone Started His Film Career On This Site.

The past is well gone at this hospital compound and it has had a great deal of work, money, love and care expended to make the place a particularly pleasant place to live.

Estate agency narrative…

Chain Free
2 Bathrooms
2 Bath/Shower Rooms
Share of Freehold
Underground Storage Room
Lift
Panoramic Views
3 Secure Parking Places

This unique apartment for sale is situated on the 8th & 9th floors, with Juliet balcony which offers breathtaking skyline views across four counties. It is presented in beautiful decorative order and offers excellent security, plus benefits from 3 secure parking spaces (2 underground and 1 gated) and a secure underground storage room.

Location: The Tower, Blenheim Mews, Shenley, Hertfordshire

Courtesy of Google Maps

Contact Statons Estate Agents: 01923 909117

Further Details…

Click Here For 8+9th Floor Apartment Details

The Former Shenley Hospital, Hertfordshire. Now Converted To Housing

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P.S. How we intend to help our readers, for free and forever: Click Here

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Unique Property Bulletin – Earlier Addition: 5th July 2018.

Virtually No Reserve, But….

Everton Water Tower

Guide: Just £99.

Everton Water Tower, Margaret Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L6 2AX

For this update listing we got very excited. Everton Water Tower is an amazing structure and the possibilities for conversion just jump off of the page. However, at the moment we were uploading details onto Unique Property Bulletin, the auction house changed their listing and marked a big…

POSTPONED

… sign onto their dedicated page (here).

 

However, after a short period of contemplation and having captured all the pictures (still available via another site: here), we reckoned there is a small lesson in this for all of us.

Everton Water Tower – A Very Handsome Unique Building

This amazing tower has only had it’s sale postponed. It is likely to come back onto the sale or auction list.

There are two good things in our readers’ favour here…

1] A postponed property gives folk interested in this tower (and indeed any other ‘postponed’ item) the grace of several extra weeks to sort out their finance and due diligence.

Plus…

2] A postponed item often represents an interesting opportunity for the dedicated unique property person. You would do well to consider approaching the auctioneer for further information and ask whether a pre-auction offer would be entertained. 

This works. We know. We have seen it happen many times. Also pre-auction purchases knock out the frenetic auction bidding wars that are a plague to our unique property afficionados.

Everton Water Tower, Margaret Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L6 2AX

Everton Water Tower, Margaret Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L6 2AX

Everton Water Tower, Margaret Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L6 2AX

So for this update, we may only be featuring a “postponed” item, but if you think laterally, this may just be the style and budget you fancy, but with the circumstances that actually favour your position as a unique property purchaser.

Everton Water Tower, Margaret Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L6 2AX

Please let us know how you get on?

Everton Water Tower, Margaret Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L6 2AX

Further Details…

Click Here

Keep checking this link for when the tower is put back up for sale.

Or get pro-active and make the seller a pre-auction offer. Now.

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When Will Unique Property Bulletin Return To Normal?

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The New Unique Property Bulletin Office (c) Photo Courtesy of Maciej Winiarczyk

Several readers have asked why we just post an occasional unique property every few days? They also ask when are we going to reboot the old FULL MAGAZINE style format from the past 25 years (1992 to 2017)?

Please…

CLICK HERE FOR NEWS AND ADVENTURE

 …for the explanation and why it matters to us that we get a permanent home and guaranteed income, in perpetuity to ensure…

Unique Property Bulletin is: Free. Forever.

…with the absolute aim of helping you find your unique home.

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Unique Property Bulletin – Earlier Addition: 2nd July 2018

Pumped Up With Planning

Lapsed Planning Consent For A House

Guide £48,000

Former Thornhill Pumping Station, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF12 9ES

After several big-ticket items with 6 figure price tags appearing in Unique Property Bulletin, we thought it a good idea to go on a unique property bargain hunt. Ideally £1. But that brought about some truly dire candidates. Still, hope springs eternal and we shall pop any £1 or similar genre of bargains on this page as soon as they get truffled out of the big box of unique buildings. For this listing, we managed to source a £48,000 lot…

Former Thornhill Pumping Station, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF12 9ES

The description is very simple…

A former water pumping station set within a rural greenbelt setting with lapsed outline planning consent for one dwelling.

Former Thornhill Pumping Station – Corner Plot

Right in the middle of the country – the UK not the fields!

Former Thornhill Pumping Station, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF12 9ES

Courtesy of Google Maps

Further Details

Click Here

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Unique Property Bulletin – Earlier Addition: 22nd June 2018

Private Island Fort For Sale

Pembrokeshire

Guide: £400,000.

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

This is a pretty impressive pile of neatly arranged rubble and masonry on a craggy lump of storm tossed rock. It is also a Grade II listed structure which means a fair few headaches if you want to get the building earning it’s keep so that there are funds generated to stave off utter ruin and the whole edifice sliding into the sea.

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

A defensive structure was first proposed at this location by Thomas Cromwell in 1539. Stack Rock Fort was built in 1850; completed around 1852, and then overhauled in 1859 with a new building that completely encased the original gun tower. 

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

The fort was one of a chain of such defenses designed to protect the middle part of Milford Haven and the Royal Naval Dockyard at Pembroke Dock against an invasion from France under Napoleon III.

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

The island is currently uninhabitable but has significant scope for development.

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

For an idea of how these styles of fot can be renovated, you might like to study the Clarenco project at Spitbank Fort.

Click Here For Other Fort Project Information.

This should give you an overview of what is involved in taking Stack Rock Fort to a useful condition where the revenues were available to avoid further glorious ruination and eventual destruction from the untamed elements.

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

 

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

Stack Rock Fort, South Hook, Milford Haven, SA73 3RU

Stack Rock Fort – Location

Courtesy of Google Maps

Contact: Ross McKenzie on 0741 513 0106 for background and to arrange a viewing. Please mention to Ross that you spotted this fort for sale in Unique Property Bulletin. Thank you.

Further Details: Click Here

Archived: Here

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Want To Know A Secret?

Do you fancy finding a tasty unique building in your area?

Click Here 

For Our Special Feature Article

Something like this water tower: guided at just £4,000.

(though this tower lot made a more – details later on)

This is just one of many unusual buildings we find.

Now you can use some of our techniques to find your favourite flavour of amazing building AND for sale in  our location NEAR TO YOU.

Here at the Unique Property Bulletin “Secrets” article, you can read up on techniques to find unusual buildings for sale in your area of the country. Maybe worth spending a modest £3.65 to read the article. This can be done via our pay-per-view service (that helps this not-for-profit website)…

Click Here For Some of Our Secrets.

Special Feature Article

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Unique Property Bulletin – Earlier Addition.

Former Lighthouse Keeper’s House For Sale

Detached 5 Bedroom Home

Or May Suit A Buy-To-Let Purchaser: 10% Return Likely.

Offers Over £249,000 – UNDER OFFER.

Tower House, Noss Head Lighthouse Station – Former Keeper’s Home For Sale

Photo Courtesy of Derek Bremner

Exclusively to this website – here we have a genuinely spectacular place to live. The former lighthouse keeper’s house and courtyard immediately behind the lighthouse tower (tower not included) are for sale at a guide of £249,000 (under offer). This is a detached 5 bedroom dwelling that has all modern conveniences inside and out. Plus there is Wick town centre with Tescos, Argos, Lidl and a fleet of shops just 5 miles away. 

Tower House, Noss Head Lighthouse Station – Former Keeper’s Home For Sale

Lighthouse Tower Not Included

It feels suitably remote as with any truly iconic lighthouse station, but the full suite of local amenities, including an airport with excellent connectivity is just a 10 minute drive away. 

A few fields to the east, landward is John O’Groats airport with a very gentle 3 scheduled flights each day. No discernable noise, but a very useful aviation facility for travelling to cities and connections throughout the UK and abroad. 

Tower House, Noss Head Lighthouse Station – Former Keeper’s Home For Sale

The building for sale has just completed an extensive repaint by the actual Northern Lighthouse Board contractors with a specialist paint system that has a long-life (8 to 12 years). The actual lighthouse tower has also had a 6 month duration high quality refurbishment. The buildings are both looking ship shape and very sharp.

Top of The Tower (Tower Not Included In Sale) – A Fascinating Neighbour.

Photograph Illustrates The NLB Contractors Working Off Ropes. 

The Northern Lighthouse Board have pulled out all the stops in their refurbishment. The lighthouse tower looks the best it has in over 10 years.

Meanwhile, the 5 bedroom former lighthouse keeper’s building/floorplan for sale is illustrated here for guidance (please do not scale)… 

Tower House, Noss Head Lighthouse Station – Lots of Rooms

This latest listing on Lighthouses For Sale or Rent for Tower House at Noss Head is not expected to stay around for long. Unlike other lighthouse buildings currently for sale – all between £490,000 and £1,375,000 plus several inbetween this price spectrum, Tower House at Noss Head is very competitively priced at £249,000 (under offer). Significantly less than other, similar lighthouse homes this website has sold over the past decade. The Tower House building is good to move into. The new owners might be minded to change the kitchen etc., but it is very comfortable “as is” and would make a fine home (or investment property) until the new owners are ready to put their own style into action.

Tower House, Noss Head Lighthouse Station – Land of The Midnight Sun

The buy-to-let potential shouldn’t be overlooked either. Indeed, for the past 6 months, the Northern Lighthouse Board’s contractors have been renting Tower House whilst they work on the NLB tower next door. They have made many positive comments about the level of comfort in the old keeper’s home.

It is worth studying the figures that renting Tower House bring in. The current rental achieved for the 2017/2018 winter (low rental receipt level) extrapolates to £20,592 per annum.

That is for “light touch” rental/rentor management. If let out as holiday accommodation the income figures are more likely to exceed £35,000 to £40,000 per annum.

Here is just one of the bedrooms, illustrating the interior…

Tower House – Interior of The Former Lighthouse Keeper’s Building

The full details (here) show all of the interior rooms and provide a great amount of information.

For readers who prefer video film, here is a short feature of Tower House and Noss Head Lighthouse Station…

Video Film of Tower House – Click On Photo To Play.

Video courtesy of Oracle Drone Services.

If you would like to arrange a viewing of Tower House at Noss Head Lighthouse Station, please feel free to…

Telephone or text us on…

0793 557 2803

If you would like to make a cup of tea and take ten minutes reading through the full details of a place that might be a welcome change to 37 Acacia Avenue in Anytown, UK., then please…

Click Here 

PLEASE NOTE: TOWER HOUSE IS NOW UNDER OFFER.

For ARCHIVED Tower House Details

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Unique Property Bulletin – Earlier Addition: 12th June 2018

Towering Island Castle For Sale

On The Isle of Man

Harold Tower, Douglas, The Isle of Man

“When I win the lottery I will buy that unique home for my family”.

…here at Unique Property Bulletin our rejoinder to that comment is believe the phrase to be horse manure.

At 14,000,000  to  1  odds on the jackpot, forget the lottery. If we can reboot these unique property club adventures – and as UPS members know, produce fun and surplus funds for everyone involved, then we recommend you dump the lottery and consider going pro-active yourself.

So our point for this interlude in the middle of Harold Tower coverage?

We invite U.P.S., members to study Harold Tower and consider the logic we have applied to earlier unique property club outings.

If you come up with some interesting numbers for Harold Tower, please email UPSHQ with your considered view and precis. Bon chance.

Please can the wider 70,000+ readership of Unique Property Bulletin please note the club list is temporarily closed to new members until we get the new offices bought and open, along with employed staff members in post to help our core group of six volunteers deal with the significant peak email enquiry demand when we feature something that gets 10,000 views within one hour (eg: here). Best wishes from the Unique Property Bulletin Team.

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Now, back to this wonderful island castle tower with some more photographs and narrative…

 

There is aerial drone video footage of Harold Tower available: Click Here.

For guidance, there are also some floorplans. Please do not scale these. Higher resolution can be obtained from the estate agency website.

Please remember this site, Unique Property Bulletin is a not-for-profit publication run by volunteers. We are not an estate agency. Just a group of friends who get into a lot of property mischief and are determined to lead you astray as well: in a good way! We simply share details of amazing places to live, whether a £10,000 off-grid nuclear bunker, or something more exotic such as this tower castle.

Also included in this island castle sale is a separate house…

The Isle of Man is a British Crown Dependency located almost equidistant between England and Ireland in the Irish Sea. It is known as a business location with a sophisticated financial services sector and e-commerce + aerospace + bio-tech and manufacturing base. Ideal for those wanting to develop a flying wallet that can be cloned in a laboratory.

Location: Harold Tower, Fort Anne Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 5BN

Click Here

Archived Information: Click Here

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Earlier Listings

To read about, and study earlier unique property listings…

PREVIOUS BULLETIN PAGE

CLICK HERE