Our home is a chic, contemporary, 2 bedroomed apartment on the ground floor of a converted three storey semi detached house with a beautiful 37 foot garden (my pride and joy!). We have owned the property since 2005 and have lived in the local area, Islington/Finsbury Park, since 2001, so we know the area very well.

The property was renovated a few years before we bought it and extended at the back. It is located on a long leafy, tree lined street with privacy barriers at each end and speed bumps, so it is very quiet with little traffic other than residents parking.

It is decorated throughout, with a mix of antique and contemporary furniture and is very stylish. The main luxury feature is a set of 7 panel sliding glass doors, wall to wall, in the living room that slide back during the summer and open onto the beautiful garden giving you a sense of being in the garden. It’s a bright airy room with a squashy cosy L-shaped sofa that easily seats 5 or 6. The room also has a dining table which, when extended, can seat 10 but we only extend it for dinner parties so it is smaller for day to day use. The room has TV with Sky digital, DVD, and a Bose Hifi system. The room has bare lime washed floorboards with rugs and a sky-light.

The kitchen has a SMEG fridge freezer and a SMEG stainless steel 6 ring gas range. We love to cook and have a full range of cooking equipment for the budding chefs amongst you! There is also a combination microwave, a bread maker and a Delonghi Nespresso coffee machine for lattes, cappuccinos and espressos, (please bring your own preferred nespresso coffee capsules). In the winter months the kitchen also has luxurious under floor heating. There is plenty of worktop space for food prep.

The main bedroom has a king-size bed with a brand new tempura mattress (heaven!). There is a glass door that leads out onto a tiny courtyard area, which is open to the sky but surrounded by 4 walls. It is tiny and not for sitting out in as there is just room for our little Magnolia tree but in the hot summer evenings it is great to sleep with this door wide open. You have a funky en-suite bathroom with a walk-in shower, heated towel rail, toilet and sink with a skylight.

The second bedroom is currently used as a study but, when guests stay, we have a large automatic blow up double bed and base that fits snugly into this room. So if you do require an extra bed let us know and we will prepare this room as a bedroom. If not then the room has a desk and a mini digital grand piano in it for any music lovers.

The second bathroom is small but has a full length bath (with shower attachment) for those who prefer to luxuriate in a bath tub rather than shower. It also has a sink, heated towel rail and toilet.

Finally there is a cellar where we store all sorts and is almost the length of the apartment.

The 37 foot garden was designed to spec for me when I moved in with a brief to make it contemporary to go with the flat but also very wild-life friendly, so all the flowers, shrubs, trees, etc, are native and designed to attract wildlife. We have a decking pathway that dissects the lawn and leads you to a Wisteria covered arbor and a bench at the end where you can enjoy the full heat of the afternoon sun. Running alongside the decking are 2 small rills filled with water that circulate around and up out of a large urn by the wooden bench. The birds line up there to bathe! There are frogs, toads and dragon flies that live in these water rills.

There is also a small table and L-shaped wooden bench by the glass living room doors with a sun umbrella where you can BBQ or, if warm enough, breakfast outside. There is a rather old (but very functional) gas BBQ available for alfresco cooking. Despite being in the heart of London the garden is leafy and peaceful and with lots of birds that frequent it as well as our local fox who trots along the back wall every night on his rounds!

Additional points:
- We have Wi-Fi for internet access throughout the apartment.
- There is an entry phone in the hallway and living room.
- An alarm
- Bosch Dishwasher
- Bosch Washing Machine and separate dryer
- Built in shelving, cupboards and wardrobes which were designed and made by Tim Newbold of Domus architectural cabinet makers and his work was featured in Grand Designs Magazine in 2005.
- The renovation of the apartment was filmed by Channel 4 as part of their “Other People’s Houses” series broadcast in June 2002 (I have a copy of the DVD if you choose to watch it during your stay). It attracted a viewing audience of 4 million and has subsequently been shown all over the world. It was the only property in the two series of programmes that the presenter, design consultant Naomi Cleaver, chose as best property.
- The apartment has also featured in a 7 page spread in Living Etc magazine and was voted number 11 in its 50 most stylish properties. It has featured in a double page spread in the Evening Standard, Elle Deco and Grand Designs Magazine. It has also been used as a location shoot for Channel 4 series


Please note we do not smoke so this is a No Smoking property.

We are in North London with excellent transport connections. It really couldn’t be easier to get around without a car! Within a 2 min walk you have a high street with a Sainsbury’s Local and a Tesco’s Local, which will sell all the usual supermarket groceries and alcohol. The road also has a range of small local shops and facilities.

It is a 6 min walk to the newly refurbished Finsbury Park tube station, which offers the Victoria and Piccadilly lines straight into the West End. Oxford Circus is a 12 minute tube journey (I do it every morning to work) and offers excellent access to the best of what London has to offer from the iconic Selfridges to the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, National Galleries, Tate Modern and many more. Door to door it is 25 minutes to the West End theatres by tube. A black cab from the West End will cost you around £20.

You can also take an overland train to Moorgate station in the City or tube to Kings Cross with its direct Eurostar links to Paris

Closer to home is the vibrant area of Islington, which was once home to the ex Prime Minister Tony Blair, the writer Nick Hornby and other artists and media folk. This is just a 20 min walk away (or an 8 min ride on the local bus) and is a very desirable part of London. It offers the famous ‘Upper Street’ which has a range of individual shops from designer fashion, to chic bakeries, coffee shops, art shops, a multi screened Vue cinema and a smaller Screen On the Green cinema’ all on one street. It is famed for its cutting-edge, eclectic range of restaurants from “Jamie Oliver’s Italian” (http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/islington) to the famous Fredericks in Camden passage (http://fredericks.co.uk/) and Almeida restaurant (http://www.almeida-restaurant.co.uk) .

Some of the English traditional pubs have an upstairs theatre well worth visiting, the famous one being the King’s Head (http://kingsheadtheatre.org/) and there is also a beautiful stylish theatre just off Upper Street called the Almedia theatre too which you will need to book in advance (http://www.almeida.co.uk/) . For culture Saddlers Wells (http://www.sadlerswells.com/) is only a 10 min bus ride away or, for the ultra fit, a 25 minute march past Upper Street to this iconic place!

For antique lovers there is the famous Camden Passage antiques market, also just off Upper Street too (http://www.camdenpassageislington.co.uk/New%20Folder/home.htm) .

For the more sporty types we have outdoor tennis courts just 10 mins walk away in Highbury Fields, which are floodlit at night. If Football is your thing then we are a 10 min walk from the famous Emirates football stadium, home to the Arsenal.

Nearby are:
Hampstead Heath with stunning views from the Heath over London and its boutique village famous for the famous that live there!
Nightlife and markets of Columbia Road markets, Spitalfields, Shoreditch, Camden Lock and Camden Lock markets

We will leave you a detailed book with maps etc of places to go including many yet to get into the guidebooks!

A car is not included in the exchange but you do not really need one as the local tube and buses are run frequently and are on your doorstep.

Open to any dates

We (Anthony and Julie) are a professional couple (early 50’s) with no children. Julie is a Headhunter in Advertising and Anthony is a Business Consultant. We both work from home as well as commute into a central-London office.

We put our property on this site in Jan 2012 and have since enjoyed exchanges in Paris and in Australia and have a further exchange booked for Thailand!

English (UK)