George Osborne is the ex-Chancellor who’s best remembered for holding nine jobs. But George Osborne may have taken on his most challenging role yet – designing and building a swanky new kitchen for his £1.6million Somerset mansion.
The 50-year-old and his fiancee Thea Rogers have hired architects to design a ‘Coach House’ kitchen-diner, which will involve knocking down their garage and two annexed store rooms.
Planning documents seen by The Mail on Sunday show that local firm Benjamin and Beauchamp has researched the building’s 223-year history and plans to restore it to its authentic Georgian splendour.
A grand entrance will be created with a ‘formal direct route’ from a newly created car park to the front door, which it is hoped will ‘reinstate a sense of significance in its setting and arrival’.
George Osborne may have taken on his most challenging role yet – designing and building a swanky new kitchen
The 50-year-old and his fiancee Thea Rogers have hired architects to design a ‘Coach House’ kitchen-diner for their £1.6million Somerset mansion
Documents also note that externally ‘ill-considered phases of pointing’ have ‘detracted from the appearance of the original masonry’ and that internal features must be reinstated to ‘reflect the age and character of the house’
Documents also note that externally ‘ill-considered phases of pointing’ have ‘detracted from the appearance of the original masonry’ and that internal features must be reinstated to ‘reflect the age and character of the house’.
The house, which is described as having been ‘built as a standalone villa within open countryside’, is on the edge of the town of Bruton and is surrounded by several smaller houses and a nearby Texaco petrol garage.
Ms Rogers is the mother of Mr Osborne’s four-month-old boy and she feels that her current kitchen (with a four-ring, electric hob and two-door Aga) is too small.
Mr Osborne, whose parents founded the upmarket design firm Osborne & Little, which is famous for its luxurious wallpaper, has also enlisted flamboyant set designer Patrick Kinmonth to transform the three-storey Grade II-listed house into a paragon of ‘Somerset chic’.
Kinmonth – an internationally acclaimed opera director, who is a long-term collaborator of the fashion photographer Mario Testino – usually designs elaborate sets for the opera, theatre and films, but occasionally turns his hand to interiors for friends.
Kinmonth’s own Chelsea apartment has been described as a ‘jewel-box’ filled with ‘vintage gems from near and far’.
Locals have joked the design of the project may have been inspired by Mr Osborne’s professional life – and two of his jobs.
Plans reveal that new pillars for the kitchen extension are identical in design to Palladian grandeur of Mansion House, City of London where he gave major speeches as Chancellor.
Plans reveal that the new kitchen extensions’ pillars are very similar to Palladian splendour at Mansion House, City of London. This is where he gave major speeches as Chancellor. He also likens it to the British Museum’s Greek Revival-style facade, where he was named chairman. Apart from the extension with glass sides, Osborne also plans to add two more stylish, en-suite bathroom suites and a master bedroom suite, which would increase the number of bedrooms by six.
A new terrace will be added to the 1.2-hectares of land. It will be very careful to preserve a copper-beech tree that was planted in honour of the Diamond Jubilee, Queen Victoria’s 1897 Diamond Jubilee. A number of rooms will be rearranged in order to improve the view from the garden, orchard, and paddock. All of these are located on sloping ground above Bruton.
Ms Rogers’s name was recently registered to the property, which was bought last year, although her name is not yet on the title deeds.
She was a former employee of Mr Osborne while he worked at Treasury. After his divorce, they started dating.
A mini-house was recently built in the garden, not for the family, but to provide accommodation to Malcolm Hord, the main house’s previous owner.