AoS Dream Home?

[anteros_lmc]

I'm really not an ideal homes kinda girl but this article in the Guardian today caught my eye: Napoleon-proof your home: convert a Martello tower

Martello towers were built, at great cost, along the coasts of Kent, Sussex, Essex and Suffolk at the time of the Napoleonic wars. Originally, there were 103 of these 30ft-high towers, with walls 13ft thick and roof-mounted cannons capable of shooting lead balls a mile out to sea.

Photograph: Sam Lucas

Duncan Jackson's Martello tower, rising from behind the seawall at Bawdsey in Suffolk, is a daunting structure, yet it has been reworked to provide a warm and unexpected welcome: warm because the thick walls keep the winter at bay; and unexpected because, inside, industrial designer Jackson has shaped one of the most original and soul-stirring modern homes in Britain – from a neglected fort never designed for comfort.

Until it became redundant in the 1870s, there had been troops at Tower Y, as well as coastguards after Napoleon's defeat. The spartan living quarters, however, had been crammed around the entrance floor, above an arsenal of gunpowder and cannonballs, and below the wind-scythed roof deck. Today, from the battlements, or rather the roof terrace, three other towers can be seen, dotted along the shingle coast."

You can read the rest of the article and see some more fabulous pictures of the interior of the tower by following the link above.

An AoS dram home to rival lady_branwyn's light icehouse perhaps? ;)

Cross posted to anything_aos

Comments

[rum-inspector.livejournal.com]

Oh that is lovely! I say better make houses out of them than demolish everything old without pity when they can't be all be left to kept as historic sites.

I love it how they've left so much of the original surface instead of covering it all with plaster and vinyl :)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Yes I agree. I many cases it's better to let people renovate historic buildings if the alternative is that they just deteriorate to the point that they have to be demolished.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_likimeya/]

Ohhhhh, beautiful! It could be a picture from a wall calender. :)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It's lovely picture isn't it? And you've just reminded me that I forgot to add the photographer's credit, I'll add it right away. It's by a Mr Sam Lucas.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Reminds me a little of the houses out in the US midwest, made of old nuc missile silos.

This is way more attractive though.

What a lonely lovely windy place to live.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Lol! Yes I don't think I'd fancy living in a nuclear missile silo! I did see a house made out of a whiskey vat once that was rather cute though :)

What a lonely lovely windy place to live.
Wouldn't it be the most perfect place to just sit and write? *sigh*

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

That's fabulous. I still dream of being able to live in the Round House on the way into Sheffield, though.