3 Bedroom Semi Detached House, Blandford Road, Beckenham, BR3

A very attractive three-bedroom house on a popular residential road with a large west facing garden, a stunning open-plan ground floor layout and a selection of highly desirable primary schools and convenient transport links all within easy reach. There’s also scope to extend into the loft space (stpp).

This pretty family home has been extended and remodelled on the ground floor to create an open, flowing space, it’s an attractive layout that most buyers prefer and it works very well here, especially as it allows the light to flood through. The rear has been extended to create a lovely dining space that comes off the kitchen floor and leads into the garden.

The living space at the front has a large square bay with double-glazed windows. Its southeastern aspect sees the sun from morning through to early afternoon, so the plantation shutters are a welcome addition. The room’s aesthetic is simple and elegant, modern and minimalist but also homely; the cute little wood burner in the fireplace gives a nice ambience in the colder months, and the light walls really bounce that southern light around, making for a space that has a lovely energy.

Adjacent to the reception, in the middle of the ground floor, is a very colourful shaker-style kitchen; it’s finished beautifully with solid wood tops and has plentiful storage. There’s a useful butcher’s block/island in the middle, and all the units are freestanding, so they can be rearranged if needed. The rear of the ground floor is home to a dining space, which is an extension of the original building; it has reasonable depth and is the width of the building, so it makes for a generous dining space. There are double-glazed French doors leading into the pretty garden, which has a Western aspect, giving the garden and dining space good light from early afternoon into the evening, which is ideal considering these spaces will be used for dinners and BBQs!

The house has an incredibly useful downstairs utility room; there’s a WC, too (and it isn’t crammed under the stairs as is often found in houses of this era), a well thought out and engineered racking system houses the washing machine & tumble drier and there’s useful shelves for housekeeping bits and pieces!

Moving upstairs, there were three bedrooms and a beautifully finished bathroom; now, there are two double bedrooms and two beautiful bathrooms! The front bedroom and adjacent bathroom get the eastern sun first thing in the morning, making them lovely places to be first thing. The front bedroom also has quality built-in wardrobes that are abreast of the chimney and the same plantation shutters that are found downstairs, which will be welcome on hot days!

Please note - The aforementioned bathroom can be easily converted back to a bedroom, the bath is freestanding and the plumbing servicing it, has been designed to be safely capped off, if the bath were to be removed.

The rear bedroom is similarly sized to the front bedroom and has one built-in wardrobe to the left of the chimney breast and built-in shelves on the opposite side. There’s an attractive west-facing view over the garden, and you can even see the Crystal Palace Transmission Tower!

There is a room in the loft, but it isn’t an official room; we’ve omitted it from the floor plan and are strictly not marketing it as a room. However, it does have a pair of Velux windows and is perfectly useable; with a bit of work (staircase etc), this space could be easily converted. Notably, we sold number 311 Blandford Rd (almost directly opposite), which was very similar in layout to this, and it had converted the loft without a dormer and we sold that for £711,000, so it’s worth bearing in mind where the potential value is with this house, once the loft space is officially converted.

The main bathroom is finished beautifully, the colour palette is very cool with the pastel pink wall tiles contrasting nicely against the dark terrazzo floor tiles. There’s a large walk-in rain shower and period-style sanitaryware, which are distinctly modern but nice nods to the era in which the house was built.

The garden is sizeable and has a nice western aspect, although for most of the year, you will still get the southern sun as the buildings on this road aren’t that tall, so don’t block the southern sun. You can expect to see the sun in the garden from late morning through to sunset for most of the year. Directly off the house is a patio with attractive Indian flagstones; there is a large lush lawn and another patio to the rear, which may be the perfect base to plonk a nice work-from-home studio!

Location-wise, the house is 160 yards from Birkbeck Station, with two trains per hour to Beckenham Junction and London Bridge via Crystal Palace. There’s also a tram every ten minutes, which takes you into Beckenham Junction, or, East Croydon in the opposite direction (great for the Gatwick Express!). Beckenham Junction Station opens up a direct link to both London Bridge & Victoria.

Elmers End Station is just over half a mile away and offers another Tram link and also a direct connection to Charing Cross.

The local parade on Elmers End Rd has a Co-op, a gym, a cafe a fabulous estate agent ; ) and a few other useful amenities, including the newly opened Italian restaurant “Bella Vista”. There’s also a very helpful post office, a fab dry cleaner, barbers, a hardware shop and nail salon. At the other end of Blandford Road there is the popular El Molino tapas and a craft brewery in Br3wery. Clock house station is also a short walk away and has a growing parade including a lovely coffee shop.

Beckenham High St would likely be your go-to for a night out, owing to how accessible it is via Birkbeck station, and offers a vast variety of restaurants providing a truly global selection of cuisines to choose from, as well as many cafes and coffee shops.

Crystal Palace is just under 1.5 miles away, famed for its independent shops and artisan sellers, there are very few chain shops on The Triangle which is widely celebrated and it has an abundance of lovely coffee shops, incredible restaurants and gastro pubs, as well as galleries, yoga schools, an everyman cinema and a farmers market which operates every Saturday on Haynes Lane.

Elmers End is down the road, for your bigger shop there is a large Tesco Supermarket, and just before Elmers End is South Norwood Country Park which offers 125 acres of parkland, wetlands and meadows, great for dog walking and exercising.

The local schools are very sought after, with the most popular ones being Stewart Fleming (rated outstanding), Churchfields, and the perennially popular Balgowan primary school, which are all very nearby, making this location sought after by young families and giving it a huge desirability and with that, huge resale potential.