Lodge properties: where celebrities get away from it all
Ten or 15 years ago, the idea that a holiday lodge in Britain might cost more than £1 million, would have belonged to the world of fiction. Ditto the notion that, having purchased such a home, you might have A-list celebrities for neighbours. Nothing about the word “lodge” said cool: Travelodge, Masonic Lodges or fusty Victorian hunting lodges with moth-eaten stags’ heads on the walls. Even the better new structures were only one step up from a caravan.
How quickly things have changed. Lodges still have a way to go before they shed their downmarket image, but they are moving in the right direction. Nowadays you might bump into Elle Macpherson at The Lakes, an exclusive lodge development in the Cotswolds where the supermodel owns a second home. She will not be heating baked beans in a billy can, but living high on the hog in a stylish, modern residence that would grace any landscape.Once a poor relation of the holiday cottage, the humble lodge has been glamorously reborn as the celebrity haven of choice, says Max Davidson.
Case study: modern hobbies
Tamal and Indrani Saha have recently downsized from a large five-bedroom house in Kew to a new-build £725,000 lodge on Summer Lake at Watermark in the Cotswolds.
“We have children aged 10 and eight and wanted them to have more of an outdoor lifestyle than they can have in Kew,” says Tamal. “Last year we started looking for a modern lodge-type property within a two-hour radius of the capital. We wanted somewhere light and spacious that we could use as our weekend home, while continuing to live in a London apartment during the week. As soon as we found Watermark, we realised it was exactly what we wanted and put in an offer.
“We bought off plan, but because many of the components were pre-built, we had a four-bedroom property ready to move into within three months. Our children can roam around the lake for hours at a time. There is canoeing, fishing, waterskiing.
All the leisure facilities you could ask for. After the noise of London, it just feels so peaceful.”
