Tonbridge Civic Society Design Awards Evening....

I went along to the Tonbridge Civic Society Design Awards last night at Somerhill House. After a very nice simple meal of chicken and veg followed by a lovely lemon tart, washed down with several very agreeable glasses of white wine, the suspense of knowing the winning design project wasn't that great. We'd all been told about it a couple of weeks ago in the society's news letter.  That said I was very pleasantly surprised by the vision, enthusiasm and planning that the Fernadez family had gone to in order to achieve their dream of developing their home, Monks Cottage. That's that quirky little house on the corner of the Ridgeway and Hadlow Road which I'd always thought was an old school house or something like that. I say little because I'd always thought of it as such when queuing up there usually to turn right onto the main road , but actually it's now about twice the size it was and quite a sizeable place.
Chairman Peter Charlton introduced the evening and welcomed us all, setting the scene. John Smalman-Smith, the new President of the Society, gave us a typically witty and eloquent short speech before presenting the winners with their certificates and plaques. Improvements to Charlton Terrace, that lovely row of houses running alongside Mill Cresent, got a special mention, while the topiary Yew tree elephant head/peacock sculpture, for want of a better description, in a garden on Hadlow Road, got an even bigger one. There's a work of art which must have caused some near misses over the years as passing drivers strain their necks to make sure they're not hallucinating!
The owner of Monks Cottage was then invited onto the stage to tell us all about his dream project. It seems that the couple fell in love with the place as soon as they laid eyes on it. I've always thought of it as a bit too strange looking for my conventional tastes but the Fernandezes clearly saw a lovely, unusual family home for the next ten of fifteen years. Quite simply, they have transformed the house into a beautiful and special home. Despite being about twice its original size they have managed make it appear very unimposing to the passer by. Great attention to detail was paid to not only the type and colour of the bricks but also the pattern that they were laid in so as to mock the original style within the constraints of modern building regulations. Mr. Fernandez treated us to slide show and talk which provided us with a lovely snapshot of the fulfillment of their dream home, the culmination of a seven year project. It dawned on me that, during the q and a session, nobody had mentioned anything about the cost of it all and probably quite rightly so on such an occasion, but I'd wager that every pound spent was effectively a pound invested because the final result looks so stunning and, crucially, sympathetic to the original features. So far from being a predictable awards ceremony it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable one. Maybe in other years when there might be more and larger scale buildings to chose from Monks Cottage wouldn't have got a look in. That would have been a shame because, in many ways, this development encapsulates why the Civic Society has been in existence for nearly fifty years. It is a nice social club. It also hosts some great speakers at the monthly Angel Centre talks. But above all else the TCS tries to ensure that building projects in the town are thoughtful, well planned and sympathetic to their surroundings. Just like Monks Cottage....