The Grand Designs episode featuring Chesil Cliff House was notable for all the wrong reasons and has been labelled the’saddest house ever’; now things have gone worse.
at a 2019 edition of the Channel 4 show, Edward Short revealed his plans to restore his family’s 1950s property at North End, near Croyde on the North Devon coast, into a lighthouse-style palace.
The refurbishment expected to take 18 months and cost £1.8 million. Instead, when host Kevin McCloud met Edward, he had already been working on it for more than a decade.
He accumulated £7 million in debt, and his 20-year marriage to wife Hazel came to an end.
He finished the property in 2022 and originally listed it for £10 million.
In the latest blow to music industry professional and father-of-two Edward, the property’s price has been reduced again.
Savills has advertised the home for £5.25 million, with eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and six parlour rooms.
It is described as ‘one of the UK’s most spectacularly situated coastal homes’ stretching over 6,260 sq ft. The impressive features include an infinity pool, hot tub and extensive outdoor entertaining areas with a detached guest lodge/holiday let with accommodation extending to about 1,270 sq ft.
‘The bespoke design has been brought to life through impressive engineering, with the building being anchored to the bedrock, blending whitewashed elevations with steel and glass, culminating with a lighthouse feature at one end giving almost 360-degree views of the coastline,’ reads the house’s profile.
‘The position combines privacy with a diverse range of breath-taking views, all set in around 3 acres, which includes a large area of the foreshore, a private tidal beach area and coves.’
The end restoration surpassed even 64-year-old Kevin’s expectations; what was once an empty concrete shell became a coveted home that apparently piqued Harry Styles’ attention. Kevin commented after the tour, ‘Everything here is epic.’
The official Grand Designs X account, formerly Twitter, wrote: ‘In the face of overwhelming odds, Edward pushed his dream to the end – and achieved the near impossible.’
This statement was a little different to his opinion a few years prior. Kevin told viewers: ‘If a lighthouse has a single message that it shouts out, it is this: “Stay away – or risk destruction”’ and added it was ‘a sad and cautionary tale about overreaching’.
Oh my 😍
In the face of overwhelming odds, Edward pushed his dream to the end – and achieved the near impossible.#GrandDesigns pic.twitter.com/eeLE600stt
— granddesigns (@granddesigns) October 19, 2022
While it is gorgeous today, it took a long time to get there, with many challenges along the way, including a recession and construction troubles, which led viewers to label it the’saddest ever’ episode and home they’d ever seen.
‘The whole project has been a horrendous strain for Hazel, I have sunk our family purse into this and I really feel for her. I never meant to put her through any of this,’ Edward previously told Devon Live.
Locals were also unimpressed with the incomplete mansion, prompting Edward to tell them in 2020 that: ‘I know it’s a mess, and I have to fix that – but when it is finished it will be amazing. Judge it when it’s finished.’
Once built, he quickly put it on the market to repay his expenditures, which were believed to be approximately £6 million.
