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Kaywana Hall 2
Kaywana Hall - Kingswear
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Kaywana Hall
Kaywana Hall - Kingswear
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Kaywana Hall
Kaywana Hall - Kingswear
Kaywana Hall - interview with owners Tony Pithers & Gordon Craig
Gordon Craig & Tony Pithers of Kaywana Hall
The first time Tony and Gordon saw Kaywana Hall they fell in love with the place. Ten years and a total rebuild later, the couple now run a luxury B&B from the stunning Kingswear residence and are very happy there.
Tony said: “There’s no light pollution and we can hear the owls and foxes outside. We go to bed when it’s dark and wake when it’s light. It’s such a great way to live.
“We loved Kaywana Hall as soon as we saw it. I’m quite psychic and knew the house had a comfortable feel to it and we would be very happy here. And we are.”
Kaywana Hall is one of four ‘butterfly’ buildings, designed by South Devon architect Mervyn Seal. It became the architect’s family home after it was built in 1962 and also home to many parties in the 60s and 70s.
Said to be inspired by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the distinctive design features cantilevered cubes of glass under a dramatic inverted roof, with the two butterfly wing-like pitches tilting upwards to form an asymmetric V.
It is certainly a beautiful, idyllic place and the B&B guests are very happy, returning time and time again.
Tony said: “Some guests come back three times a year. Other guests have loved it so much they have bought places in Kingswear.”
The other ‘butterfly’ houses are in Brixham, Churston and Babbacombe. The Brixham place is now a listed building.
Kaywana means ‘little stream’ in Guyanese. The original designer named it, inspired by Edgar Mittelholzer’s Kaywana Trilogy – a series of racy novels from the 1940s.
Tony Pithers, Gordon Craig and Kaywana Hall, were recently featured on Channel 4’s Homes by the Sea and subsequently in The Sunday Times.
They moved into the house from London ten years ago, in May 2004.
Tony said: “We first saw it in the February before we moved, while we were staying with friends in Slapton. On a wet, miserable day we went to Marchand Petit estate agents in Totnes and thought it looked amazing. We decided to be nosey and just take a look but fell in love with it. The timing was a bit unfortunate, as we weren’t planning to move down here. But then we decided to go for it.”
Gordon added: “We had a five year plan to move out of London and run a B&B but after seeing Kaywana it happened sooner than expected.
“We’d looked at a 14-bedroomed hotel in Scotland as I’m from Edinburgh and have a brother who’s still in Scotland.
“But you can’t beat Devon – the light, the colours, the sea and the hills. It’s so beautiful here.”
Gordon trained in medicine at Manchester University then moved to London as a GP. He worked at a practice in Bethnal Green for 10 years before moving down to Devon. He now works at a practice in Torquay.
Gordon and Tony met at a London gym 25 years ago. They lived together in Clerkenwell, Islington, for 15 years before moving to Kaywana. They became civil partners five years ago.
Gordon said: “We had slight anxiety about moving from London into a small village as a gay couple, but everyone has been exceptionally welcoming. We couldn’t have asked for more.
“Kingswear is a great, eclectic place – a lot of people here have been somewhere and moved back. We quickly became friends with Kit and Penny Noble of Nonsuch and have got to know a lot of people in the village.”
Kaywana Hall cost the pair £600,000 to buy, just under the £630,000 selling price of their London apartment.
However, after they purchased, Brixham architect Stan Bolt advised them that a rebuild was preferable to a restoration.
Tony said: “We were expecting it to be a refurbish job but it became quite obvious that it was going to be more cost effective to rebuild.
“We were expecting to spend around £200,000 to renovate, but it cost £600,000 for the rebuild.”
The couple lived in the original house for three years and then moved out for two years, into a rented place at Hillhead, while the builders moved in.
Tony said: “We knocked it down to the footprint floor level, retaining the main staircase and chimney breast. We then turned it into a contemporary version of what was here before.
“We’ve opened it all up – and basically turned the main living area into a very large studio apartment.”
The three high spec letting rooms are detached from the main property. Guests go into the main house for breakfast, and dine in the sleek, modernist dining area.
Tony, who is “London born and bred”, worked in hotel management and retail in the capital. Since moving down, his parents and sister have now moved to the South Hams.
The couple go back to visit friends in London two or three times a year but said they don’t miss the city as much as they thought they would.
Tony said: “The only thing we miss about London is being able to pop out for a coffee or see a film at anytime. Although, after saying that, we probably go to the theatre more nowadays, as we have to plan it.
“We certainly don’t miss the expense. You can take out £100 from an ATM in London and it’s gone in hours. Down here you’ve still got £98 left at the end of the day!
“We’d never move back to London now. We’ve got over our clubbing days and would rather now be in bed at ten o’clock at night.
“We’re probably going to run the B&B for another three or four years and then downsize. It’s great fun but we have no time to ourselves in the summer.
“Of course, it would be really difficult to leave this house and we have absolutely no plans to do so at the moment.”
Kaywana Hall includes 12 acres of woodland. The house came with eight acres and they bought the remaining four from the original owner after moving in.
They agreed on £25,000 but were struggling to find this sum.
Tony said: “We had spent a lot more than we had anticipated on the rebuild and were living on credit cards. We had to find this money quick to buy the land and pay legal costs.”
Gordon’s mum had died the previous year and, by a “spooky” coincidence, on the very same day they were wondering how to find the money a letter from Gordon’s dad arrived containing a £25,000 cheque - as a share of inheritance from his mother. He had no idea his son needed that exact amount of money.
Gordon added: “It was a very spooky thing to happen, but also fantastic. We call the land we bought with it ‘Betty’s Wood’ after my mum. Thanks to her, acquiring the land has hugely increased the value of the house. And made Kaywana an even more idyllic place to live.”•
For more information see www.kaywanahall.co.uk
First published By The Dart December 2014