Living abroad: England

in black + white

Swedish interior designer and photographer Lena Proudlock has brought her contemporary style to a Georgian townhouse in Tetbury, England. As she discovered, sparing no expense on developing the property proved a smart move when it came to the rentals market

words by Lage Stone
photography by Hans Rooth

Tetbury, a pretty market town in the heart of England’s Cotswolds, has long been a posh spot for property. Highgrove, the royal country residence of Prince Charles, is just down the road and the Charles and Camilla factor keeps interest high (more so nowadays as Diana was never much of a Highgrove fan).

Despite its quintessential Englishness, however, one of the earliest investors to spot Tetbury’s potential might well have been Swedish-born Lena Proudlock, interior decorator, photographer and former fashion model. Energetic, charming and full of ideas, she has brought a clean, contemporary aesthetic to an old Georgian town house – an investment now paying dividends in the chic country rentals market.

Berkeley House, in Tetbury’s town centre is not Lena’s first property in the area. After a life spent moving between exotic locations, including LA, Palm Beach Miami, and periods in London, Lena first settled with her family and second husband back in the UK in the countryside outside Tetbury in 1986.

They were looking for a rural escape in the south-west, and fell for an old crenellated manor house, designed by James Wyatt in the Georgian style. Lena spent a year and a half lovingly restoring and reconstructing it, putting her skills as an interior decorator to good use. Eventually, she wasn’t able to maintain her grand life in the country. When her second marriage broke down, she lost the manor house and, at around the same time financial ruin struck: the 1993 Lloyds of London insurance disaster hit Lena hard, since she was a Name.

“I thought this might have been the signal to try and re-start on my own,” she says. “My idea was to find a house with an interesting structure and possibilities to rent it out. Before, I had always had a lot of friends down to visit us in the manor house for days and even weeks. So I thought I could do the same thing again but let people pay for it.” When Berkeley House in Tetbury came up for sale, Lena immediately knew it would suit her business idea. “I think I have always been good with money with the businesses I have created myself, without my husbands. I’m a survivor and I love new projects.”

She managed to get a loan from her bank and bought Berkeley House, a typical late Georgian townhouse, in 2003 for â‚¬702,000. First, Lena re-planned the interior, while allowing most of the rooms to keep their original Georgian proportions. She moved the kitchen to the original dining room, creating a snug reading and TV room where the kitchen had been. Later, she built an extension with a dining room. The three bathrooms, two en suite, were designed to seem more like small, elegant spas than ordinary wet areas. Throughout, she has decorated in her favourite colour scheme: white, grey and black; her own photography hangs on the walls, and her signature line of colourful denim fabrics dresses the sofas and chairs. Crystal lamps add just a bit of glitz.

The kitchen is a particular attraction for corporate functions, with stainless steel Xera surfaces and the latest gadgets to make top-flight catering possible (well-known chefs can be hired or caterers can deliver). Outside, the back lawn was turned into a minimalist terrace, designed by garden architect Philip Nixon, and a wooden orangery has further extended the eating and entertaining areas. Over three years, work has totalled around â‚¬790,00. An investment that has paid off: the house today is worth about â‚¬2.9m.

As far as rentals are concerned, revenues are significant. Especially given the fact that Berkeley House is still a private house and not classed as a venue. Its prime location in the Cotswolds’ rolling countryside, within easy reach of London, means the entire property can be let for a healthy sum: around £3,500 (around â‚¬5,049) for three nights, and a whopping £5,600 (â‚¬8,078) for a week.

Suffice to say that business is going well. Lena has no problem letting the house – both for weekends and week-long periods. New Year 2007 was booked over a year ago and she’s already had enquiries about 2010. Clients include holidaymakers enjoying the picturesque villages and historic gardens, corporate conferences, company team-building groups and advertising agencies who sometimes use the house as a location for shoots. Companies such as Estée Lauder, Dyson and Cable & Wireless are all among the regular tenants.

As the venture grows apace, Lena’s younger sister Maria and brother-in-law Nigel have pitched in to help manage the property, working on bookings, business strategies and marketing. Not one to let the grass grow under her feet, Lena has recently bought a two-bedroom apartment a few metres from the main house, overlooking a little square, which she has renovated and decorated in her trademark style. And this month, her latest project comes to fruition: she has converted a coach house and stables in Tetbury, soon to house the UK’s first denim shop for interiors. She’s also developing her own furniture line, and as if all that weren’t enough, Lena is shortly to open Tetbury’s first gym in partnership with a leading personal trainer. What next for Tetbury’s Gothenburg-born entrepreneur and team? “We want to buy a castle in Scotland!” says her brother-in-law. No joke.