A fashion designer's sensitively restored Georgian house

When a fine house is brought back to life, it is a matter of great satisfaction – not only to those responsible for the resurrection, but also, surely, to the house itself. The wonderfully named Titan Barrow, just outside Bath, had started life so well. The perfectly proportioned house – almost a pleasure pavilion – was designed and built for a Mr Southwell Pigott in 1748 by John Wood the Elder, Bath’s master architect. Situated on a hill surmounted by an ancient barrow and looking west over the Avon valley, it radiates a golden beauty. But over the years, as can happen to the best of houses, Titan Barrow’s fortunes declined. When its current owners Georgia and Tim Fendley first saw it 10 years ago, though in basically good condition, it was sad and a little dilapidated, having previously been a religious institution then a care home.

But sometimes an advantage of a house becoming institutionalised is that, for practical reasons, original features are covered over rather than removed: this was the case at Titan Barrow. ‘They hadn’t changed the structure – and that was what we fell in love with,’ says Georgia. The black and white marble tiles in the hall had been hidden by carpet tiles, an Adam chimneypiece boarded over and many other features were waiting to be rediscovered.

Georgia and her husband Tim are both designers: Georgia has her own creative studio, Construct, and is co-founder of fashion label Hill & Friends, and Tim is the founder and creative director of Applied Wayfinding. Though the couple had lived happily in London for years with their school-age children, they liked the idea of somewhere slower-paced and nearer to Georgia’s family in Wales. Bath seemed perfect. As she says, ‘It’s commutable to London yet far enough away to have its own gravity.’ They first bought a house in the centre of the city, but soon began to look for somewhere on the outskirts. It took three years to find Titan Barrow and Tim was away when Georgia viewed it. ‘I made an offer on the spot – I just knew it was the right house.’

There was a hitch, however – there was neither a working kitchen nor a bathroom, which meant they could not get a mortgage. ‘We bought it anyway, put in the cheapest bathroom and kitchen, and moved in, camping in any habitable room.’ The house has evolved slowly over time: the present kitchen, once two rooms, is now a large, comfortable space flooded with light and furnished with a long table at one end and dark-painted Plain English units with oak work surfaces and an island topped with lava stone at the other. ‘I wanted it dark and solid, so it wouldn’t look clinical or show the marks of life with children,’ Georgia says.

The house had been sympathetically altered and extended twice – once in 1800 and again in the Thirties, but its essence remains intact, from the now resplendent marble hall floor to the small ‘gentleman’s dining room’ with its ceiling mouldings depicting full-breasted sphinx-like creatures. The drawing room, added in 1800, has harmonious, classical proportions – a quality shared by every room and of particular significance here thanks to its architect John Wood. He was fascinated by mysticism and the connection between the Druids and Stonehenge, and designed Titan Barrow as a solstice house. On Midsummer’s Day, as the sun rises, its rays pierce through the rooms in a line from East to West.

This is a house that has no need of clever touches or flourishes. Georgia and Tim have decorated and furnished the house with restraint and consideration, combining twentieth-century pieces with antiques and junk-shop finds to create a look that is contemporary but also classical. It is also almost entirely monochrome – from the walls to the furnishings and even the art. The couple’s quirky, varied collection ranges from oversized vintage letters to prints, paintings and photographs, as well as a motley crew of Mickey Mouses – all black and white, of course. This disciplined take on colour, or rather lack of it, is difficult to achieve successfully. It works here because Georgia and Tim have used shape, pattern, tone and texture to bring every room alive, but the palette ensures the architecture of the house still has star billing.

Sometimes it is obvious that a house belongs to those who live in it; in other cases, the owners of the moment seem to be mere guardians. But at Titan Barrow, both house and owners have achieved a perfect balance of mutual appreciation and regard.