It’s certainly one of things that the Wheatmans love about their home. “We love the area, love the community,” says Cathe. “There are painters and creative people here. We had a street celebration for International Women’s Day, we had a socially distanced plant swap during lockdown and our neighbours ran a djembe drumming circle to bring the community together earlier in the year. When we left our last property in Bromley we realised there was no one to say goodbye to there and we wanted to change that in moving to Tunbridge Wells.” “We call this ‘real’ Tunbridge Wells,” adds John.

The community spirit really came into its own during lockdown, when Cathe was shielding, so couldn’t leave the house to shop for food. “Gerald and Jo from Camden Butchers and the fruit and veg shop Locality, which are all just down on Camden Road,” – which is the road their street runs off – “delivered food to us, for no extra charge. It was fantastic.”

The special character of the locality has definitely influenced the décor of the house – not least because so many of the interesting things in it were sourced in the unusually good charity shops in this part of Tunbridge Wells. “We like to source things from charity shops and combine them with vintage textiles or ceramics or prints which we find when travelling, to create a more global look,” says Cathe. “We support Ellenor Hospice shop, I think almost every lampshade we have was bought from there…”

With a professional background in healthcare herself, Cathe is keen to encourage others to make the most of this great local resource too.

All these touches give the space a very cool warehouse kind of groove, which is hard to achieve in a house of this era, where people usually get caught up in ‘original features’. Cathe has something to say about that, “We like bohemian modern as an interior style, a blend of many textures and layers which works well with any age of property with or without original features.” 

The artistic loft atmosphere continues on the stairs, where the facing wall is exposed brick – which John tells me are characteristic, “Tunbridge Wells bricks, so we decided to keep them on show.” 

Which seems a nice tribute to the Victorian builder who constructed this place, making this particular house for his own family, the first of the three to live in it.

The painted floorboards also continue as a feature on the stairs, with dark grey on the treads and white on the risers – and the staircase is even more interesting, when viewed from beneath. 

They have put nothing behind the steps, not rendering them like a smooth white ceiling, as is usual, instead leaving them exposed and visible from below, as in a 20^th century modern house. It has a striking effect, creating more space and, as John puts it, “It adds shape and texture.” Atmosphere, too.

John’s lateral-thinking engineer brain makes the absolute most of every bit of space in the house, without ever compromising the overall aesthetics.
This is very clear with their approach to bathrooms. They didn’t want a shared ‘family’ bathroom, so instead in both the guest bedrooms on the top floor, they have shaved off a narrow strip of space to create very contemporary shower rooms, opposite the beds – not that you’d know they were there.

The whole first floor has been created as a master suite, with the bedroom styled as a cosy second sitting room, with a woodburner, against another wall of exposed brick, and armchairs. 

Out on the landing, where there was a loo and a door to the other bedroom, there is now an intriguing ceiling-high opening leading to walls lined with elegant contemporary grey-wood built-in cupboards. These conceal the laundry on one side (John hiding things again) and floor-to-ceiling clothes storage on the left, all the way on to what would have been the window of the former back bedroom. As John puts it, “We use landings as rooms.”

You then arrive at a door, to the right, which opens onto a very chic luxury shower room, with double basins atop grey wood cupboards, Moroccan-inspired tile splash backs and mirrored cupboards above.

As here, storage has been so well thought out in this house, there is no extraneous clutter anywhere. No visible scruffy toothbrushes, combs and body lotion, no scattered wellies, shoes and scarves, there is a place for everything – and everything is in its place. Japanese clutter banisher Marie Kondo would very much approve.

This all helps make it the perfect showcase for the intriguing collection of objets and artworks Cathe and John have collected, many of them on their travels to Vietnam, Mexico, Morocco and Egypt. Not forgetting the wonderful brocantes of France, where they have recently bought a second home, which it is clear they are relishing the prospect of making over.

“We are recent interiors people,” says Cathe, “it’s a new hobby.” And one they perhaps approach with all the more originality, for coming to it later.

“We are recent interiors people,” says Cathe, “it’s a new hobby.” And one they perhaps approach with all the more originality, for coming to it later

Some of the artworks, though, like the lovely bright painting in the hallway are from closer to home – produced by their artist neighbour, Beth Barker.

Back there on the ground floor, it’s a right turn from the bottom of the stairs into the dining room, where a large square table – from a school and found at the YMCA furniture store, just down the road – is set at a diagonal angle, which makes it easier to get past en route to the kitchen and adds dynamism to the space.

A large mercury mirror with appealing foxing (it came with the house) leans against the wall next to the opening to the kitchen. It’s in its original place in an extension at the back of the house, as per the Victorian vernacular. 

Here they have left the old plasterwork, where the bread oven used to be, lovely with the messed-up patina of time, set off by a new sky blue and wood contemporary kitchen and a new floor of herringbone parquet.

From here you step out onto a deck, which is like a second kitchen, with a Belfast sink set into raw brick ‘units’, with old fruit crates below and a mirror above. Perfect for summer meals in the magical garden they have created where once there was a barren wilderness.

Just as the house was “in a bit of a state” when they bought it with, as Cathe explains, “all the renovations that had been done in the 70s with a lot of sauna wood and lowered ceilings, the fireplaces all taken out and a loo opening off the kitchen…” the garden was in a sad mess.  However with the help of local architects, designers and a landscape gardener it has been turned into a contemporary space with a hint of a Marrakech garden, and feels more in keeping with the house.

Now it has brick-paved paths – a nice link back to the exposed walls in the house – and a circular area defined by rosemary hedges, which Cathe says was inspired by their visit to Le Jardin Secret in Marrakech, planted round with verbena, tall with purple pom poms, hibiscus, bottle brush and other plants from Cathe’s native New Zealand.

Sitting at a table on a west-facing second deck outside a contemporary studio building that is John’s office, Cathe relates their inspirations for planting. “We filled it with wildflowers, to make it appeal to bees and during lock down, we planted potatoes and onions. We opted for a green wildflower meadow roof on the office to replace what we had removed within our garden redesign and include lots of bee friendly plants and fragrant lavenders.”

Looking out over it with contentment, she tells me how they decided to make the move to a new life, in this old house. “We always wanted to move here, we often visited and loved it, but we were going to wait for our retirement. Then we came down one weekend and we were having tea in Juliet’s and I turned to John and said, “What are we waiting for? Let’s do it now…””

And it seems like this house – clearly very choosy about its owners – and this very special little community, had decided it was time for them to move in.