To the lighthouse: an illuminating home conversion | The Guardian

Contemporary meets historic in a towering design achievement on the Norfolk coastI remember the first time we saw this place, it looked terrible,” says Julian Vogel, owner of a restored 18th-century lighthouse in Winterton-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, “but it had such incredible potential.” That was almost 15 years ago and now what stands proud at the end of a pebbly drive in a small seaside village, just metres from rolling sand dunes and the North Sea, is a glorious, light-filled space.The lighthouse had been converted into a residence by a previous owner who’d bought it in the late 1970s, but there was much work needed to give it new life. Aside from poor wiring and very tired decor, the lighthouse no longer had its original lantern, sold in the 1920s and sent to the Bahamas. In in its place was a concrete slab, installed during the Second World War when the tower was used as a lookout post. When Vogel, CEO of PR agency ModusBPCM and co-founder of Maison Margaux, a tableware hire company, and his family found it, the place had been unoccupied for years. Continue reading…

Contemporary meets historic in a towering design achievement on the Norfolk coast

I remember the first time we saw this place, it looked terrible,” says Julian Vogel, owner of a restored 18th-century lighthouse in Winterton-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, “but it had such incredible potential.” That was almost 15 years ago and now what stands proud at the end of a pebbly drive in a small seaside village, just metres from rolling sand dunes and the North Sea, is a glorious, light-filled space.

The lighthouse had been converted into a residence by a previous owner who’d bought it in the late 1970s, but there was much work needed to give it new life. Aside from poor wiring and very tired decor, the lighthouse no longer had its original lantern, sold in the 1920s and sent to the Bahamas. In in its place was a concrete slab, installed during the Second World War when the tower was used as a lookout post. When Vogel, CEO of PR agency ModusBPCM and co-founder of Maison Margaux, a tableware hire company, and his family found it, the place had been unoccupied for years.

Continue reading…