Ready, set, bake! The childhood home of chef, TV presenter and former Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry is for sale with Savills for £2.8 million.
Berry lived in the grand Victorian property, called South Lawn, from 1941 to 1950, during the Second World War. Berry was born in Bath, but her father, — a Conservative councillor, and later the Mayor of Bath— mother and two brothers moved to South Lawn, on the outskirts of the city, when she was six.
“Living there was wonderful – we had so much space,” Berry told The Times in 2015. “I didn’t like school, so the minute I came through the gate, it was playtime and freedom.”
In her autobiography, Berry describes life at South Lawn as a child: keeping horses in the stables, smoking for the first time in the goat shed —“It was so disgusting I never did it again”— her parents’ parties and making dens “so sophisticated that we could cook in them”.
Living at the house during the war, however, required some adjustment. To combat rationing, the garden was transformed into “a model of self sufficiency”, with the flowerbeds converted into fruit and vegetable patches, and the family keeping pigs and goats.
On 25 April 1942, Bath was bombed, and Berry, her mother and two brothers took shelter in the cellar. “I don’t remember feeling at all frightened, but my mother must have been frantic with worry – not least because my father was out on the streets during both nights of the Bath Blitz,” she wrote.
“When we eventually emerged from the cellar I remember seeing shards of shattered glass all over the floor from where our windows had been blown out by the force of the explosions, and when we ventured outside there were craters and holes all over the road…It was the first moment that I had any inkling of the true horror of war.”
Afterwards, the enormous house took on new responsibilities. Two of Berry’s father’s employees moved in with their families, while it became a temporary storeroom for the contents of her father’s furniture depository, which had also been bombed. Berry wrote that there were “at least thirty” pianos put in the “huge second drawing room”, which became known as “the piano room”.
The family moved out of the house when Berry was 15, relocating to Charlcombe Farm, close by. Afterwards, the property was divided into two semi-detached homes, which remain today. This house, still called South Lawn, has been extended “significantly”, according to Savills, and spans 4,250 sq ft across four floors.
As well as its five bedrooms, Berry’s childhood home has four reception rooms —including a 21-ft drawing room— a self-contained guest suite, garage, large mature garden and outdoor swimming pool. True to its former occupant’s style, the kitchen contains a gas Aga. “It’s the heart of the kitchen,” Berry told Country Life in a 2017 interview. “An Aga becomes a part of the family. I can’t think of any other home appliance that sparks that kind of love. It’s utter passion.”
Since the Berrys left in 1950, South Lawn has only changed hands twice. Its current owners have used it as a family home for the past 35 years and are now selling it on.
“South Lawn is a magnificent example of a Victorian family home,” says agent Alistair Heather. “Set within large gardens and arranged over four storeys, is as grand as it is elegant and beautiful. Inside, it has a similarly impressive, yet warm and comfortable feel – indeed from the moment you step through the door, it is clear that South lawn is a well-loved family home.”
For buyers looking for a property with a connection to Berry, now is a great time. Watercroft, her Grade II-listed Buckinghamshire home of 31 years, is also listed with Savills for £3.5 million.
