{"id":264486,"date":"2026-01-03T03:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/264486\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T03:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T03:05:12","slug":"a-neglected-house-on-the-norfolk-coast-meticulously-restored-by-robert-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/264486\/","title":{"rendered":"A neglected house on the Norfolk coast meticulously restored by Robert Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a long time, a boat on the Norfolk Broads provided enough of a reprieve from London<\/a> for the interior designer Robert Moore and his partner Jonathan Beak. The big skies and abundant wildlife offered a welcome contrast to their city lives and a chance to live in the country<\/a> without the commitment. Gradually, though, their friends began to have families and to move out of the capital.<\/p>\n

\u2018We felt a bit like the last men standing,\u2019 says Robert, who launched Moore Design \u2013 known for its smart, meticulously detailed projects \u2013 15 years ago, after almost a decade spent working for Paolo Moschino for Nicholas Haslam. He and Jonathan made a five-year exit plan to leave London, but kept pushing it back. Five years became 20, then Covid forced their hand. The aim was to relocate to the North Norfolk coast \u2013 they wanted to be near the sea and to continue to use the boat.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Walls in Farrow & Ball\u2019s \u2018Dutch Pink\u2019 showcase an Aubusson verdure tapestry from Joshua Lumley and an antique table from Brownrigg in the entrance hall.<\/p>\n

Michael Sinclair<\/p>\n

However, they kept the search area fairly wide. \u2018The most important thing was to find the right house,\u2019 Robert says, explaining that a Georgian<\/a> rectory was what they had envisaged. \u2018I certainly never imagined that we\u2019d buy something with pebble dash.\u2019 However, this handsome Edwardian<\/a> house, with its Arts and Crafts instincts, won them over instantly: \u2018The light and sense of space are amazing. We loved the building\u2019s architecture<\/a> and the layout with its central entrance hall, which the footprint of the entire house is based around. It also feels hidden away. We later found out that people who have lived here for a long time didn\u2019t know it was there.\u2019<\/p>\n

Built in 1911, when the area was a holiday destination, the house was commissioned as a country home by Malcolm Mackenzie Douglas, a Victorian gentleman who\u2019d recently returned from India. During the Second World War, it was requisitioned for the 6th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment and, in 1940, it received a visit from the then prime minister, Winston Churchill.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Antique armchairs stand beside the chimneypiece with its Rafael Tur Costa artwork, 1969 in the drawing room.<\/p>\n

Michael Sinclair<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a long time, a boat on the Norfolk Broads provided enough of a reprieve from London for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,135596,362,363,364,5812,366,18,117,19,17,8468,8467],"class_list":{"0":"post-264486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-crafts-houses-and-gardens","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-artsdesign","13":"tag-country","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-traditional-country","20":"tag-traditional-houses"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115828957073202161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}