Townhouse treasure with Georgian in mind

He said: “I’ve lived in the typical pretty cottages and barn conversions, but I’d always wanted what you call a proper town house.

“Periodically, I’d drive round St John’s Square and one day I saw this place with a ‘For Sale’ board. The man selling it had permission to convert it into five apartments. In fact, he’d brought in the scaffolding and was ready to begin work. I made him an offer and he agreed to sell, but it was pretty derelict. Everything was grey from top to bottom and lit with eight-foot fluorescent strips.

“I remember thinking ‘two or three months and we’ll lick this into shape’, so I brought a decorator in to make a start. Two years later, he was still here!”

David’s original intention was to create an office with an element of living accommodation but as dividers and false ceilings were stripped out, more of the building’s character was revealed and his plans changed.

“The more I looked and prodded and poked, the more I thought ‘wouldn’t it be magnificent to turn it back into a house’?,” he said, though he didn’t intend it to happen so quickly.

“At the time I lived in Newmillerdam, but when that house unexpectedly and quickly sold, I had to move in.

“It was ludicrous. There was one room downstairs as a usable bedroom, a toilet on the top floor and a sink in the basement: that was it. For a few months, I had to visit friends in Sandal every morning to use their shower!”

From that chaotic start it took two years and the work of several specialist decorators and craftsmen to bring the house to its present condition. The result is a magnificent family home with accommodation arranged over five floors, all of which are accessed via an impressive Georgian cantilevered staircase.

There are four bedrooms, three bathrooms and four reception rooms including two handmade fitted kitchens complete with integrated appliances and granite work surfaces. The drawing room and dining room both have attractive views over the square.

The process of collecting the period furniture and fittings is ongoing, given that they’re not the kind of things available in the average interiors store. David said: “I’ve had to learn two things: to be patient and to buy things as soon as you see them, whether you’re actually looking for them or not.

“For example, the mirror above the fireplace in the dining room was bought when there was nothing in there – but it was the right size and there was no way I would have found something similar if I’d left it.”

The terraces on St John’s Square date from the last decade of the 18th century, when Wakefield solicitor John Lee, in partnership with merchant Francis Maude, bought plots of land north of the city to indulge in a little property speculation.

The catalyst for building was the construction of St John’s church in 1791. It was designed by Charles Watson, who Lee and Maude asked to design terraces to form a square around it. Although the houses were built piecemeal, they used a standard façade to ensure they looked the same.

St John’s Square was designated a conservation area in the 1960s after public pressure was prompted by a bid to demolish two then-derelict houses. The appearance of the square remains virtually identical to how it would have looked 200 years ago: now there’s at least one house for which the same can be said of the inside.

“A lot of what I’ve done makes no economic sense, but it isn’t all about money,” David said. “People are sometimes cynical, but it really is a passion for putting things back. Even now, 11 years later, I can walk into certain rooms and it catches my breath. On a spring morning you can stand in the sitting room, look through those three gorgeous windows at the apple blossom and realise how beautiful it all is.

“I was warned against it being all-consuming and that’s exactly what happened. But hasn’t it just been worth every minute and penny?”

Despite his labour of love, David is now looking for a new challenge, ‘perhaps a Georgian rectory in the countryside with a few out-buildings and a bit of land,’ and the house on St John’s Square is on the market with Dacre, Son and Hartley for £750,000.

More details: 01924 387001, www.dacres.co.uk