Reclaiming chinoiserie: from the East to the East End

Z He and Alex Peffly’s townhouse is filled with secondhand Victorian chinoiserie. The look may be retro, but this London home teems with modern ideas about culture and work

In Z He and Alex Peffly’s living room there are soft-toned pagodas, parasols and misty mountaintops above a drinks cabinet worthy of an imperial outpost. “It hints at old Shanghai,” says Z. Throughout this east London home there are embroidered silk cushions scattered over daybeds, fringed lampshades and potted palms set on fussily carved side tables. The house is full of chinoiserie – the style that the Victorians and Edwardians brought back from colonial postings, grand tours and day trips to Liberty’s – which Z wants to reclaim. “In drawing rooms from Hong Kong to Hampstead, they created a very European version of the East,” says Z. “It bore some relation to reality, but it was very romanticised. It reflected the China they wanted to discover.”

Z is an architect who grew up in Guangzhou, north west of Hong Kong, and Alex is a chef from Ohio. They met as students in Chicago. They now live on Princelet Street, a Spitalfields address with plenty of its own history. The short rows of 18th-century townhouses were originally built by landlords who made a profit from the Huguenot merchants fleeing France. Smaller flats and attics were rented to less well-off silk weaving families as working and living spaces.

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Top tips on becoming a landlord Nottingham Estate Agents

There are many things to think about when becoming a landlord. Here, Matthew Williams, Co-Director of Redbrick Properties in Leeds, gives his advice. Renting out a property comes with many pros and cons. Before you can decide on whether to manage a property yourself or have a lettings agency take care of it, it’s important […]

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To catch a thief - interiors story in pictures

In the dead of night, the lure of modern design proves hard to resist

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Let’s move to New Ash Green, Kent: there’s no hiding from the neighbours here

It feels like a shotgun marriage between two visions of the future: the same-old-same-old, and what might have been

What’s going for it? Imagine, if you will, a property developer building a garden village of beautiful, affordable, modern homes of exemplary design – not a faux gable or ye olde garage in sight – including hundreds for social rent for the council, all set in a luxuriant leafy backdrop of trees and “village greens”. Hard, isn’t it? Still, Span began such a thing for the Greater London Council in the late 60s, designing a model development high on the North Downs for escapees from London. These days, Span homes are ogled on websites such as the Modern House, but the company began life committed to building modernist homes at modest prices for the middling classes. New Ash Green was its biggest project. “This may well be a model of how to get civilised modern community living in an area of beautiful landscape,” said Labour minister Richard Crossman. Nearly. Peter Sissons moved in, and DJ Pete Murray and his sideburns spun the decks at the grand opening. Cool, or what? Alas, coming at a time when mortgages were being squeezed, it sunk Span, and New Ash Green was completed, more humdrumly, by Bovis. The indignity. The place still feels like a shotgun marriage between two visions of the future: the same-old-same-old, and what-might-have-been.

The case against Feels as if it could do with some zip, or investment; the village centre in particular could use a spruce-up. Not for those who hide from the neighbours; the residents’ committees are coming to get you.

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Let’s move to New Ash Green, Kent: there’s no hiding from the neighbours here

It feels like a shotgun marriage between two visions of the future: the same-old-same-old, and what might have been

What’s going for it? Imagine, if you will, a property developer building a garden village of beautiful, affordable, modern homes of exemplary design – not a faux gable or ye olde garage in sight – including hundreds for social rent for the council, all set in a luxuriant leafy backdrop of trees and “village greens”. Hard, isn’t it? Still, Span began such a thing for the Greater London Council in the late 60s, designing a model development high on the North Downs for escapees from London. These days, Span homes are ogled on websites such as the Modern House, but the company began life committed to building modernist homes at modest prices for the middling classes. New Ash Green was its biggest project. “This may well be a model of how to get civilised modern community living in an area of beautiful landscape,” said Labour minister Richard Crossman. Nearly. Peter Sissons moved in, and DJ Pete Murray and his sideburns spun the decks at the grand opening. Cool, or what? Alas, coming at a time when mortgages were being squeezed, it sunk Span, and New Ash Green was completed, more humdrumly, by Bovis. The indignity. The place still feels like a shotgun marriage between two visions of the future: the same-old-same-old, and what-might-have-been.

The case against Feels as if it could do with some zip, or investment; the village centre in particular could use a spruce-up. Not for those who hide from the neighbours; the residents’ committees are coming to get you.

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How has Brexit vote affected the UK economy? September verdict

Each month we look at key indicators to see what effect the Brexit process has had on growth, prosperity and trade

• Brexit uncertainty pushes UK to bring of recession
• An expert debates the data

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Homes for sale in former factories – in pictures

Build a future at these properties previously used to make products ranging from shoes to fighter planes

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