Londoners choosing life on the river

Press, 19 February 1987, Page 30

Londoners choosing life on the river

By

SANDRA MALER,

of Reuters London

“We’ll be either upstairs or downstairs. It depends on the tide,” Pamela Chapman said as she gave directions to her home. She is one of the eccentric Londoners who opted out of the scramble for property on land and chose instead to live on the tide-swept Thames River which divides the city. “You’ve got to be the sort of person who’s pretty outgoing to live in a houseboat,” said Charles Edwards, of Roy Brooks Estate Agents in fashionable Chelsea. “I don’t think it would suit the normal run-of-the-mill person.

“I don’t think everybody likes the idea of living on water. Although it’s tied down, you can feel the rock." But even those who think they can handle the rock should think hard before buying a houseboat, the Residential Boat Owners Association says. “You might find that you own the boat but are not allowed to live on it because of local regulations or by laws," it says in a booklet called, “Living Afloat.” “You may move all your valuable and

treasured possessions aboard just before the boat sinks, explodes or catches fire, destroying everything,” it adds. “Worse still, the boat might be badly built or maintained and you might get injured or killed.” Despite these hazards, houseboats have become increasingly popular and trendy in London, and more and more people are choosing to live in a boat on the Thames or on London’s Grand Union Canal instead of in a flat or house.

The association estimates that at least 1500 people live afloat in about 500 houseboats in London and requests for information come in all the time. However there is one main catch, — finance. “You have to buy it with cash if you don’t want a loan at a very high interest,” Mr Edwards said. “You can’t get a mortgage like you would on a house and not many people have thousands of pounds cash.” Prices vary widely according to the size,, the location of mooring, whether the boat is mobile or not and the type of boat — which ranges from purpose-built houseboats and Dutch barges to World War II landing-craft and gun-

They sometimes sell for a few hundred pounds although in Chelsea Harbour, in one. of London’s most sought-after districts, a houseboat costs an average of £54,000 (1148,500). For £54,000, one can get a 16m two-bedroom boat, with a well-fitted kitchen — including washing machine, fridgefreezer, electric oven and hob — a sun deck and mooring within two minutes walk of Chelsea’s famous Kings Road. As Mr Edwards remarked: “Houseboats are good value. You would not find a two-bedroom flat in Chelsea for £54,000, £lOO,OOO would be more like.it”

One problem with houseboats, however, is that they depreciate instead Of increasing in value so they are not a good investment. Some houseboats are connected to mains water, electricity, gas, sewerage and telephone but others have few amenities.

“Living Afloat” warns: “When house-dwellers are cosily watching TV many boat-dwellers will be outside changing gas bottles, unfreezing water pipes, starting up engines and generators and emptying loos.”

The association, which

counts some 500 member boats, was created 25 years ago and has been SaKweZ rigS H Their main problem bil that unlike flat and houseowners, they have no security of tenure on moorings and are therefore at the mercy fttfah owner of the river bank., “From a legal point of view a boat is seen purely as a possession such as a washing-machine instead of a home,” said Edward Burrell, a Thames representative of the association who has lived on a boat for 12 years. The result is that mooring owners can, and have been known to, ask boat people to leave at any time, sometimes giving only a few days notice. * But those lucky enough to get secure moorings say there is no match for living on the river, especially since a Government drive to clean up the Thames began in the late 19605.

The time Is past when the Thames was so dirty that the smell prevented Parliament from holding sessions and falling into it was certain death. Houseboat owners can now safely take a dip in their own backyard.