The House by the Lake

Product Information

Thomas Harding's great grandfather, a successful Jewish doctor living in Berlin in the early twentieth century, built a summer house by a lake just outside the city where he and his family spent all their leisure time. Then Hitler came to power and the family was forced to flee to Britain. Our intention is to use the extraordinary history of the Alexander Haus to bring people together from different cultures and religions, within German and European societies, with a global perspective. Our vision is to create dialogue and to build a resilient, vibrant and tolerant society today, and for our common future. The house is situated by a small lake on the outskirts of Berlin. From the pictures in the book the landscape still has a very picturesque feel to it – making it very attractive to Berliners who wanted, and could afford, a home away from home. The lake’s surroundings were bought by a developer in the early 1900’s. His idea was to make money by leasing off the lake-side views. His Jewish family were, thankfully, able to make their escape to Britain in the 1930s – which saved their lives, but lost them their prized lakeside house. Harding's rediscovery of the house in the 1990s – then in a shambolic state - and the research he conducted into all of its occupants, produced a book which mourned the loss of his family home at the hands of the antisemitic state but also humanised all of its varied occupants, whatever their own failings.

If there’s a beguiling opacity to her public statements, it’s in step with her lyrics. On Warm Chris she ranges from breezily evocative similes (“The weather opened up like a birthday card,” she sings on second single Fever) to more obscure reflections (“Here comes life with his leathery whip”), but even more so than her earlier albums, it’s less about what the words mean than how they feel when Harding sings them. FUL: Single storey rear lean-to extension (Retrospective) at Hazeldine House, Newstead Industrial Trading Estate, Plantation Road, Blurton

As Jurgen Klopp managed Liverpool to steely success in the Premier League this year so Angela Merkel, marshalling her team of spectacled scientists, has thus far managed a relatively fruitful fight against the 'Corona Crisis', as Germans call it. I didn’t give it more stars because I never came close to any of those living in the house; their fears and sorrows and joys never became mine. Parts are long-winded, over-detailed. The company is based on EDINBURGH HOUSE, HARDING ROAD, HANLEY, STOKE ON TRENT, STAFFORDSHIRE, ST1 3AE.

The kitchen’s colour palette was kept deliberately calm with many different greens – from the strong olive of the Plain English units, to the pale willow of the door and window surrounds, which frame the vista of the garden and the river. ‘This lets the view steal the show,’ explains Nicola. And that is just how her clients like it. ‘They wanted an easy, unshowy, comfortable house – with soul.’ FUL: Proposed two storey side/rear extension to YMCA North Staffordshire to provide additional facilities at Edinburgh House, Harding Road, Hanley, ST1 3AE Disappointed, I spoke with my new-found village friends. What should we do now, I asked? Undeterred, they said that we needed to demonstrate that the house was important, that it was worth saving. To do this, they suggested, we should organise a clean-up day, in which the community and former occupants came together to tidy up the property. SMD/2023/0196: Proposed change of use of existing agricultural barn and conversion for residential use at Longhurst Farm, Dimmingsdale, Oakamoor, ST10 3AS

Concept

SMD/2023/0167: Outline application with details of access (all other matters reserved) for a single dwelling on land off Basford View, Cheddleton Nicola Harding is a member of The List by House & Garden, our essential directory of design professionals. Visit The List by House & Garden here. SMD/2023/0116: Erection of five dwellings and formation of vehicular access on land at Rakeway Farm, Rakeway Road, Cheadle