a day ago
Inside the stunning Newport converted church apartment on sale for £450k
An apartment in a stunning church conversion on Newport's waterfront has gone on the market for £450,000.
Apartment 8 in Trinity Free Church, has three bedrooms spread across two levels, is up for sale. Located on Boat Road looking over the Tay, the church sits next to the Newport Inn.
Trinity United Free Church dates from 1881 and was designed by architects Charles and Leslie Ower. Its foundation stone was laid by Admiral Maitland-Dougal of Scotscraig Estate. The church opened in 1882 after being built at a cost of £3,000.
At the opening ceremony a sealed bottle containing copies of The Courier, the Dundee Advertiser, the Scotsman and the Daily Mail was laid in the foundations.
Trinity Church closed its doors for the final time in 2016. In 2017 it was put on sale for offers over £280,000. It was sold to a developer who turned it into luxury apartments that were completed in 2019.
Occupying part of the ground and first floors, Apartment 8 has 175sqm of living space, making it bigger than the average four-bedroom detached house. This translates into huge, airy rooms that give a wonderful impression of space.
A beautiful arched doorway opens into a vestibule with a bench and coat hooks. A reception hall has a magnificent stained glass window and a glass staircase.
Without doubt the finest space in the house is the amazing open plan living/dining/kitchen area. This enormous space has a vaulted ceiling and a mezzanine level.
On the ground floor there is a modern German kitchen and an impressive dining area. A set of stairs leads up to the mezzanine living room, which has a glass balustrade. Huge arched windows give fantastic views across the river.
The main bedroom is on the ground floor. It has three arched windows and an en suite shower room. A second double bedroom is located on the ground floor and also enjoys Tay views.
There's a family bathroom and a utility area at ground floor level. On the upper floor there is a family bathroom, another double bedroom, a home office and a door that opens into the mezzanine living room.
Many of the B listed church's original features have been refurbished and retained when the building was converted into flats.
As well as arched windows and stained glass the ceiling showcases exposed timber beams. The walls, meanwhile, are made of 600mm thick solid stone. Gas central heating helps keep running costs low.
Apartment 8 is owned by Ronny and Keeley Bogani, who have lived there for the past five years.
Ronny, 50, is from Florida and spent 20 years working as a trial attorney before moving to the UK in 2018. He now works in Artificial Intelligence, specialising in AI and children's rights. He's completing a PhD at Edinburgh University.
He works with the Turing Trust, a charity that supports education in Africa, and social enterprise NPACT. 'Basically I made my money in America as a trial lawyer and now I'm turning against the organisations I used to defend,' he smiles.
'I've dedicated the rest of my life to human rights.'
When Ronny and Keeley bought Apartment 8 in Trinity Free Church it was on sale as an unfinished shell.
They worked with the builders to complete the apartment to their specification. 'We spent an extra £40,000 getting the spec we wanted,' Ronnie continues.
'We put in a German kitchen and speciality cast iron radiators. My favourite place to go on vacation is the Graylyn Estate in North Carolina. The bathrooms have these amazing showers with six or eight nozzles that blast water at you from all directions. We had one of those showers fitted in our en suite.'
Separation has led to Ronny and Keeley putting their flat in Trinity Free Church on the market. 'It was too big for me on my own,' Ronny says. 'I now live in a flat on Thistle Street in Edinburgh, which is fantastic – although it's dangerously close to the best French restaurant.'
Apartment 8, Trinity Free Church, Boat Road, Newport is on sale with Brikk for offers over £450,000.
