27-06-2025
Buying an Old House in London? Expect a Long List of Repairs.
'Let me see if I can show you how wonky that door frame is,' said Julia McColl, taking a reporter on a video tour of her bedroom. 'That's the one that does people's heads in. And this is the step that catches everyone else.'
A little more than a year ago, Ms. McColl, 41, and her partner, Mark Jenkinson, 53, bought their 350-year-old home, which stands just south of the River Thames in London. It's possible that the 1,022-square-foot house once possessed a host of 90-degree angles, but those days are long over.
'One of our friends is particularly OCD, and he struggles with it,' Ms. McColl said about the crooked paneling, which makes picture-hanging a perfectionist's hell.
Still, she and Mr. Jenkinson embrace the higgledy-piggledy character. Borrowing a description first used by Ms. McColl's sister, Lydia McGahey, a primary-school teacher in Derbyshire, England, they proudly call their home the 'Wonky House,' and had a sign made with that name.
The couple, who both work for financial services companies — Ms. McColl in customer experience, Mr. Jenkinson in technology — had been renting around the corner for several years when they decided to buy their own place, and hoped to remain in the lively area where they lived, near Bermondsey Street, between Tower Bridge and Borough Market.
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