Montague Road, Croydon, CR0

***Vendor's comments:*** "‘Monty Castle’ was our first home together and we believe it was built in the 1930s. We have lived here since the summer of 1999 and our decision to move is quite bittersweet and purely based on us wanting to grow (even) older outside of the busier London Borough.

When we first moved in, the garden was a bit of a jungle, the bathroom was located where the second bedroom is now and the kitchen was quite a bit smaller and darker. In addition to (kind of) taming the garden over time, a renovation in 2011–12 extended the kitchen, and added new windows throughout, including Velux windows and a glazed patio door in the kitchen. Upstairs, we had an en-suite added to the master bedroom and the original bathroom was swapped with the second bedroom which was also extended.

Since then, home improvements have included a wooden decking for the garden (which is an absolute oasis in the summer - amazingly quiet despite the central location, and with sun most of the day—when it makes an appearance of course!!); trimming of the two amazing trees and a few fence plus roof repairs - most recently following the particularly intense storms early 2023. Indoors, there’s been a refresh of wall and ceiling paint as appropriate and the installation of a new combi-boiler (November 2023).

We are of course really close to everything, with lots of local shops, cafés and restaurants right on our doorstep as well as the town centre, green areas and parks plus a bus and 2 train stations all within a 5-15 minute walk and with frequent, fast links to central London and beyond. We have an annual parking permit for our car and we’ve always been able to find a space close to home. However, we’ve seen quite a lot of changes since moving here, including a significant reduction in traffic (and speed) resulting from Montague Road becoming one-way from London Road and more recently, the adjoining Parsons Mead having traffic restrictions imposed which has completely stopped the area being a busy ‘rat run’, making everything much quieter around here.

Over the years, we’ve enjoyed longer-term company when, in turn, our daughter, nephew and niece have all called our second bedroom their home for a period. In more recent years though, as well as functioning perfectly as our guest room, it’s also mainly been a lovely home office which helped make the pandemic a little less difficult.

With the large ‘through’ lounge, the house has always been great for socialising and we’ve hosted so many lovely get-togethers - Birthdays, Christmas and other events - for each other as well as for friends and family. Many of whom, from near and far, have stayed the night in our guest room which has at times comfortably slept 3 adults. Luckily, we have room for all that spare bedding etc. up in our fully insulated, boarded and quite spacious loft space.

We know that in addition to missing the home we have lived in for 25 years, we will miss the friendly neighbours we’ve met over time as well as the convenience of such a central location. Nevertheless, we hope that whoever gets to live here next will be as happy and comfortable as we’ve been."