When artist and writer John Burningham, who drew the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang illustrations, and his wife Helen Oxenbury, the illustrator of children’s book We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, first set eyes on their cliff top house they were excited at the prospect of restoring it to its former glory.
At least, John was.

The author and illustrator of children’s classics such as Grandpa, Mr Gumpy’s Outing and, his personal favourite, Humbert, has a passion for rescuing well-crafted architectural pieces.

These range from the window seat that used to be in Lillie Langtry’s Swiss Cottage house and is now in their Hampstead Heath, London, home, to East Court, the Grade II listed early Arts and Crafts masterpiece designed by celebrated architects Ernest George and Harold Peto in 1889, that they bought to restore.

“We have restored houses for some years and my son Bill, also an artist, is very good at it, so it’s been a family attack on it,” says John, who bought the East Court overlooking Ramsgate, in Kent, after reading about it in a magazine, and admits it has been a challenge.

“My wife was brought up by the sea and she always wanted to return to live by the sea,” says John, by way of explanation, and adds: “It is very rare to get somewhere with a site like that and enough space for us all to work in, which we had all intended to do.”