Tat London Journal

If you like me haven't visited Italy in sometime, you may well be feeling a little miffed. Miff not, we have gathered together some excellent, all be it eccentric, properties - We managed to find 15 off these extraordinary abodes.

Truth be told, this feature usually houses my favourite of abodes, but perhaps it's my age, or even the heat, I somehow baulk at the idea of taking them on. But I know therein lies the diamond — the true houses that make the world a more interesting place are usually the ones that have been brought back to life by some brave soul. So one day, when energy has returned to my limbs, I shall make it my life's work and put my heart into one of these houses. If I were a betting man

August, you say. August, the quiet summer month where the housing market takes a break like the rest of Europe, correct? No, very much incorrect, as this is some of the finest selection of houses under £500k I have seen and you and I both know I've seen a lot. Charlotte Becque has tried her hand at finding properties of all shapes and sizes, and I just think she has done a terrific job. The seaside wins this month, with number 7 offering up a glorious stable in Whitstable and

There are actually 33 properties below, but it doesn't really make for a jazzy number. I will say Charlotte Becque as ever makes this list as meaty as it comes. We have all shapes and sizes, houses that have wee sq ft, and ones that are gargantuan. Some based up in the North, some in the South, and others obviously in those other two directions. The appetite is whetted and ready for some ingestion of glorious abodes.

Last month's Dream Houses were, in fact, some of my favourite houses out there. If you want to take a trip down memory lane, click here. That being said, I don't think I have done too badly with the below. That is if you are very much an admirer of the English country house, no, not the smashing great mansions, these are more the rectory, think Bennets not Bingleys (and if you don't get that reference, I will hazard a guess that the below will do nothing for you). Even if you

£360K - £1.5million, that is the range this month. A good range I feel, and as ever with this particular feature there are a range of costs when you move in. Many of the below are not for the faint-hearted, but they are instead for those who perhaps envision a deal (not always the case) or those who would like to really put their stamp on a place. As ever, I believe it is the list in which I would find a property; for the most part they are a bit draughty, but they have been

I began this journey thinking it would be quite a charming little feature, 'oh look at these lovely shops you could buy and open a gallery'. This I fear I was at best naïve and at worst patronising.

Gang, I have to say this research was quite overwhelming. I honestly feel I have looked at every house currently on the market. There are rich pickings and I hope our thirty properties with potential will reflect that. As ever we have illustrated the rather more bombastic propositions on the market; what is life without seeing these fabulous relics of architecture and giving ourselves a moment to appreciate them while also having the brief fantasy of revitalising them. This a

London's property market is, at present, a study in contradictions. Across much of the city, sellers are holding their nerve, waiting, watching, reluctant to commit, and the result is a thinning of supply that makes the search for something genuinely considered, something specific, considerably harder than it ought to be. If you know what you want, the market is not always obliging.

I realise I give this explanation each month, but it feels important to clarify what exactly we are doing here, lest you mistake this for sensible property journalism. We are combing the internet for houses that make us want to abandon our lives with minimal admin. Houses that suggest, however falsely, that one could simply arrive with a Labrador, two decent lamps and a crate of wine, and begin a better existence by Thursday.

Estate agents’ emails are the building blocks of the lists you receive once a month. One thing that throws a property directly into the bin, however, is the word “refurbished”. Enter a thoughtless side return, a marble-encrusted kitchen, hideous spotlights dotted about with the ease of a hole punch. In one slender room I can spot twelve.

I sadly cannot claim one drop of Irish blood in my veins. It is of great sadness to me that my lineage basically sits between the north of England and Worcestershire; there is some Scots which of course I am very proud of, but I would love to ring the bell about Irish lineage and not least for the passport. You too might be like me, a person who pines for the shores of Ireland, we spent much of our time there when we were younger and the Irish kindly put up with us. I have of

There is much hand-wringing about the market, and all concerns are understandable in the current climate. But if we put our blinkers on and remind ourselves that England is a glorious place to live, it's no wonder there remains real strength in both buying and selling. Yes, people aren't going berserk offering thousands over the asking, but sensibly priced homes are moving and there is confident steady momentum.

Usually it's Properties with Potential that has my heart, such a meaty subject to get one's teeth into. That said, this month I feel quite warm and bubbly about everything we've found, and I'll confess the two , Dream Houses and Properties with Potential, sections have rather mashed into one in my affections. Undone houses are my favourite things in the world, so to me they are pretty much all dream houses anyway.

Last month we launched this feature, Houses for a Commune. When I put it out on Instagram, the response was riotous, so many of you feeling exactly the same way, wanting to start your own village. Many said it was their retirement plan, though I'm not sure we should wait that long. I'll come to that.

I am going to have to redirect your attention to the title, it does not say 'Dream Interiors' it says Dream Houses. This means we for the most part are very much ignoring the interiors given to these abodes. We are concentrating on the beauty of the structure and knowing that handed over to us fair maidens, and dashing gents we would be golly turn them into something magnificent. We would not be tied down but velour chesterfield sofas, or knock off Hansen chairs, instead we w

This is a real mix of properties, thirty-four to be precise, and as a rule we do tend to miss out the new builds - they are rarely what we are after. We are mostly on the lookout for charm; if a house has a crooked smile we will probably give it a second look.

What we've curated here is a genuinely expansive roster of properties, and while a number of them could reasonably sit within the 'Potential' category, many would be equally at home on the Dream Properties list. We have always had a particular appreciation for the unpolished.

Hold onto your hats my friends because they are going to be blown away by the rough diamonds you see below. They will give you an absolute shiver of delight, even if you aren't buying, boy we are selling. Well we aren't, but the estate agents certainly want your custom. Perhaps one of these days Tat will turn its hand to selling properties with potential. We will be called Turrets and Thatch or Tired And Thrilling. Anyway, back to the properties in hand. I honestly feel this

I'd like you to keep two things in mind when perusing the below. Rod For One's Own Back & Subjective. We will conquer the first issue. While £2 million is a life changing, win the lottery, kiss your job goodbye kind of money, in London it goes a lot quicker than it should. Although we have seen the madness of house prices come down a little, in all reality we are still living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. So not only are you faced with looking at one overp