Homes & Property | Property News
Abandoned 1950s water tower in Cambridgeshire goes up for auction for £350k
If you missed your chance to bid on this brutalist disused water tower earlier in the year, don't despair.
Perry Water Tower is back on the market with Auction House London with a guide price of £350,000.
The abandoned piece of infrastructure was auctioned off by Anglian Water Services in May 2023.
It went to the highest bidder for £290,000, almost triple the original guide price of £90,000.
The tower is located in the town of Perry, Cambridgeshire, and comes with 0.32 acres of land.
Perry Water Tower still has its internal spiral staircase, lit by windows made of glass brick, that would have given workers access to the water tank.
If the new owner gets planning permission, they could turn it into a one-of-a-kind house.
"Water towers rarely come to auction"
Savills, the agents for the original auction, said it was a rare opportunity to purchase such an "architecturally striking" building.
"Water towers rarely come to auction," Jeremy Lamb, Savills auction director, said at the time.
"It's the type of property that would not look out of place on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces or Grand Designs," added Lamb.
"It’s a blank canvas inside with little more than a characterful wrought iron spiral staircase leading to the tank at the top. It represents an ideal opportunity for a buyer to put their own stamp on a unique building and create a landmark home.”
The original buyer may have abandoned their dreams of inviting Kevin McCloud round, but those looking for a project for 2024 are in luck.
Built in the 1950s, the concrete structure would have been part of the post-war infrastructure building boom to provide towns and villages with mains water.
With its cylindrical top level supported by concrete columns, it's one of the many brutalist water towers built around the world in the mid 20th century.
Traditionally water towers used gravity to provide water pressure during periods of high demand, but have been rendered obsolete by technological advances that use electric pumps to provide the required pressure to people's homes.
As East Anglia is a famously flat part of the UK, hundreds of water towers were built to service the area – and Anglian Water still maintains 392 towers and storage points today.
As Savills pointed out, several water tower renovation projects have featured in the headlines recently.
"It’s a blank canvas inside"
Grand Designs featured a water tower in Kennington that underwent a £2 million makeover.
Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce bought the abandoned Grade-II listed building for £380,000 and turned it into a 4,500 square foot home complete with a roof terrace.
It sold for £2.75 million – below the asking price of £3.6 million – in 2021.
Cromwell Tower in Warwickshire was built in the 1930s and was bought at auction in 2009 for £25,000. The owners turned it into a six-storey home complete with a home cinema and put it on the market for £1.5 million.
Earlier this year a converted Victorian-era brick water tower overlooking Woolwich Common, complete with a hydrolic lift and a glazed extension, went up for sale for £2.25 million.
