Shore House

"Half a mile to quaint seaside town" (according to developer's publicity, that is!)

A new block of luxury flats for the 55s and older, under construction at the northern end of Shore Road, Swanage.  Just a few yards from the beach.

A good enough position, albeit potentially at risk from exceptionally high waves and blown sand.  The flats in this photo are orientated towards south west and/or south east, with excellent sea views.  Prices of the units on offer go up to £500,000.

So why this unspeakable cladding?  The local building materials are superb: Swanage bricks (hand made) or Purbeck stone (quarried a few miles away).  The flats are clad in narrow vertical synthetic "wooden planks"; their colour seems to be white, but in this bright sunshine it is difficult to be certain.

And the penthouses have essentially the same product, but with a metallic finish.

The rulers of Marrakech decreed many centuries ago that, as white is an anti-social, harsh colour in sunshine, all the houses in the region should have terracotta colouring.  Swanage brick would be ideal!


And, for what it is worth, these flats are not "half a mile" away from our "quaint" Swanage, but at the very southernmost part of North Swanage.