Billy Connolly's favourite Canterbury house on the market

An “eccentric” and “unique” Canterbury home, designed by acclaimed New Zealand architect Roger Walker and loved by Scottish comedian Sir Billy Connolly, is on the market after 16 years.

But unlike many of Walker’s out-there houses, which can be found scattered around Wellington and other parts of the North Island, the early 1980s home complete with its own turret is located on a 11.62-hectare lifestyle farm in Waimakariri in the South Island.

The large four-bedroom, two-bathroom home, originally named Hamilton House after the family who built it, is synonymous with earlier Roger Walker designs with its triangular rooflines and circular windows as he fought against suburbia’s cookie-cutter homes and beigeness.

The property at 570 Birch Hill Road, in Okuku, is being marketed as having an “exuberant style” with “unique lines and shapes”.

Property Brokers salesperson Aaron Clark said the turret is a noticeable feature when approaching the house and contains a spiralling staircase connecting all three levels.

The large circular rooms, known as drums, house the bedrooms and there are also two large living rooms both with fireplaces.

“One thing they (owners) keep repeating is even though it’s this cool, eccentric quirky home, it is actually a really good home to just live in as a house.

“It’s comfortable and it’s warm – the floor plan actually works really well so despite the architectural features of the home, it is a really good house to live in.”

Through one of the owner's line of work, the house has also played host to a number of famous touring artists.

“Even Billy Connolly has been there – you could imagine Billy Connolly sitting there having a whiskey and a laugh and you could suddenly think slightly eccentric characters feel right at home there.”

The property has also been designed to make the most of its landscape and there are decks and patios both on the roof and on the east, north and west side of the house.

“So, you can always find a spot in the sun or out of the wind,” Clark added.

“The grounds are amazing. Even the driveway into the property – the property is called Twelve Elms and you pass 12 elm trees to get up to the home which can’t be seen from the road.”

It also looks out to the mountains and below onto the 11.62ha grazing land currently run as a sheep farm. However, if the new owners didn’t want to farm the land themselves, there was potential to lease out the grazing land to a local farmer.

The owners have enjoyed 16 years at the home, but are now planning to move to the North Island.

The rural property, which is being sold by deadline sale, has only been on the market several times and last sold for $834,750 in 2005. It has a recent RV of $1.46 million.

Walker, who grew up in Hamilton but is now Wellington-based, made his mark designing out-of-the-box properties, predominantly in the 1980s. His work was recognised in 2016 when he received the prestigious NZ Institute of Architects Gold Medal award.

Earlier this year Flint House, a property Walker designed for his sister Sandra and husband Ray Flint, in Birkenhead, Auckland, in the late 1960s, sold for $1.48m.

Both Hamilton House and Flint House share the same sloping rooflines used in the Park Mews in Wellington as well as Walker’s signature turrets and round windows.

Last year Walker starred in the first episode of the new TV series Chasing Dreams hosted by former league player Matthew Ridge where he took him on a tour of his favourite houses including Flint House.

-By Nikki Preston
OneRoof.co.nz