What Going On at Totnes House?

The camouflage fencing at the entrance to the old Conservative Club conceals a 22 space car park – and the latest project for TV producer Jonney Steven and his family.

He gave me a guided tour around the echoing old building which he’s gradually turning into a home. Inside are remnants of its previous recent life – the intercom for the office of the former MP is still on the wall – and also artefacts going right back to its first incarnation as a private gentlemens’
club.

 

Jonney has made property programmes with Sarah Beeny for Channel Four and is currently working with The Repair Shop’s Dom Chinea on his new Cornish workshop show, so he knows the pitfalls of restoring houses – and the achievements. “I’ve always wanted to do a renovation conversion project. We did a barn conversion several years ago which was meant to be our forever house but we got itchy feet. And we have always wanted to be back in Totnes. We used to live in Ticklemore Street.”

Taking on one of Totnes’s biggest and most visible buildings, he anticipated lots of interest from locals. “We wanted to engage with people so we knocked on all our neighbours’ doors and we spoke at the town council. Every single person supported it,” he said.

The history of the place goes back to 1889, when an orchard owned by the Duke of Somerset was sold and the Totnes Club built. It ran until the Forties when the Conservative Club association
took it over. It was closed in 2023 and remained on the market for a year – making the next step, applying for a change of use from commercial to domestic, go without a hitch.

A large modern extension will be demolished and the plan is to dig up the car park – which he needs planning permission for – and create a garden with apple trees.

Jonney, being a TV professional, is documenting the transformation on Instagram and has over 107 thousand followers. So will his journey – sorry, but every show has to have a “journey” – be on the telly? “Well C4 has asked us to be on George Clarke’s series (Amazing Spaces) which we are probably not going to do, but potentially we could do our own programme.”

That’s if he’s got the time. Much of the bar furniture has already gone – some sold to a pub in Devonport – but he’s still got to get rid of two snooker tables. “Nobody wants them. I contacted four companies and they just said they are overstocked. The huge slate bases are going to be reused for something but I need four or five strong people to lift them. The rugby club said they’d help!”

Tearing down a modern office-style ceiling above the snooker room, Jonney discovered a wonderful vaulted wooden ceiling which had been hidden for decades. He also found in a cupboard all the old minutes of the Conservative Association going back to the Forties, which fascinate him. “Some of it is quite trivial – we are going to raise the price of sherry by One P – the next month says we’ve had 17 complaints about the price of sherry! You can see all the social and societal changes. In the 70’s they are debating whether to admit lady members or not and one of the arguments is there are no ladies loos. Then there’s a planning application for the loos. They decided they wanted to invite Mrs Thatcher to open an extension – I don’t think it was the loos although that would be a better story – but the invitation was declined!”

In his office, where he’s project managing , are a collection of signs found all over the building, including one which says gambling is strictly prohibited. “It’s club rule 27 -what were the other 26!”

Jonney, his wife Kate and their children Teddy, Finbar and Cormac (with Omar the cat) are living in Totnes House while the work goes on around them. The building is still revealing its quirks – including a mystery second gas meter which he’s had a bill for but can’t find…  “We hope that by Christmas we will be cooking the dinner in our new kitchen, which feels like a long way away but it’s going to come around pretty quickly.”

If you want to have a peek at how the transformation is going check out @totneshouse on Instagram.