Annoushka Ducas MBE firmly believes that things happen for a reason. When she launched fine jewellery brand Annoushka 13 years ago, she and husband John Ayton began their search for a second home in London – a pied-a-terre to work with their permanent residence in East Sussex.
Rather than seeking a large terraced house like the one they’d previously owned in Notting Hill, Annoushka wanted something over one or two storeys. “It was up and down, up and down over five floors… exhausting,” she says, exhaling. “I wanted something small with a lateral entertaining space – we really enjoy entertaining.”
After viewing a number of apartments, she was shown a Georgian cottage located between Pimlico and Belgravia. She fell in love with the “secret house” that you approach through an alleyway, which then leads you to an iron gate you have to buzz to enter.
“I went back to my husband saying it was the most perfect dream house, but he couldn’t see it because it’s way too expensive,” she says, adding, “I forgot about it. Well, I didn’t really, but
