Grand Designs: Kevin McCloud teases ‘saddest ever episode’

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Grand Designs’ “saddest home ever” is a £10 million clifftop mansion that pushed its owner into millions of pounds of debt. Its owner, Edward Short spent a decade building the extraordinary property, with the ambitious project seeing him transform his family’s 1950s home into an art-deco white lighthouse.

The lighthouse-inspired property, known as Chesil Cliff House is located on the North Devon coast.

The property featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs in October 2019, and was described as the “saddest episode ever” by many viewers after the music industry executive revealed that the arrival of the recession, building issues, and the end of his marriage to his wife Hazel had left him on the edge of bankruptcy and his dream in tatters.

However, Edward was adamant that he would finish the project but stated he would be forced to sell the build, which was previously reported to have cost upwards of £6 million.

He listed the house up for sale with a whopping £10 million price tag after investors demanded their cash back.

But the property has reportedly been removed from the Knight Frank website as “terms of a sale” are being discussed with a “serious buyer”.

However, it remains listed on Rightmove.

Alongside the divorce, the decade-long build – which was initially meant to last 18 months – also left locals fuming and caused rows over how the house would impact nearby areas of natural beauty.

Over the years the project has been hit with a range of issues and challenges, including spiraling costs, the banking crisis, Brexit, supply problems, bad weather, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The stress grew to unbearable levels as the money ran out and the debt increased, leading viewers of the episode to take to Twitter to either express their empathy for him or to brand the unfinished house an “eyesore”, the size of the project “greedy”, and the episode “brutal”, “stressful” and the “saddest episode ever”.

Edward spoke to Devon Live in December 2019 and said: “We have had an amazing time living in that spot (at the old house).

“There were days when the girls would come back from school, get straight off the bus and we’d all jump straight into the sea to mess around in the waves or go kayaking.

“But the whole project has been a horrendous strain for (his wife) Hazel, I have sunk our family purse into this and I really feel for her.

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“I never meant to put her through any of this.”

Speaking to Devon Live in March 2020, Edward reiterated his apologies to locals who were fed up of seeing the unfinished grey “eyesore”, but he also asked them to “stick with it”.

He said then: “I know it’s a mess, and I have to fix that – but when it is finished it will be amazing. Judge it when it’s finished.”

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