Ben and Sam swapped their terraced London home for an abandoned 11,000 sq ft Georgian mansion that has been left to rot since 2017
A family swapped their terraced London home for a derelict countryside mansion - and say it will set them back "hundreds of thousands" to restore the "mouldy" property to its former glory.
Ben Charles Edwards, 42, and his husband Sam, 34, adored life in the capital, but chose to leave the city behind so their two sons, aged eight and five, could have more room to play and explore. After taking a drive just outside Canterbury, Ben, a film producer, and Sam, a model, stumbled upon a vast 11,000 sq foot Georgian property, which had previously been converted into a care home and left to deteriorate since 2017.
The couple were instantly smitten, snapping up the property for £1 million before moving in during February 2026. They plan to spend at least a decade painstakingly returning the home to its original splendour, stripping out the 24 care home bedrooms and restoring each room to its intended purpose.
The pair, who still make the trip to London several times a week for work, have settled comfortably into rural life, with their children reportedly delighted by the abundance of space to roam. Ben, originally from East London, said: "London's an amazing city, I owe so much to London, it's always going to be my home.
"But we wanted to move to the countryside so that the boys would have more outside space. We wanted them to feel alive. They've never had more cuts and bruises from playing outside than they have in the last couple of months.
"They're climbing trees and doing things that London couldn't offer a young family. Lawn house was a dilapidated mess when we found it, but it's one of the most stunning examples of Georgian architecture I've ever seen.
"It's only 50 minutes on the train to London, which is great when we need to commute into the city for work. You get a different form of community in the countryside; everyone is so friendly and supportive. Within the first few hours after we moved, five or six people came and introduced themselves.
" Ben and Sam have dedicated the past decade moving into various properties across East London, doing them up, and then moving on to their next project. "We bought each one with the intention of staying, but I love a project," Ben said. After welcoming their children, the pair had discussed relocating to the countryside, allowing their two lads more outdoor space to explore.
Then one day in August 2025, while driving through the countryside just beyond Canterbury, Ben and Sam spotted an enormous, crumbling mansion perched atop a hill. They scrambled up the slope and peered through the window, discovering a ballroom featuring an enormous white marble fireplace, adorned with a carved Greek goddess.
"I immediately fell in love with it, and I said to Sam, 'we need to move here'", Ben said. A few months later, in February 2026, the family departed their four-bed terraced house and relocated to Lawn House, an 11,000 sq foot Georgian mansion, 10 times the size of their London home. The impressive property, which they bought for £1 million, had previously been converted into a 24-bedroom care home before being abandoned in 2017.
The house sits on one acre of land, which Ben and Sam intend to transform into a vegetable garden, alongside plans for a chicken coop.
"There's a gorgeous walled garden, and so much space for the boys to play and run around and have adventures," Ben said. As the main house is currently uninhabitable, plagued by leaks, extensive mould, and a partially missing roof, the family are presently residing in a wing at the rear of the property, built by the care home, making it considerably more modern than the rest of the house.
Ben and Sam are now tackling the enormous challenge of gradually restoring the property to its former glory, a process that could span decades.
"It's all being hand done and repaired, we're not looking to change anything, we're just looking to slowly repair it and allow it to operate as the Georgian house it was," Ben said. Thus far, they have cleared 20 tonnes of rubbish from the property - including old wheelchairs and hospital beds - stripping everything back to the original materials to allow the building to breathe once more.
"There were floorboards on top of floorboards, the care home kept adding bits instead of restoring anything," Ben said. "We found a new staircase the other day that we didn't know we had, it was hidden by plywood. " Throughout the restoration process, the couple stumbled upon an auction document dating back to 1901, which reveals the property's original layout. Using this remarkable find, they intend to return each room to its former purpose.
Ben said: "It was like a treasure map, we were able to use it to go, this is where the library was, this was the parlour, this was the drawing room.
" As the family intends to tackle the restoration gradually over many years, the total bill remains uncertain, though they reckon it will run into hundreds of thousands of pounds across their lifetime.
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