Southerly: family living done beautifully. Moments from The Downs, c.4,500 sq ft, spa & hot tub.

Southerly

Some addresses announce themselves, Southerly prefers to do so softly. Southerly sits proudly behind a gated driveway on one of the most coveted enclaves on the north-western edge of the city, a leafy run of large detached houses set within mature private gardens, where the pace is unhurried and the greenery is constant.

The Downs, that great open lung of Bristol, lie within a few minutes' stroll, ideal for morning runs, weekend kite-flying and the long walks that bookend a busy week. Everyday life is handsomely catered for by the large Waitrose in nearby Henleaze and the independent shops along Stoke Hill itself, while Clifton Village and Whiteladies Road, a little further on, bring an enviable choice of independent retailers, neighbourhood bars and well-regarded restaurants within easy reach.

For families, the schooling is among the finest in the South West. Badminton School, Redmaids' High School and St Ursula's are all close at hand, with Clifton College, Clifton High School, Bristol Grammar School and QEH a short distance across The Downs. Few locations offer so much, so close.

The first impression is one of privacy and poise. Double electric gates open onto a sweep of gravelled parking with room for several cars, and beyond it the house presents a pretty gabled façade of pleasing symmetry and quiet period character. It is the kind of frontage that settles the shoulders the moment you turn in from the road.

Much loved and thoughtfully enlarged by its current owners over more than twenty years, Southerly has been shaped, room by room, around the realities of family life. Underfloor heating runs throughout the ground and first floors, traditional radiators warm the top floor, and the house is fully double glazed; the comfort is felt before it is noticed.

Step through the front door and the house reveals its intentions at once. A charming galleried entrance hall draws the eye straight through the dining room to the garden beyond, an early promise of the seamless indoor-outdoor living that defines the home. The ground floor flows with ease from one room to the next, opening to the garden at almost every turn, a plan made for entertaining on any scale.

At its core is a kitchen of real distinction, made by the London branch of Smallbone of Devizes. A great expanse of workspace gathers around an oversized central island, with an AGA and a Sub-Zero refrigerator among its appointments.

Open to the family room, it forms a truly remarkable space, as content with a Tuesday-night supper as it is with a houseful of guests. Here the architecture comes alive: a dramatic double-height pitched ceiling lifts the volume and floods the room with light, while bi-folding doors to both elevations fold the walls away entirely, dissolving the line between inside and out and placing the Swim Spa just a few steps from the table. A feature gas fire holds the room warm through the winter months.

Across the hall, the formal sitting room offers a near full-width wall of bi-folds opening to the garden, linked back to the kitchen by both hall and terrace so that the sociable rhythm of the house never breaks. A smoked oak parquet floor and an open fireplace make it a handsome room for every season, and double doors lead through to the dining room, equally reached from the hall. Completing the ground floor are a well-proportioned study with his-and-hers desk space, a separate fitted utility room with its own door to the garden, and a stylish cloakroom.

Six bedrooms are arranged across the upper two floors, served by four beautifully appointed bath and shower rooms and reached via the galleried landing and a secondary staircase to the top floor.

The principal bedroom is a lovely, restful room, looking out across the rear garden, with an excellent run of fitted wardrobes and a built-in dressing table. Its en-suite wants for nothing: an oversized walk-in shower, a contemporary twin-ended bath, twin basins, WC and a heated towel rail.

A guest suite to the front enjoys its own fitted storage and a luxurious en-suite shower room, while three further double bedrooms complete the first floor, the smallest making an ideal nursery, all served by a sumptuous family bathroom with twin wall-mounted basins, a twin-ended bath and an enclosed oversized shower. On the top floor, the sixth bedroom has a shower room of its own and access to extensive eaves storage.

If the house is built for family life, the garden is built for the living of it. Running the full width of the rear elevation is a state-of-the-art Millboard decked terrace, with generous room for an oversized dining set alongside a recessed Hydropool hot tub and a Hydropool Swim Spa. Hydropool are renowned as the makers of the world's only self-cleaning hot tubs and spas, built in Canada to withstand the most demanding of climates.

The hot tub offers built-in wellness programmes, while the Swim Spa provides a swim jet for cardiovascular training, water fountains and massage jets; both are finished with coloured LED lighting that turns the terrace into something rather magical after dark.

Steps lead down to a broad, fully enclosed lawn, generous enough for children and grandparents alike, with a timber summer house and adjoining garden store towards the rear, and tall mature trees lending shade and structure. Access runs easily from the front of the house, down the side, to the garden behind, so the whole plot lives as one.

Agent summary: Houses of this calibre, in this position, so completely realised, come along seldom.

Southerly offers the space of a substantial family home, the address that families covet most, and the kind of leisure and entertaining features usually reserved for a much grander country house, all within a few minutes of The Downs. It is, quite simply, a showstopper.