Esher town centre in spring, with cherry blossom on the green. Photo: Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0Esher's houses, from claremont to the high street
Esher has been a place for large houses for a long time. Sir John Vanbrugh built the first house on the Claremont estate in 1708; Clive of India later built the Palladian mansion, which became a royal residence used by Queen Victoria. The mansion is now a school and the landscape garden belongs to the National Trust. Sandown Park racecourse opened beside the station in 1875. The private estates of Blackhills, Esher Park Avenue and Claremont occupy land that was once part of Henry VIII's hunting grounds; Blackhills plots are typically at least half an acre, and the Claremont estate is laid out around a nine-hole golf course. In the 2011 census about half the homes in the Esher ward were detached houses.
That gives us two quite different kinds of project: large detached houses, often rebuilt or heavily extended, and older properties near the historic centre, where discretion matters more than scale.
From our Esher projectOne room, two personalities: our Esher project
Our Esher entertainment room shows how a family room can become a cinema without looking like one. The family wanted a bar, a snooker table and a cinema in one open-plan space. For everyday viewing there is a Samsung 85 inch 4K TV. At one touch, a Draper 120 inch motorised screen comes down, a projector drops from a concealed Future Automation lift and the Control4 lighting sets the room for a film. The sound is a KEF THX 5.2.2 package with twin KEF 8 inch subwoofers, driven by a Marantz processor and power amplifier.
Open-plan rooms are harder to get right than sealed cinemas. Hard surfaces and wide openings spoil the sound, and technology left on show spoils the look. The answer here was careful speaker placement, lighting in zones and hiding everything that does not need to be seen.
From our Esher projectMedia room or dedicated cinema?
It depends on how the room is used on an ordinary Tuesday. If it has to stay a sitting room, a games room or a bar, a media room with a concealed screen is usually right. If you want a room just for films, with no windows to fight and full acoustic treatment, a dedicated cinema room will always perform better. We will tell you honestly which suits your space, and our 3D visuals let you see the result before any building work starts. As a guide, a professionally designed small cinema room typically costs £15,000 to £25,000 fully installed; a transforming room like the Esher project, with a lift and a motorised screen, sits above that.
From our Esher projectLighting and control in larger houses
In a large Esher house, lighting is usually the system you use most. Lutron lighting control replaces rows of switches with a single keypad of named scenes, and motorised blinds and curtains can share them. Control4 then brings lighting, heating, security, gates and entertainment into one app, programmed around how your family actually lives rather than how the installer thought it might.
On a gated estate, the gate intercom, cameras and alarm can join the same system, so you can see who is at the gate on a touchscreen or your phone and let them in from wherever you are. Our smart security page explains how cameras and access control fit in.
Our demonstration cinema in Walton-on-ThamesEsher conservation area and private estates
Esher's historic core, around the junction of the old Portsmouth Road with the roads to Weybridge and Leatherhead, has been a conservation area since 1973 and was extended in 2008. It includes the Grade I listed Church of St George. Elmbridge Borough Council's heritage team is the right first call for external changes there, such as aerials, dishes, cameras or garden speakers. On a private estate, check the estate's own rules as well as planning.
Our Walton-on-Thames showroom is only a few minutes away, so you can see a concealed screen and Control4 lighting working before you decide. Book a showroom visit or book a free design consultation.
