Meet the Owners of
North House
Originally from the Midlands, Luke Staples and Lewis Green moved to the Island in 2009. They fell in love with Cowes Old Town and planned to set up both their home and business there.
With Luke’s experience in hospitality, setting up and running businesses in London, and Lewis previously working as a chef on superyachts, they had a wealth of catering and business knowledge between them.
After opening a home, lifestyle and interior shop, Staples and Green, and dining establishments, Coast and The Harbour Kitchen, Luke and Lewis decided they wanted to further expand — and looked to Spence Willard to find them the right property to enable them to do so.
The pair had always wanted to run an establishment with overnight accommodation, so when an
spencewillard.co.uk
opportunity arose on Sun Hill, Cowes, it made sense. At this stage, what would become North House was made up of two town houses and an old theatre. It took Luke’s vision and Lewis’ project management to see how the properties could be joined to create a luxury ‘bolthole by the sea’, with guest rooms and adjoining dining establishment.
Luke and Lewis decided to make the jump and, with Spence Willard’s assistance, managed to secure a sale — despite a number of hurdles along the way, including issues with listed areas, licensing and an unexpected overnight bat survey.
“Spence Willard provided us with that personal touch throughout the sale. We always felt like we could pick up the phone and talk to them at any point — and it helped that the team knew us by name.
“On the day that we completed the sale, the team turned up at the property to welcome us. Tanya, in particular, was lovely. The little touches really made the difference.”
Luke and Lewis went on to completely transform the three properties, hiring a building firm to join and restructure the buildings to include 14 bedrooms, all en-suite. Fireplaces throughout the building were restored to full working
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