Ответ:

My husband and I moved to Islington from Deptford in 1990, to a two-bedroom flat for four times my then-meagre salary. In 2001, we crept further north, to a Twenties semi in Highbury with a big garden and no central heating. It hadn’t sold, the agent told us, because it reminded English people of their grannies’ houses. My granny lived in a high-rise in Miami, so I was immune.

Fifteen years passed and I felt suddenly restless. Highbury was lovely, but perhaps too suburban? In a matter of months, our daughter would be leaving home. Did we need three bedrooms? Perhaps it was time for a change, but where would we go? California? Scotland?

One day while messing about online, I stumbled on an open plan photographer’s loft in an industrial building with 16ft-high ceilings, a pitched glass roof, and permission for residential use.