Meeting Restoration Man George Clarke and his caravan
Architect and television presenter George Clarke has travelled all around the country and beyond, looking at innovative uses of small spaces. One of these journeys resulted in him building this 1979 Ace Excellence.
The van features a folding veranda that doubles as extra floor space, a 1950s kitchen sink unit, wood-burning stove, full-sized shower and toilet with the option of a moveable bathtub doubling up from the sofa space.
Caravan magazine caught up with George to talk about how his small space set-up came into existence and what inspired the project in the first place.
Tell us about the project
“Most shows are all about big-scale projects like Grand Designs or Restoration Man, so we thought it’d be good to take on smaller scale, affordable projects. With the state of housing at the moment, not many people can afford big property prices, so we looked to find ways of reinventing what space they already had.”
What’s been the best thing about filming?
“I’ve met some really interesting people through the series. One guy bought a shipping container to transform it into an office space for the bottom of his garden and another did a similar thing with an old train carriage.
“Being able to use space in inventive ways – I think that’s the biggest appeal for me. The British are creative people. We’re almost obsessed with having our own space and personalising it, even if it’s just a small shed down the bottom of the garden that someone can go to and escape for an hour or so.
"Whether it’s a caravan, campervan or a beach hut, when you start thinking about what can be done with the smallest of buildings and living areas, then it begins to raise questions about how we use space and how we live in Britain overall. Are we being as efficient with space as possible?”
So what drew you to using a caravan as your main project?
“There’s a number of different caravans across the series for various different things, but I bought my one because I owned a second property and sold it a few years ago as I wasn’t using it enough. I felt that someone else who needs the property deserved it more than I did, but I was still keen to have a small living space of my own. I saw the neglected Ace Excellence on a site and thought it’d be perfect.”
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Have you caravanned before?
“Yes, but I had mixed feelings about caravanning when I was a child. The great times were running over beaches and playing, but I also remember some horrible facilities at the time, scratchy beds and disgusting showers, so I thought ‘why not create a space that’s exactly what I want?’”
What state was your caravan in when you bought it?
“It hadn’t had any TLC for years. Looking at it from the beginning I thought ‘if you can renovate this, you can do anything,’ and we did it. It was a restoration but it wasn’t far off a full build.
“The hardest thing about it was bringing it up to scratch on the structural side of things. From the outside you’d think it was a normal caravan but step inside and it’s a whole new world. It all worked out better than I’d imagined!”
For more information visit georgeclarke.com.
