Cockpit Arts recently moved its crafts studios from WC1 to Deptford

Cockpit Arts recently moved its crafts studios from WC1 to Deptford. As is pointed out, good design is about how well things work – and it doesn’t cost any more.’The Home Buyer’s Guide’, from Cabe, is published by Black Dog, £7.99. Italian Vogue calls it a “bohemian hot spot” Others describe it as Britain’s answer to the Left Bank. Where is this hip new urban zone? None other than Deptford, SE8. A run-down slice of Del Boy’s London might seem an unlikely artisans’ quarter.

The area still bears scars from Second World War bombing, while scruffy trading estates pay homage to an industrial past shaped by its docklands location. This downgrading of the car-culture may take a while to work its way through to all of the buying public, but its effect on the design of some developments has been dramatic.A clear message from the guide is that the more informed we are, the higher our standards. In that respect, we are rather more demanding of our car dealers than our builders, according to Hemingway; the after-sales service we expect for our cars is often better than that which we receive from builders.The guide can be used as an intensive check-list of every facet of home building, from construction through security and lighting to even the garden soil, each area covered by a “what to ask for” and “what to look for” list.Roll on the day when we walk into a show home and give the sales staff a grilling, but until we get more choice too many buyers will prove to be desperate rather than discerning.For that reason, we do need a steer from those who know things could be better. In the preface, Wayne Hemingway, the designer and chairman of Building for Life, sums up what he would want in a new home – a streetscape that invites conversation with neighbours; a communal area to kick about with kids or mates; and a home that is much more than an identikit rabbit hutch and flexible interior layouts.It was the dire absence of just about all of Hemingway’s criteria in many new-build developments that led him into the housing arena in the first place. He believes many people do care about more than what is being offered as interior fittings in any new property – they want, for example, to be able to step outside to talk to other people, or to have their outside space not cluttered with cars. Although deceptively simple in its format, it covers a lot of ground and suggests all the probing questions we should ask and yet seldom do.

Those unfortunate people who recently bought a new house with a garage, only to find it too small to take their average-sized car, could have done with knowing that sometimes showhomes have non-standard furniture – and that means smaller, not larger, so that everything looks hunky-dory until you try to get a normal-size object into the room.
An invaluable new home buyer’s guide produced by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) explains this, as well as translating property jargon such as “gob-on”, which is not something you do when looking at the price but is a term for decorative features that serve no useful purpose.The guide could not be described as a gob-on, being extremely useful and a long overdue aid for anyone about to go down the new-build road. Standing in its 95-acre park, Sundrum Castle, is ancient but was divided and modernised in the 1990s. The East Wing is grand, with four bedrooms (offers over £575,000) and the one-bedroom Coach House is cosy (offers over £99,000) Nine miles away is Prestwick and flights to London. (FPDSavills, 0141 222 5875).Cathay House, Moray, is super-baronial, built for an engineer who made his fortune in China. Very fine Victorian orangery, eight bedrooms, gate lodge, 6.5 acres Offers over £875,000. (CKD Galbraith, 01463 224 343).Whitehouse Terrace, does not sound much but the price is the highest yet seen in Scotland – offers over £2.6m for the former three-star hotel in the Grange district, about 1.5 miles from Princes Street. Once owned by the Usher brewing dynasty, this family home has eight bedrooms, plus stables annexe and gate lodge (Knight Frank, 0131 225 8171; Rettie & Co, 0131 220 4160)..