Grand Designs UK: Owner of lighthouse build that wrecked his marriage says it was worth it

REVIEW: “It’s all borrowed, and all gambled.” That was Edward Short’s wife Hazel talking during the build that turned out to be the biggest disaster Grand Designs UK has ever seen. Right then, at that moment as the couple eyed each other, you knew the marriage was in trouble.

In this latest episode, presenter Kevin McCloud revisits the build that was designed to mimic a lighthouse on the North Devon coast, and we get an abridged version of the original show.

But it’s all very well for McCloud to say in hindsight: “Of course, lighthouses are there, aren’t they, to warn of impending danger.” Because, as most people will remember, the project did turn out to be a massive fail. Cost overruns in the millions of pounds meant the unfinished house sat like a ruin on the clifftop for years; the marriage was indeed over, and the owner was taken to the brink of bankruptcy.

But what does Edward Short (the man who refused to compromise) have to say about it all now? Staggeringly, he says it was worth it.

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First, a quick update. McCloud visited the site in 2019 to look at the ruin, saying, “It’s a little bit like finding the wreckage of a building washed up on the seashore.” The diagnosis for the build was bleak, and Short (fairly) blamed the collapse of the marriage on his own ambition.

But he did eventually find a backer, finished the build (apart from some interior fit-outs such as the kitchen), and the house has been waiting for a buyer for the past year – it has been listed at £10 million (NZ$20.33m), which includes a second dwelling, The Eye, at the side. Just two weeks ago, the Daily Mail reported that a planned sale has fallen through.

Now, when McCloud meets up with Short, we see his life has turned around. He has a new partner and is planning a wedding, but he will never get to live in the house. His ex-wife also has a new partner.

He had budgeted £1.8m for the build and now says the total cost was somewhere around £5.6m (his debt runs into millions). He communicates with his ex-wife, and says they generally get on better than they did when they were married.

‘Worth it, because it is finished’

Then he says this: “It’s worth it, because it is finished. It would not have been worth it had it not been finished. It would have been very painful.”

His daughters Lauren and Nicole, now in their early 20s, talk to McCloud. Lauren says it was tough when it ceased to be planned as a family house. And Nicole says: “I had my times a few years ago when I was just so over it. I was fed up with people asking questions, especially since I don’t know half of the answers to these questions.

“What happened to my mum and dad, even without the house, probably would have happened anyway. They’re in such a better place now. Just to see him happier – he’s a lot less stressed than he was. Everything has fallen into place.”

McCloud loves the completed “epic Bond villain’s lair”, with its new wing and 18m-long infinity pool on the clifftop, plus the “motorway flyover” driveway. The house looks like it belongs on a Greek island. But the location, right above the stormy sea is amazing, and the walls of glass make the most of this. There’s even a “storm room” at the top of the lighthouse tower, just above the main bedroom. It would be a magnificent place to hunker down during bad weather.

McCloud is even more ridiculously lyrical than usual, saying it all “sings with the romance of Art Deco”. “Where once there was a barnacle of botched ambition, there now stands a defiant monument to perseverance.”

But I doubt I’m alone in thinking the price was way too high.

Grand Designs UK screens on TVNZ 1 at 8.30pm Sundays, and on TVNZ+