Home Truths: Tales of the riverbank

Cheryl Markosky meets Peter Karrie, singer and West End musical star

Peter Karrie has starred in West End musicals such as 'Phantom of the Opera', 'Jesus Christ Superstar', 'Les Misérables' and 'Chess'. He lives in a three-bedroom Victorian cottage on the river in Byfleet, Surrey with his wife Jane and their two youngest children

Bridge Cottage is an old tollgate cottage, thought to date back to about 1840. It was very bizarre when we bought it 11 years ago. Originally, it was small with only one bedroom and an outside loo. Gradually, bits have been added and the outbuildings incorporated. Now it sounds very posh when we say we have a place on the River Wey with its own half of an island, but it isn't quite as grand as it sounds.

"Because the house rambles round a bit, it is quite romantic. There is a secret room under the eaves up in the attic behind the library wall and my eldest son has camped there. He likes having somewhere he can sneak off to be with his girlfriend.

"When the outhouses were brought into the scheme, a buttery that looks like an oast house – but with a glass roof – was included. I built a conical dining room on the first floor with a glass roof to match and it is wonderfully light and airy. I designed the whole place and got an architect in to do the hard bits. The planners have been most amenable. We spent a fortune doing it all up, from running oak planking through the whole house to adding on two annexes.

"My favourite space is probably the kitchen with its conical tower and a very unusual breakfast bar with a pole that runs up to the ceiling with lights and plants hanging off. It is quite dramatic and I guess the fact that I work in the theatre has a lot to do with how I see things.

"I like a home to be different and this one has heaps of character and personality. A huge grate in the lounge holds a roaring wood fire that keeps the whole place warm. I am not enamoured of sterile modern houses, as I like there to be a bit of history about. There is a terrific build-up of worn paint on the 200-year-old doors that has become layered year after year and now it is all shiny and smooth.

"If you work from home, you have to be inspired. Millionaires go off to their glass offices, but with music, you can really get blocked and not know which way to turn. You want to be able to sing – and have it all just come out. This place is great for that. I have converted an old mud-and-wattle building down by the river that is part of the property into my recording studio. Stone has replaced the mud and wattle and I have ended up building a miniature replica of the house, using Flemish bond and Welsh slate. I can dive into the recording studio and just get on with it. As well as singing, I play piano and guitar, and the neighbours are far enough away not to be disturbed.

"The river is a big part of living at Bridge Cottage. We have fishing rights and if you dangle a line in the water, you can catch pike, trout and barbour. We have canoes that can take you down the river. A friend got caught in a torrent once and had to get the bus back, as he couldn't paddle upstream.

"I like old, falling apart-type antique furniture, like the Welsh dressers we picked up. I have a huge nine-foot by four-foot walnut table and stiff, high-backed chairs that are very Gothic. I was very pleased when I managed to find a snooker light in the King's Road that now hangs over the table.

"I don't think it is true that women tend to be good at designing interiors and men don't really care. No matter what sex you are, you will vent your creativity somehow. My wife Jane was great at working out the colour schemes after I designed how the house should look. But funnily enough, I love simple, white walls. They sit well next to the wood on the floors, the cast-iron staircase and old features like the doors.

"I was brought up on a farm as a kid, so I suppose I'm really a wannabe hobby farmer. At least you can't get into too much trouble dabbling about at farming, if you don't actually have to earn a living from it. My kids have this fantasy that they want to make dens in the hay and chase animals. They are now boarding at Millfield School in Somerset, so I am trying to get a farm down there with 20 or 30 acres. My 14-year-old daughter has a fleet of horses and her 12-year-old brother is very sporty, so they are really happy with Millfield's equestrian centre and sports facilities. It doesn't matter a damn where I live, so going for land with horses and somewhere for Adam to have a quad bike is OK by me. Besides, Jane has already fallen in love with the welly brigade and the smell of horse poo.

"I was going to rent Bridge Cottage at first, but living somewhere new in the hills in the West Country will be good for me –it might spark off a creative streak. I'm about to do a string of concerts ending up with a tour of Britain and I've spent the last 10 months in pre-production recording a new musical called Ain't Dead Yet, which pretty much sums up how I feel, I guess."

Karrie's musical will be released by the Fog & Gas Co Ltd. Bridge Cottage is on the market at £675,000 through Curchods Estate Agents (01932 350011)