A take a look at essentially the most memorable builds on Grand Designs – after 25 years

It’s been more than two decades since Grand Designs won over hearts – and induced heartfelt tears – with its ambitious self-building projects.

This month will mark 25 years since presenter Kevin McCloud helmed the design and construction show on Channel 4; taking homeowners under his wing as they forged the houses of their dreams. 

From heroes in the shape of hard-working builders and clever designers to villains like mud, rain and running out of money, the programme has all the ingredients for fantastic television.

So what better time than now to dig into its archive and unearth the good, the bad and the ugly builds – and enjoy some of the most memorable episodes to have aired.

While the programme first captured the nation’s attention in April 1999, its human interest stories and impressive architectural feats have endured its place at the top of people’s watchlists.

Here, FEMAIL looks at some of the most unforgettable moments from Grand Designs in the past 25 years…

Peckham House, London 2005 

Nearly 20 years ago Monty Ravenscroft and his wife Claire constructed their dream home in the bustling area of Peckham, South London. 

The eccentrically futuristic build included savvy features like a retractable roof in the living room, a spa bath in their master suite and circular lights that doubled up as mini shower heads.

The couple ambitiously packed a very posh (and eco-friendly) home into the smallest of urban spaces, but after paying £40,000 for the thin slice of land, they proved triumphant when they unveiled their ultra-modern dwelling to viewers.

Weald of Kent, 2009

Richard, an architect, and Sophie, an investment banker, began working on their modern home at least two years before the build began in 2007. 

Richard stated their dream build in Staplehurst, Kent, would feature a prominent arch, but so odd was the plan that Kevin joked at the time: ‘You want to live under an arch?’

However no one could predict just how magnificent – and costly – the build would come to be.

Its very framework is based on a medieval design, known as timbrel vaulting, which can be seen in the dome-shaped roof.

Not only does the structure do away with the need for materials such as concrete – which are energy intensive to make – it also allows the building to retain heat. 

Although it cost the couple £800,000, the presenter remarked it was ‘one of the most remarkable’ homes he’d seen in 25 years. 

The Rockhouse Retreat, Worcestershire, 2015

It was a stunning 800-year-old British cave house that underwent a tremendous transformation nine years ago, but it’s rarely forgotten.

Former businessman Angelo Mastropietro spent eight months single-handedly remodelling the ancient hobbit hole in the Wyre Forest, Worcestershire, into a 21st century man cave, complete with running water, underfloor heating and even WiFi.

But while Angelo impressed viewers, the same couldn’t be said for planning officials, who advised that building a house in a cave was against the rules. 

Though bereft of his £100,000 renovation budget, his excavated cave is now a romantic abode used for holiday rentals.

Newhaven, East Sussex, 1999 

‘The one that started it all’, Kevin recalled as he has looked back at the very first build to ever feature on Grand Designs in 1999.

On the episode 1, season 1, premiere Tim, a hangliding and paragliding instructor, and Julia, the company’s office manager took on a massive project in Newhaven, East Sussex – all while awaiting the the birth of their baby.

Their dream abode was of a seaside home with panoramic windows, but most shockingly, they intended to build it off the edge of a cliff.

Twenty five years later, the couple have grown their family from the very same property and remarked how ‘lucky’ they’ve been to achieve a home ‘beyond their wildest hopes’.

Medway Barge, Kent, 2007

One of the uglier outcomes on our list is the Medway Eco-Barge, a houseboat in Kent – a project which fell from grace; from a stunning beginning to a deserted end.

The one-time dream home was designed by Chris Miller and his wife Sze Liu Lai in 2007, and seemed like the perfect way to live by the ocean on a budget.

However after spending £80,000 on the 100-foot long boat, the couple don’t now appear to be living on it at all, after the barge was spotted washing up on an Essex beach in 2011.

It is thought that the boat broke free from its mooring overnight.

Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 2022

According to the show’s esteemed host, this build holds the record for the ‘fastest home ever built on Grand Designs’; but its successful renovation within five months shows no sign of a rushed design.

Warehouse operative Rob and his partner Kate, a a paddle sport instructor, won hearts after viewers applauded them for trading a ‘damp and cold’ 1940s prefab for a modern flat-pack home – that looked far more expensive than its modest £350,000 price tag.

The episode saw former farmer Rob and his partner Kate living in a prefab – complete with asbestos walls – that Rob’s grandfather had built on agricultural land in Kent during the forties.

While the exterior is a vision of corroding steel, the interior includes glass repurposed in the couple’s new home, and a hallway and stairs that reflect the colours of their humble former house.

The couple left viewers in tears after sharing how emotional the build had been, but it was clearly worth it.

Kennington Water Tower, London, 2012

Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce appeared on the 100th episode of Grand Designs in 2012 and certainly made their mark.

They reconstructed the nine-storey Victorian water tower in south London into a stunning family home with panoramic views – but it cost them almost a whopping £2 million to do it.  

The couple purchased the building for £380,000 but when they put the building on the market in 2013, they were forced to knock almost £2 million off their original asking price of £4.75million.

As of 2017, the property is not believed to have been sold, with rooms in the build available on Airbnb for £98 a night.

Herefordshire, 2007

Ed and Rowena Waghorn have held the title for the longest ever construction on Grand Designs – after it took them more than 10 years to get their dream home off the ground.

Though the couple from Herefordshire admittedly wanted to build their own home ‘slowly’ and largely with their own bare hands, even they were unprepared for the project’s wide berth.

The road to transforming their eight-acre smallholding to a stunning thatched family home with a ‘cathedral’-style central window was a labour of love and required a modest budget of £100,000.

In the meantime they lived off goats for milk and chickens for eggs while also relying on the surrounding land. 

So what took so long? The property is crafted from individually carved wooden beams, with walls of straw and clay. There are 2,000 cedar shingles alone on the roof, which Ed handcrafted himself. 

The Longhouse, Scotland, 2004

Tony and Jo Moffat’s mission to build their house from scratch in 2003 has become one of the most popular episodes ever featured on Grand Designs. 

The classical musicians spent £380,000 on their loch-side home in the village of Kilcreggan, near Glasgow, overrunning their budget by £150,000.

Using an oak frame, they imitated the look of a Nordic longhouse and set the home in several terrace ‘steps’ so it would look as though it was bursting out of a hill.  

However the three-bedroom house soon ran into difficulties, with time and money spent on the project quickly spiralling out of control.

Despite the setbacks, the couple completed their home and it attracted high praise from Kevin, who listed it in his 20 favourite Grand Designs homes of all time. 

Hellifield Peel Castle, Yorkshire, 2007/2009 

This abode is bursting with rich history, having once been been occupied by the Knights Templar, a rebellious baron hanged by Henry VIII and German prisoners of war.

Hellifield Peel Castle in Skipton, near Yorkshire, began its restoration journey from old ruin back in 2004 and was featured on Grand Designs in 2007 and 2009, along with its owners, the Shaw family.

Although once derelict for 50 years, Hellifield Peel was put on the market for £1.65 million and is now a comfortable seven-bedroom house, with luxurious rooms that are currently used as a bed and breakfast. 

Carey Wood, Kent 2017

Crowned the House of the Year 2017 by Grand Designs, the gigantic home stands at 13 times the size of an average three-bedroom house.

The vast new-build comes complete with its own music hall, multi-storey courtyard and underground tunnels, but while it might have wowed the show’s judges it was condemned as ‘ugly and pretentious’ by some viewers.

Still, it’s been lauded for its ‘multi-generational living’ space thanks to its ability to house 15 members of one extended family.

Brighton Hedgehog Co-op, 1999 

One of the most intriguing episodes by far, back in 1999, Kevin set our gazes on the Brighton Hedgehog Co-op at Hogs Edge, Bevendean, a co-operative of 10 families who banded together to create their own housing project.

Ten households – including single parent homes – worked together to build an entire street using their ‘bare hands’ and about 30 hours of their free time per week.

The homes featured brown timber frames with snug balconies overlooking expansive land and greenery and took two years to build.

After revisiting the area 13 years later, Kevin learned that all ten families were still living contently in the co-op.

The Container House, Derry, Northern Ireland, 2014

Exactly 10 years ago, farmer and architect Patrick Bradley set about an ambitious mission to create a ‘perfect’ home from four shipping containers.

In a bid to attract ‘a gorgeous girl’ and one day a wife, the bachelor, then 34, intended to weld together the four containers to make a giant cross. 

The project expended a total of £133,000, despite his original budget being £100,000. The end result was a house design cantilevered over a stream at a beautiful and secluded spot on the family farm. 

Patrick designed both the interior and exterior of the containers, which were from a shipping container supplier in Belfast Docks. 

North Cotswolds, 2023  

One of the more polarising episodes of the series, Duncan, an environmental consultant from London, and his wife Liz Vernon, a high-powered divorce lawyer whose clients have included Princess Diana, set out on a mission to build an eco-friendly, ‘miniature power station’ home.

The couple built a revolutionary Passivhaus Premium powerhouse, measuring 800 square metres on a plot of land in the Cotswolds. The purpose of the house was to generate enough energy to supply other nearby buildings with electricity too.

The budget for their enormous home, set to include four bedrooms, a library and a wine cellar, was a whopping  £1.2 million and looked to take between 18 months and two years to complete. 

By the end of the episode it was unclear when the build would end, an observation not missed by viewers who criticised the series for the incomplete project. 

Huxom Shard, Exeter, 2021  

‘Vast, magnificent’ and ‘useless’ are just some of the words that came to Kevin’s mind when looking back at enormous homes such as this.

Located near Exeter, the luxury £2.5 million home was the brainchild of property developer and supercar investor Joe and his wife Claire, who began building the futuristic home in 2017.

Painted black, it was covered in £ 500,000 worth of zinc cladding; and used 300 timber beams as well as 46 sheets of bespoke glass – costing £200,000. 

While it may be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, its functional use was questioned when the couple admitted that delivery drivers often struggled to find the front door of the unusual abode. 

The house is gigantic, covering 6,000 sq ft, with five bedroom suites, a gym, cinema room, study, utility room, open plan kitchen and living-space. It is also carbon negative, running on solar panels, with an air-powered heat pump and triple glazing.

West Sussex, 2015 

One of the largest homes ever featured on the show is the dreamy £3.5 million semi mansion – so grand it was later used as the set for a porn movie and several music videos.

The five-bedroom property, which contains a gym, 50 ft pool, five bathrooms, underfloor heating and a sauna, was built by businessman Clinton Dall.

Mr Dall is the managing director of Dall Cleaning Services, which was founded in 1988 and services clients within a 150 mile radius of London. 

Once a farmhouse-style home in 2015, the renovation cost over £1 million after Mr Dall knocked down the nearly 200 ft building to rebuild it again from scratch.

The luxury pad has been used as the set for French-made porn film Lesbian Games for These Three Stewardesses, as well as a Peter Andre music video.

Canary Wharf, London, 2015 

Design engineer Joe Stuart and his girlfriend Lina Nilsson took on the mammoth challenge to create their dream home on a 38sqm plot near Canary Wharf.

Originally a coffin workshop, the small 9.5m x 4m plot cost the couple £73,000, but the snug building offered barely any room to live in.

With a budget of £160,000, the pair got to work taking on the roles of designer, project manager, labourer and client – but they barely scratched the surface. It wasn’t long before they reached out to family for help, with Joe’s parents remortgaging their own home to gift the couple £110,000.

Expenses along the way included upgrading to more energy efficient double-glazed windows, high pressure misting sprinklers and a cutting edge heating and hot water system, taking their renovation budget to £323,000. 

Chesil Cliff House, North Devon, 2019

In 2019, one build saw a lighthouse constructed for £7 million in Croyde, Devon.

Father-of-two Edward Short spent a decade building the extraordinary Chesil Cliff House; a remarkable transformation from his family’s 1950s home into an art-deco white lighthouse.

While the lighthouse showcased futuristic features and a large front pool, many viewers branded it an ‘eyesore’ and a ‘waste of money’ – even the owner’s daughters confessed they were ‘over’ the project.

Edward, a music industry executive, later revealed that the arrival of the recession, building issues and the end of his marriage to wife Hazel had left him on the edge of bankruptcy and his dream home in tatters. 

Windowless House, Billericay, Essex, 2016

The infamous ‘windowless’ house in the woods in Billericay, Essex, became one of the most notable builds of the series.

David and Michelle Parsons said they dreamed of privacy and so created their ideal home by building a woodland hideaway without a single front facing window. 

The couple spent 12 months and £250,000 constructing the build as part of plans for a new life for Michelle after a long battle with cancer. 

The pair looked to build a woodland retreat in their quarter of an acre plot of land that took them three years to find. 

Despite a dangerous gas leak threatening to thwart their plans, their work resulted in the design of a three-bedroom-home, which features several skylights and a wall of glass in the rear of the home.

Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, 2004

Twenty years ago, Greta and David Iredale, now both in their late 80s, were one of the first people in the UK to build a German Huf Haus – a house where all the components are pre-constructed and then put together on site.

Though already pensioners when they embarked upon the ambitious build in Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey, the couple spent two days in a German factory back in 2003 deciding on the specifications for their Huf Haus.

It took just three-and-a-half days to build on the land, and while the construction took place, they lived in the grounds in a caravan while the final touches were put to their home.

Kevin revisited the pair in 2019 where he learned they were just as delighted with their home in 2019 as they were when they first walked through the doors.

Artist Barn, Braintree, Essex, 2011

This medieval barn was once a grade II listed building before appearing on Grand Designs and being renovated into a liveable family home.

Artists Ben Coode-Adams and Freddie Robins built the sprawling timber-framed structure in the countryside in 2011, after selling their home in London to take on the vast project.

The end result was a stunning transformation into a 21st century home which came complete with artist studios. And although they were pleased with the construct, Ben later revealed it to be financially exhausting.

The couple blew through their budget, spending £850,000 transforming the barn that was the size of seven three-bedroom houses.

Holland Park, London, 2012

Once a recording studio to the stars, this intriguing £7.5 million build was converted by Audrey and Jeff Lovelock into a bespoke bunker home.

Up until the early 2000s, the property was known as Lansdowne Studios – one of the most famous recording spaces in London where acts such as Shirley Bassey, Queen, Bryan Ferry and John Lennon laid down tracks. 

Audrey, a spatial and interior designer and her husband Jeff, bought the property from the studio’s owner and engineer Adrian Kerridge in 2006 before transforming it into a modern four-bedroom flat.

The double bedrooms each feature an en-suite bathroom, a luxury wet room, gym, cinema room and wine room as well as two terraces one of which can be used for parking. 

Fossil Shell, Blackdown Hills, Devon, 2017

Nature-loving couple Stephen and Elizabeth Tetlow created this £800,000 home to resemble a fossil shell in 2017. The couple wanted a house which reflected their respective passions – his work as an engineer and Elizabeth’s as a horticulturist 

Inspiration for this build came from a fossilised ammonite shell Stephen spotted on a desk and he drew up the plans himself with the help of a single architect.

The modern interior of the home boasted a curved roof which followed the same pattern of the home’s exterior and had a white and bronze colour scheme which perfectly complimented the house’s wooden paneling.

The home has breathtaking views over the Blackdown Hills where Somerset borders Devon and features several windows around the house for the couple to enjoy natural light throughout the day. 

The Glass House, Brixton, 2013

The Winter Palace in Brixton was designed by architect Carl Turner for himself and his partner Mary Martin in 2013 and the eco-friendly £1.5million house in South London boasts three-storeys and a glacial exterior.

This home’s exterior was achieved through the use of milky glass panels over polished concrete and Mr Turner claimed the insulation is so good it is one of the most energy-efficient homes in the UK.

The home’s modern interior features simple white walls, sliding doors of white birch ply, some coated with a thin layer of steel and is decorated with chic matching furniture.

The minimalist home has a grey and white colour scheme and features a geometric-style stair case and the home has underfloor heating.

Patrick designed both the interior and exterior of the containers and the qualified architect created a home that could work on a dual level, fulfilling his needs as farmer, and also an architect.

Floating House, Mayland, 2021

One ‘floating’ home that featured on Grand Designs and was slammed by viewers as one of the ‘worst’ they’ve ever seen – and in June last year, was reported to up for grabs for £1.95million.

The cantilevered steel-framed four-bedroom house was built on a flood plain on the Essex coast.

It appeared on the Channel 4 show in October 2021, with self-builder Geoff – then 63-years-old – explaining how he planned to spend his retirement completing the property.

The completed project led to the show’s presenter Kevin McCloud saying that the interior – which included a blue carpet and orange sofa combination – wasn’t ‘fashionable’.

The house in the Essex village of Mayland, which is located between Burnham-on-Crouch and Maldon, and is called Seal Point.

It extends across 3,600 square feet, with views across the Blackwater River Estuary.

Self-builder Geoff moved into a caravan for two years while he project managed the construction of the property.

He had to sell his luxury villa in Spain – where he had lived for 20 years – to help finance the £700,000 project.

Viewers were left unimpressed with the result, with the show’s presenter Kevin McCloud even admitting the interior, which included a blue carpet and orange sofa combination, wasn’t ‘fashionable’.

‘Awful house, awful decor. One of the worst houses I’ve ever seen,’ wrote one viewer.