Sarah Beeny

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sarah Lucinda Beeny
Born
Sarah Beeny

(1972-01-09) 9 January 1972 (age 49)
Reading, Berkshire, England
EducationLuckley-Oakfield School
Queen Mary's College
OccupationProperty developer, businesswoman, broadcaster
Spouse(s)
Graham Swift
​
(m. 2003)​
[1]
Children4 [2]
Websitesarahbeeny.com (official website)

Sarah Lucinda Beeny (born 9 January 1972)[citation needed] is an English broadcaster and entrepreneur. She is best known for presenting UK property shows such as Property Ladder, Property Snakes and Ladders, Streets Ahead, Britain's Best Homes, Help! My House is Falling Down, Beeny's Restoration Nightmare, Double Your House for Half the Money, Sarah Beeny's Selling Houses, How to Live Mortgage Free, Renovate Don't Relocate and Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country.

Beeny is a high-profile campaigner for buildings at risk and has personally renovated Rise Hall, a 32-bedroomed Grade II* listed hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire. She also is a keen supporter of Brain Tumour Research, Cardboard Citizens and various cancer charities.

Beeny, who started Property Development and Investment businesses at the age of 19 with her brother, and then-boyfriend and now-husband, was also founder of the online businesses www.mysinglefriend.com and Tepilo.com.

Beeny has written regular columns for national newspapers and magazines, in addition to numerous books.

Beeny launched her podcast Round the Houses with Sarah Beeny in 2018, featuring a host of rich and famous guests who allow Sarah into their homes and their lives. Series one includes Joe Sugg, Julian Clary, June Sarpong, Jo Wood, Lynn Bowles, Pearl Lowe and Tim Lovejoy.

Biography[]

Beeny was born in Reading, Berkshire, to Richard and Ann. Beeny has an elder brother, Diccon. The daughter of an architect for Bovis Homes,[3][4] her mother loved the self-sustained outdoor life. The family lived in two converted brick cottages in a nine-acre plot on the edge of the Duke of Wellington's estate at Stratfield Saye in Hampshire,[5] in a style that Beeny describes as "a bit like The Good Life."[3] The family kept goats, chickens and ducks, while her father made dolls-house furniture to raise extra cash. Beeny has described her family in this period as "...crafty-entrepreneurial but more craft than entrepreneurial."[3]

After her mother died aged 39 of breast cancer when Beeny was 10,[3][6] she was educated as a weekly boarder at the all-girls Luckley-Oakfield School in Wokingham. Although her friends went to university, Beeny did not; she was encouraged to study drama by her English teacher and took a leading role in Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle.[7] Pursuing the idea of becoming a professional actress, she studied drama at Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke, but failed to get into a drama school.[7]

Beeny traveled around the world solo at the age of 17 and felt "lonely and seasick" most of the way round.[3][6] She returned to the UK to take a series of jobs, including: working for Save the Children; window-cleaning; door-to-door vacuum cleaner-selling and running her own sandwich-making business.[3][6][7] Assuming she would be self-employed for the rest of her life, at weekends she would study the property market, which gave her a good grounding in the market. Having saved up a deposit, without any formal training, Beeny began her own property-developing business with her brother and her husband. Beeny is also the co-founder of the UK dating website Mysinglefriend.[6]

Beeny met her husband and business partner, Graham Swift, when she was 18 years old. Her brother is married to Swift's sister, Caroline.[8] Beeny and Swift have four sons. They previously lived in Streatham. They also owned Rise Hall, in the East Riding of Yorkshire; Beeny and Swift sold Rise Hall for £1.4 million in 2019. After selling Rise Hall, Beeny and Swift left London and moved to the Somerset countryside.

Property media[]

After meeting at a hen party the sister-in-law of Sarah Delafield-Cook, a talent hunter at Talkback Thames,[4][9] Beeny was asked to undertake a screen test to front a new programme series about property development, which was to be fronted by a property expert. Taking the advice of her stepmother,[3] the successful format Property Ladder has led to various spin-off series, including Streets Ahead, Britain's Best Homes and Property Snakes and Ladders.

In 2006, Sarah presented another Channel 4 programme, One Year to Pay Off Your Mortgage. She has written a number of books to accompany the series, as well as a weekly column for the Mail on Sunday.

In August 2007, Sarah starred in a promotional trailer for Channel 4 which was made in the form of a parody of a Kung Fu movie. The classic line "You dare to challenge the might of the Beeny", was said by Beeny to the evil nemesis. Later that year, she also appeared on the Channel 5 motoring show Fifth Gear, where she raced Jason Plato in an articulated lorry around a course. Beeny has appeared on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word, where she offered up her garden for Gordon's sheep to feed on.

She regularly appears on television and is a friend of DJ Christian O' Connell. She has also appeared on Bob the Builder alongside Dermot O'Leary, on which she estimated the value of Bob the Builder's house to be "Two Bob".[citation needed]

Since August 2010, she has fronted the Channel 4 programme Help! My House is Falling Down, which had the working title of House Rescue before its commission.

In November 2010, she presented Beeny's Restoration Nightmare on Channel 4,[10] showing her renovation of Rise Hall, a Grade II* listed historic house near Rise, East Riding of Yorkshire, to create a wedding venue.[11]

In August 2011, Beeny began presenting a new series for BBC One titled Village SOS. In this series, the programme follows a group of passionate villagers who want to restore their village to its former glory.[12]

In 2012, Sarah presented Double your House for Half the Money, a series that showed viewers how they can have the home they've always dreamed about, even if you can't afford to buy it. This series ran for 3 seasons.

In 2014, she meets homeowners ditching traditional estate agents as they try to sell their homes online in Sarah Beeny's How to Sell Your Home.

How to Live Mortgage Free with Sarah Beeny in 2017 saw Sarah sharing tricks to avoid mortgage payments altogether.

In UK's Best Place to Live, Sarah travelled the country and analysed all the data to reveal the most desirable locations. Most recently, Beeny presented Renovate Don't Relocate.

In 2018, Beeny launched podcast At Home with Sarah Beeny, a series where rich, famous and fabulous personalities give Sarah Beeny unprecedented access to the inside of their homes, and their lives. The series includes guests Joe Sugg, Julian Clary, Jo Wood, June Sarpong, Tim Lovejoy, Lynn Bowles and Pearl Lowe.

Views[]

In August 2014, Beeny was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[13]

Books[]

  • Sarah Beeny's 100 DIY Jobs: The Essentials Made Simple
  • Property Ladder: How to Make Pounds from Property
  • Property Ladder: Profit from Property
  • Property Ladder: The Developer's Bible
  • Property Ladder: Hints and Tips
  • Sarah Beeny's Price the Job
  • A Date with Sarah Beeny: Mysinglefriend.com's Guide to Dating and Dumping, Flirting and Flings – 2007
  • Property Ladder: Sarah Beeny's Design for Profit

References[]

  1. ^ "Knowing me, Knowing you: Sarah Beeny and Graham Swift". The Independent. London. 15 November 2011.
  2. ^ "Four Boys? No Problem, But I Couldn't Handle Four Girls!,". HuffPost UK (formerly The Huffington Post UK). Bloomsbury, London. 28 February 2013.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g McLean, Gareth (9 May 2007). "I get a kick from risk". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Meet Sarah Beeny". At Home Magazine. September 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  5. ^ "My country memories". allaboutyou.com. 7 May 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Sarah Beeny: dates and destiny". Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 9 August 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c "My best teacher – Sarah Beeny". Times Educational Supplement. 7 November 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  8. ^ Swann, Yvonne (15 August 2008). "Sarah Beeny's heaven and hell". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  9. ^ Morris, Sophie (19 November 2007). "My Life in Media: Sarah Beeny". The Independent. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  10. ^ "Beeny's Restoration Nightmare – Episode Guide – All 4".
  11. ^ "Rise Hall – Beautiful wedding venue in the East Riding of Yorkshire".
  12. ^ "BBC One – Village SOS". Bbc.co.uk. 26 October 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  13. ^ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories | Politics". theguardian.com. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.

External links[]

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