Sarah Beeny – Wikipedia

Posted on by

English broadcaster and entrepreneur

Sarah Lucinda Beeny (born 9 January 1972) is an English broadcaster and entrepreneur, best known for presenting Property Ladder (2001-2009), Britain’s Best Home (2003), Streets Ahead (2005-2006), Property Snakes and Ladders (2009), How to Live Mortgage Free with Sarah Beeny (2017) and Sarah Beeny’s New Life in the Country (2020-2022).

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. Beeny has written regular columns for national newspapers and magazines, in addition to numerous books. She launched her podcast Round the Houses with Sarah Beeny in 2018, featuring a variety of wealthy and famous guests who allow Beeny into their homes and their lives.

Early life and education[edit]

Sarah Lucinda Beeny was born on 9 January 1972 in Reading, Berkshire, to Richard (an architect for Bovis Homes)[4][5] and Ann. Beeny has an elder brother. 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,[6] in a style that Beeny describes as “a bit like The Good Life.”[4]

After her mother died aged 39 of breast cancer when Beeny was 10,[4][7] 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.[8] 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.[8]

Beeny travelled around the world solo at the age of 17 and felt “lonely and seasick” most of the way round.[4][7] 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.[4][7][8] 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.com.[7]

Career[edit]

After meeting the sister-in-law of Sarah Delafield-Cook, a talent hunter at Talkback Thames,[5][9] at a hen party, Beeny was asked to undertake a screen test to front a new television series about property development.[4] The success of Property Ladder led to various spin-off series, including Britain’s Best Home, Streets Ahead and Property Snakes and Ladders.

In 2006, Beeny presented One Year to Pay Off Your Mortgage. She wrote a number of books to accompany the series, as well as a weekly column for the Mail on Sunday.

In 2007, Beeny appeared on the Channel 5 motoring show Fifth Gear, where she raced Jason Plato in an articulated lorry around a course. She has appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s The F-Word, where she offered up her garden for Ramsay’s sheep to feed on.[citation needed]

In August 2010, she fronted the Channel 4 programme Help! My House is Falling Down, which had the working title of House Rescue before its commission.[10]

In November 2010, she presented Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare on Channel 4,[11] showing her renovation of Rise Hall, a Grade II* listed historic house near Rise, East Riding of Yorkshire, to create a wedding venue.[12] Beeny sold Rise Hall in 2019 to a luxury events, weddings and catering business.[13][14]

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.[15]

In 2012, Beeny presented Double Your House for Half the Money, a series that showed viewers how they could potentially have the home they have always dreamed about, even if they could not afford to buy it. This series ran for three seasons.[16]

In 2014, she presented Sarah Beeny’s How to Sell Your Home.[17]How to Live Mortgage Free with Sarah Beeny followed in 2017.[18]

In 2018, Beeny launched her podcast At Home with Sarah Beeny, a series where famous personalities give Beeny access to the inside of their homes and their lives. The series has included guests such as Jo Wood, Tim Lovejoy, Lynn Bowles and Pearl Lowe.[citation needed]

In June 2022, Sarah Beeny’s Little House Big Plans premiered on Channel 4.[19]

Personal life[edit]

Beeny met her husband and business partner, Graham Swift, when she was 18 years old. Her brother is married to Swift’s sister, Caroline.[20] Beeny and Swift have four sons. They previously lived in Streatham. In 2001, the couple bought Rise Hall, in the East Riding of Yorkshire paying £435,000 for the property, and began restoration work on it;[13] 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.

In August 2022, Beeney revealed that she would be receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy for breast cancer; Beeny lost her mother Ann to the same disease at the age of 39 when she was 10 years old.[21] In November 2022, it was announced that Channel 4 had commissioned a documentary to follow Beeny and her family as she undergoes treatment.[22]

Politics and charity[edit]

In 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 the September 2014 referendum on that issue – which it did.[23]

Beeny is a keen supporter of Brain Tumour Research. In March 2017, she said: ” Brain tumours remain a forgotten form of cancer, receiving scant attention from potential funders. More research is needed so fewer lives will be devastated by this dreadful disease. I want my generation to look back in future years and be incredulous that anyone died of cancer. I want to see a day when cancer is no longer life-threatening, when the notion that cancer could be a killer is thought absurd.”[24][25] Beeny is also a supporter of Cardboard Citizens.[citation needed]

  • Property Ladder: How to Make Pounds from Property (Cassell Illustrated, 1 November 2002) ISBN 978-1844030224
  • Property Ladder: Profit from Property (Cassell Illustrated, 15 November 2003) ISBN 978-1844031917
  • Property Ladder: The Developer’s Bible (Cassell Illustrated, 31 October 2004) ISBN 978-1844032792
  • Sarah Beeny’s Price the Job (Collins & Brown, 14 April 2006) ISBN 978-1843403609
  • Property Ladder: Hints and Tips (Cassell Illustrated, 14 September 2006) ISBN 978-1844035182
  • A Date with Sarah Beeny: Mysinglefriend.com’s Guide to Dating and Dumping, Flirting and Flings (Harper, 1 May 2007) ISBN 978-0007250424
  • Property Ladder: Sarah Beeny’s Design for Profit (Cassell Illustrated, 1 June 2009) ISBN 978-1844036455
  • Sarah Beeny’s Green Your Home (Collins & Brown, 1 June 2009) ISBN 978-1843404927
  • Sarah Beeny’s 100 DIY Jobs: The Essentials Made Simple (Quadrille Publishing, 10 April 2014) ISBN 978-1857023350
  • DIY Home Repairs: 100 Fix-It-Yourself Projects (Adams Media Corporation, 2 January 2015) ISBN 978-1440585296

References[edit]

  1. ^ “Sarah Beeny diagnosed with cancer”. 30 August 2022.
  2. ^ “Knowing me, Knowing you: Sarah Beeny and Graham Swift”. The Independent. London. 15 November 2011.
  3. ^ “Four Boys? No Problem, But I Couldn’t Handle Four Girls!”. HuffPost UK (formerly The Huffington Post UK). Bloomsbury, London. 28 February 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e f McLean, Gareth (9 May 2007). “I get a kick from risk”. The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  5. ^ a b “Meet Sarah Beeny”. At Home Magazine. September 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  6. ^ “My country memories”. allaboutyou.com. 7 May 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  7. ^ a b c d “Sarah Beeny: dates and destiny”. Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 9 August 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  8. ^ a b c “My best teacher – Sarah Beeny”. Times Educational Supplement. 7 November 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  9. ^ Morris, Sophie (19 November 2007). “My Life in Media: Sarah Beeny”. The Independent. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  10. ^ “Help! My House is Falling Down”. channel4.com. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  11. ^ “Beeny’s Restoration Nightmare – Episode Guide – All 4”.
  12. ^ “Rise Hall – Beautiful wedding venue in the East Riding of Yorkshire”.
  13. ^ a b Dale, Sharon (2 May 2019). “Sarah Beeny reveals why she is saying “goodbye” to Rise Hall”. The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  14. ^ Dale, Sharon (7 August 2021). “Inside Rise Hall’s amazing transformation after Sarah Beeny sold to new owners”. The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  15. ^ “BBC One – Village SOS”. bbc.co.uk. 26 October 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  16. ^ “Channel 4 orders up more Double Your House for Half the Money”. channel4.com. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  17. ^ “Sarah Beeny’s How to Sell Your Home”. channel4.com. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  18. ^ Sturges, Fiona (29 April 2017). “Trust (fund) me: How To Live Mortgage Free is a dream built on sand”. The Guardian. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  19. ^ “Sarah Beeny’s Little House Big Plans”. channel4.com. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  20. ^ Swann, Yvonne (15 August 2008). “Sarah Beeny’s heaven and hell”. The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  21. ^ “Sarah Beeny reveals breast cancer diagnosis after losing her mother to illness”. metro.co.uk. 29 August 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  22. ^ “Channel 4 commissions Sarah Beeny: Breast Cancer, My Family and Me (w/t) from Outline Wales and Knockers Group”. Channel 4. 2 November 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  23. ^ “Celebrities’ open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories”. The Guardian. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  24. ^ “Our Patrons and Celebrities are helping us to help you”. Brain Tumour Research. March 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  25. ^ Cook, Rebecca (22 March 2021). “Sarah Beeny shares experience of losing mum at a young age as she speaks at Brain Tumour Research event”. Somerset Live. Retrieved 4 November 2022.

External links[edit]