A study in style

Discovering a property in their old university city allowed Suranga and Gemma Chandratillake to craft a beautiful home

- DOMINIC BRADBURY

When Suranga and Gemma Chandratillake were both students at the University of Cambridge, they lived in rented rooms in the Petersfield district – a characterful quarter with rows of Victorian and Edwardian houses within easy reach of the city centre. After relocating to the United States for more than a decade, the couple decided to return to Cambridge and – naturally – settled on Petersfield.

‘We were based in San Francisco and agreed that if we ever moved back to Britain we would want to live in Petersfield,’ says Suranga. ‘We kept an eye out online until eventually we found this place.’