Grand Designs’ most CURSED build returns: Owner who spent £10 million, lost his marriage, and took more than 10 years to finish lighthouse in Cornwall to give an update on notorious project – as Kevin McCloud warns it is a ‘tale of damaging overambition’

• Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud travelled to North Devon to revisit Chesil Cliff House in Croyde 
• Lighthouse was brain child of music exec Edward Short, 52, and wife Hazel, with construction starting in 2011
• The father-of-two put himself into debt to finance the project, which was still unfinished as of 2019 
• The build also cost him his marriage and was branded Grand Designs’ saddest episode ever by viewers 
• In an exclusive clip shared with FEMAIL, presenter Kevin warns it is ‘a tale of how damaging ambition can be’ 

Kevin McCloud revisits one of Grand Designs’ most infamous builds in a special episode airing tonight.

The Channel 4 presenter will travel to North Devon for the show, which will air at 9pm, to revisit the Lighthouse, a £7million build which was the brain child of Edward Short, who appeared on the show in 2019 with his wife Hazel. 

Short, 52, spent a decade building the extraordinary Chesil Cliff House, in Croyde, Devon, with the ambitious project seeing him transform his family’s 1950s home into an art-deco white lighthouse.

It featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs in October 2019, and was described as the ‘saddest episode ever’ by many viewers after the music industry executive revealed that the arrival of the recession, building issues and the end of his marriage to wife Hazel had left his dream in tatters.

Father-of-two Edward remained adamant he would finish the design – yet his dream of an idyllic existence in the stunning cliff-top home in one of Devon’s most picturesque coastal locations was dashed and he admitted earlier last year he would be forced to sell it in the hopes of a £4million profit once it was completed at the end of 2021.

The house was finally put on the market for £10 million in July – despite not having a kitchen, bathroom, flooring or light fixtures – with Edward insisting it had all been worth it.

Meanwhile he has now revealed he has found love again after meeting mother-of-two Jalia Nambasa online, with the couple due to tie-the-knot next summer. 

In a clip shared exclusively with FEMAIL ahead of tonight’s show, Kevin says: ’11 years ago, Edward, Hazel and their daughters began their turbulent adventure on this extraordinary stretch of Devonshire coastline. 

‘In the end, this project was a sad and cautionary tale about ambition and overreaching and trying to do too much and how damaging and corrosive that can be.’

The Channel 4 presenter will travel to North Devon for the show, which will air at 9pm, to revisit the Lighthouse, a £7million build which was the brain child of Edward Short, who appeared on the show in 2019 with his wife Hazel. Pictured after it was finished and put on the market for £10million 

Edward, left, took on the project with his wife Hazel, but the couple eventually split when construction took a toll on their relationship 

In the clip, which was released ahead of tonight’s show, Kevin says: ’11 years ago, Edward, Hazel and their daughters began their turbulent adventure on this extraordinary stretch of Devonshire coastline. 

‘It was to be the great centre piece, the focal point of this locality. However, when I was last here, I left fearful that Ed had wrecked this site for ever,’ he added. 

‘Coming back to the building, that’s produced quite a lot of emotion and I have to say, I think today is going to be a tough one,’ he said. 

Photographs revealing the finished property were unveiled this summer, showing the white art-deco lighthouse perched on the edge of a cliff with an infinity pool running along one edge – just as Edward had always dreamed of. 

When the Grand Designs lighthouse episode aired in 2019, it was unfinished and Edward had put himself in massive debt in order to complete the project, to no avail 

Speaking to The Times in July, he claimed his ex-wife Hazel was ‘blown away’ when she first saw the house, and adding: ‘I think having been unsure for so long, its only when you get to that final moment of builders pulling out — with finishing touches done and furniture in — that it’s, like, ‘Yeah, now I get it.’ ‘

Meanwhile he revealed he and his family watched the episode of Grand Designs together, adding: ‘We laughed and we cried, it was very emotional.’

And despite all the issues and problems that came with the house, Edward said he had learned not to ‘worry’ which he said was just ‘burning energy unnecessarily.’

He added he hadn’t fitted a kitchen, bathrooms, flooring and light fixtures, saying: ‘Whoever buys it will want to do their own thing.’

Last July, property consultancy Knight Frank announced the launch of the sale of the main house and its annex known as The Eye, with a guide price of £10million.

The house is positioned on a three-acre site between surfers’ paradise Saunton Sands backed by the impressive UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Braunton Burrows, and the idyllic cove of Croyde.

It has been anchored into the bed rock of the cliff, painstakingly engineered to a level that leaves no possibility for erosion hazards.

In a clip shared exclusively with Femail ahead of tomorrow’s show, Kevin says he is dreading returning to the build, which was one of Grand Designs’ saddest 

Property consultancy Knight Frank are currently selling the main house and its annex known as The Eye, with a guide price of £10million

The house is now on the market for £10 million – despite not having a kitchen, bathroom, flooring or light fixtures – with Edward insisting it had all been worth it (pictured, a study in the property) 

The ambitious cliff-top property, which has taken Edward ten years and £7 million to complete, has stunning views of the surrounding countryside

The agents described the property as one of the most impressive waterfront homes around and said they expected ‘global interest’ in the sale.

It comprises of five bedrooms and bathrooms, four reception rooms, a sauna and a cellar. The property also includes the three-bedroom studio annex known as The Eye and a double garage.

Edward has previously revealed he has had no option but to sell the home to cover the large amount of money he had to borrow during the project, explaining that total costs were set to reach £6million. 

Speaking last July, he said: ‘These past ten years have been a marathon slog – and I have got used to being a millionaire in debt. I’ve accepted the only way forward is to finish and sell it.

Many of the bedrooms have stunning floor to ceiling windows offering a panoramic view of the sea and cliffside beyond (pictured) 

The property is positioned on a three-acre site between surfers’ paradise Saunton Sands backed by the impressive UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Braunton Burrows, and the idyllic cove of Croyde

‘I had no idea it would end up costing so much but I’ve accepted now that I’m never going to be able to live in it because I have money I need to pay back. It was my overconfidence and arrogance that got me here in the first place so I’m doing what I need to do.

From £6million debt to a wrecked marriage: Timeline of how Chesil Cliff House went from home of dreams to a nightmare 

2010:  Edward and his wife Hazel appear on Grand Designs to reveal their plan to turn their 1950s home into an art-deco white lighthouse in 18 months. Plans for the development were submitted and approved but several delays ensued. 

2012: Spiralling costs and the financial crisis puts the project on hold. 

2014: Building work finally gets underway, but is hit by delays due to the weather and financial woes.

2016: Edward secures a loan for more than £2million from private investors 

2017: Project is halted again after the pair run out of money.  

2018: Couple apologise to local residends who complain the unfinished building is an eyesore

2019:  Edward appears on Grand Designs again, admitting that only a few rooms have been finished and that his marriage to Hazel has collapsed under the strain

2021: Building work started again at the property and Edward said he hopes it will be finished by the end of the year

2022: Property is listed for sale for £10 million. Edward said his family are ‘proud’ of what he has achieved 

‘Even though I’ll be selling it, I’m still finding it so exciting to see this concrete skeleton finally coming together into a beautiful building.’

Edward previously apologised to locals who he said were fed up of seeing the unfinished grey eyesore on the point, but also asked them to ‘stick with it’.

He had told them: ‘I know it’s a mess, and I have to fix that – but when it is finished it will be amazing. Judge it when it’s finished.’

In a 2019 episode of Grand Designs, Edward explained that he’d long dreamed of building a lighthouse on the cliff – but said several factors got in the way.

‘I always looked at it and thought it would be so cool to knock it down and build a lighthouse,’ said Edward, speaking of how he decided to revamp their existing property.

‘Once you get a dream like that in your head it just doesn’t budge. It’s just one of those spots where you could expect to find that type of building.’

The couple planned to build the luxury home, comprised of a huge circular tower and spectacular glass-edge infinity pool, in just 18 months.

The six-bedroom house, which they hoped would also feature a home cinema, a sauna and steam room, would boast panoramic views across Croyde Bay to the north, as well as to Saunton beach and Braunton Burrows to the south.

They hoped it would cost £2.2 million, but it quickly became apparent the build was near-impossible to complete. The house required complex engineering, with the couple sinking 25 ‘anchors’ into the rock in order to support the home.

But by February 2012, the financial crisis meant they had to put plans on hold and they started to build a smaller building further along the coastline which they nicknamed the ‘eye’.

In February 2016, Edwards secured a loan of £2.5million from private investors, which he admitted he was depending on to finish the build.

He told Grand Designs’ host Kevin the project had become a nightmare, saying: ‘Terrifying is an adjective that doesn’t really sum it up if I’m honest.’

When Kevin asked if he could have compromised, Edward said: ‘You are right but the concept is very difficult to walk away from. No to compromise. To owe over £2million now is scary you think ‘Christ this is mounting up’.’ With the financial pressure growing, Hazel said she was becoming increasingly worried.

She said: ‘Worse case scenario is we will have to sell the whole thing. Yes, that’s a scary thing and yes, that keeps me up at night.’

Meanwhile the expansive master bedroom has a view down onto the infinity pool on the ground floor level and the cliffs beyond 

One side of the house features enormous floor to ceiling windows which offer a view out onto the sea and cliff beyond (pictured) 

With debts of over three million, the couple were trapped by the thought that if they were to finish the project, it could end up selling for £7million.

But when Kevin returned to the property in 2019, he found it was still unfinished. The presenter described it as ‘the bare bones of a house and more like a desolate carcass’.

He went on to say: ‘It’s a little bit like finding the wreckage of a building on a seashore’.

Edward said: ‘I’ve had better days I must admit. It all came to a halt in June, July 2017. I ran out of money.’

He revealed: ‘A bit of an eyesore is the feeling at the moment. I sometimes wonder if I might have been too ambitious. There’s what I want, and there’s reality.’

Edward initially appeared on Grand Designs in 2010 with his wife Hazel and their family (pictured) when they described  their ‘dream’ of building their lighthouse home

Many had been concerned Edward, who has been hampered by financial problems during the build, would never finish the project (pictured)

The couple, who lived in a fairly modest house on the clifftop (pictured) before they started the build, explained they wanted a house which would do the site ‘justice’ 

At the time, he told Kevin his marriage had collapsed due to the strain, insisted he would still try to finish the building.

He said: ‘I don’t have the option of not finishing. To finish it may take over £2 million.

‘This is a beast, this is a baby that is so hungry it will eat me. It’s that savage now. The end-game could still be bankruptcy. If there is one huge guilt I have over everything, it’s the impact on my family.’

He said the build had destroyed his marriage, saying: ‘We parted properly last year. I put her through a horrendous time with this, knocking the family home down, putting all our money into it, no one has any idea what the outcome is.

‘It doesn’t get much worse than that. I have to take it on the chin – my ambitioned vanity has probably collapsed the marriage. That’s the truth.’

At the time, viewers were shocked by Edward’s attitude, with one writing: ‘Christ, a perfectly good home demolished, a beautiful cliff destroyed, family life in ruins, and divorce. Has there ever been a more tragic Grand Designs?’

Another added: ‘I never want to wish ill on anyone but I’ve never wanted anyone to fail more than this greedy, entitled family.’ A third said: ‘Honestly this couple on #GrandDesigns go bankrupt I won’t even feel bad for them. This is potentially the most irresponsible and greedy build I’ve ever seen.’

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