REAL LIFE VICTORIAN
A woman has taken her house back in time - by spending £10,000 to transform it into her Victorian dream home. Quirky spinster Julia Wood, 42, lives her life like a 19th century lady and can often be seen leaving her terraced house wearing ankle length velvet and carrying a parasol. The self confessed "eccentric" has transformed all five rooms of her property in Leicester with late 19th or early 20th century decor. Her lounge, bathroom, bedroom and kitchen are filled with antique furniture, fireplaces and artefacts and even nude portraits complete with lighting from the period. She has a large mahogany mantle piece in her lounge and sips tea from an 1890s crockery set she says she bought for just £10. Her kitchen, which also acts a sitting room, includes an Edwardian day bed, wood burning stove, antique tub chair, pine table and even a black fridge. The author and writer, who has lived in the home for two years, is an avid Oscar Wilde fan and says she lives her life like a character from one of this plays. She said: "I must have a Victorian or Edwardian aura. I was just born in the wrong era. But Downton Abbey has changed things lately. Sales of long gloves have gone up hugely, I understand. All of a sudden I'm in fashion.
Other great stories
STORM CHASER PHOTOGRAPHS STUNNING EXTREME WEATHER
These photographs of extreme weather capture storms furiously rolling across the sky above America .
BEAR AND FOX IN SHOWDOWN
This is the moment a nimble red fox and a lumbering Alaskan brown bear were locked in a tense stand-off .
DARK DISNEY
THESE are the Disney Princesses you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley .
I GAVE UP MY LADETTE LIFESTYLE – AND LOST OVER 6ST
A reformed boozer, who spent nine months partying in Magaluf, has shed over 6 stone after ditching her ladette lifestyle to become a fitness fanatic .
HORSE BEFRIENDS ADOPTED CAT
Going for long rides through vast fields together, this twosome share an unbreakable bond .
AMAZING AURORA BOREALIS
A GLOWING range of greens and blues sweep across the sky in a spectacular display of light .
GOOGLEMAP WHALESHARKS
DIVING boffins fired harpoons into 30-foot-long whale sharks in a bid to put the sea-beasts on Google Maps .
‘PEG-LEG’ AMPUTEE OVERCOMES BULLIES TO MODEL LINGERIE
An amputee who was cruelly nicknamed 'peg-leg' by school bullies has conquered her insecurities to become a model .
EERIE ABANDONED CHILDREN’S ORPHANAGE
Ornate chandeliers and mahogany panelling give a glimpse into this abandoned building's former glory after it's been left to rot for the past decade .
TOY CAR ADVENTURES
These images of vintage cars, bikes and vans, pictured all over the world, could easily have come from a globetrotting petrol-head’s photo album .
OLD BUS TRANSFORMED INTO AMAZING HOLIDAY LET
FULLY equipped with a kitchen and lounge, it's hard to believe this modern holiday let is actually a BUS .
GIRAFFES DUCK FOR COVER
DIPPING and diving their way through this bumpy journey, these giraffe's duck for cover as they dodge multiple cables and wires .