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
HEART DRUGS MADE ME LOSE MY EMOTIONS - FOR 12 YEARS
A grandmother has told how she has been unable to feel emotion for the last 12 years thanks to heart drugs she had to take in order to survive .
BOY, 6, ALMOST BLIND AFTER ONE-IN-MILLION ALLERGIC REACTION
A six-year-old boy has been left almost blind after a one-in-a-million allergic reaction to antibiotics .
BASHFUL ORANGUTAN
A young orangutan comes over all shy as she hides her face behind a broken bucket .
UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP
A brave cricket takes his chances as he sits on top of this green papua tree frog .
SHOOTING IN WALSALL, TWO DEAD
Two people have been arrested after a man and woman were shot dead at a house in the Midlands in the early hours of this morning .
WAVE-ING GOODBYE TO RUSH HOUR
HOTSPOT MEDIA - WAVE-ING GOODBYE TO RUSH HOUR: WHILE most workers endure commuting chaos by road or rail everyday, one entrepreneur has come up with a novel way to get to the office - by KAYAK .
NOSEY POLAR BEAR INSPECTS TOURIST'S TRUCK
STANDING on its hind legs, a nosey polar bear presses its paws against the window of a truck and takes a peek at the tourist inside .
SCULPTURES THAT WILL LEAF YOU SPEECHLESS
GIANT garden sculptures don't beat about the bush .
MY MUM DONATED HER KIDNEY TO MY HUBBY – HIS LIFE IS TRANSFORMED
In 2021, Anneka Watkinson, now 37, from Lancashire, met Chris, now 40 .
POLAR BEAR PLAY
WITH SNOW COVERING the ground around them, these two polar bears play fight .
PREGOREXIC MUM GIVES BIRTH TO HEALTHY BABY
A mum who weighed just 8st 1lb at eight months pregnant has battled her eating disorder to give birth to a healthy baby girl .
ENGLISH SEASIDE SPLIT SHOTS
From a floating jelly fish to a relaxed seal, Britain’s unappreciated beach life is captured above and below the water .