Grand Designs returns to first ever house 25 years later – with emotional update


Kevin McCloud has made an emotional return to Grand Designs' first ever house.

The programme has been going for 25 years, with its first ever episode having aired back in 1999. To mark the end of the 25th series, Kevin journeyed back to the East Sussex coastal town of Newhaven, to meet Tim and Jules.

The pair were paragliding school owners and parents of four daughters between them but were desperate to get their clifftop house up and running in just three months as Jules was pregnant with their child.

However, the build was struck with loads of troubles, including unexpected costing of materials, and the groundworks not going to plan. The erection of their timber frame kit also caused some trouble for them.

The house is now surrounded by a forest!
The house is now surrounded by a forest! -Credit:Channel 4

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Kevin made a last visit to the house back in 1999 when Tiger had arrived, but the house was still barely finished. He headed back to see the house 25 years on to realise some things were very different.

When Kevin made his return to the house this year, he was shocked to find it was almost exactly as it was back then. Whilst there was some big changes to the outside space - with the trees maturing and almost making a forest around the property - the house itself remained very similar, with only a few additions of roof tiles to help fight against the weather.

Elsewhere, Tim and Jules had added on a conservatory, which they used to propagate their plants and as a sun trap during the warmer months. Kevin also met with Tiger, who is now 25-years-old and a paraglider himself.

Tiger is all grown up now!
Tiger is all grown up now! -Credit:Channel 4

In an emotional update, Kevin chatted with Tiger, who revealed he had bought his own piece of land to make his own Grand Designs dream come true and was working as a paragliding teacher, just like his parents.

Asked what's changed the most about the show in 25 years, Kevin recently revealed that there is one major change.

"I think what's happened is - the numbers have changed. The dynamic of the market has changed, partly because of Covid and partly because of Brexit," he explained.

"Projects we get in are often very very slow to get off the ground, much slower than they used to be. Prices have gone up; that doesn't help. The big hurdle - the success of projects now - is how long they take to build. It's tricky for us to follow. There's been a really big sticky patch, coming out of Covid where projects were thin on the ground. But now we've got a backlog of stuff that was going to be three years ago but still isn't finished."