In a room, warmed by the wood burner, the cats doze all evening.

Although I grew up in a council flat it was located in fashionable St Johns Wood near Lords Cricket Ground. My father had an eclectic range of clients and many of them became friends. One of them, Laslo Hoenig, was a Hungarian architect, interior designer and cabinet maker who studied at the Bauhaus in the 1920’s and practised in Berlin until 1933 when he fled to England as Hitler rose to power. He opened a showroom in Mayfair and ran a successful business as an interior designer and bespoke furniture maker. In the 1960’s Laslo turned his design attentions to our small council flat, incorporating these stylish side tables into our living room. There was a matching coffee table that my parents gave away when they moved from their council homevto a private flat in Hendon 20 years ago. I’m so pleased that I brought the tables to The Gables and saved them from being dumped.