Mr & Mrs Jones

In London they ran an elite antiques business. In Mahurangi they commute to work by dinghy. It’s a change that suits a couple with an unerring eye for the decoratively pleasing.

Words: Sue Moody  Photographs: Fiona Innes

French and English antiquities add drama to
the Mahurangi homestead of Bob Gilhooly and
John McClenaghan.

Proud, Passionate (albeit occasionally homesick) Kiwis Bob Gilhooly and John McClenaghan lived and worked at the top end of the social scale during their 18 years in London. Together they owned a smart antiques shop in Pimlico (the eponymous McClenaghan), having learnt the interior design business from scratch, and counted Sting and Madonna among their clients.

When the couple felt it was time to bring their 10-year-old daughter Pippy back to New Zealand, they wanted to make the change in lifestyle count. So now the family is ensconced by the water in rural Mahurangi, running the burgeoning Mrs Jones antiques business in nearby Warkworth. It couldn’t be more different from the pin-striped days in Pimlico, says John, when they rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous – well-known designers and well-heeled customers.

“Coming back and setting up Mrs Jones has been fun. We’ve got antiques, retro and Kiwiana. It’s a mixture of periods, affordable pieces – something for everyone.” Good old egalitarian New Zealand. Bob and John have created a design destination that functions both as a shop and “a very nice social thing”, according to Bob. “We have met really interesting people, including those who are making and showing their jewellery, crafts and art. We deal in what we like. We pick up retro pieces when we travel and we get the Kiwiana where we find it.”

For many years each trip home produced a couple more Maori pieces for their London house. “We were insanely patriotic Kiwis when we were away,” recalls Bob. Now, for the first time, the collection is triumphantly displayed on the mantle in their new (old) home.

On one trip John made a bigger-than-normal purchase: a house. Just a house. No land. “I saw the house and knew this was the one. I fell in love with it.” The object of his desire was a handsome arts-and-crafts home with a patrician pedigree. Built for a Remuera family in 1911, it had spent the last 40 years as a genteel rest home before John’s eagle eye fell on it. The real appeal was that “it hadn’t had about ten owners. It was original and really well looked after.” The architect, though unknown, had done an admirable job. “It reflects money. There are strong architectural features like the newel posts, rimu handrails and kauri floors. It was advanced for its time.”

John, Pippy and Sandy the dog take a ride across
the Mahurangi River in the tinny.

With the house in the bag, John flew back once again to look for some land. (A word of advice: “Best sight your land first,” he says with the benefit of hindsight.) Bob and John settled on half a hectare at Anderson’s Bay on the Mahurangi River. “Land, boat ramp, not too much else … big sunsets, blue sea and sky. The always-changing land gives contrast – you never get bored with it.”

For a year the house was in storage until it was time for the big move north. “It came in ten pieces over ten nights. We were living around the bay in a little rented house and we’d see the lights at night and say to each other ‘another piece is arriving’. We used a field for a year to put bits of house on before we craned it all together. The bits were scattered around like a car accident,” says John.

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