The Location, Location, Location presenter may spend much of the year travelling the country, but it is Hampshire that gives him what he calls ‘space, stillness, and the feeling of being rooted.’
When we speak, he is in the middle of a typically hectic filming schedule. One week it’s Croydon and Bromley, the next it’s back to Hampshire, and then on to Cornwall. Yet despite the hectic back and forth, there is a calmness in the way he talks about home. ‘The moment you enter Hampshire, the countryside changes,’ he says. ‘It opens up. It becomes more genuinely rural.’
Phil didn’t always imagine himself settling here. For years, London was his base, a city he loved, lived in, and worked in for a quarter of a century. But the past two years in the capital felt different. ‘I was so ready to leave,’ he admits. ‘I wanted greenery, nature, wildlife, privacy, space.’ He describes the shift not as a dramatic escape but as a natural evolution, the kind that creeps up on you until one day you realise you’re done with traffic, noise, and the relentless closeness of city life.
The move itself was almost accidental. He and his wife began by looking at schools, and once they found the right one, everything else followed. They chose the school first, then the house, then the village. ‘We probably bought the house before we’d really concentrated on what life would be like,’ he says, laughing at the memory. But the gamble paid off. Their home sits on a quiet lane near Lower Froyle, with the perfect balance of seclusion and community. There’s a village pub, a shop, a church, and a train station all within minutes. ‘I don’t think I appreciated it enough at the time,’ he reflects. ‘We have privacy, but we also have neighbours. It’s a lovely balance.’ His wife, he admits, took a little longer to adjust. ‘She wasn’t used to village life,’ he says. ‘She liked having everything on the doorstep.’ But the charm of Hampshire, its slower pace, its friendliness, its sense of space, eventually won her over too. Locals recognise Phil occasionally, especially in the pub, but he insists it’s never intrusive. ‘It’s a lovely community,’ he says simply.
Phil has filmed over 400 episodes of Location, Location, Location (Image: Supplied)
Despite his (now) Hampshire roots, Phil still holidays in Cornwall whenever he can. He has a house there, just 150 yards from the beach, perfect for dog walking and sea air. It was once intended as a future permanent home, but for now it serves as a retreat rather than a base. ‘I think we’ll use it more later in life,’ he says. ‘But at the moment, I’m really busy with work.’ Filming for Location, Location, Location started again this week, and the schedule is as demanding as ever.
Yet even with the pressures of television, Phil has always made time for something that sits at the heart of his values: his work with St Mungo’s. He began supporting the homelessness charity in 1996, long before he became a household name. ‘It was the first organisation I supported on behalf of the business,’ he explains. ‘We were helping people at the top of the housing ladder, and I thought: “Well, perhaps we should put a bit of our fees toward helping people at the bottom”.’
At the time, St Mungo’s was a small organisation helping just 21 people a night. Today, that number is closer to 200. Phil speaks about the issue with a seriousness that cuts through his usual warmth. ‘A roof over your head is the most important thing, where you rest and recover,’ he says. ‘The thought of not having that is terrifying.’ He has seen how quickly homelessness can happen. ‘Three things go wrong in a month, and you can be in real trouble,’ he says. ‘Most people don’t have a couple of months’ savings. There’s trauma, mental health, poverty, bad luck. It’s frighteningly easy to slip through the cracks.’
His work with the charity has taken him to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, where he has represented St Mungo’s as a patron. Indeed, earlier in June he was there collecting his MBE. He describes the recognition as ‘very humbling,’ though he speaks about it with the modesty of someone who sees the work as being the most important, not the accolades.
Phil and Kirsty are filming again for a new series of Location, Location, Location (Image: Supplied)
Outside of filming and his long‑standing support for St Mungo’s, Phil spends much of his time outdoors in Hampshire. He mentions walks straight from his front door, but he also loves Selborne, the Hangers Way, St Swithun’s Way and Alice Holt Forest, the latter just 10 minutes from home and a favourite training spot. He keeps fit with endurance training, including long winter runs through the forest. But his true sanctuary is a hill near his house. ‘I go up there on my own,’ he says. ‘No phone, no noise. That’s my reset.’
Filming in Hampshire brings its own pleasure. Knowing the county so well means he feels a responsibility to showcase it properly. The production team works tirelessly behind the scenes, scouring every corner for potential homes. ‘No stone is left unturned,’ he says. ‘If someone is even thinking about selling in the week we’re filming, we’ll find it.’
For those dreaming of a rural life but unable to stretch to Hampshire prices, Phil is pragmatic. The north-east, he says, offers stunning countryside, beautiful villages and far better value for money. With more people working from home, buyers are prioritising space and environment over prestige — a shift he believes is long overdue. ‘People are choosing quality of life,’ he says. ‘And rightly so.’
Closer to home, he describes how he’s recently rediscovered the River Test and so finally he’s picked up his fishing rod. He describes it with genuine awe. ‘People come from all over the world to fish here,’ he says. ‘It’s the most beautiful river in the UK. The water is so clear and pristine — we’re very blessed to have it in the county.’ He talks about a particular hide near Leckford, a thatched structure overlooking the water, where the view is so perfect it feels almost staged. ‘It’s stunning,’ he says. ‘Just a beautiful view of the Test.’
Phil Spencer may spend much of his life travelling the country, but Hampshire is where he feels most himself. It is where he walks, fishes, rests, resets and returns.
A place that, in his words, ‘opens up’, and in doing so, gives him exactly what he needs..
We have privacy, but we also have neighbours. It’s a lovely balance’ says Phil on his Hampshire home near Lower Froyle (Image: Supplied)