This Grade II listed property in Hampstead was extended and refurbished to create a unique family home.
It is one of a collection of Arts and Crafts houses on a crescent adjacent to Hampstead Heath, built in 1884 and designed by renowned Victorian architect EJ May.
The project included a significant overhaul of the existing house, a new rear extension and a lowered, newly landscaped garden to better connect the interior with its verdant surroundings.
The new rear extension embraces Arts & Crafts principles of simple forms, authentic materials and meticulous craftsmanship. A common material palette of red brick and Buscot limestone ties the new addition to the existing house. The powder-coated steel, triple-glazed Secco doors and roof lantern complete the glazing to the extension.
Piano nobile rooms were refurbished and original cornices restored. New bespoke joinery was designed throughout the house, including smoked oak panelling to several rooms. The kitchen, utility room and master bedroom joinery was supplied by Plain English. The floors still had most of their original timber boards, which featured an early tongue and groove detail. These were carefully removed, refinished and re-laid along with matching infill pieces where necessary.
A master suite was created on the second floor, with the original turret space now providing a light filled dressing room. The ensuite bathroom was finished in bookmatched Arabescato marble with tadelakt to the walls, ceilings and shower enclosure.
The elaborate chimneys at the top of the house were in poor condition, as the mortar had weathered away. These were carefully taken down, stone flaunches rebuilt, then each brick chimney reassembled.
A significant number of floor joists at both second and third floor levels required replacement due to historic modifications that had weakened the floors.
Previously, the raised rear garden was accessible only via steep steps from the ground floor of the house. Lowering it was an extensive, complex excavation as the house is bounded by further listed properties with raised garden levels, requiring careful propping and underpinning of high garden walls.
The lower garden is now connected directly to the kitchen at the rear of the house, and the new levels allow natural light to flood into the kitchen and rear extension.
Team:
Architects: Architecture for London
Project Architects: Sophie Armstrong , Amrit Marway
Photography: Nick Dearden
Materials Used:
Plain English (Kitchen, boot room, master bedroom joinery)
Secco Glazing (OS75 triple glazed system)
Along the Grain (floor restoration)
Farrow & Ball (Paint throughout)
Artisans of Devises (Limestone flooring, lintels, cladding)
Mosaic Factory (Cement tiles)
Delft Tiles (Kitchen splashback)
Sinclair Till
Decor Tadelakt
Barber Wilson (Sanitary ware)
Water Monopoly
Bert & May (Cement tiles)
Mandarin Stone (marble tiles)
Nordic Saunas
Devol (Ironmongery)
Suffolk Latch Company (Ironmongery)
Willow & Stone (Ironmongery)
