Hampstead Beach House

Originally built as a single Victorian house, this four-storey property just south of Hampstead Heath had been converted into a pair of two-storey maisonettes in the 1970s. The conversion left a series of dark, cellular spaces with little sense of the character of the original Victorian rooms or relationship to the garden space at the rear.

The design for the reconfiguration of the ground and first floor accommodation started with the placement of a clear, clutter-free space in the centre of the plan. Like a rug in the middle of a room, around which furniture and activities are organised, this rug – a tiled surface – pulls the inside and outside spaces together.

The property is located within a conservation area in north London. It is a typical example of Victorian terraced housing where the original character of the street frontage is retained whilst the rear of the properties undergo extension, alteration and adaption. Modifications that suit the individual needs and demands of the families that now occupy them.

The development of the property provided only 7m2 of new floor area – infilling the remaining return to the ground floor. But it allowed the rear of the property to be opened up into a practical, full-width space with only a nominal reduction in the size of the garden. The alterations also included a separate study and an additional bedroom to the first floor.

The white-stained, larch cladding wraps around the inside and outside of the tiled floor to form seats, planting beds, storage areas and the kitchen units: similar to the way that furniture is arranged around the perimeter of the rug in a traditional room. The cladding extends to form the rear elevation of the extension and includes openings for shutters with larch-clad shutters.

The reconfigured maisonette created a new kitchen, dining area, space for an armchair and a ply-lined study in the middle of the plan lit from a skylight. The study space can be closed off from the rest of the living areas to provide privacy and solitude or opened up to both the dining and living areas to provide a fluid and inter-connected set of spaces.

Awards
NLA – Don’t Move, Improve!: Runner Up
Camden Business Award: Best Small Development
Camden Design Award: Highly Commended

Publications
‘Beach House-inspired Extension’ – Dezeen – February 2014
‘The Victorian garden maisonette turned modern beach house… in Hampstead’ – ES Homes & Property – January 2014 
Camden Planning Guidance (CPG) Home Improvements’ – Camden Gov – March 2019