Architecture Wednesday: Historic Covent Garden Townhouse

Built around 1700, just 34 years after the Great Fire of London, Number 1 Goodwin’s Court celebrates well over 300 years of existence with the completion of its painstaking ten-year renovation. As part of a row of Grade II Listed buildings this home is a rare survivor of a building type reflecting the conditions of London’s Georgian working-classes; it’s also a piece of London’s rich history as well as more recent fame as the inspiration for Ollivanders Wand Shop in the Harry Potter films.

To start with, slowly and carefully, 325 years of architectural history were peeled back, revealing an astonishing level of originality still intact. Four time-worn stone steps sit just below the exquisite front door.

Once inside the upper ground floor you can walk down a preserved staircase into a beautifully appointed kitchen with cool York stone floors and period fireplace. Hidden away, to preserve that history, are fridge, freezer, microwave and dishwasher while an induction hob sits atop a solid oak countertop. Overhead, exposed, original time aged beams have been exposed and re-installed complete with state-of-the-art fire prevention misting system. The room also has space for a kitchen table and chairs for dining while, a Accessed through a reclaimed door, is a Georgian inspired tiled shower room with antique water closet and wash basin.

Back on the upper ground floor is the reception room and its original intricate bow window from the 1700s; the room is anchored by a central fireplace, flanked with recessed shelving and original Wainscot paneling. As a nod to its history as a former shop, two softly worn patches in the floorboards mark the spot where a shopkeeper stood for generations.

That history extends to the original staircase carrying you up to the first floor; its distempered walls and original plaster work take center stage, its light blue patina resembles an impressionist painting. On the first floor is a double with forward-facing windows overlooking the historic alleyway. Original plaster work sits between the windows and above the wainscot with an authentic fireplace and reclaimed wood paneling elsewhere. Cupboards on either side of the fireplace now house the convenience of an antique water closet to one side and a wash hand to the other.

On the second floor is the second bedroom with softly textured lime rendered walls creating a warmth intensified by the natural light penetrating the room through dual windows; historic details continue with beautifully aged & waxed, reclaimed floorboards and muted hue of the paneled walls and cupboards on either side of a fireplace.

Essentially untouched since 1700, the historic loft space is in a class of its own and a glimpse into the past of its honest construction with 326-year-old pegs and roof tiles remaining intact.

It’s a piece of history brought back to life perfectly.

As always click to emBIGGERate …

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Architecture Wednesday: Tan y Coed

Wisteria trails elegantly over this Welsh stone longhouse, built in 1800,  located in a serene valley in Oswestry, Tan y Coed [‘under the trees’] and surrounded by the bucolic Candy Woods. It was carefully renovated to create a series of bright, open spaces. Outside is a separate one-bedroom guest house as well as a studio space, and a geodesic dome greenhouse.

Tan y Coed is a brilliant example of a Welsh longhouse; traditionally designed to house livestock—either cows or sheep—on the ground floor with living accommodations on the first, these houses are found across Wales and the rest of the country.

Beyond the front gate, a spacious driveway approaches the house where a path leads to the two main points of access: the formal entrance which sits underneath a porch, and a more frequently used side entrance, which leads directly into an open-plan kitchen, dining area, and living area.

The kitchen is composed of white cabinets and wood countertops and white-brick tiled backsplash set against original wooden floors. Beyond the kitchen is the oak, garden room extension, bathed in light throughout the day through the stretches of glazing on three sides and warmed by the underfloor heating beneath the slate floor.

A more formal dining room lies beyond in the original part of the house with parquet floors and a wood-burning stove; from there you enter an expansive sitting room, which also has wooden floors and an original inglenook—a small nook or alcove adjoining a fireplace—that is now home to a wood-burning stove; original exposed beams run the length of the ceiling overhead.

A set of contemporary open-tread stairs leads upstairs to the sleeping quarters; the principal bedroom has a bright en suite bathroom with a shower and access to a generous balcony while three further bedrooms are positioned on this floor, served by a shared bathroom. 

Behind the house, a barn has been converted into a one-bedroom guesthouse, constructed from the same Welsh stone as the house, equipped with a downstairs kitchen downstairs and a raised living space on the first floor. To the other side of the house, near the driveway, is a large new block that houses two open carports, a garage underneath and an open-plan room above, currently used as a gym.

And the gardens that surround the house are planted with thousands of daffodils, wild garlic and raised vegetable beds; a stream meanders from the end of the garden lawn towards the house, which fronts onto a pond where a new terrace raised on stilts sits above the water.

It all seems idyllic and peaceful and worth the £1.1M price tag considering it’s already been sold.

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Architecture Wednesday: The Old Ballroom

Now this is how you do a ballroom, you know …

This home was once a ballroom in a former Edwardian hotel on Loughborough Road in south-west London before being renovated into an expansive three-bedroom, three-bathroom 1880 square foot apartment.

Originally conceived as a grand hotel for the urban expansion of Lambeth, the building is nestled among grand Victorian and Edwardian villas that were built to accommodate merchants and clerks leaving the smog of the city. It was also a salsa club and an acrobat arena before it was converted into apartments in 2008 all while retaining its original decorative scheme and grandeur.

Situated on the first floor—what we call the second floor in America—the apartment has an amplified sense of volume with soaring ceilings and a number of mezzanine levels, as well as a stuccoed dome that provides a focal point; the dome was recently repainted and wired with atmospheric up-lighting.

The open plan kitchen features a charming outdoor terrace paved with chequerboard flags and catches the south-facing sun. It has plenty of room for a table and chairs as well as pots full of herbs and flowers for the horticulturally inclined.

The main reception area opens up to a double-height space finished in a pastel palette while light floods into the space via expansive sash windows, which have recently undergone a full restoration to improve energy efficiency. A working fireplace provides a central point for the sitting room while the main floor includes an office, a full bathroom and adjoining bedroom currently used as a nursery.

Upstairs, on the left mezzanine, is the primary bedroom suite, with intricate decorative period plasterwork stretching out overhead and along the upper part of the walls. The room also has dual-aspect windows looking over the front and side of the street as well as an en suite bathroom with a large tub edged in Moroccan tiles, a vanity and water closet.

On the opposite side of the upper story is a second bedroom suite, with windows to the front, built-in storage space and a separate en suite.

As always, click to emBIGGERate …

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