FINSBURY PARK

INFORMATION

This unusual double-fronted Victorian terrace house is situated on a quiet residential road that stretches from the eastern edge of Finsbury Park to The Harringay Warehouse District.

The previous owner was a ceramicist, who had lived in the house for forty-five years before it was purchased by our client. This preserved the original arrangement of rooms; the entrance to the house through a central entrance hall; and a pair of grand reception rooms either side. This lead to a series of small inward facing rooms with no connection to the wide garden to the rear of the property. A corrugated lean-to structure ran along the back of the house containing a pottery studio and kiln, which produced the unique ceramic door handles found throughout the house.

There was a clear opportunity to rationalise the rear portion of the property and continue the scale of the grand pair of front rooms with a large new space connecting to the garden.

The brief was to create a large open plan kitchen and dining area that could be used both as a family room and an entertainment space, with a strong connection to the garden. The ground floor also needed to provide an accessible shower room and a utility space which could be hidden when not required. The first floor garden facing rooms needed to be reorganised to provide a guest bedroom with an ensuite and a separate study.

Following a series of design studies, a proposal emerged for two glazed pavilions that project out from the existing building line: one to the west, containing the dining room, and one to the south, containing the kitchen. The shower room and utility room are positioned at the centre of the plan with the pavilions wrapping around them facing the garden. The plan form of the pavilions overlap to create an open plan layout whilst maintaining two distinct spaces.

On warm days the generous windows open, allowing the pavilions to become open loggias which connect the surrounding paved terraces and areas of planting - blurring the lines of interior and exterior. The dining room pavilion is set apart from the rear facade of the house with a small planted courtyard area, marking the junction between the old and the new.

The proportions of the aluminium columns gives weight and emphasis to the form of the pavilions, whilst the uniform vertical frames of the glazing provide a consistent rhythm to the facades. The whole envelope is painted matt black both internally and externally to compliment the London stock brickwork and as a reference to the surrounding industrial buildings. On the first floor, the existing window openings are reorganised to emphasise the weight of the brickwork over the new extension and the existing windows and timber work has been painted black to tie the whole building together.

The result is a wide, open and sophisticated space which feels immersed in the garden landscape and offers a contemporary counterpoint to the grand rooms of the existing house.