Hereford Road House, London W10

This cramped and constrained terraced infill building was previously used as a Thai take-away restaurant, with dubious 'residential' accommodation above. Our brief from developer clients was to provide a high quality house to suit the increasingly popular East Village of Notting Hill.
Very small floor plates meant that the living room spaces could not work well on upper levels, and the basement had no light. The solution was to create a 3 storey light well extending from the basement to the 1st floor, placed immediately behind re-constructed 'shop front' windows.
This brings ample light into open plan living space at the basement and gives a degree of separation from the street for a ground floor work space and 1st floor bedroom overlooking the basement below. Above a second floor further bedroom and bathroom is a full width roof terrace, usable as a fifth floor and outdoor space.
This 'tardis' approach of enlarging to five floors of usable space within an apparently two storey building gives good unusual accommodation, discretely disguised behind its street facade.
Critical to this optimised plan is a new compact stair, using a painted mild steel central spine, and solid walnut treads. The project is highly successful both architecturally and commercially.