Canning X.

Southwark | London

Hidden within a busy London neighbourhood of Denmark Hill, Canning Cross is nestled in what was once a series of coach houses and stables for the surrounding grander houses of Grove Lane and Camberwell Grove. The building is a detached mews house that was a one room up and down property, later unoccupied and fell into a state of disrepair. It remained the only derelict property on the mews for many years and has a large, protected tree directly adjacent.

 Approval was granted for the creation of a two-storey rear extension with a mansard extension. The new additions have provided much needed further accommodation and transformed what was an uninhabitable dwelling (by today’s standards) to a unique family home.

 The scheme from the exterior is aesthetically modest, in keeping with the surrounding properties creating a sense of belonging in the mews. A carefully considered material and colour palette created a sense of warmth and playfulness that’s not overly apparent, a nod being from the cobalt blue windows and coral door.

The internal spaces are modest in size (due to the tightly constrained site and scale of the original building), through designing spaces that overlap and borrow from each other, the home has a sense of scale and meets the evolving demands of a young family. Central to the newly formed living space on the ground floor is the soft pink folded metal staircase that winds its way up through the floors and creates a connection from top to bottom.

 The challenge was to marry the traditional elements of the existing building with the modern interior aesthetic, facilitating the needs of modern family living. This was achieved through the clean geometric lines of the rear addition kitchen joinery, coupled with natural materials and tonal natural paints present throughout.

Contractor . District Build

Type . Private Client

Status . Completed