Set on a steep hillside in Highgate, this private home required a complete reimagining: a full retrofit, reorganising, extending, and total refurbishment. Purchased by our client five years ago, the house and its expansive garden held enormous potential yet demanded a radical new approach to space, light, and connection with the landscape.
A Writer’s Tale is a full retrofit of a double-fronted Victorian house situated west of Hackney Marshes in East London.
Our client approached us with a challenge for a plot of land beneath the South Downs: Create a modern home that feels completely natural to this setting. This was initially a feasibility study, a chance to imagine, but the location itself was used to guide the design choices.
Set high in Muswell Hill with views towards the iconic Alexandra Palace, Rosebery Road is a vibrant, colourful reimagining of a four-storey Edwardian home. What was once a series of disconnected rooms is now a generous, seamlessly flowing family home – a house of levels and light, where spaces rise and fall in tune with the site’s natural contours.
The clients — a family of four with two young children — came to us with a clear vision and high expectations. They were demanding, yes, but also respectful of our experience. We listened carefully, as we always do, and in turn they took the time to consider our opinions and advice. The result was a genuine collaboration, one in which ideas were tested, debated, and refined until a shared ambition emerged.
This concept design explores the sensitive renovation and extension of a historic Cotswold stone cottage, reimagining the building for contemporary family life while retaining its intrinsic character and the distinct beauty of the surrounding Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.