4 ABERCORN CLOSE, LONDON NW8 : THE LONG HOUSE
Photographs by Hélène Binet
Keith Williams’ latest London project, a radical new build 706 sqm
house for a private family client in a St Johns Wood conservation area
has been completed.
The house replaces two former dwellings separated by a vacant plot which
together occupied part of a triangular site to the north side of Abercorn
Close. The 49m long low build house comprises living and dining spaces,
a toplit subterranean lap pool, 4 main bedrooms, a guest and maid’s
wing and garaging for 2 cars.
Viewed from Abercorn Close, the new house has been conceived as a “secret
dwelling” , introverted and screened from the outside world. Much
of the new house is single storey. Its flank to the mews is formed by
the rebuilt single storey garden boundary wall of English bond stock brickwork
which pre-existed, surmounted by a clerestorey glazed strip and zinc vault
forming the garden wing. The much smaller upper portions of the house
are formed of simple blank faÁades one in white render and one
in stock brick, which have been deployed along the top of the wall echoing
the volumes of the earlier buildings. To the garden side the elevations
open out toward the gardens spaces in a freer and more transparent way,
beginning to dissolve the relationship between inside and out.
Unsurprisingly, the project has had a protracted planning history with
consent initially recommended by Westminster City Council’s far sighted
planning officers only for the scheme to fail at planning sub-committee
stage in the teeth of vigorous local opposition. A subsequent appeal to
the Secretary of State’s Inspectorate was upheld.
Materials are stock brickwork, render and zinc whilst the third storey
aedicule is in green pre-patinated copper.
4 ABERCORN CLOSE, LONDON NW8 : THE LONG HOUSE
FURTHER INFORMATION
This area of St John’s Wood was largely developed during the 19th
century and although there has been some post-war development and repair
of bomb damaged buildings, this is a mature conservation area and therefore
a new build contemporary house is a very rare event.
The southern side of Abercorn Close is formed by 2 storey 19th century
terraced dwellings having the appearance of a single sided London mews.
These were originally built to service the grand villas on Hamilton Terrace
immediately to the west. The triangular land parcel on which the new house
sits forms the north side of the close, and is in marked contrast to the
rectangular street and plot division which is typical of the neighbourhood.
This triangularity is the result of a “fault line” of land ownership
between two large London estates, namely The Eyre Estate and the Harrow,
which make up the historic land and building ownership of this part of
St. Johns Wood.
The new building in contrast to many large houses in the vicinity which
comprise rooms stacked vertically above one another on 4 or 5 floors,
is low build and has the luxury of large interconnected horizontal spaces
on the main ground level.
The form of the house has been determined by careful integration of the
new masses with the scale and form of the existing adjoining houses, with
the scale dropping from 3 storeys adjacent the houses on Hill Road, to
a single storey for both the garden wing and the connecting element between
the main house, the guest wing and garage block.
Photos from Keith Williams Architects 241106
Long House London - Credits
Client : Private
Architect : Keith Williams Architects
Keith Williams, Richard Brown, David Russell (Project Architect) Sandra
Denicke, Carl Trenfield, James Davies, Dan Lobato
Planning Consultant : Turley Associates
Structural Engineer : Techniker
Quantity Surveyor : Michael F Edwards & Associates
Main Contractor : Durkan Pudelek Limited
Long House:
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