A breathtaking four-bedroom house beside Waterlow Park, recently completed to a design by the celebrated architects Eldridge Smerin.
The south and west elevations consist of full-height
glazing that is entirely frameless.This provides spectacular leafy views across Highgate's Victorian cemetery, and reduces the mass of the building, settling it into its
landscape. By contrast, the street façade is a curtain wall of
honed black granite, steel panels and opaque glass, ensuring the utmost privacy. Accommodation measures 4,225 sq ft, and is set over four floors. The four bedrooms all have en-suite bathrooms. The kitchen on the top floor has a retractable rooflight
which, when open, transforms the room into an open-air court. Beside the kitchen is a study area with a bespoke glass desk unit by Santambrogio Milano. There are two terraces, one on the first floor and another on the second floor. A Meridian music system runs throughout, and includes a large pair of speakers in the reception room. There is a home cinema in the basement, a state-of-the-art security system, and a secure garage with parking space for two cars.
The house has
replaced a 1970s structure designed by the architect John Winter, and uses the
same footprint (in an article about Eldridge Smerin's scheme in Architecture Today, Wintercalled it “as near to a faultless building as I have seen in a long time.”) Internally, the fair-faced concrete frame has been left exposed
on ceilings, walls and columns. The texture of the timber shuttering has been
impressed into the concrete, reminiscent of the National Theatre. Aside from the aesthetic benefits, concrete was also chosen for its
heat-response characteristics. Eldridge Smerin’s intention was to design a
building with significantly lower energy consumption than the original but with
a greater floor area. A sedum roof and stone cladding help to restrict
temperature fluctuations, and the preponderance of glass limits the need for
artificial lighting. Open-tread
cantilevered stairs visually complement the horizontality of the board markings
in the concrete. This stairway is separated from the living spaces and bedrooms
by full-height frameless doors made from bog-aged oak.
The house is located towards the top of Swains Lane, directly opposite Waterlow Park. Further open space can be found at Hampstead Heath. The shops and restaurants of Highgate Village are a very short walk away. Swains Lane itself has a supermarket, deli and some good cafés.
Eldridge Smerin is one of Britain's foremost architecture practices. Its first project, a private house called The Lawns, was nominated for the Stirling Prize. This house on Swains Lane has been featured in a variety of magazines, including Architecture Today and The World of Interiors, and was the recipient of an RIBA award in 2009.
