1840s townhouse, Notting Hill, London

Over the years this 1840s townhouse, which is individually described & pictured in the Survey of London, had been much altered & badly extended with unsymmetrical side wings. Internally none of the original features remained. The restoration sought to restore as many original features as possible and to completely rebuild one wing so as to reinstate the street elevation's symmetrical appearance. The garden elevation was altered considerably to improve the house's relationship with the (for central London) very large private garden which was originally laid out in the 1970s by garden designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd. The design alterations to the building's original fabric are executed in a traditionally correct fashion; they are 'stealth' changes in the manner of the 20th century classical architect Raymond Erith. However the new steel garden extensions & steel colonnade express themselves in a completely contemporary manner. The house is a modern family home and the restoration's mixture of old & new design is intended to express the building's contemporary function as well as being respectful of its history and considerable charm. It is now a harmonious whole that is greater than the sum of its old & new parts.