Carmody Groarke’s South London House

Originally a warehouse, the site now features a spacious new house with the second property, accessed from its own address, containing a large advertising office. Although the house and office are extremely private, there was the nearby Tube line/infrastructure to address as well as liaising with over 40 neighbouring properties. Given this context, the planning process was extensive and consultation with the public started from the moment the idea took hold.

The client’s brief included a substantial ground-floor office space with a private residence above. “From the outset, the design focused on retaining as many of the existing perimeter walls as possible, creating separate entrances for the office and residence,” says Carmody Groarke. “In terms of the briefing for the house, our client wanted ‘a house in the landscape’, incorporating garden elements that would bring a sense of nature to an urban setting, hence there’s a ‘floating’ effect achieved with the elevation of the house".

Set back from the street, access to the house is via a substantial paved driveway with undercroft parking. A set of stairs beyond leads to the front door. And past the threshold, the spaces are indeed generous in scale – with the open plan kitchen and living areas featuring floor-to-ceiling glass, capturing the magical garden setting – which appears as a series of outdoor rooms. And in contrast to the usual arrangement, where the dining area forms part of this space, Carmody Groarke thoughtfully positioned the dining area to one side of the kitchen. To ensure the garden remains the focus, the architects used a restrained palette of materials – a substantial amount of concrete for the in situ walls in bedrooms as well as in living areas, combined with mild steel, perfectly complementing the concrete walls.

Even though the house is close to the centre of London, there’s an uncanny sense of calm from the moment one passes through the motorised front gate. Bamboo on either side of the cobbled driveway creates a Zen-like arrival, with the short climb up the front steps taking one into a different world. Whether it’s the generous dimensions of the living spaces or the extremely wide passage, flooded with light, and which leads to the bedrooms (including the main), it’s an unexpected surprise to find in this tight urban setting. “There’s a sense of another worldly quality to the house, a secret garden hiding in plain sight,” says Carmody Groarke.

Although the house was designed with a minimal aesthetic, it’s now considerably more ‘layered’, with whimsical objects and artefacts displayed on steel shelves against steel walls. The owner also has a sense of humour, with a small crevice in this steel wall, containing the head of a stuffed mouse, wanting to know if anyone is home! Even when one thinks the ‘journey’ through the home is complete, there’s more downstairs, below the house – a grotto-style swimming pool that further leads one into another world.

For this writer, who was fortunate to see some extraordinary projects in London, this was without doubt one of the highlights – a complete surprise with memories that will resonate long after the bags are unpacked!

See more of Carmody Groarke's work on their website and Instagram. Words by Stephen Crafti. Images by Andy Mackie and Ryan Hart.