Sloane Square- Historic Conversion

Description: This project involved a complete restoration of a Grade II listed property in Sloane Square. The house is situated in a conservation area within the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, London. The layout of the original apartment had to be reconfigured to suit the client requirements. The original decorations and installations had to be replaced as they were lacking sufficient quality to reflect the value of the property. The scheme involved the installation of new sanitaryware, kitchens, and a complete fit-out of new electrical and plumbing services. The project also required approvals from the freeholders and joint leaseholders which involved lengthy and careful negotiation, particularly given the scale of alterations required. The works also required multiple party wall awards with the adjacent six properties. Primarily the requirement was to restore the historic fabric of the building and provide appropriate new elements, such as decorative plasterwork, flooring, wall -coverings and fireplaces. The scheme also required a new replacement staircase. Our proposal for a modern design for this element, which would sit alongside the old elements, was unfortunately rejected by the client. The resultant staircase is neither a genuine, historical version suitable for the age of the property, nor an interesting new element that has any architectural merit in its own right. One key element of the design was the formation of a double height entrance lobby although the new staircase fails to capatalise on the verticality and light qualities within which the stair exists. As with most of our projects, every element of the house has been considered, from the technical issues, to architectonic concerns of proportion and sequence, to the fine detail of plug sockets and plasterwork.

The staircase.

White kitchen with carrara marble tiles.

The original staircase design with vertical timber louvres which would have acted as hanging support struts and given the staircase a sense of drama and verticality and added diffused, linear patterns of natural light projected down into the entrance hall below.