Front Line House

Location: RAILTON ROAD (once known as The Front Line), HERNE HILL, LONDON, SE24 0LU

Transformation of a dilapidated reconfigured Victorian terrace house to create a spacious, light-filled modern family home, with sculptural free-flowing spaces.

Extensive remodeling the house that had badly constructed extensions and small, dark, compromised rooms, extends and opens-up it up with long views. Comfort and sustainability are improved with new, plumbing, electrics, fixtures, glazing and insulation throughout. Adding a side extension with sky-light, a new back elevation, adjusting floor levels, removing walls, chimney breasts and reorganising all the rooms and circulation, maximises space and volume. 

Steelwork inserted between the floor joists avoid down-stand elements - unifying the space downstairs with horizontal planes and clean sightlines. Strategically locating the kitchen along one wall at the centre allows flexible-use spaces. The front room is partially enclosed and delineated by curves of the wall and step to the main entrance area. Lowering the floor to garden level extends the living-space out through new full height glazed doors. A Cedar rain-screen, conceals drainage, frames views and creates a natural façade to the slate paved garden.

Reconfiguring the stair, landing and doorway to the new generous bathroom upstairs, creates an efficient layout with a separate utility-storage area, whilst allowing two well-proportioned bedrooms to be re-instated. Setting up long views and light through the house is key. The new portrait opaque bathroom window is set on axis with the hall and a front bedroom window. Adjacent - the centrepiece - is a minimal CNC-cut birch-faced ply half-wall that extends through the void, to the stair with integral storage doors under, in a single vertical plane. A coherent material palette and integral lighting throughout enhances the sculptural elements, contributing to the feeling of bright, free-flowing space.

BOROUGH: LAMBETH    

COMPLETED: JUNE 2016

ARCHITECTS: LAURA MARR & RICHARD WHITE

CLIENTS: LAURA MARR & RICHARD WHITE 

CONTRACTORS: 

CROWNDALE BUILDERS (EXTENSION STEEL-WORK); 

SELF-BUILD RICHARD WHITE & LAURA MARR (SHELL)

SW CHELSEA (FIT OUT) 

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: JOHN ROMER ENGINEERING

PARTY WALL SURVEYOR: DAVID BOWDEN

PHOTOGRAPHER: ANTHONY COLEMAN

MODELS IN ‘AFTER’ IMAGES: XYLO & YOXI (LAURA MARR’S NIBLINGS)

‘BEFORE’ IMAGES: LAURA MARR

PLANNING PERMISSION: LONDON BOROUGH OF LAMBETH

APPROVED INSPECTOR: LONDON BOROUGH OF LAMBETH BUILDING CONTROL

STEELWORK: J GOWAR WILLIAM & CO LTD

COMPOSITE WINDOWS: VELFAC

DOUBLE GLAZED BAY WINDOW:

CNC SUPPLIER: CUT & CONSTRUCT

OAK REALWOOD FLOORING, KITCHEN UNITS & GRANITE TOP: HOWDENS

SOLID OAK NOSINGS: HAVWOODS

APPLIANCES: JOHN LEWIS & CURRYS

SINK: FRANKE

IRONMONGRY & ANCILARY PRODUCTS: SCREW FIX

CARPETS IN BEDROOMS: JOHN LEWIS

BESPOKE GLASS SPLASHBACK: DGSPLASHBACK

GREEN-GREY SLATE PAVING: NUSTONE PAVING

GREEN SLATE CHPPINGS: DERBISHIRE AGGREGATES

CANADIAN CEDAR RAINSCREEN: SILVA TIMBER PRODUCTS

BESPOKE PPC COPING: ALUMASC FROM GUTTER CENTRE

LED LIGHTING: LEYTON LIGHTING

BOILER VAILLANT: ECOTEC PLUS 831