Our Essex Mews project took shape upon a former back land site of run-down garages located in a sedate south London suburb about ¼ mile from Crystal Palace. This area was characterised by detached and semi-detached Victorian houses with some low- to medium-rise 1970s apartments and large open green spaces.
We acquired the site at auction in 2005 with planning consent for two rather mundane chalet bungalows. Working closely with architect Matthew Wood we produced a design for three modest, two-storey mews houses that featured the Solidspace DNA with ‘Eat Live Work’ open social spaces and three bedrooms above.
The three Solidspace homes adopt the local vernacular and scale of traditional suburban homes, requested by the conservation area, with London stock bricks, pitched roofs and chimney stacks. The familiar and traditional exterior belies the invention of the split-level interior – a benefit of the Solidspace model that allows it to be ‘wrapped’ and adapt to the context in which it is built.
In this particular project, the first floor landing has been extended to create a workspace looking over a double height void above the generous dining area and kitchen on the lower ground floor.
The entire development demonstrates the gap site possibility of building houses of 119 square metres equating to a density of 42 units per hectare.
Location: Essex Mews, Crystal Palace, London SE19 1BS
Completed: 2009
Site area: 690m2
Gross internal area: 119m2 each
Gross internal volume: 338m3 each
Number of units: 3
Number of levels: 5
Year built: 2012
Architect: MWArchitects
Photos: Ben Blossom, Morley von Sternberg