16 REFURB & RESTORATION
This was substantially the state of number 11. Number 10 had undergone further Victorian improvements, with the windows on the piano nobile dropped to create balconies, and ornate surrounds to the originally austere windows. Most radical were the changes to number 12, where the top floor had been replaced by a two-storey Victorian extension, in a different brick. In addition, the building had been extended sideways into the mews house tucked in alongside it, giving it a much wider footprint than normal.
Other changes included the loss of the glazing bars, probably in the Victorian period so that all the windows were ‘one over one’ sash windows – that is with one pane at the top and one at the bottom. Feilden + Mawson restored these to the original Georgian six over six on the ground and first floors, three over six on the second floors, and three over three on the third floors. The joiner has produced slender glazing bars, to a Georgian profile. The fanlights over the front doors have also been restored by a specialist metalworker.
The challenge for Feilden + Mawson was to restore as much as possible of the original fabric and maintain the spirit of the building, while turning it into appealing, lettable office space - and, of course, satisfying Westminster council’s conservation officer. Montague explained: ‘You don’t ask Westminster how it should be done. You go to them with a well considered proposal.’
New chequerboard marble floors have been installed in the hallways of numbers 11 and 12
The architect has created new closet extensions at the back of numbers 10 and 11, to accommodate kitchens and service risers. Decking over the rear extension provides an exterior space.
The closet extensions were in poor condition, and the architect proposed demolishing them and replacing them with new brick extensions containing WCs, kitchenettes and, crucially, service risers. ‘They were quite ugly accretions,’ Montague said. ‘We argued to replace them in brick.’ Putting the risers in a separate building overcomes the problem of the first floor. This consists of a grand room at the front, with a smaller ‘suited’ room behind it, reached through double doors. The rest of the space is taken up by the staircase, which in properties of this quality will always be a cantilevered stone staircase. The load path is
transferred from each tread to the one below it, so it is inadvisable to cut into the stair as this could threatening its structural integrity.
So the only way to bring in power and data and refrigerant for the in-room cooling and heating systems is through the closet extensions. The architect built these in new brick, selected to fit with the stock bricks used originally, but different enough to be distinguishable. The windows’ proportions are square, a language that suggests these are back of house, service areas.
In no 12, the most altered of the buildings, the architect has also installed a lift. Because the buildings are listed, many of the normal requirements to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act do not apply, but Feilden + Mawson argued that since it was dealing with such a number of buildings, there would be an argument for putting a lift in the building that was least intact.
As well as the new brickwork, there was a considerable amount of repair to the existing facades. And on number 12, where the rear extension was in very poor condition, the architect has demolished and replaced it, building across the area and opening up the back of the building, creating a relatively high space with a rooflight.
Site plan showing the three townhouses that have been restored, and the mews buildings behind.
Inside, number 10 had a mosaic marble floor in the hallway, which looked to have been installed early in the 20th century. The architect has retained this, but in the other two town houses it has installed new black- and-white chequerboard marble floors modelled on the traditional Georgian pattern.
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