TRAVEL HOUSE

Chiswick, London.

Completed: 2007

This three-up, three-down, workers’ estate house in Chiswick  was completely re-modelled for a repeat-client travel writer as a rental investment.  The rooms were small and natural daylight was poor.  The house faces south but has a long thin plan looking onto a shaded garden to the north.  The sunlight was cut dead by a staircase crossing the plan near the front of the house. 

The remedy was simple, to use the external side passage for a new staircase and wetrooms, bounce south light deep into the plan and prise apart the back of the house with long slits of light revealing the small walled garden.  The ground floor walls were cleared out and a full-width garden-room extension put on the back.  Upstairs the old back room turned into a glass-roofed ensuite bathroom and the bedroom ceilings were taken out to expose the pitched roof and chimney stacks.

Construction cost: £250,000

Contractor: Redfearn

Engineer: INGealtoir