Prudence Ivey’s curated Open House Festival collection.
For the Open House Festival this year we have invited six different individuals and collectives to curate strands of the festival programme. These collections and event are their chance to share with others the buildings, places and themes they see as worthy of celebration and exploration.
Prudence Ivey is the editor of the Evening Standard's weekley Homes & Property supplement.
Having spent a decade snooping around London homes, she has curated a selection of dwellings chosen to illustrate the huge variety of ways people live in the capital, from a super-luxe new build penthouse, to a hand-painted housing association flat, and a big-budget architect-led renovation to a DIY ex-local authority refit.
Chances are you have seen the impressive red brick walkway flanked by curved, stepped, concrete flats in the backdrop of a film or one of the many music videos filmed on this estate, designed by the beloved Neave Brown for Camden Council and completed in 1979. It is often used to signify urban menace but I urge you to visit to see for yourself the beautifully designed flats, each with its own private outdoor space and the strong sense of community between residents. Yes, I’m biased – I used to live here – but I think it is a fantastic example of how to build high density, spacious and green public housing without going high rise.
2. One Park Drive penthouse
Luxury penthouse apartment. Three of the stalest words in the property journalist’s lexicon, so often used, so little meaning. This Canary Wharf flat at the top of Herzog and de Meuron’s first residential building in the UK. Views are a given (it’s on the 57th floor) but the double height rooms and tall windows are genuinely impressive. The concrete spiral staircase winding up the centre of the living area had to be poured in situ, there’s multiple outdoor spaces and even an art studio, giving it the feeling of a full house perched on the top of a high rise. Most of us are unlikely to come across this level of genuine luxury in our daily lives so grab this opportunity.
3. Tower Bridge Moorings
Architect Nick Lacey bought the ancient moorings in the shadow of Tower Bridge 40 years ago and the handful of boats that initially berthed there has grown to a community of more than 100 people. The moorings have faced various threats over the years, but has ridden them out so far and the indefatigable Lacey has expansion plans at other sites. A lesson in community creation.
4. Kitchen in the Woods
Planning restrictions are the bane of many a home improver’s life, especially in a conservation area, so it’s fascinating to see how Helena Rivera of A Small Studio worked within the guidelines to create an urban oasis family home. There’s now a seamless connection between the kitchen and garden, a envy-inducing window seat and dual aspect kitchen window wall connecting the house with the mature garden outside.
5. Beyond Beck Road
This Hackney street is a monument to London’s parallel gods of artistic endeavour and house prices. In the 70s it was a semi-derelict row of Victorian houses scheduled for demolition and squatted by a creative community that included artists Helen Chadwick and Richard Deacon, gallerist Maureen Paley and musician Genesis P-Orridge. While no longer a cooperative, the street will become an exhibition space for Open House, showing community art in one of London’s most rapidly gentrified neighbourhoods.
6. Jermaine Gallacher flat
Erstwhile Homes & Property interiors columnist Jermaine Gallacher is a true London original and his basement Peabody flat is a showcase for his DIY, art school-influenced approach to interior design. Punk spirit reigns – get the rudiments and get on with it – making this one of the hottest destinations for edgy design inspo. You probably have to be born with Gallacher’s knack for spotting boot sale gems that pass as high objets d’art, but we can all try to imitate it.
7. Douglas Fir House
Architect Christian Brailey added almost a third to the size of what was a decrepit studio in Muswell Hill, taking it from a poky 463sq ft to a 700sq ft one-bed and, even better, the extension was built off-site and delivered by crane. Extra ceiling height was found by digging the extension a metre down into the ground, while strong Douglas Fir was chosen to support the 11-ft tall doors and big windows in the design.
8. Gap House
London loves a skinny house – land prices certainly call for ingenuity with a small footprint, and this four-bedroom house is a remarkable case in point. It is just eight-foot wide to the street, which is narrower than a double-decker bus, but architect Pitman Tozer managed to squeeze a lot (185 metres squared to be precise) in to the former alley between two period villas. There’s even storage! Must be seen to be believed.
9. 1 Halsbury Close
Built in 1938-39 by Rudolf Frankel for his sister and family, this house is a landmark of early British modernist architecture effected by émigré architects, a contemporary of Ernő Goldfinger’s 2 Willow Road in Hampstead.
Thanks to its National Trust ownership the latter has been heavily visited and photographed. By contrast Halsbury Close remained in the Frankel family until 2019, with its listing describing it as “one of the most elegant and least altered private houses erected before the War”, and this is only the second time it has been listed in Open House.
10. Little Brownings
Dark, cramped, with mouldering walls and no back door. Typical £2,000-a-month rental you think. But no, that’s the Before description of Little Brownings, a 60s terrace in Dulwich. Poster dealer Harriet Williams called in Archmongers LLP to work their magic and created a light, open-plan space with a secret study upstairs. The end result won last year’s Don’t Move, Improve! Award and featured in Homes & Property. Now you can see why for yourself.
Want to find out the opening times of the buildings and places in this collection, and the activities they are hosting? Click here!
