Commendation for Best House of Three or More Storeys
NOTTING CHANGED
House 1, 7 Pembridge Villas, Notting Hill, London W11
Pembridge Villas is a conservation area in Notting Hill, so one can imagine the pleasure of the neighbours when they learned that the local eyesore of a redundant petrol station and repair shop was going to be redeveloped by Octagon with their usual up-market houses. There is nothing like having a new Octagon house next door for raising the value of one’s own property, when it is a house with the specification of this one.
This is a four-storey townhouse (in the true sense of the word) with 3,068 sq ft of floorspace, designed to blend in with the neighbouring white stuccoed houses. These are not Georgian or Regency as many suppose, but Victorian, Pembridge Villas having been developed from 1845 by W K Jenkins, a Herefordshire landowner. What is also surprising is that the most famous resident of No 7 from 1852-88 - long before it became a petrol station - was William Frith, the artist whose most famous painting is Derby Day. Blue plaques are never put on petrol stations, which is why Frith’s is on a more modest property at 114 Clifton Hill NW8, where he lived from 1896 until his death in 1909.
He would have loved the new houses at 7 Pembridge Villas, but which one? There are three four-storey traditional townhouses and a larger building on the corner that contains six apartments, but there are also two contemporary townhouses built on land at the back. The house illustrated here is No 1, the show house, which has four bedrooms (three with ensuite bathrooms or shower rooms and the fourth right next to a family bathroom); a magnificent 40-ft long reception room on the first floor (with a drawing room at the front, a study/library area in the middle and a living room at the rear); and a large kitchen/breakfast room and separate dining room on the ground floor. There is also a patio garden and a secure underground parking space. The house was on the market for £2.45 million, including carpets and curtains, but the parking space was another £40,000.
Homebuilder: BERKELEY HOMES (WEST LONDON) LIMITED
Sopwith Way, Queenstown Road, London SW8 4NS
Tel 020 7720 4000
Fax 020 7720 4488
Website: www.berkeleyhomes.co.uk
Contact: Paul Vallone, Divisional Operations Director.
Email: paul.vallone@berkeleygroup.co.uk
Concept and Project Design: CHASSAY + LAST ARCHITECTS
Berkley Works, Berkley Grove, London NW1 8XY
Tel 020 7483 7700
Fax 020 7483 7733
Website: www.chassaylast.co.uk
Contact: Tchaik Chassay, SeniorPartner.
Email: tchaik@chassaylast.co.uk
Design Development: BARTON WILLMORE PARTNERSHIP LONDON LIMITED
6th Floor, Venture House, 27-19 Glasshouse Street, London W1B 5BW
Tel 020 7446 6888
Fax 020 7446 6889
Website: www.bartonwillmore.co.uk
Contact: James Carr, Director.
Email: architects@london.bartonwillmore.co.uk