Commendation for Best Interior Design
POWER POINT
Penthouse B114, Grosvenor Bridge House, Chelsea Bridge Wharf, Queenstown Road, London SW8
By any standards, Chelsea Bridge Wharf is a remarkable development. On an 8.6-acre (3.5-hectare) brownfield site that had been disused for more than 30 years (apart from being used for temporary parking by lorries and coaches) and had passed through the hands of several property speculators without anything being done to it before it was acquired by the Berkeley Group in 1999.
Extensive remediation works were needed before Berkeley Homes could start the mixed-use development that is now well advanced and will result in a total of 675 apartments (including 169 for key workers), a 249-bedroom hotel, offices, a health and leisure club, two riverside restaurants and a convenience store being completed by 2006.
Three of the five apartment blocks have already been completed and the last two are now under construction, arranged round a landscaped central piazza with water gardens, walkways, weirs, ponds and fountain. There is underground parking for 810 cars below the piazza and the whole development has 24-hour CCTV surveillance and other security systems.
Immediately adjoining the now-derelict Battersea Power Station, the site had been used from the 1850s as a goods yard for the defunct London & Crystal Palace Railway before becoming derelict itself. Now, making the most of its frontage to the Thames and its views over the recently revamped 200-acre Battersea Park, Chelsea Bridge Wharf is already one of the most successful residential developments in London, with prices starting from £320,000 for a one-bedroom apartment and rising to £3 million for this penthouse, B114, the largest of seven penthouses in Grosvenor Bridge House, the second block to be completed following Centurion House.
With 2,650 sq ft of floorspace designed for the maximum architectural effect, and an unforgettable interior design by the in-house team at architects Scott Brownrigg, this is a dream home. Its panoramic views alone would lull most people into a state of reverie. It may only have three bedrooms, but what rooms they are, each having a lavish ensuite bathroom, with the master bedroom also having a large walk-in wardrobe or dressing room.
The galleried family area overlooks a 40-ft-long crescent-shaped living room with windows 17-ft high. The living space is punctuated by a cantilevered glass spiral stair to create distinct areas for sitting, dining and watching TV. The luxurious kitchen also has space for informal dining. With its wraparound terrace, this duplex is a house in the sky. Anyone who tires of this penthouse must be tired of life.
Homebuilder: BERKELEY HOMES (CHELSEA BRIDGE WHARF) LIMITED
Sopwith Way, Queenstown Road, London SW8 4NS
Tel 020 7720 2600
Fax 020 7720 4488
Website: www.berkeleyhomes.co.uk
Contact: Paul Vallone, Divisional Operations Director. Email: paul.vallone@berkeleygroup.co.uk
Architects and Interior Designers: SCOTT BROWNRIGG
Tower House, 10 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA
Tel 020 7240 7766
Fax 020 7240 2454
Website: www.scottbrownrigg.com
Contact: Richard McCarthy, Associate.
Email: r.mccarthy@scottbrownrigg.com