No. 98 Greencroft Gardens was originally built as a single house in the early 1890’s when the road was extended by TK Wells and James Dixon, continuing a line of residential development in the Southern part of the Maryon Wilson estate. In the 1960’s it was converted into five self-contained flats and had undergone very little change since then.

Crawshaw Architects were asked to amalgamate two of these flats into a single ground-floor apartment, and themselves proposed the recovery of the disused half-height cellar, incorporating it into the ground plan to create a double height reception with a kitchen on a mezzanine level.

The effect is a dramatic transformation of a seemingly irredeemably ill-lit and restricted space into a spacious and well-lit reception. The owners of the house later confided that they had chosen Crawshaw Architects because of their ability to propose exciting ideas.

The floor over the half-height basement was removed and openings created to allow light to penetrate to the centre of the plan. One new window was inserted in the side of the building and a glass wall, with “switchable” glass was installed to bring light in from the rear.

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The decorative scheme was devised in consultation with the client. In order to keep the renovation within budget Crawshaw Architects commissioned the manufacture of aluminium panels directly from a factory and worked closely with Elsmere Projects who carried out the installation.

Design Team: Aidan Crawshaw, Pandora Dourmisi, Rabin Giri
Structural Engineer: Hardman Structural Engineers
Contractor: Renova Ltd, Elsmere Projects
Photography: Ingrid Rasmussen