Beechdale House

On this Brixton Edwardian terrace, the rear wing looked onto the blank side wall of the neighbouring property, with a corridor-like sliver of outside space wasted on pulling daylight into the rear reception. The original kitchen sat cut off from the rest of the ground floor, and especially from the two reception rooms that still held most of their period detailing.

Paul Archer Design's remodel, delivered under an existing planning consent, folds that underused external strip back into the plan to create a single large kitchen and dining room. Oversized glazed pivot doors open the new volume to a newly landscaped garden, and a pair of rooflights pushes daylight further into the deeper section of the floor plate.

The rear reception's old external doors have been reused as a circulation threshold, stitching the period rooms to the new addition and changing how the family moves around the ground floor.

Architect: Paul Archer Design (project architect Robert Sterry). Structural engineers: TALL consulting structural engineers. Photography: Will Pryce.