This is the house that Tom built for his own family, with his studio included. It is sited in a narrow mews, backing onto a terrace of Victorian houses.

The mews was laid out in the 1860s, but no coach houses were built. A century later a change in planning law concerning ‘habitable density’ made the sites viable for development as single houses. Several in the street now belong to architects who have distinctively done their own thing.

From THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW – July 1975

After initial planning refusal by the local authority who wanted to enforce a l0ft building line, Kay won an appeal enabling him to build right on to the street. The result is a house that is superbly integrated into its urban surroundings. The site was not a particularly inspiring one and the apparently blank street front suits a working mews and allows the architectural excitement to be generated inside the house.

The house has the potential of a self-contained flat built into it on the ground floor (at present used as an office although fully equipped with services for a flat) and a large studio.

The house proper begins on the first floor and can be reached from an outside or an inside stair. It is at this level that there is a very successful explosion of space. The kitchen with its lower ceiling overlooks a roof terrace at the front of the house, and one passes from the kitchen under a gallery to the main living area on a higher level and beneath the sloping ceiling and glazed top lights. This sense of space in a house on a relatively small site is a great achievement.

The finishes are hard and the whole house has a toughness which is softened by the impeccable detailing in the specially made kitchen fittings and staircase. This house has been designed with an uncompromising logic that is in no way doctrinaire. Every opportunity has been taken to maximize space, light and volume and levels on a small site, and the result is a truly innovative house.

SITE

In common with many inner urban situations, particularly within a narrow mews (site size 18m by 7m), the site posed a problem of privacy and daylight. It was felt that the essential character of the mews was one of walls and compaction, and that the provision of open space at ground level on to the street would be an ineffective use of the land, being both overshadowed and overlooked. The house was therefore sited hard up against the pavement boundary.

BRIEF

This is a family house, with space for a studio and a small self-contained flat within the house that could be used by parents or older children. The concept of alternative self-contained units was an important fixed element at the design stage. The three entrance doors make this possible.

ORGANIZATION

Ground floor: garage, studio, one bedroom and shower.
First floor: two bedrooms, bathroom, living room, kitchen, terrace and dining room.
Second floor: two top-lit galleries and a terrace on the flat roof.
Area Total: 2100 sq ft.
Cost Total: £13,850 (1972).

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER:
Herbert Heller.