Back in 2018, Howden Road was just another 1930s semi-detached house in South Norwood, extended badly some ten years previously. The owner wanted to create a large flexible open-plan living space, but had no idea what was to come.

After an initial design was seen to have some serious flaws we were asked to intervene...

The property is on a hillside which falls away in both directions. Pairs of semi-detached houses maintain levels. In this instance there was at least 1m clear space under the entire property!

So we dropped almost the entire ground floor into this void, creating a space (with the new panoramic sliding doors, themselves over 3.5m tall) that combined a huge kitchen, dining and living area with tons of storage. The original front room (also dropped by 1m) offered a mezzanine office gallery and home cinema/games room below.

The project also divided the old large bathroom to create a compact family bathroom and en-suite shower to the master bedroom in the same space, and a new attic extension with a further two bedrooms and shower/WC room completed the extended living space.