Pontypool Place

2 Pontypool Place

Pontypool Place is a discrete alleyway tucked away in the web of streets around the Young Vic. No. 2 was a single storey Victorian warehouse taking up the entire north side. It was owned by clients who wanted to relocate and it was offered to us. After a prolonged period of negotiation with planners and rights of light consultants, we were granted consent to build a two storey apartment above the existing building.

With the works now complete, 2PP sits on the same footprint as before, but with services! Many of the materials from the roof demolitions have been reused in the refurbished office: three 3.2m tall sliding timber shutters close off the kitchen area, roof joists are transformed into bookshelves and the old roof boards are used as wall finishes.

1 Pontypool Place

The new apartment above 2PP is accessed via a folded mild steel stair leading up first to a living room and bedrooms on first floor and then up to the kitchen and dining room. This room is glazed on three sides, partly with Profilit glazing and partly with sliding glass panels which open onto a large roof garden. Elsewhere external walls are either brickwork or green zinc.

The finishes to the first floor are wide Dinesen planks and, to the second floor, Staffordshire Blue tiles which carry through to the garden. Joinery to the first floor is Douglas Fir and, to the kitchen cupboards and surfaces, Wenge. The rooms are largely determined by the irregular building plan which hugs the site boundary with windows placed to avoid overlooking neighbours.

• Private Client
• Waterloo, London
• Mixed Use