xi 23

London Living

William’s apartment featured amongst illustrious others in London Living, famed interiors photographer Simon Upton’s survey of interesting London houses

One of the first things you see when you walk into this house is a map of London by John Rocque, a French cartographer. The map was made in 1746 when St Paul’s Cathedral was the centre of London and the first terraced blocks were being designed. This house was built in 1720, and the end of the street was the edge of London.

Berkeley Square to the west was under construction, there was Mile End Road to the east and a few areas south of the river where there were bridges or crossings.

There was no suburb.

The whole of this estate is owned by Rugby School in Warwickshire, which was founded in the sixteenth century as the result of a bequest made by Lawrence Sherriff, a Rugby-born London grocer. There is a village atmosphere here, possibly because it attracts a random mix of long-term renting tenants, something of a rarity in England where most people own their homes.

Ben Pentreath and I took on a joint lease for this building, as my home and his office, and the estate gave us money to do it up. It had been an office and was sad: the fireplaces were blocked up, and everything had been finished in the estate’s colour scheme of gloss-green doors, magnolia walls and blue carpet.

It took Ben and me a couple of months to sort it out.

During our second year here, we stripped the stairwell and laid stone flags in the entrance hall, which now look as if they have always been there. I took up the carpets everywhere else and scrubbed four floorboards every morning before going to work. They are unfinished and lovely as a result.

Ben is giving up one of the grand rooms, which he uses for meetings, and I am excited about gaining the extra space. With its panelled walls and beautiful plaster ceiling it will become a reading room, a quiet place for study. Having an extra room will be a nice change and will alter the rhythm of the flat.

When I first moved here, my worldly goods consisted of a chair, a rug, a bed and a chest of drawers, all of which I was able to fit into a small car. I don’t care much about possessions, which is probably why I am not fussed about owning a home. There’s a Chinese proverb, ‘Let your boat of life float lightly in case your possessions sink you’, which I think is very apt. Although now that I have a grand piano and a sofa, I am sunk.

An architect’s role is to problem-solve. I care about creating beautiful spaces that reveal the person who lives in them and that feel spatially right. There is a sensitivity involved in meeting a client’s needs and making sure that they chime with my own – the two must be in harmony or the dynamic doesn’t work.

The psyche of home and our relationship with it is complex. A home should provide shelter and retreat.

I am careful about keeping my mind and my life simple.

I want to be in the moment, enjoying the fall of light on a wall or the blossom changing. I live in a bubble in the centre of London where noise is absent, and I have sacrificed home ownership for quality of life. I couldn’t contemplate having to move out.