‘Every bit has been handmade by artisans, with materiality being key. It’s why the metalwork has a lyrical quality’

Charles Gledhill

The result is a house that is uncompromising, authentic and beautiful; rooted in the past, pure and austere, even modest in its way. But also startlingly modern, propelling its residents and visitors into the future.

Daisy Garnett

Featured in The World of Interiors May 2025

A gallery-studio known as The Chapel (more in Record) for artist Marianna Kennedy at the rear of her and bookbinder Charles Gledhill’s listed 1727 house in London’s Spitalfields.

A wall of locally reclaimed mediaeval bricks and dressed Portland stone frames a new glazed metal gate leading into the gallery space, a perfect cube, with walls and floor in lime and a roof in two sheets of glass, etched to shield the space from close neighbours. The gallery opens through asymmetric glazed doors on the opposite side to a second cobbled and ivy-walled yard.

The gallery shares the spirit of Marianna’s work, and was commissioned to be of equal quality and intent to the original Huguenot house. The metal gate, rear courtyard doors and details internally were fabricated in Venice by the Zanon brothers Paolo and Francesco, now in their 80s, who produced much of celebrated Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa’s output.

Associate in charge  Liam Andrews

Photography  Ollie Bingham