This incredible Grade-II listed Georgian house was built circa 1840 and sits on a handsome terrace, a short walk from Peckham's popular Bellenden Road. The house was restored and extended by TLA Studio, celebrating the original proportions and features while updating it with a two-storey extension and two conservatory rooms. It opens onto a large garden, approximately 120 feet long, designed by Rebecca Heard of Fineline Garden Design, who has created an evergreen spectacle. A large studio with unusually high ceilings, cleverly disguised by the profuse planting, is perfect for working from home.

Setting the Scene

The house is one of a short terrace of five houses built in the mid-19th century. Constructed from brick in Flemish bond with stucco dressings and facing at basement level, the front door is reached up a flight of stairs and is set within a porch with a flush stone surround.

The owners worked in collaboration with TLA Studio when conceiving the design. As part of the work, they built a double-height addition and sculptural glazed extensions to the rear, making space for a dining room with an adjacent studio/workspace and an additional studio in the garden. Bespoke joinery in the house includes mouldings around the doors, bookcases, skirting boards, cupboards, kitchen units and storage units.

The owners, one of whom is an artist and maker, carefully chose the stone that features throughout the house, from the black granite and Welsh Slate worktops in the kitchen, to the York stone front steps and kitchen floor.

The Grand Tour

There are two front entrances into the house. The current owners use the lower-ground entrance as their main door, which is found at the bottom of a set of steps across a small front garden. The door opens into a coat room and a useful pantry.

Adjacent is the kitchen; here, York Stone tiles line the floor, and purple painted cabinetry is set against Welsh slate worktops, which line three sides of the room. The slate is ideally placed to be written on in white chinagraph pencil, which then wipes off again with a damp cloth, great for family messages or bored children.

Two tall floor-to-ceiling openings lead from the kitchen into the living room and dining area beyond. These openings create sightlines through to the garden, allowing light to flow from front to back. In the living room, a fireplace is flanked by two fitted, bespoke bookshelves and cupboards.

The dining room sits in the extension, with sliding doors that open up completely. A glazed door opens into a double-height studio, with a useful sink and workbench in the next-door conservatory. There is also a guest WC on this floor.

Ascending upstairs to the upper-ground floor, past a small utility and a wall of 'invisible' storage cupboards, is a lovely open-plan living room and spectacular library. At one stage, this would have been two rooms, but now it is a dual-aspect room, bathed in light (and bookshelves!). Here, there are many original features, from the tall sash windows and their shutters to the two marble fireplaces on each side of the room. Bespoke bookshelves line the walls with skirting boards running around their bases and crowned by cornicing.

In the front entrance hall, a raised window gives a tantalising glimpse of the garden beyond the extension. Above, there is also a generous shower room clad in small yellow tiles.

The first floor is home to two bedrooms, one currently being used as a sitting room. Three large sash windows overlook Lyndhurst Way, and a further marble fireplace provides a focal point. The walls have been painted a bold Farrow & Ball, 'Blazer red'.

The principal suite is on the top floor; the bedroom enjoys the same trio of windows as the floor below, wooden floors, and blue walls. Adjacent is a lovely bathroom, painted an atmospheric and calming polished purple. A freestanding bath sits in the centre, positioned to face the window with views of the sky.

A large studio sits in the centre of the garden. With a pitched roof, the main studio space has incredible proportions and is well-lit through the wall of glazing that opens onto the garden. There is a kitchenette in the centre of the plan, while behind is a smaller office space which has been plumbed for a WC and sink. Poured concrete floors are found underfoot. The garden studio also has an entryphone which allows communication between the garden studio and the main front door on Lyndhurst Way. The front door can be opened from the studio to enable expected visitors to enter the house and through the garden. This is great for uninterrupted work - as the current owner knows, as she used this space when she was a letter-cutter in stone, running her studio from home.

The Great Outdoors

The garden was designed by Fineline Garden Design in collaboration with the current owner, who specified that she would like to create a 'Victorian collector's garden of ferns'. Fifteen years of careful planting have made it into an incredible, tranquil space packed full of evergreens, such as banana trees, Indian bean trees, Rhododendron, an Acer Japanese maple tree and a magnolia tree, amongst many more. There is a calming pond, and the garden culminates with a patio area, perfect for entertaining and barbequing.

Out and About

The house is perfectly positioned for the popular shops, cafes and restaurants of Bellenden Road, including the General Store, Flock & Herd Butcher, Review Bookshop, Italian restaurant Artusi, and South Indian restaurant Ganapati. In Peckham, Rye Lane has a vast number of independent retailers, longstanding shops and newer arrivals. Local favourites include The White Horse pub, The Montpelier, Persepolis, Peckhamplex, Copeland Park & Bussey Building, Frame Architect’s, Market Peckham, and Nola Coffee. The Bussey Building and Peckham Levels, off Rye Lane, host an active and varied programme of yoga and dance classes, workshops, street food and pop-up bars.

Dulwich and the ever-popular Lordship lane are a 15-minute walk with many delis, restaurants, shops, and a Picturehouse Cinema.

The green spaces of Peckham Rye, Telegraph Hill and Goose Green are very convenient for children and dog walkers. While Nunhead Cemetery, a 30-minute walk away, is a beautiful woodland oasis with fantastic views across the city skyline.

Peckham Rye is the nearest station, just a two-minute walk away, running London Overground services to Shoreditch High Street and Dalston Junction in one direction and Clapham Junction in the other. Connections to the Jubilee Line can be reached at Canada Water (ten minutes) and the Northern Line at Clapham High Street (11 minutes). Southern trains run services to London Bridge with a journey time of around seven minutes. Southeastern Trains runs services to Victoria (16 minutes), and Thameslink services run to Kings Cross St Pancras (20 minutes).

Council Tax Band: G

Floorplans

3 bedroom terraced house for sale