"With deft spatial arrangement, attention to detail and carefully crafted relationship between public and private space, the architects have carved out some beautiful homes."   Camden Design Awards judges.

These new homes on three infill sites in Gospel Oak were delivered under London Borough of Camden’s Community Investment Programme. Located between and adjacent to Victorian housing of Oak Village, the 1950’s Barrington & Lamble Estate and Benson & Forsyth’s Lamble Street maisonettes, the new houses animate and stitch together the public realm.  A recognisable family, all buildings share a palette of materials and details, but in massing and layout each one is precisely tailored to its immediate context.  

Clad in a pale brick with a raking bond to give a flat, directional texture, their external surface mediates between the stock brick of Oak Village and the white render of Benson & Forsyth’s terrace.  Where cut back to shelter a front door or cover a balcony, brickwork wraps under the soffit, and glazed slips provide a flash of colour.  Windows are generously proportioned and detailed to respond to specifics of privacy and aspect.  Internally the homes are efficiently planned around social staircases with large rooflights flooding interiors with natural light.

The project was self-financing with the cost of new homes for social-rent funded by income from those built for private sale. 

“The care and thought that has gone into the design impresses not just visiting critics but tenants and owners too.” Mark Swenarton, RIBA Journal

Client:   London Borough of Camden

Stages: RIBA 1 - 6