The Kingsway
A duplex inside a Grade II
listed school conversion
The Kingsway is a converted boarding school in London, listed Grade II, and this apartment sits across two levels within it. The building gives the flat its character and most of its problems at once: generous volumes and original fabric, alongside an industrial hardness the conversion never quite resolved.
Before we started, the apartment was dark and fragmented. Little natural light reached the mezzanine or the central hallway, the layout worked against the way the clients wanted to live, and the decor had tired.
Open it up, and make
the bedroom private
The clients wanted a cohesive open-plan living space with a more practical kitchen and a dining area worth sitting in, plus built-in storage generous enough to keep the rooms calm. They also wanted the heritage features to be the thing you notice.
Pulling against that was the mezzanine master bedroom, which needed privacy and daylight, neither of which an open plan gives you for free. Open the apartment up and the bedroom becomes a gallery overlooking the living room. Close it off and the light stops at the wall. That tension is the whole project.
Proper rooms, without
losing the openness
The answer was to define rooms with things that let light through, rather than with walls.
- Glass partitions and sliding doors filter daylight into the mezzanine and the central hallway, the two areas that were darkest, without closing them off from the rest of the apartment.
- Discreet pocket doors keep the rooms open to each other day to day, and give the master bedroom real privacy when it is needed. Openness and definition, chosen moment by moment rather than fixed in plaster.
- The steel balustrade was replaced. It belonged to a commercial building rather than a home, and it was the single element doing most to make the flat feel like a converted institution.
- A Japandi palette of natural timber, earthy tones and textured finishes softens what remains of the industrial fabric. Warm oak flooring, clean cabinetry lines and bespoke joinery, all pared back so the heritage detail reads first.
Listed buildings limit what you can change, so the gains have to come from what you add rather than what you remove. Almost every decision here was about moving light around a plan whose walls were largely fixed.
Where things came from
We name suppliers on every project, so you can price the scheme yourself, or buy it yourself if you would rather.
How this project ran
This project used our Architectural Technical drawing service plus a mixture of our room makeover packages. If you are looking at a property with the same problem, a listed building, an awkward mezzanine, or a plan you cannot alter much, the place to start is a call. Fifteen minutes, free, and if you need an architect before you need us we will say so.
More completed homes on the projects page, and how design work is scoped on the design overview.
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