Alma Road House

The house had been extended twice before we saw it, each time by pushing further south into the garden and further away from the light. The rear rooms were the newest and the worst. The front rooms, which everyone assumed were the problem, turned out to be the only ones worth keeping.

We removed the later additions entirely and rebuilt a single-storey wing along the eastern boundary, leaving the original plan intact. The new work is brick, laid in the same bond as the existing chimney, and it stops one metre short of the boundary so that a row of windows can face north without overlooking anyone.

The garden the previous additions had eaten is now the largest room in the house. From the street nothing has changed, which was the point.