Mount Park House

Mount Park House is a substantial Victorian house in West London with a north facing garden. Like many of these houses it has well proportioned, light and spacious living spaces at the front; but small and dark kitchen spaces at the back.

The client has older sons in higher education and starting careers, so in the evenings the kitchen area tended to be the central hub for the family. However, this significant space was one of the smallest rooms in the house. So our task was to make a new space that could be the focal point for the family, set around cooking and eating.

The project is in two parts - the extension and the garden pavilion, each facing the other across the lawn. The kitchen projects out into the garden, with a Corian worktop used inside and outside. The glass slides seamlessly into the worktop to make it feel like you are cooking in the garden. While, a new garden pavilion has an outdoor kitchen, so that you actually can cook in the garden.

The pavilion has a south facing patio with a timber trellis, allowing you to sit out and comfortably enjoy the sun. The main house faces north, so the focus is on setting up a view to the garden, rather than sitting out here.

Internally, the extension has three key spaces - kitchen, sitting and dining, and all are arranged so that you can socialise between all three. There is a level change of a few steps to take you back up to the older house. This gives a subtle differentiation between old and new - but also allows the spaces deeper in the house have better views out to the garden through the extension.

The garden pavilion is used as an art studio, whilst tucked around the back is all the storage you need to keep a garden maintained. One large roller shutter covering the whole north wall of the pavilion rolls up to give access to a 1m deep shed.