An ingenious use of space, materials and colour brings a sense of joy to this family home
WORDS REBECCA FOSTER PHOTOGRAPHY FRENCH + TYE
Though not actively looking for a new home, George and Helen Bradley’s interest was piqued when they were told about a property on the market nearby. George, 43, who is an architect, and Helen, 40, who is head of campaign engagement for a charity, lived with their daughter Ilaria, nine, in a two-bedroom mews house in Stoke Newington, north-east London, that they built themselves.
But the potential of the 1980s, ex-local authority terraced property up for sale caught their attention. ‘The house gave us the opportunity to scale up and stay in an area we love,’ George explains. ‘It’s long and narrow with the staircase in the middle of the layout, and the rooms at either end get plenty of daylight.’
The couple brought in a structural engineer to look at their new home, which was in a poor state of repair. The investigation revealed the building is concrete frame with steel beams in the ceiling. ‘None of the walls on the ground floor are loadbearing, so from a structural point of view we were free to rip everything out,’ says George. Unable to afford to tackle all the renovations immediately after buying the house, George and Helen split the work into two stages. While still living in the mews house, they set about replacing the bathroom, installing wet underfloor heating upstairs, and fitting a new gas boiler. ‘The overlap in living arrangements was a lucky part in the chain of events,’ says George.
After the birth of their son Rex, five, in 2018, George and Helen felt ready to tackle the next phase of works the following year. But as leaseholders the couple face constraints over the changes they can make to their home without permission from the freeholder. ‘After buying the house and becoming impatient to go open plan, I knocked through one of the ground-floor walls myself as a temporary measure,’ says George. Seeking permission from Hackney Council before taking down more walls, George drew up the open-plan layout proposal, submitting it along with reports from the builder and structural engineer demonstrating that the improvements wouldn’t damage the integrity of the building. ‘The council’s main concern was that everything would be in accordance with Building Regulations, so we appointed an approved inspector to p
