In the 1870s, a string of brick homes in London's Primrose Hill were the homes of English artists, one of whom was Victorian painter Frederick Barnard, the illustrator for nine Charles Dickens novels published that decade. Now, some 140 years later, the space has returned to its life as an artist's residence, though with a preternatural perfection and expensive modernism to reflect the city's 2015 real estate market.
For its renovation, local firm Sevil Peach gutted the interiors (including doing away with many of the room divisions that arose when the place became two maisonettes in the '60s), keeping just the oak ceiling beams and a stretch of exposed brick. It's now nigh-entirely object-less, washed in white and peach. The firm also added a courtyard-adjacent bathtub (abutting a glass wall, naturally), a sterile kitchen, and oversized skylights. The midcentury subdividing was "clearly not in the genes of the building," the architects write, adding it "resulted in room layouts with lots of small, awkward and stuffy spaces that concealed the original structure and spatial concept."
· Home of Charles Dickens Illustrator Converted by Sevil Peach into an Artist's Studio [Dezeen]
· All Renovations posts [Curbed National]