Pembridge Place

Context plan

The project called for the full interior architecture and fit-out design of a six-storey 1850s townhouse in the Pembridge Conservation Area in Notting Hill, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

The completed front facade Photo: Kilian O'Sullivan

The completed front façade Photo: Kilian O'Sullivan

While the front facade of the house remained largely intact, after decades of unsympathetic alterations and subdivision, the original interior details had been almost entirely lost. The new interior design reinstates a version of what might have existed, both in terms of detailing and selection of materials, but updated to a new layout to suit modern patterns of living.

Façade retention works in progress

New bay window and linings

Lower ground floor plan

1/6

On the lower ground floor, a nook is created with built-in seating and a picture window providing views the length of the garden. The patterned stone floor continues through a full height opening from the kitchen and family dining area.

Photo: Anna Stathaki

An upper ground floor reception room facing the garden

An upper ground floor reception room Photo: Anna Stathaki

The back of the house was extended at lower and upper ground floor levels, to Pitman Tozer Architects' design, with full height windows facing the garden. Internally the architecture is pared-back to a minimum with simple shadow gaps replacing the ornate cornices or profiled skirtings and architraves used in the historic rooms at the front of the house.

Panelled oak lining between two reception rooms

A new staircase and lift connects all six storeys from basement up to attic. The stair is designed with bronze finish balusters and a profiled oak handrail with integrated lighting. A dumb waiter connects the lower ground floor kitchen to the dining room on the floor above.

A new staircase connects all six storeys

Stainless steel and marble vanity unit Photo: Emily Marshall

The principal bedroom suite occupies the entire first floor. The bathroom is designed in large panels of Cipollino marble, partly inspired by the luxurious bathroom interior of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels by Josef Hofmann.

Cipollino marble ensuite bathroom Photo: Emily Marshall

Palais Stoclet by Josef Hoffmann, 1935

Pembridge Place

Project dates

2018–2020

Use

Residential

Type

Refurbishment

Status

Built

Gross internal area

610 m²

Construction cost

£3,400,000

Client

Bodker & Company

Exterior architects

Pitman Tozer

Structural engineer

Form Structural Design

M&E consultant

EngDesign Ltd.

Quantity surveyor

Brendan Hennessy Associates

Photography

Emily Marshall; Nick Hill Architects

The project called for the full interior architecture and fit-out design of a six-storey 1850s townhouse in the Pembridge Conservation Area in Notting Hill, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

The back of the house is extended at lower and upper ground floor levels, to Pitman Tozer Architects' design, with full height windows facing the garden. Internally the architecture is pared-back to a minimum with simple shadow gaps replacing the ornate cornices or profiled skirtings and architraves used in the historic rooms at the front of the house.

Selected projects

House for Two Artists

Notting Hill Garden House

Blackheath Garden Studio

Sevenoaks Visitors’ Centre

About

Nick Hill Architects is an RIBA chartered architectural practice and design studio based in London founded in 2017.

Through a series of early built projects the practice has established a particular sensibility for the characterful use of materials; how they are combined and the care with which they are detailed – whether objects, room interiors, individual buildings or the public spaces in between.

Our design is led by thinking about how people experience objects, buildings or places. Charles Eames said the role of a designer is like that of a thoughtful host who always anticipates the needs of their guests. We hold this to be true not just for the practical or everyday, but for the poetic, the delightful, or what Louis Kahn called the ‘unmeasurable’.

At a time of climate crisis and rapid demographic change, we find ourselves designing for a future that is increasingly uncertain. In response we are committed to finding ways of making and repairing that are both resilient and adaptable, with an economy of means as a central tenet in all projects, no matter the size or budget.

People

Nick has twenty five years’ experience working in architectural practices in the UK and in Hong Kong.

For more than ten years he was an Associate Director at David Chipperfield’s office in London, leading a series of high profile projects including two acclaimed new public galleries, the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire and Turner Contemporary in Margate, as well as the rebuild and refurbishment of Hotel Café Royal on Regent Street, and the realisation of a masterplan for the Royal Academy of Arts campus on Piccadilly.

From 2017 he worked as a consultant to Witherford Watson Mann Architects, drawing on his experience working with public galleries and historic buildings, he led their major refurbishment of The Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House until its completion in 2021. The project was shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2023.

Nick has been an invited critic and guest lecturer at architecture schools across the UK and in 2013 and 2014 was a guest lecturer at the Graduate School of Design in Harvard. He has served on competition juries and in 2013 was chair of the RIBA Awards jury for the East England region. He is currently an examiner for Part 3 professional studies at the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Team past and present