South Kensington Townhouse

Creating a spacious, light-filled family home on a popular road in Kensington

LA London was appointed to refurbish a large Kensington townhouse thanks to the generous endorsement of interior designers Studio Miaki and property manager Caroline Baker.

Working with the team at super-prime contractors Higginsongrey, we delivered a major internal refurbishment to the five-storey home, stripping out dated features, installing underfloor heating and replacing the roof, which was in poor repair. Once we had finalised our initial design, the client also asked us to accommodate a lift. While this meant making substantial adjustments to the design across all floors at a relatively late stage in the process, we achieved it successfully.

As part of our design, we proposed a new staircase to complement and enhance the interior. The existing staircase had been designed for the building’s original Edwardian occupants, serving the ground and first floors in a grand manner but scaling back out to a modest set of back-of-house stairs, which would have been used by servants, to connect the remaining top two floors.

Our new staircase extended right to the top of the house, with a skylight installed overhead. We demolished a WC at landing level and pulled the stair away from the front façade, meaning light from existing windows now benefits the stairs at multiple levels and the rooflight allows more light to enter from above. This elegant new arrangement is more befitting of a grand Kensington townhouse and floods the whole house with natural daylight.  

Another notable aspect of this project was the close collaboration between team members. We and our partners at Studio Miaki and Higginsongrey worked extremely well together, making every effort to communicate effectively and efficiently, enabling us to exceed the client’s requirements. 

As is often the case, the project was affected by budgetary variations after work had started on site, but by adapting our approach, and with the skill and expertise of our partners, we were able to work within the new parameters to create a beautiful family home, renovated to the highest standard and delivered ahead of schedule.