• Secure underground parking +
• Roof Terrace +
• 5 minute walk to Holland Park Tube Station +
• Central London +
• Nearby Park +

Few contemporary projects have achieved seminal status as immediately as Peter Salter's Walmer Yard. These four individual houses, of which this is the largest two-bedroom at over 2,300 sq ft, are arranged around a Venetian-inspired, wood-block courtyard and have become a landmark of recent architectural history for their bold and effective vision. A masterful manipulation of light and indeed, space, is met with mastery in craftsmanship; a marriage recognised in its deserved accolade, the RIBA London Award 2017.

The houses are an exacting manifestation of Salters organic sketches which offered romantic scenarios for how one might live in each of the spaces. And, with the practical and design assistance of the architect Fenella Collingridge and developer Crispin Kelly, whose early vision it was to replace a derelict Victorian warehouse with a work of substance, these poetic abodes achieved their realisation.

The setting of this refined hamlet, by the open greenery of Avondale Park, gives it neighbours of period stucco fronts that line the streets between Holland Park and Notting Hill. Its own subtle façade and entry through bronze electric gates however, implies a concept at once medieval and post-modern, rustic and futuristic.

From here are routes to the secure underground parking and along the gentle curve of a rising pathway to the communal courtyard. This house is one of two with an elevation to the street and in addition to its formal front door, there is a convenient entrance from the pavement.

Moveable oak panels clad the upper elevations of three of the houses, offering light regulation and acoustic barriers, while achieving a truly transporting aesthetic. Fixed lamps in the courtyard provide soft illumination for the evenings and 'conversation' benches are built into the various structures.

The houses are formed of concrete, much of it left pleasingly bare, around an ellipse filled with a staircase of carbonised steel. The interior is a feast of poetic imagination; clay walls, coloured windows, seeded-concrete floors, fluted black-lacquered wardrobes and custom steel fixtures are a few among the many visual pauses throughout.

The enormous kitchen and dining room at street level is a space where much of the day's living can take place; a log burning stove providing comfort during the cooler months. The two bedrooms are at first-floor level and are given an extra warmth with the use of solid-oak flooring. Both are en suite and one has its own small terrace.