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vampyresheepMore buildings, more rain!
We were meeting up with the rest later in the day as I'd got tickets to visit the Rudolph Steiner house, however that didnt open until 11am, leaving us with time to visit something on the way. There was a local new entry in the Open House schedule for this year, the "Pearl of Metroland" in Wembley, so we braved the torrential rain to head there "on the way" into town .... on the way meaning a 20 minute walk in torrential rain to the nearest tube station after!
The house was quite easy to spot
yet this was little to prepare us for what we were to find inside. The owner was a former art teacher, with a strong interest in colour theory and had "deconverted" the house from two maisonettes back to its original 1920's state as a single house and furnished it accordingly .... with a twist.
The rooms were all painted with complementary colours - circulation areas in yellow/purple, bedrooms red/green and bathrooms blue/orange. But then we ge to the kitchen
Which goes all Mondrian! No idea why, he wouldn't explain anything instead saying we should make our own minds up (ever a teacher) but even admitting that Mondrian would not use colour in this way. It was rather cool though, albeit rather kitsch.
and then the rest of the house
after our tour ended, we were back out on the rainy streets of Wembley, trying to remember where the tube station was (it all looks somewhat different when on foot instead of in the car!) and made our way into London to visit Steiner House, near Bakerloo. Cecile and Simon had got there earlier than us and had gone to a talk, so we explored the building and then waited for them with coffee and yummy cakes.
Possibly the only expressionist building in the UK, it was built in the 1920s as the UK home for Rudolph Steiners Anthrophosophical Society - I can't pretend to know much about the philosophy behind this but i love expressionist architecture!
the main feature of the house was its wonderful organic staircase
The rather lovely cafe was a more recent addition to the building, very much in the spirit of the original build
Cecile and Simon found us, then we headed to Fitzrovia Chapel. This used to be part of Middlesex hospital and I remember the massive pile of rubble following its demolition, so it was a surprise to see how much the area has changed now. A swanky housing estate with the church in the middle of a public square, surrounded by art.
Although I'd seen a photo of the interior, it still didn't prepare me for the reality, a stunning, sparkling example of victorian gothic. The church was never consecrated, and following the hospital's demolition, it started to deteriorate despite being grade II listed, until there was finally funding to restore the building to its full glory. Just beautiful
We were then joined by a friend of Cecile and Simon's, Brigitte, who was in the UK for a visit and Cecile got in touch with the rest of the usual Open House group to see where they were on their route - meeting up with Iain and Paul at the Adaptable House, Holborn-ish
This was another absolute joy to visit (hence the lack of self-restraint on the photo selection for this post!). A former derelict mews house, which was reconstructed by an architect to create a wonderful quirky family home. I just wanted to move in here.
one entered the domestic area of the property through this very cool little door
mirrored bathroom ceiling played with the dimensions of the room (the whole place just felt multi-leveled)
then we went up the "scary stairs" to the roof terrace
another bedroom up here, how awesome!
our next stop wasn't too far away - the Art Workers Guild
an Arts & Crafts design members guild hall, which for some surreal reason was hosting a Table Top Museum exibition, with all manner of quirky things on display. We've no idea if it was art or for real
after this we all went different ways, Rob and I decided to visit the places that Iain and Paul had started the day with.
Firstly a homeless hostel in Mount Pleasant. This was formerly a rather unlovely victorian workhouse which had been basically converted to meet modern standards but had recently undergone a more extensive renovation to create a more open and communal environment for the residents, getting rid of the old corridors and creating an open courtyard instead
Our final stop was the Paxton Locher house on Clerkenwell Green. this was a rather unusual house squeezed in the middle of other houses and having no windows as a consequence. Instead, light was provided via a large retractable roof over the living space and the rest of the house built around it, courtyard style, with floor to ceiling glass walls. As the weather had finally changed, we were lucky to see it with the roof closed and opened.
(the roof apparently has a sensor to detect rain, so there is no risk of all the furniture getting wet!)
not sure how I'd feel about living with a glass walled loo though!
the current owner was there to answer questions and when I complemented him on his ability to live so minimally, he said to wait until we got upstairs ....
.... yes, this was a bit of a change, so many books and vinyl. Quite definately a man-cave though. ;-)
the minimalism returned on the upstairs terrace though
an interesting finish to our Open House Weekend, which turned out to be once again rather eventful, discovering so much more in London.
The full gallery of photos for Sunday are here
We were meeting up with the rest later in the day as I'd got tickets to visit the Rudolph Steiner house, however that didnt open until 11am, leaving us with time to visit something on the way. There was a local new entry in the Open House schedule for this year, the "Pearl of Metroland" in Wembley, so we braved the torrential rain to head there "on the way" into town .... on the way meaning a 20 minute walk in torrential rain to the nearest tube station after!
The house was quite easy to spot
yet this was little to prepare us for what we were to find inside. The owner was a former art teacher, with a strong interest in colour theory and had "deconverted" the house from two maisonettes back to its original 1920's state as a single house and furnished it accordingly .... with a twist.
The rooms were all painted with complementary colours - circulation areas in yellow/purple, bedrooms red/green and bathrooms blue/orange. But then we ge to the kitchen
Which goes all Mondrian! No idea why, he wouldn't explain anything instead saying we should make our own minds up (ever a teacher) but even admitting that Mondrian would not use colour in this way. It was rather cool though, albeit rather kitsch.
and then the rest of the house
after our tour ended, we were back out on the rainy streets of Wembley, trying to remember where the tube station was (it all looks somewhat different when on foot instead of in the car!) and made our way into London to visit Steiner House, near Bakerloo. Cecile and Simon had got there earlier than us and had gone to a talk, so we explored the building and then waited for them with coffee and yummy cakes.
Possibly the only expressionist building in the UK, it was built in the 1920s as the UK home for Rudolph Steiners Anthrophosophical Society - I can't pretend to know much about the philosophy behind this but i love expressionist architecture!
the main feature of the house was its wonderful organic staircase
The rather lovely cafe was a more recent addition to the building, very much in the spirit of the original build
Cecile and Simon found us, then we headed to Fitzrovia Chapel. This used to be part of Middlesex hospital and I remember the massive pile of rubble following its demolition, so it was a surprise to see how much the area has changed now. A swanky housing estate with the church in the middle of a public square, surrounded by art.
Although I'd seen a photo of the interior, it still didn't prepare me for the reality, a stunning, sparkling example of victorian gothic. The church was never consecrated, and following the hospital's demolition, it started to deteriorate despite being grade II listed, until there was finally funding to restore the building to its full glory. Just beautiful
We were then joined by a friend of Cecile and Simon's, Brigitte, who was in the UK for a visit and Cecile got in touch with the rest of the usual Open House group to see where they were on their route - meeting up with Iain and Paul at the Adaptable House, Holborn-ish
This was another absolute joy to visit (hence the lack of self-restraint on the photo selection for this post!). A former derelict mews house, which was reconstructed by an architect to create a wonderful quirky family home. I just wanted to move in here.
one entered the domestic area of the property through this very cool little door
mirrored bathroom ceiling played with the dimensions of the room (the whole place just felt multi-leveled)
then we went up the "scary stairs" to the roof terrace
another bedroom up here, how awesome!
our next stop wasn't too far away - the Art Workers Guild
an Arts & Crafts design members guild hall, which for some surreal reason was hosting a Table Top Museum exibition, with all manner of quirky things on display. We've no idea if it was art or for real
after this we all went different ways, Rob and I decided to visit the places that Iain and Paul had started the day with.
Firstly a homeless hostel in Mount Pleasant. This was formerly a rather unlovely victorian workhouse which had been basically converted to meet modern standards but had recently undergone a more extensive renovation to create a more open and communal environment for the residents, getting rid of the old corridors and creating an open courtyard instead
Our final stop was the Paxton Locher house on Clerkenwell Green. this was a rather unusual house squeezed in the middle of other houses and having no windows as a consequence. Instead, light was provided via a large retractable roof over the living space and the rest of the house built around it, courtyard style, with floor to ceiling glass walls. As the weather had finally changed, we were lucky to see it with the roof closed and opened.
(the roof apparently has a sensor to detect rain, so there is no risk of all the furniture getting wet!)
not sure how I'd feel about living with a glass walled loo though!
the current owner was there to answer questions and when I complemented him on his ability to live so minimally, he said to wait until we got upstairs ....
.... yes, this was a bit of a change, so many books and vinyl. Quite definately a man-cave though. ;-)
the minimalism returned on the upstairs terrace though
an interesting finish to our Open House Weekend, which turned out to be once again rather eventful, discovering so much more in London.
The full gallery of photos for Sunday are here