The London Mews House

Builders will soon finish on refurbishing two mews houses, no.s 85 and 87 Pavilion Road, Chelsea. Pavilion Road is typical of the many hundreds of mews streets in central London and no.s 85 and 87 are like many properties found on those streets. With their intimate scale and historic charm mews streets have become popular places to live and are often part of a conservation area. The development of this road began in 1788 when plots for houses were laid out on the west side of Sloane Street, in what was then called Hans Town. First recorded as New Road the name changed following the construction of Henry Holland’s nearby house, The Pavilion, in 1789.

‘Beside the snug houses occupied by the wealthy in this fashionable quarter, there were mews, and small dark streets of small smelly houses, in which dwelt the industrious poor who ministered to their rich neighbours, in the shape of small tradesmen, workmen and workwomen, laundresses & etc., as well as stables for horses, and dwelling for coachmen’. Donald J. Olsen, The growth of Victorian London

The origin of mews is far removed from this description of Victorian London, or the stylish modern mews house, but begins in the royal court. The word mews derives from the word ‘mewed’ meaning to moult. Mews originally described a cage for birds of prey birds like hawks used during their moulting season. These cages could be quite large and permanent structures.

From the 14th century hawks were kept by kings of England at Charing Cross. Following a fire in the 16th century Henry VIII built stables on the site retaining the name, The Mews, of the former building. With this royal connection it became fashionable for stable houses attached to grand town houses to be termed mews.

The use of mews as stables declined as the popularity and affordability of the cars increased. Many were converted into garages and workshops or simply used for storage. With the passing of The Small Holdings and Allotments Act in 1908 it became difficult to buy land for new development; as a result mews were converted for residential use. The first recorded residential conversion was undertaken in 1908 at Street Mews, in Mayfair, London. A 1915 publication described it as ‘the best bijou house in London’. A new housing trend was born leaving few mews properties untouched. There are still three working mews stables left in London: Buthurst Mews, Elvaston Mews and The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, where Queen keeps her gold state coach and carriage horses.

A Lesson in Chelsea History

Tapping away on gleaming iMacs, children from Hill House International Junior School are learning in one of their new classrooms, in a Grade II listed building in Radnor Walk. Known as The Founders' Hall and recently developed for the school by Chelsea based David Le Lay Architects, the building's story reveals the changing face of the area through the centuries.

The site is in the former grounds of a manor house, which Richard Smith acquired in the 1830s. Project architect Jonathan Goode says, "He was essentially an entrepreneur. He was looking at ways of exploiting the property and getting a commercial return from it." Smith's enterprises in the grounds over the years included a pleasure garden, a wash baths for working men, a theatre, a tavern and a dance hall.

While there are no records showing exactly where the Manor House Public Baths was, excavations revealed an earlier structure on the site of The Founders' Hall and Goode explains, "It's our best hunch that the baths was probably on the site of the halls."

It was commercially unsuccessful - "I think it just proved to be too expensive for the market that he was aiming at," says Goode - and Smith went on to convert it into The Manour House Theatre, which also failed.

Drawing on Chelsea's reputation as an entertainment district, Smith building the Commercial Tavern - now The Chelsea Potter - and dance and entertainment venue the Commercial Rooms or Commercial Hall, which is the current Founders' Hall building. The hall was built in 1842 and was popular with military balls in the early 1850s. A few years later, it underwent another major change to become a non-conformist place of worship.

A door linked the hall to the adjacent pub and the basement was even leased out to the pub to store beer and wine at the same time as the hall was being used as a church. "The two buildings were pretty much built at the same time and within the listing, it refers to the hall as being joined to the pub," says Goode. "When we were doing works on the basement, we actually found where that door opening was."

The Welsh Congregational Church bought the building in 1880 and used it until a few year ago, adapting it along the way. By the time it was put up for sale, it had fallen out of use and was in a neglected state.

Richard Townend, Headmaster of Hill House International Junior School, had been on the look-out for extra space and could see the first privately owned site in London -and asked David Le Lay Architects to convert it within a short time frame so that classes could start there as soon as possible. It was formally opened in February this year.

The project included renovations to the roof, removed the pews, creating classrooms, more toilets and a sports hall, putting in new heating, wiring and plumbing, and replacing the heavy colours of the church with lighter paint that would complement the architecture.

"It was very much about carefully intertwining those things that are architecturally and historically special with the needs of a new building," says Goode. "There's a satisfaction in being able to bring a building back into use, and at the same time to bring so much of its inherent architectural character out."

In the hall today, designed to be a 'rugged space' for a school as well as a beautiful, historical building, there are still hints of its former life - the church organ remains in the hall, and the Welsh daffodil motifs are still in the windows. There is another link to the past that will soon be installed - chandeliers from Italy, inspired by prints of the dance hall. "We thought the best lighting would be to go back to this original chandelier lighting," Goode explains. "That's sort of our last gift as designers to the building."

Article from Sloane Square Magazine, April 2011.

The built environment needs a radical transformation.

All of us have probably heard someone else talking about carbon emissions, excessive consumer patterns, energy production crisis and extinction of renewable resources. The most important thing about this is to understand the urgent need of switching from these patterns to more sustainable ones in all aspects of our lives. As architects, one of our social responsibilities is the transformation of the built environment, which in my opinion needs to be radical at this point to address these issues. As does the change in people’s minds and the only way to achieve that is through trust and education within society. That is a huge concept worth exploring much deeper, but here I would like to use it in the sense of saying that everything we were taught is being reflected in the crisis we are facing at the moment. In the same way, the education and trust principles we provide to the coming generations will determinate the best path to follow. So sustainable consumption patterns, rational use of energy and any other aspects of a sustainable lifestyle is what we need to put into practice, including trust and share with others as one day this pattern will have to be something innate in ourselves.

Strongly linked to trust and education is another key concept which is both the reason for the crisis but at the same time a way out of it, and that is innovation. We have managed to create objects, mechanisms, technologies and buildings that are polluting our world and absorbing all our non-renewable resources as supposedly the only way of making our lives easier or more comfortable. In a way they have, but the environmental price we are paying for it is immeasurable. We have not made radical transformation in time, so now we’ll have to move faster to be saved from catastrophe. Innovation then can be understood as transformation, to do things for the same purpose but in a more efficient and way, to think differently. This concept has made us realise an exciting junction point of opportunities, a point from which, in my opinion, some people have already moved forward but there are still millions to spread the message to.

In building I think there are three possible options to incorporate these patterns:

1. In new building. What we build today will still be around us in 2050, a time where the world will have to have changed – radically. So there is an opportunity to start from scratch by incorporating stronger sustainable design principles, non-(or very low) polluting technologies and construction materials which are already available in the market and moreover showing continuous improvements.

2. Existing buildings. 80% of the buildings we will be using in 2050 are already built, and these are the buildings we must address now. It is very clear this is a large scale of sustainable refurbishment but it is possible to start working on them now.

3. Use of energy by property users. New design ideas, technologies and materials on their own will not be enough to achieve an Energy efficient building; they need to work in conjunction with a common, clear and rational concept of energy consumption by the users.

At David Le Lay we have already started to be part of these changes. Working on existing properties and conservation projects mainly, we have had the opportunity to carry out all sort of changes in different buildings, things like improving the use of natural light as much as possible, specifying a maximum possible thermal insulation where needed and construction materials produced from renewable resources, clean technologies, timber products coming from certificated eco-forestry, natural paints with a minimum chemical content, and hundreds of other changes, which when considered as a whole they make a substantial reduction on the environmental impact of the building.

Architects who believe in sustainability and their multidisciplinary teams would like to see more commitment and support from the government and the general public, to be able to direct the changes in the built environment through innovation and in the same way to reflect social transformation in buildings.

Guillermo Sanmiguel

Colour and Light in Architecture, The Founders' Hall, Radnor Walk, Chelsea

This month our office celebrated the opening of The Founders' Hall for Hill House International Junior School. I would like to describe my experience in choosing the colour scheme and its influence on the scheme design, as it was something I enjoyed doing.

Colour has a fundamental role in our perception of the built environment, which can affect our mood and behaviour. It also has the power to improve aspects of our lives such as health, security, emotion and feeling. Different people will perceive light and colour in different ways, and furthermore, architectural context has a strong influence on this perception. Despite the importance of light and colour, it is not unusual for this to be considered only in the latter stages of design. The reason for colour choice is almost never questioned. Colour is considered secondary to building form and structure, reflecting attitudes held by many design professionals.

Nothing changes interiors more than colour. Colour is a tool, used together with lighting as a necessary and vital component of a building to create a sense of drama in interiors. Colour and light belong to a single radiant spectrum, so without light, colour cannot exist. The use of colour can be understated or dramatic with boundless possibilities in changing the tone of space.

I started by becoming familiar with the history of the building. The hall is built in the grounds of a manor house, leased in 1838 to Mr Richard Smith and then developed by him. A tavern was opened on the site of the Chelsea Potter with pleasure gardens to the rear of the Manor House. A hall building was constructed adjacent to the tavern. In 1842 these were known as the Commercial Tavern and Commercial Rooms, or Commercial Hall. The hall was built in a Grecian neo-classical style, popular in the 1830s. The terraced row of houses to the south of the hall were built in 1845.

The hall was extensively refurbished in 1851 and became a popular venue for military balls. The building was acquired by the Congregational Church in 1855, passed to the South Kensington Primitive Methodists after 1860 and then on to the Welsh Congregational Church in 1880. The building was used by them until 2008. The building was listed Grade II in October 2008. In 2009 the former Welsh Church was purchased by Hill House International Junior School.

As I found out, many historical colours were muted because vibrant chemical dyes had not been developed, but a few stronger colours were available. The stronger colours were expensive and so used for details or highlights. Pastel colours were used in most interiors. The cheapest and therefore more typical colours were shades of grey, light blue, brown and olive green, and then chocolate for doors, skirting and other woodwork. Whites at this time were slightly grey or yellow. So this was the palette I chose to follow.

I decided to choose a softer neutral colour palette based on the Georgian grey colour rather than the bright, bold options. I knew that neutral-toned spaces create a sense of calm. I mixed tones using very slight variations of colour. A subtle palette was the key for me while keeping to historical colours. In order to highlight the importance of the building, I wanted to find a sense of balance using paints and light to create an intimacy between the colour, lighting and other elements in a given space.

I initially focused on the smaller existing elements like the colours of the obscure glass in the main Hall. I was looking for a perfect balance between history, existing details and lighting, and to add elegance to the space. The choice of tones and colours was crucial to highlight the existing structure of rib arches and columns and expand ceiling space.

A perfect style is summed up in three words: texture, shape and tone. Colour in interiors should be always checked against a neutral background and in natural light. The finish of a surface communicates meaning, which can be smooth or sharp, and accentuated by the paint finishes as well. Paint can be oil or water based. Oil based paint is durable and longer lasting while water based is easier to clean.

Finishes vary according to how much light they reflect such that with oil based paints, eggshell paint provides mid-sheen, and gloss paint offers a shiny, durable coat. With water based paints, matt paint has no sheen at all and it is always warmer than gloss.

Everyone sees colour in different ways and we never observe colour consistently. People often try to make judge or criticise colour choices out of context, or representing personal views that are inconsequential.

Colour can be identified by hierarchy, opposition, separation, connection, transition and assimilation. Colour choices in the conceptual phase, although abstract and diagrammatic, will begin to influence choices in lighting, materials and surfaces that continue throughout the design process. Light and colour are our builders of space.

Dominika Kruzel-Scigalska

Art show attracts publicity to 39 Old Church Street

'Images of London' has attracted good media coverage with various journalists and arts editors coming down to see the show. Our collaboration as architects with contemporary artists like Alex seems to have excited interest particularly. For us this kind of interdisciplinary collaboration seems a very natural extension of the way we approach our work and it's been great to celebrate this through the art shows. 'Images of London' works by Alex Cave runs until Friday 25 February.