Photography: The Modern House
Photography: The Modern House
Holland Street House by Franz Borho is a fine example of how to reimagine the traditional terrace home without bowing to pastiche.
The two-bedroom London property was built to Borho’s design by SPINK on a white-stucco row of terraces between Kensington High Street and Notting Hill, and is something of an oxymoron: it blends with the streetscape (and even riffs on its forms) while simultaneously standing apart from its neighbours.
The building ‘interrupts’ the symmetrical roofs of its neighbours with its sharp ‘ecclesiastical’ facade and Crittall windows. It appears shorter than its neighbours, obscuring the fact its living spaces are set across three levels.
Bedrooms are located on the lower ground floor of the Kensington pad – for sale via The Modern House for £6.45m – and are illuminated by skylights and a courtyard. Meanwhile, the main level is dedicated to an enormous kitchen and social space anchored by a vast Carrera marble island, and custom-designed oak and glass-fronted cabinetry that runs along the back wall.
A wall of Crittall glass opens onto a lush back garden landscaped by six-time Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist Christopher Bradley-Hole with European shrubs, Amelanchier and Loquats trees, and a concrete seating area with cedar cover.
Back inside, a sculptural helix staircase connects the kitchen to the apex of the house, where, beneath the building’s pitched roof is the living room and a study with a bespoke desk spanning the width of the room. Juliet balcony doors open to the garden below.
