Arts and Crafts meets angular contemporary design at this London property in Primrose Hill, renovated and expanded by award-winning practice Eldridge Smerin.

The expansive 4,300 sq ft house is enclosed by walled gardens designed by Jinny Blom, hidden within a copse of birch trees. Eldridge Smerin has added an angular glass and steel form to the classical 1860 redbrick cottage, creating a glass volume set ‘within’ the greenery that houses a courtyard.

Meanwhile, the old Victorian structure has been reconfigured, with a double-height entrance hall illuminated by roof lights and high-up windows and set with a spiral staircase fabricated from birch plywood to connect the four bedrooms.

The open-plan kitchen has been renovated with a substantial stainless steel island by Bulthaup commanding the space. In the living room, a hanging fireplace organises the flow of the room. (There’s also a log burner in the cosier second living room.)

The southern wing has a bedroom that opens onto the private courtyard, with its own crow’s nest style study space, overlooking the London property’s sedum roof and gardens, which Blom describes as an ‘Urban Glamour Wood’ of self-sustaining wildness, blanketed by wildflowers and clumps of silver birch.

Eldridge Smerin scooped RIBA’s Building Design One-off House Architect of the Year award in 2009.  Now, The Modern House is listing the Primrose Hill home for £11.5m.

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