As the founder of property-seeker Sekforde, John McDavid focuses on London’s historic housing stock. Working with discerning clients, he often handles buildings that pass between owners without ever being widely advertised. We’ve invited John to assemble a handful of London’s most storied properties, each reflecting his approach. They exhibit different styles from varied periods, and they’re chosen for how clearly their original character still comes through, whether in plan, proportion or material. He’s accompanied each listing with his own notes.
Mansfield Street, Marylebone
£27,500,000
‘Mansfield Street remains one of the clearest expressions of late 18th-century speculative architecture in London, a composed urban set piece that has survived with unusual integrity. This was designed by Robert Adam and is Grade II* listed — the proportions are unapologetically grand. It is a house that accommodates ceremony but does not depend on it.’
Princelet Street, Spitalfields
‘Developed in 1721 to house Huguenot refugees, the upper floors were originally used for silk weaving, designed to capture consistent natural light. Much of that layered history remains intact — original panelling, wide-plank floors and a south-facing courtyard. From the upper rooms, Hawksmoor’s Christ Church rises alongside the towers of the City, a view that neatly collapses three centuries into a single frame.’
Hoyles House, Wandsworth
‘Dating from the closing years of the Stuart period, Hoyles House belongs to a less codified phase of London domestic architecture, before Georgian conventions imposed uniformity. Houses of this period retain a certain directness, a clarity of structure and craft.’
St Oswald’s Place II, Vauxhall
‘This is a former 19th-century art school, reworked in the 1980s by Tony Fretton, and the intervention is deliberate and restrained. Approached via a cobbled courtyard, the setting feels curiously removed from its Zone 1 location. A measured example of adaptive reuse, the existing building is allowed to lead.’
1 Goodwin’s Court, Covent Garden
‘The footprint is modest, but the atmosphere is not — proportions, materials and street context all retain a tangible connection to early 18th-century city life in Covent Garden. Built around 1700, just decades after the Great Fire, the Grade II*-listed house is a rare survival of an early urban typology, and the restoration has been careful not to overcorrect.’
Mallord Street, Chelsea
‘Named after JMW Turner, Mallord Street has long attracted creative figures, among them AA Milne. This house, designed by Ralph Knott and built in 1911 for the watercolourist Cecil Arthur Hunt, reflects that lineage. The top-floor studio, roof garden and private garage give it an unusually flexible arrangement for Chelsea.’
Colvestone Crescent, Dalston
‘This 1866 Victorian terrace has been reworked with a degree of confidence rarely seen in houses of this scale — a careful retention of period form overlaid with a distinctly contemporary sensibility. The raised ground floor remains resolutely classical, with double reception rooms, restored cornicing and marble fireplaces, while below, the house opens into a more expansive, almost industrial language.’
