After its conversion just ahead of the new millennium, this 1930s penthouse loft embarked on an illustrious career as a backdrop in films, music videos and ad campaigns for Prada, Burberry, Manolo Blahnik and Habitat. Twenty-five years later, it’s almost as famous as its owner, the photographer and filmmaker Graeme Montgomery, and seems to barely have aged. Equipped with polished-concrete floors and 3.5m ceilings, it’s currently on the market for £4,750,000 as a flexible live/work space in a desirable corner of old London.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
Photography courtesy Knight Frank.
In 1999 Montgomery hired architect Spencer Fung to convert the Clerkenwell printing-press warehouse, originally designed by Rowland Plumbe & Partners. Fung carved out open-plan kitchen and dining rooms with Crittall windows and modern-industrial elements. He added a reception area with floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors accessing a sweeping wraparound balcony. Custom walnut partitions demarcate the spaces and raw plaster-finished walls provide a textural backdrop.
Upstairs, two good-sized bedrooms share a Japanese-inspired family bathroom. The principal suite, complete with walk-in wardrobe and shower room, opens onto internal courtyard with access to a vast rooftop terrace spanning the full footprint of the penthouse. There are four bedrooms and three bathrooms overall.
A separate self-contained studio with its own entrance can be reconfigured to suit creative work or intergenerational living. Just up the road is the lively, traffic-free market street Exmouth Market.
