architecture by: Architecture for London

interiors by: Hamish Vincent Design

photography by: Leighton James

via: Dezeen, Architecture for London, Leibal

Islington, London, UK

Set on St Paul's Road in the Canonbury Conservation Area, Islington House occupies part of a terrace of nine post-war rebuilt houses from the 1950s. Architecture for London, with Victoria Havercroft as project architect and interiors by Hamish Vincent Design, treat that inherited Neo-Georgian shell with a useful degree of restraint: the street retains its composure, while the interior is reorganized almost entirely around one new move.

That move is the staircase. Rather than leaving it compressed against the edge of the plan, the design team repositions it to open up a tall central volume linking the ground, first, and second floors. The stair is read less as circulation than as joinery and architecture at once, with Douglas fir treads, pale stone detailing, and lime-plastered walls catching light as the flights turn upward. It gives the house the kind of arrival space terraced homes rarely manage without wasting precious square footage elsewhere.

Around that intervention, the ground floor is reworked into a larger kitchen, dining, and reception sequence with a new WC and a stronger connection to the rear garden. The extension language is quiet but distinct: warm brickwork, arched openings, and oak-framed doors build on the house's Georgian revival cues without pretending to be original fabric. The interior palette stays similarly disciplined, drawing on lime plaster, solid oak, Douglas fir, brick, and marble rather than shinier finish layers.

Some of the most interesting work is the less obvious work. Floor levels were adjusted through the house to preserve comfortable ceiling heights while keeping the original roofline, and the existing loft now accommodates a study lit by new Velux rooflights. Leibal also notes that the principal bedroom ensuite wraps around the stair's outer curve, a compact planning move that shows how fully the new stair reorganizes the upper floors.

Where many townhouse renovations save their boldest gesture for the rear facade, Islington House puts it in the middle of the plan and lets the rest of the house settle around it.

Tags: Islington, London, UK, Townhouse, Renovation, Architecture for London, Hamish Vincent Design