Betterton Street
House in Covent Garden, London
A small terraced house squeezed between two similar buildings in a central London location, where there is no space between the front of the house and the street, no space at the back and internally the rooms are small, the challenge here was to create a greater feeling of space and light without breaking out of the constraints of an 18th century brick shell. This was achieved by removing much of the ground floor and so gaining a double height space which takes in an excavated basement level. Light penetrates the space through the unaltered opening of the old shop front but there's of a translucent screen which replaces the window makes the disappear the uncomfortable proximity of the street at ground level.