Walcot Square Mews

FORMstudio’s brownfield residential development in the Kennington Conservation area has been completed, providing six new houses for rent for historic local Lambeth charity the Walcot Foundation.

Sandwiched between the long rear gardens of a grand listed Georgian terrace on Kennington Road to the west and the listed Victorian terraces of Walcot Square to the east, this modest well-mannered development, which is at the lowest threshold of acceptable density under London Plan guidance, met with significant orchestrated opposition from its immediate neighbours, but was supported by The Kennington Oval & Vauxhall Forum, and was granted approval by Lambeth Council.

Described by Lambeth Planning at Pre-App as "an innovative design solution, which responds to its context and should integrate comfortably with existing development," the scheme comprises a terrace of ingeniously planned two-storey + basement split-level houses and a detached ‘garden house’. The former placed down the centre of the site at the greatest back-to-back distance from its neighbours, with west-facing sunken gardens and a hard-landscaped mews to the east. The latter, terminating the mews to the north and located within its own walled garden.

Photos by Peter Cook