Most of the interior walls and floors had to be demolished to accommodate new floor levels and spaces.  As it was the house had reached crunch point for a growing family.  The design challenge was to explore how far it could be sufficiently and satisfactorily expanded.  It was either that or moving house. 

It had been restored back to a single dwelling having been converted into two flats some years ago, and the pre-existing layout suffered from difficulties because of that history.  It didn't work with contemporary ways of living - the kitchen now being used much more as a hub central to the living space.  At ground floor the minimal kitchen to the rear was isolated from the main living and dining area at the front, with the main family bathroom separating the two areas; the bathroom in turn was disconnected from the three first floor bedrooms, one of which had an en suite providing the only plumbing at first floor.

One useful legacy from the flat conversion was that the ground floor front door had been relocated to the centre of the west flank wall onto Goldsmith Road.  This central location had been retained as it gives direct access to the whole house, avoiding a wasted corridor.  This could now been exploited to create a hallway and stairwell connecting all the floors. This inevitably leaves the anomaly of the original front door porch on Shakespeare Road, repurposed as glazing and display cabinet in the front room. 

The new design has expanded the ground floor to full width of the site and created a main living area glazed onto the courtyard garden with a central utility / boot room.  The first floor has a family bathroom with two bedrooms, and the new second floor has two more rooms (master bed with en suite in the loft) with the option of one being a home office.  To achieve this we exploited redundant space at ground floor and roof levels.

A major aim was to retain continuity between this corner house and the terrace it bookended.  The opportunity and challenge was the atypical exposure in the round to the streets on three sides.

The combined effect of two factors specific to the site unlocked possibilities for maximising space without altering the main bulk of the building.  

The site slopes gently south down Goldsmith Road which with a shallow excavation down to garden level allowed for an extra floor to the rear outrigger.  This level was continued into part of the central area to expand the main rear living / kitchen / dining space which was expanded visually with full width glazing onto the courtyard garden.

The other space ripe for consideration was to the west flank, as the house sat back about a metre from the brick boundary wall to Goldsmith Road.  By expanding the house westward at ground level it allowed the stairs to be relocated there outside the main bulk of the house.  This also enabled extension of the main living space westward, creating a generous three storey lightwell housing a wrap-around staircase from the central entrance and linking the various floor levels.  The split levels between main house and outrigger meant that landings could be utilised for direct access to the various rooms without additional corridors.