227 Brooke Road London E5 – Private residence

This was both an extension to the accommodation, and a landscaping project.

Originally a maisonette flat at the bottom of a Victorian terrace, with a small front garden, and as is common in London, a shared back garden, with the upstairs neighbours.

The accommodation comprised on the ground level at the front of the house, a sitting room, a kitchen, a toilet and a small lobby which came off a shared hallway. The ground floor at the back of the house was made up of a small office/bedroom and a larger double bedroom with access to the garden at the side. Then on the lower (basement) level, was another double bedroom, an en-suite bathroom, and another bathroom, with a large storage room.

The proposal was to change the access into the property for the upstairs neighbour by building a wood and glass structure on the side of the house, block up the door from the shared hallway and create a new door in the side of the house, which gave them separate access.

Then the ground floor part of the flat at the back of the house was remodelled, by removing all of the internal walls, and extending the side wall outwards to encompass part of the garden. This meant that the ground floor at the back could become a large kitchen and dining room with access to the garden though large glass doors. It also meant that the ground floor at the front of the house would now have a larger bedroom/office and the sitting room.

Once the construction was complete the garden had its makeover from building site to what you see in the photographs: a small garden incorporating steps, lush planting, a water feature and a garden shed hidden behind the back wall of the water feature. Access to the rear part of the garden (owned by the upstairs neighbour) was also behind this wall, and the gardens were separated by a Bamboo hedge, and a couple of Silver Birch trees, the perfect trees for a small plot as they do not have massive root structures, and have a light canopy.