'We turned a disused MOT garage in East Dulwich into a family home '

Trading places: 'We turned a disused MOT garage into a family home through land swaps with our neighbours'

Ah, the suburbs : they eventually come calling for even the most die-hard urbanites. Rupert Scott, founder of Peckham-based Open Practice Architecture , had masterfully crafted an award-winning home in the heart of Whitechapel by converting a former gin distillery for him, wife Leo Wood, and their two daughters.

The plan wasn't to move to the Zone 3 borders of leafy Honor Oak and East Dulwich, but mid-way through redeveloping the site of an MOT garage tucked behind a row of Victorian houses, Covid hit. "There was such a paradigm shift, wasn't there?" muses Leo, an interior designer, adding how: "Whitechapel was great, but it was pretty full on."

Their new home is The Coach House, a luminous, cubic mews-style building shielded by sliding wooden gates and flanked by a green courtyard. There are three bedrooms and an annexe — a recent addition made by purchasing and converting an adjoining building.

The site was bought at auction and added to with land swapsLewis Gregory

Rupert bought the site at auction in 2017. He gave the car garage's owner a year's grace and set about knocking on the neighbours' doors, sparking conversations around "land swaps and agreements".

The butcher on the corner of the main road was up for a trade, meaning that The Coach House enjoys side access; for another neighbour, Rupert lent his architecture skills in return for a 1.5sqm slice of their land to add to the garden.

Leo believes these friendly negotiations are key to the project's success: "It's easy to overlook, but I think it's really important in terms of how the building sits and is experienced in that you don't feel too hemmed in."

The family moved in during the first phase of constructionLewis Gregory

Planning was submitted to Lewisham Council and took 18 months to be approved. The construction was staged over three phases and it was towards the end of the first that the couple decided they would move in with their two daughters, Evie, now aged 11 and Frankie, 8.

As the first ever residents of what had only ever been 'land to the rear of 116 Wood Vale', they were tasked with creating an address. "It's quite a thing naming a street," laughs Leo.

They brainstormed ideas with another architect — now their neighbour — who bought a plot at the start of the track where nothing more than a buddleia bush was sprouting and now sits an attractive, three-story house. They landed on Townsend Mews after Charles Harrison Townsend, the late architect who designed the nearby Horniman Museum. That Townsend also conceived the Whitechapel Gallery held an even greater meaning for the creative couple.

Their neighbours helped name the street Townsend MewsLewis Gregory

Grand Designs' Kevin McCloud christened Rupert the 'master of illumination' in its House of the Year series in 2018 and this stands to good reason: despite facing north-west, there is nothing gloomy about this abode.

A generous skylight in the double-height atrium floods the entry and staircase with southern light. This source is amplified into the windowless ground-floor study and the family bathroom via wall panels of reeded glass.

In sacrificing some of the footprint, Rupert also unlocked natural light to the back of the house by creating a hidden window seat in between the en-suite and Evie's bedroom. The result is a window in both spaces — and a verdant view from each room.

The interiors are designed to be serene and contemporaryLewis Gregory

Sliding glass doors are a feature downstairs, but upstairs the windows themselves don't open. Working with friend and long-time collaborator Simon Birtwistle Design, Rupert conceived static frames for a sleeker, more elegant look alongside opaque panels which can be opened or vented. Externally clad in iroko wood, they complement the reclaimed brick facade.

Thanks to Leo, the decor throughout is serene, considered and contemporary. When curating the interiors for the gin distillery, the former theatre producer became "obsessed" with building sites, renovations and design.

It proved a natural springboard to launch her own studio, Kinder Design . Of their style she says: "Neither of us are into frilly, excessive detail. We are both inherently quite pared-back, but what I'm really interested in is how you can have a space that is both minimal but also warm and colorful."

Leo's desk lives in a nook below the stairsLewis Gregory

She has pulled this delicate balance off effortlessly in the family home, where utilitarian touches such as a stainless steel-topped kitchen island (a hacked IKEA carcass) is offset with rugs and charming ceramics. Alongside investment-worthy Vitsoe shelving and joinery made by Holte are vintage finds such as wooden chest of drawers and trunks.

And then of course there is the abundance of ash — used not just for cupboards in which to stash away the detritus of everyday family life, but to generously line kitchen walls and the cabin-like annexe.

The latter is entirely lined in it for a cosy and enveloping feel; Leo's desk is positioned in a nook under the stairs below a cocooning spare bedroom with en-suite.

The house is designed to be warm and filled with lightLewis Gregory

While their former home leaned into its industrial heritage, here, in what is essentially a new-build, Leo sought to bring in more warmth.

On the ground floor is twice-polished concrete which exposes the aggregate to give a "retro feel". The exposed joists, simply painted white, do for the new ceilings what the Victorians did with coving. With microcement negating the need for tiles, the bathrooms are a refreshingly uncluttered affair.

Rupert talks positively of dealing with the council planners and didn't encounter major challenges during the build — although he admits to a few "sleepless months" as opposed to single nights. Funding the project was a "relay" of mortgaging against the Whitechapel house and eventually selling it in order to complete the build. Leo credits her husband with his contingency allocation: budgeting a generous 25 to 30 per cent made throwing a few thousand here or there the solution to any unforeseen issues.

They hope more people will join them and build homes on the streetLewis Gregory

The family moved in 2022 and the annexe was completed at the start of the year. Having created a new street, they hope to eventually be joined by new houses on the spare land, "so that in a sense, it's the first of this little foot into community-building," says Rupert.

He is nervous about being branded developer per se, but he is bordering on one — albeit on a micro scale: "The ambition is that we'd love to be doing multiple dwellings and creating socially-minded communities."

His focus is now on a brownfield site in Oval, where is working his magic on another dilapidated MOT garage. "I think it's part of a bigger thing that's happening currently in London and elsewhere; architects are diversifying and getting involved in really good-quality development stuff and I think it's a real opportunity for cities. It's not just in how things look and what material they are, but how they knit into the environment, rather than just cookie-cuttering boxes, which is what some developments can be."

He won't be tempted to move there, however: "I feel really, really good here and I find it calming as a house. It's better for the family," says Rupert. "I love the area, the community and the leafiness. It turns out, at age 48, I was ready for the suburbs!"

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