This week I take a tour of longtime Richmond resident Alastair Lansley’s Petersham home and discuss light, high end finishes and garden design. I was thrilled to be able to visit such a unique and fascinating house as this. I see a lot of houses as a Property Finder but I have never seen anything like this in Richmond-upon-Thames. Sundial house is truly the height of luxury and sits in wonderful contrast to its mock Tudor neighbours, and it was this difference that made me so excited to go and see it. House hunters in this price bracket expect a home with the ‘wow factor’ and this house has it in spades!
Alastair Lansley bought the house in 2007 and began the works in June 2008. Here is what the house looked like when he began the works.
The works were completed in May 2009 but there was still a lot to do to get the garden landscaped and looking as beautiful as it does now. The house now has four bedrooms, two living rooms, an office, gated off-street parking and landscaped gardens. It is currently on the market with Barnard Marcus in Richmond for £2,150,000.
In his own words, Alastair Lansley describes how he envisaged the project:
“ I intended demolishing initially and starting again, I wanted a new contemporary building, but alas, was advised that I could achieve more by extending the existing house. So the starting point for the design was how to extend the house whilst maximising the use of the site. The plot is unusual in that there is a large South Facing garden to the front and a smaller North Facing rear garden.”
“I realised that simply extending to the rear would create a badly lit ground floor leading on to a shaded garden area.”
“By keeping the extension shallow, and taking all of the ground floor walls away, this opened up the whole of the ground floor to a very large window at the front. Which has maintained and enhanced very good levels of light. A further “garden pavilion” which has become the drawing room has been built within the shaded garden, around a central courtyard which faces West.”
There is no expense spared in this house and I wanted to highlight a couple of features that I particularly liked.
The Roundhouse Kitchen:
The master bathroom sinks by David Chipperfield, the egg bath and pillar taps by Philippe Starck and the Italian grey ceramic tiling:
Multiple spaces for entertaining guests both outside and in:
The Pavillion that is connected to the main house via a glass corridor. The pavillion offers another space to relax in away from the main house. Currently it houses a piano that plays itself!
The opulent bedrooms with high end built-in storage. I love the contrast between the rich walnut flooring and the white walls:
The architectural details and shapes that make this house so unique:
Alastair spoke with great enthusiasm about his house and I found the property to be wonderfully refreshing and who ever buys it will know that no one else in Richmond will have a house like it. If you would like to read more about Alastair’s work on the St. Pancras stations redesign you can have a look at his book ‘The Transformation of St Pancras Station’, I have just ordered my copy!
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