Few contemporary projects have achieved seminal status as immediately as Peter Salter’s Walmer Yard. These four individual houses, of which this is the largest two-bedroom at over 2,300 sq ft, are arranged around a Venetian-inspired, wood-block courtyard and have become a landmark of recent architectural history for their bold and effective vision. A masterful manipulation of light and indeed, space, is met with mastery in craftsmanship; a marriage recognised in its deserved accolade, the RIBA London Award 2017.
The houses are an exacting manifestation of Salters organic sketches which offered romantic scenarios for how one might live in each of the spaces. And, with the practical and design assistance of the architect Fenella Collingridge and developer Crispin Kelly, whose early vision it was to replace a derelict Victorian warehouse with a work of substance, these poetic abodes achieved their realisation.
The setting of this refined hamlet, by the open greenery of Avondale Park, gives it neighbours of period stucco fronts that line the streets between Holland Park and Notting Hill. Its own subtle facade and entry through bronze electric gates however, imply a concept at once medieval and post-modern, rustic and futuristic.
