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 with four bedrooms and over 2,700 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.

This house enjoys a particularly lateral arrangement over three main storeys. The first is arranged around an intriguing hallway where, like a chef’s creation, Salter presents us with concrete four ways; fluted, shuttered, smooth-cast and the terrazzo-like polish of the floors.

Around the hallway are a media room/library, a study and the first of four en-suite bedrooms. The remaining three bedrooms are spread across the width of the first floor. There is a rare communication between these rooms, through bursts of sunlight from one to the other and transmitted light through coloured glass.

The second floor has the most wonderful living space arranged around a log-burning stove, with a terrace and a pair of window seats overlooking the courtyard. On the same level is the kitchen; oak cabinetry and granite surfaces move into the oak-clad form of the dining room where high walls of clay culminate in a cave-like dome, lit in spiritual fashion from above by a glazed oculus. 

Across the road from Walmer Yard is Avondale Park with its cafe and sporting greens, and what is considered Britain’s first floral lawn, designed to provide biodiversity for the immediate area. 

The wider area is renowned for its parks. Holland Park, unarguably one of London’s finest, is a short walk to the south with tennis courts and a Japanese garden. Kensington Gardens is a slightly longer walk east and is home to the Serpentine Galleries and the James Pennethorne-designed Italian Gardens of Hyde Park.

A few minutes’ walk just around the corner is where Portland Road meets Hippodrome Place and transforms into a wonderfully energetic pedestrianised area. Here, a parade of shops and restaurants is clustered around mature olive trees. Florists, interior designers, cafes, galleries, clothing shops and ceramicists populate this villagey corner of the neighbourhood, as well as the newly revamped and highly praised Julie’s Restaurant and its new cafe. Six Portland Road is another treat specialising in low-intervention wines and modern European cuisine.