Camberwell, London
The Secret Garden Flat shifts the emphasis of living away from a busy main road to a large garden behind
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Needing more space for a family, with unaffordable property prices, and a reluctance to relocate, The Secret Garden Flat was self built on a limited budget.
Situated behind a shop in a Victorian terrace on Camberwell Road, a small awkward flat has been remodelled, shifting the emphasis of living away from a busy main road to the garden behind.
Self building with a palette of simple and modest materials that could be crafted with our own hands, a new bedroom and secluded garden studio have been added.
These new additions now sit comfortably amongst the palimpsest of alterations and development to neighbouring buildings. The end result is a flexible home that the whole family can enjoy for years to come.
Both the bedroom extension and garden studio are enveloped by the garden. The garden is large for our inner city location, and one of the reasons we were drawn to the flat initially. We have cultivated it over the decade we have lived here and created an oasis from the busy urban thoroughfare our home is located on; we grow flowers for pollinators (and pleasure) and food for ourselves.
Before the build our garden and basement flat were disconnected, now indoors and outdoors interact in a way that makes them inseparable, providing outdoor family living space in the summer, a quiet and serene work space sheltered by neighbouring trees, and immersion in the changing seasons from the comfort and warmth of our bed.
For a project that has cost £2500/m2 and provides an additional bedroom and a separate studio for two people to work in, this is outstanding value for money. With the average cost of moving house in London £25,000 and with a build cost of £60,000 we have effectively bought an additional 25sqm of living space very cheaply.
We divided the space typically used for a full width extension and shifted one half of this into the garden to create the studio. By doing this we given ourselves two new structures and created an intimate garden space in-between, the sum of the parts is more than the whole. What was a small one bedroom flat with little relationship to the garden has now been transformed in to an urban oasis that is unexpectedly found on the busy Camberwell Road.
