Precision planning: Peckham couple transformed 'hideous' house in the perfect location into a fabulous family home

Ed Burgess and his wife Sarah wanted a home near good schools — and no listed building barriers to hamper their vision. They found just the place in Peckham.
Philippa Stockley13 March 2020

Georgian houses often pass on the history bug to their owners. Not in the case of Ed and Sarah Burgess.

In 2012, after 10 happy years enjoying the period charm in the top half of a tall Georgian terrace in Kennington, they were desperate for a whole house with a garden.

They did look at late-Georgian houses in Dulwich, but Ed wanted to transform something. He knew it would be tricky with a period property.

With three children — Clive, now 15, Nell, 13 and Ralph 10 — and having identified the Peckham-Dulwich border as their sweet spot, they got a map, marked two preferred secondary schools with pins, then drew circles round them.

Their search focused where the circles intersected, so the children could cycle to either school.

That’s precise, but then Ed, 44, who worked for starchitect Richard Rogers and other big practices before going solo three years ago, is precise.

The sixth agent they saw suggested a house on the street he’d grown up in. It was slapbang in their target area, so Sarah went to look.

It was a Thirties brick semi with a long back garden, a garage, four bedrooms and a view of Peckham Rye.

Extended decades earlier with a basic, boxy sun room, it wasn’t listed and it had a generous attic that Ed knew he could convert under permitted development rights.

From hideous house to perfect family home

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“I told Ed it was in a perfect location but it was absolutely hideous,” says Sarah, 46.

The couple reel off the horrors of avocado bathroom suites, an ancient pine kitchen, plastic windows and an old recessed porch.

What it cost

Two-storey, 2,150sq ft house in 2012: £910,000

Total money spent: £230,000 excluding all fees

Value now (2,690sq ft): £1.5 million (estimate)

Downstairs, the solidly built two-storey house had three good-sized rooms down one side — including the sun room — and a hotchpotch of little rooms down the other: kitchen, scullery, loo, hall.

Oddly, the addition of the sun room made the former garden room, now the middle room, dark.

Loft conversion: Ed’s first task was to convert the loft into a big double bedroom with a bathroom off it that gives terrific views out from the tub
Rachael Smith

Ed knew that he could open it all up and draw in light from the top. So they bought it. He got stuck into the loft conversion first and in just four months, added 540sq ft of habitable space.

He fitted in a big double bedroom with views across the back garden.

Behind the bed, a row of Ikea wardrobes fronted with solid oak makes a huge, modern bedhead — a practical, clever and cheap divider.

The bathroom off the bedroom is enhanced by a window that juts outwards, giving terrific views when bathing.

Off the dressing room behind the bed, Ed tucked a small office. He designed the staircase to this new floor in birch ply, with a wall of books down one side for the family library.

That was already transformative, but the couple had only just started. They went for a complete reconfiguration to open up and brighten everything and give them the smart living and cooking space they really wanted.

Customise-it-yourself: kitchen cupboards from Ikea, spray-painted a bright and lively orange
Rachael Smith

Ed kept the front sitting room and hall, but knocked most of the rest together.

Sarah’s brief to him was that she didn’t want a wall of glass or “boring” bifold doors. His solution was to turn the back wall of the house into a run of windows and glass doors punctuated by a window seat, a bookcase and an innovative sliding screen that covers the French windows to the garden.

Breaking up what would have been a huge square living space, a sort of box takes up one quarter, dividing the remainder into an L shape. The box has oak along one side, which conceals jib doors to a utility room and cloakroom.

Round its other side is the kitchen area. With bright orange cupboards — “spraypainted Ikea”, Sarah says — black basalt work surfaces and a vast, bamboo-topped island, it is chic.

Strong colours: "There's nothing so boring as doing the safe thing and then being disappointed," says Sarah 
Rachael Smith

The living-dining area, now ultralight thanks to a long overhead glass light down one side, has a big circular table that Ed designed, mid-century modern chairs with new pads screen-printed by Sarah and the children, and a huge pendant lamp.

Artist Sarah, who calls herself an at-home mum, oversaw the interior design. Her choice of paint colours is very good.

“Strong colours,” she says. “What I’ve learned about colours and patterns is that you can be braver than you think, because there’s nothing so boring as doing the safe thing and then being disappointed.”

Her mantra has paid off, with a striking chain-link wallpaper used on Ed’s prototype sliding screens over the glass door, and a jungle print in the small downstairs loo.

With no trouble from the planners, the family only had to move out for a month and the whole build, which included inserting massive steels and relaying the slab, took eight months.

There are so many good ideas to inspire and delight here, developed with care and executed with brio. It all proves that it’s how you use space, rather than how much there is, that really counts.

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