Tollington Park Road

Side extension and raised home office

Location: Finsbury Park, Islington, London

, UK

Status: On site

Area: 277m²

2022-26

This 2000s family house in a Finsbury Park conservation area had four bedrooms below ground and a small living area that no longer suited how the family lives and works. We have planning consent for a side extension and a raised first-floor home office, in weathered timber and rough stucco. The extension replaces a terrace and gives back a window seat and glazed doors onto the garden, while the crow's nest office sits above the roofline, deliberately apart. An air source heat pump completes the move away from fossil fuels.

The existing house, built to high environmental standards in the early 2000s, combines white render with zinc and galvanised steel. Rather than mirror this palette, we proposed a complementary set of materials that reads as a distinct addition while holding together with the original. A skylight above the stairwell draws daylight down through both levels, and storage built into the new stair keeps it light when seen from the living room below. The result is a house that matches its brief: generous, flexible and built to the same environmental principles as the original.