Paragon Court Apartment

Grade II listed seafront flat

Location: Margate, Kent

, UK

Status: Built

Service: Conservation, Interior planning

Area: 114m² / 1,225ft²

2019-21

Paragon Court in Margate was built as a Grade II listed terrace of houses in the 1840s and became a run of seafront hotels in the 1890s. For its new owner we replanned a ground-floor flat that spans two of the former houses, around the light and the sea with listed building consent. We swapped the kitchen and bathrooms so the kitchen takes the morning light and the view along the seafront, while the living room keeps its three-metre ceilings and the evening sun. New sash windows make the rooms airtight against the coastal wind.

The bedrooms are painted to their light: warm in the east-facing room to hold the morning, cooler to the west and through the living room. The new kitchen is built from plywood joinery with a stainless steel counter, and orange handles that pick up the bright orange of the Lido sign framed in the window. Its owner now lives across three former houses without ever feeling the joins, in rooms set by the sun and the sea.