London Open House 2010: Sunday
This year on Open House Sunday I decided to stay a bit more local, and low-key. My first venue of the day, Kate Greenaway's house, was one I kept missing in previous years, so this year I decided to plan my day around visiting it, especially as illustrator chum, Viv Schwarz was recently shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway medal.
It's a nice old red brick building, designed by Norman Shaw (the architect of Albert Hall Mansions in Kensington) , covered with pretty scalloped tiles.
There's a pretty blue plaque, put up in 1949, which you can only see if you're standing on the front steps.
Nowadays there are several households in apartments, but the top floor is being used by artist John Aldus, who is the first artist to use the studio space for some time. He has all sorts of lovely objects on display in various nooks and crannies, so I spent a happy 40 minutes or so taking lots of photos. (I didn't post them all online because too many seems intrusive even if he did open his home to the public). There were lots of tiny houses all over the place, including the top of the wardrobe, above the flat door, and on a shelf by the stairs. At the top of the stairs was a fabulous mirrored minibar.
I wanted to stay for cocktails and lunch on the balcony, and spend lots more time browsing through art books and interesting nicknacks.
But I had to get on a bus to the next Open House, Sky House. This is a penthouse apartment, built in the 1980s but only made liveable in 2009. They were a bit iffy about people taking photos (even though there are photos in that link), so I only took a few to give a sense of what it's like.
This is the view from next to the main door, looking through the main living space, with the bedroom at the far end (behind the piano). All the walls are basically glass, so there's a lot of light, even though there are a lot of shelves on one side.
This is the view from the other end - you can see all the shelves.
There's a little workspace in the middle of the corridor, which isn't the most spacious of offices, but this is the view, looking towards the BT Tower and Centre Point.
The views were pretty amazing all around, really. Here's the view towards Hampstead.
Final stop of the day was no-house near Holloway. This was the one with the longest queue (almost an hour), but it was also the most disappointing.
The exterior is a modern block with cedarwood - apparently the frame can be built in five days. (There were some photos showing them putting it up.) It stands out a lot amongst the Victorian houses (despite their claims to make something that would fit in), but it has a pleasing external design.
Inside was disappointing, though. Its stark white walls and floors made it look cold and somewhat clinical, almost unfinished. There were some groovy chairs though.
The bathroom was probably the big talking point, with a sunken bath and a huge window that could be opened onto a small corridor where there was another huge window. Because the bath is sunken, no one can really see inside unless they're very tall.
This is the view from the corridor.
And this is the view from in front of the bathroom mirror.
There were some clever designs in no-house (I especially like the fact you can build it in less than a week), but I think I'd have to see it with some different decor ideas before I could actually want to live there. (Unlike John Aldus' flat, which I wanted to move into straight away.)
More photos of Sunday's Open House here.