Drury Lane

The property is a newly converted, split-level penthouse which occupies the 5th and 6th floor of a block in Covent Garden, London. The sixth-floor living area has a roof terrace with panoramic views of West London. The fifth floor comprises of a kitchen, a guest bathroom and three bedrooms; two of which have

en-suite bathrooms.

 

The original internal staircase connecting the two floors was in an undesirable location, causing a lack of continuity between the two floors.

 

The brief from our client was simply 'integration' and 'light'. One of the main concerns was to create a dialogue between the kitchen on the 5th floor and the living area on the 6th floor. The solution was to relocate the internal staircase, thereby linking the kitchen and the upper floor together. The amount of natural light to the 5th-floor entrance was improved by introducing a clear glass floor at the top of the stairs.

 

Technical difficulties

The property has a share of the freehold and at the time of carrying out the design works, the management agents were quite nervous about what we were proposing to do due to the extent of the structural alterations works and the possibility of disturbance being caused to the existing tenants. After lengthy negotiations and consideration, we devised a structural solution suspending a staircase from a new structure to the 6th floor so that the stairs are structurally independent to the 5th-floor slab, and no disruptions would be caused to the flat below.