This cleverly reimagined two-bedroom apartment sits on the second floor of a former industrial building on Whitecross Street. In collaboration with Featherstone Young architects, the current owners employed their skills as furniture designers to create an adaptive home in the heart of the city.
Throughout the plan, original and reclaimed crittall windows disperse light generously. Secondary sliding screens, handmade from American black walnut, allow the option of filtering light and subtly obscuring the dramatic views. Wide ash floorboards provide a minimal base palette for naturalistic cabinetry and experimental finishes.
With views of the Barbican as a striking focal point, the southern elevation of the plan houses the minimal living area and kitchen. A low-level plinth with concealed storage and an integral fireplace runs the length of the living room; the materials palette in the kitchen marries American black walnut cabinetry with bespoke stainless steel and high gloss surfaces.
More clever thinking has gone into the bedrooms with the continuation of concealed storage and bespoke cabinetry. The main bedroom is characterised by the simplicity of restrained materials and tones; in the second bedroom a playful birch-ply platform bed, with deep drawers, is a sweet example of the adaptive nature of the apartment. In the helpfully sub-divided bathroom handmade water-resistant teak basins, pockets doors and Vola tapware all further exemplify the considered design-objectives.
Ideally located, Whitecross Street is within short walking distance of Old Street, Moorgate and Farringdon stations. The Barbican Centre, with its world-class cultural programme of music, cinema, theatre and exhibitions is a few minutes’ walk from the apartment. Fortune Street Park, a much loved community green-space with a coffee hatch, sits directly to the North of the apartment.
Popular with creatives, the wider neighbourhood is renowned for the quality and variety of its galleries, shops, restaurants and historical markets, including a food market on Whitecross street every weekday. Nearby is Smithfield Market, Brutto, Luca, St John and Exmouth Market. St Paul’s, the River Thames, the South Bank and Tate Modern are all easily reachable.
