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We’ve broken the rules this week, but when you’re faced with not one but two delightful apartments in the same building, what else is there to do? Enter Pilgrims Cloisters in Peckham, the site of both a 

Before we get down to the details, we’d first like to draw your attention to the splendours shared by both homes. Constructed in 1837 – the same year Victoria was crowned queen – the building in which they’re found is a picture of the kind of polite eccentricity popular in the 19

 century, modelled as a Tudor castle in miniature, complete with battlemented turrets, mullioned windows and huge gabled doorway.

Pilgrims Cloisters has peace at its core, literally (a central courtyard has been transformed into a tropical garden for residents) and figuratively, having been originally designed as almshouses before being divvied up into flats in 1991. And both apartments – like their neighbours – are defined by their serene air. Overlooking the communal green space and with calming colour palettes, these homes are havens amid the hubbub of this buzzing corner of the capital. They even have their own private gardens.

Pilgrims Cloisters II, the slightly larger of the pair, has been decorated with masterful restraint, its walls only occasionally punctuated by flashes of colour. We love the unostentatious blue of the kitchen in particular. Meanwhile, the bedroom has been left purest white, creating a meditative space as befits the building’s name.

The other apartment, arranged as a studio, may not have the same spatial segregation, but what it does offer owners is access to the private terraced garden at the back, through the door next to the kitchen. This means this ground-floor space has dual aspect and, consequently, masses of natural light.

If peaceful London living on a smaller scale is what you’re after, look no further. And with two up for grabs, you’ve the pick of the bunch.

A Polite Request

Inspiration(s) of the Week: a perfect pair of apartments offering sequested south-east London living

These two marvellous mock-Tudor Victorian flats in Peckham have us doing a double take. But which to choose?