Tavistock Terrace

Located halfway down Tavistock Terrace, a quiet street in Upper Holloway, this townhouse is a standout with its red-brick façade and green-painted sash windows. The owner has carefully restored the house, filling it with a glorious palette of muted colours. Now unfolding over 2,100 sq ft, the house is arranged across four storeys, with character gently teased out and original features preserved. To the rear, a picturesque garden is laid with a reclaimed-brick terrace and surrounded by prettily planted borders.

Setting the Scene 

Tavistock Terrace – set within a conservation area – is lined with wonderfully elegant Victorian houses. Many of the other houses are adorned with an unusual moulding of a gnome’s head, with around 60 faces in total. Residents have long wondered why they are there, first assuming it was a likeness of the architect who designed the terraces. It’s now believed that it might have been to distinguish the houses from those that were being constructed locally at a similar time.

This house, in the middle of the terrace, has been lovingly restored by its current owners. Unique touches are aplenty: a pigment – a French ochre from the Roussillon region – has been turned into paint for the yellow accents in the sitting room, the two original fireplaces have been retained in the kitchen, the layers of paint peeled off to reveal the unusual carved spindles on the staircase, and slate roof tiles reused as refined, simple hearths. An elegant extension has been added to the rear of the house, clad in charred black wood and with black-framed glazed doors that fold all the way back, ensuring an inextricable connection between indoors and out.