Tenby Mansions

2019
Marylebone, Harley Street Conservation Area
Mansion Block

SITE

Situated within a handsome Edwardian mansion block, typical of the Marylebone neighbourhood, this flat retains its historic interior, standing tall, static and intact with all its Edwardian details preserved. This setting provided a unique opportunity to create a dialogue between the timeless elegance of the building and the introduction of contemporary design elements.

CLIENT

This flat serves as the clients’ London family home. Their vision sought to balance open, inviting living spaces with snug, private bedrooms – reflecting the interplay between public and private spheres, hosting and retreating, openness and intimacy. This duality informed the spatial arrangement, ensuring the space is both welcoming to guests and comfortable for family life.

CONCEPT

The design explores layering two compositions within the same environment. The Edwardian interior remains intact with its historic detailing, while contemporary walnut joinery insertions drift across the flat like islands. On a functional level, these blocks contain all storage requirements but it is in the way they press themselves through walls that hints at ongoing connections between rooms.

The flat’s layout has been reorganised to create one large room across the street-facing side to contain the living, dining and kitchen activities. Here the walnut blocks are orientated in the same direction and lead to the flat’s interior, where all three bedrooms face a quiet rear courtyard. These blocks are carved into different forms to create shelving, dressing tables, and bathroom basin recesses.

The historic chimney breasts were retained as key features and stand free in the space, picked out in dark polished plaster with black granite inlays. These same finishes adorned the kitchen units and island, like sentinels in the largest room. Large format oak herringbone flooring runs throughout the flat as a central unifying detail.

CHALLENGE

The main challenge for this project was to reorganise the divided nature of the original Edwardian spaces into a contemporary layout whilst retaining the historic detailing and features. To achieve this, the inserted elements were designed to float free of historic constraints, allowing for a new spatial arrangement without compromising the integrity of the original structure.

The two compositions – historic and contemporary – coexist within the same space, each following its own distinct trajectory. At times, these layers align to create a unified sense of order, emphasising axes and spatial hierarchy. In other moments, their deliberate offsets generate new forms and smaller, intimate spaces, adding functionality and variety to the flat.

The use of joinery as more than objects contained within their respective rooms is the unique feature of Tenby Mansions. It is not until you walk in and out of the rooms within the flat that you are aware of the subtle significance of how the joinery blocks bring order to the composition.

Photographer: Ollie Hammick
Structure: Akera Engineers
Joinery: MW Robinson