Holland Park’s villas and apartments

Holland Park is known for its grand stucco villas, many built in the mid-nineteenth century in an Italianate style and set along wide, tree-lined streets close to the park itself. Many of these large houses have since been divided into generous apartments, while others remain single family homes.

Both bring their own kind of work: restoring the formal proportions of a principal-floor apartment, or reorganising a large house so that it works for family life without losing its sense of grandeur.

Restoring period character

Holland Park homes often retain fine original features: tall windows, deep cornices, ceiling roses, marble fireplaces and elegant staircases. Where these have been lost or damaged by earlier conversions, we reinstate them carefully. Our Holland Park Apartment, in a Grade II listed Italianate villa, was redesigned from the entrance inwards, with its original coving reinstated.

Alongside the visible work, we renew heating, electrics, lighting and AV discreetly, routing services so that historic ceilings and plasterwork are disturbed as little as possible.

Listed building consent and conservation

Many Holland Park properties are listed, and the area falls within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s conservation areas. Listed building consent is needed for most internal and external changes to a listed home, so we survey and record the historic fabric early, design alterations that respect it and prepare the heritage information the borough’s conservation officers expect.

For apartments, the freeholder’s licence to alter usually runs alongside listed building consent. We prepare the drawings and information for both, so the approvals progress together rather than one holding up the other.

Interiors for large rooms

Generous rooms need careful planning to feel comfortable rather than empty. Our interior designers work on layout, lighting, finishes and furniture together, and our joinery workshop makes the pieces that tie a room together: bookcases, media walls, wardrobes and kitchens built to the room’s proportions. Lighting matters as much as furniture in rooms of this scale, and we layer it so the spaces work for quiet evenings as well as for entertaining.

Managed from start to finish

With our in-house architects, interior designers and project managers, one team takes a Holland Park project from first visit to handover. We act as project manager and contract administrator during the build, overseeing the contractor, the budget and the quality of the work, and reporting clearly throughout.

Working with the building’s history

Many Holland Park villas have been altered several times since they were built, and later changes are not always sympathetic. We research how the house was originally arranged and decorated, which helps us decide what to restore, what to keep and where new work can be clearly modern without competing with the original.

Large houses and family life

In houses that remain whole, we often rethink how the floors are used: bringing the kitchen and family room together with the garden, creating a principal suite with dressing room and bathroom, and finding space for studies, guest rooms and storage, while keeping the formal rooms on the principal floor for entertaining.

Buying in Holland Park

Considering a purchase? We can visit with you before exchange to assess the condition of the house or apartment, which alterations are likely to be possible and the approvals involved.

Close to our studio

Holland Park is a short walk from our studio on Kensington High Street, so we can visit at short notice, including before you buy. A first conversation and a look at the property are the easiest way to understand what it needs and how we would approach it. We are also happy to meet your surveyor or agent on site.