The upheaval of a divorce often includes having to sell the family home to buy two smaller ones. It’s a common occurrence, and the result is rarely ideal.
Julia Jude, 48, a psychotherapist who has two grown-up daughters, separated from her husband in 2008. From her half of the proceeds of their big family home, she bought a small Victorian terrace for her and her youngest daughter, Elyse, who is now 22.
As often happens, Julia bought quite fast, from necessity, in Forest Hill, the area of south-east London she knew and liked.
Even though there was nothing wrong with the house, according to Elyse it felt “like a dolls house” and the rooms were dark.
Down one side and flaring out at the back was a “massive” but badly overgrown garden, plus two sheds. They didn’t love it.
Nevertheless, Julia and Elyse, a product-design student at Central Saint Martins, got on with life.
What it cost
Original house in 2008, with big garden: £365,000
New 990sq ft house built on existing land: £300,000
Value of new house now: £675,000 (estimate)
In 2010 they added a modest loft extension under permitted development rights.
Then, one day, looking down the tangled, unloved and unused garden, they suddenly wondered if they could build something they did love there. Something entirely new. A house with its own front door next to the original house.
We all have dreams like this, but the difference is that Julia acted on hers.
lyse explains that they had been inspired by clever “gap” houses they’d seen on TV shows, which achieve miracles on narrow plots such as theirs.
The access down the side of their own house looked just big enough to shoehorn in a front door and hall but as it headed to the back the space flared out into their large back garden.
Julia got in touch with a few architects who’d done gap houses. Through friends of Elyse, they met a young practice called Studio Bam. Its two architects, Rocky and Tom, came to look. Julia and Elyse liked them immediately.
“We wanted something different, dynamic, and creative, which would be warm, and light, with a sense of the outdoors — but not a glass box.” Julia says.
Room with a view: a full-length wall of glass looks out to the garden (Charles Hosea)
Elyse said honestly she didn’t have a clear idea of what she wanted. “We knew we wanted space, and somewhere that made us feel happy, but we couldn’t visualise it.”
This is where a good architect comes in. Studio Bam listened, then sketched some basic ideas. The principle of a long, light-filled house next to their old one with a brilliant internal courtyard came early on and was the root of their final inspiring design.
Another big design influence was that Julia was refused a mortgage by her usual bank, so she approached the Ecology Bank. It was happy to loan as long as she built a low-energy passive-type house. So she set the architects that challenge, too.
The inspired result is a wooden-framed house, fabricated off-site, with extensive insulation, a sedum roof, triple glazing, underfloor heating and a heat-exchange unit. And all on a very tight budget.
The architects submitted their plans to the Lewisham planners, who passed them without objection in six weeks. Because of off-site construction, the build took just a year from start to finish. To keep costs down the architects project-managed.
It all begins with a wide gallery-type hall. Its slightly industrial look is enhanced with grey rubber-wrapped stairs up to a cantilevered bathroom and a small, bright double bedroom.
The outside is clad in burnt cedar panels. All the conduits and pipes and socket boxes are in surface-mounted galvanised steel. It’s very chic.
Down one side of the long hall run birch-ply cupboards and a smart concealed bathroom. Then the first surprise hits you — a triangular glass-sided internal courtyard, beside which is another bedroom.
Finally, the biggest surprise: a big, light, rectangular living room with an end wall that’s all glass. It has a terrazzo floor and a svelte bespoke steel-framed kitchen along the back wall, with a terrazzo top.
A pantry-cum-utility room is accessed by a sliding pocket door, and the cooker-fridge-washing machine are all wall-mounted in a group, taking minimal space.
This room has a great feel: because of a heat-exchange system the air feels very clean and bills are low. Bushkin the seven-year-old cavapoo dog and Cosmo the cat enjoy a sprawl on the warm floors.
Overhead, above the incredibly solid timber ceiling, there’s a feel-good sedum roof.
Julia says: “People don’t realise the positive benefit of light. I wake up to see the courtyard, then spend a few minutes with a coffee, just looking out at the back garden.” Her daughter adds: “We’re so much more relaxed in this space: we’re content.”
Julia still owns the old house with a large garden and has not decided on its future. She might rent it out or sell it but it will provide a welcome income for her future.