Lens House, Canonbury

Lens House, Canonbury
Alison Brooks Architects for a private client
GIA 169m²

There can’t be that many derelict four-storey semi-detached Victorian villas in leafy, pricey Canonbury, but Brooks’ clients found one and have spent six years restoring and extending it in three phases. Conservation area and protected tree notwithstanding, she has managed to make something pretty special here: ‘a rich and engaging series of spaces relating to each other and to the garden: every element of the design is beautifully considered,’ said the judges. 

The extension is all but invisible from the street: it is trapezoidal – a Brooks trademark – and unusually clad externally in Corian. You can believe it when they say it’s ‘a wonderful place to live and work'.