In England, a Former Factory to Call Home
By ROCKY CASALE
LONDON — Four years ago, Eric Guibert, an architect, and his fiancé, Robin Pembrooke, an online television executive, were growing tired of their two-bedroom home in Waterloo, a bustling South London neighborhood. Mr. Guibert, whose specialty is developing unconventional properties like reclaimed churches and barns, took issue with many of its features.
“The rooms were small, the ceilings low, and there were too many walls,” said Mr. Guibert, 38, the owner of Sens Architecture. “Robin and I needed to be challenged, and it had to be something with tremendous potential and a lot of space.”
Mr. Guibert and Mr. Pembrooke, 41, the managing director of ITV.com, had first set their sights on buying property in the Loire Valley of France, but when the couple’s plans were waylaid by legal snags, they resolved to take on a local project.
In 2007, the couple sold their home to buy a 6,000-square-foot former factory building in nearby Kennington, a leafy city neighborhood where warehouses and old factories are mixed in with Georgian and Victorian terraced homes that sit along wide avenues shaded by tall plane trees. The four-story, red-brick building, with two bedrooms and three baths, was bought for £1.1 million, then about $2.2 million.
The late-19th-century building had played surrogate to a random list of commercial pursuits, most notably in 1865 when it was a rocking-horse factory. It was later a furniture manufacturing business, and office space. The word AIRCON is emblazoned in fading black letters on the roof from its days as an air-conditioning assembly plant.
The building was just the sort of project that Mr. Guibert was eager to take on. “The spaces here are so large, open and long that we can be in the same room and still feel like we have our own personal freedom,” he said.
Today, the property’s industrial past is still evident in the long rows of water pipes that line the high ceilings and walls throughout the building. The previous tenant had already made the upstairs industrial spaces into living and office areas. With most of the heavy-lifting done, the couple spent most of 2008 completing minor cosmetic work, mostly painting, on the second, third, and fourth floors at a cost of £25,000, then $49,500.
The biggest challenge Mr. Guibert and Mr. Pembrooke faced was learning how to use the enormous industrial spaces, which include a 2,700-square-foot garage on the first floor that is used now to store furniture awaiting restoration, cars and occasionally guests when they host big parties.
“This is not a standard house,” Mr. Guibert said. “When we first moved in it was incredibly taxing to have to run up and down the stairs each time I wanted a cup of tea. I hardly venture to the fourth floor, and certain rooms are freezing in the winter. You just have to learn how to use space wisely in unconventional buildings like ours.”
Mr. Guibert keeps his 443-square-foot office on the second floor. He works alone there, surrounded by design books crammed on the bookshelves. Files and schematics are stored neatly in antique filing cabinets. Separating Mr. Guibert’s sparsely decorated office and the master bedroom is an aubergine-colored bathroom. It features a claw-foot cast iron tub that came with the house and a charcoal drawing of hundreds of small faces by Yvonne Kyriakides, which Mr. Pembrooke bought at the Royal Academy’s summer show in 1999 to brighten the room.
In the 858 square-foot master bedroom, a gray area rug by the Dutch carpet maker Van Besouw that has followed the couple with each move is spread over the chipped cement floor. The south-facing wall is banked by original single pane metal casement Crittall windows that allow light to stream across onto the couple’s king-size bed. Mr. Guibert has adorned the window ledges with pottery that he collects at flea markets and charity shops. A long narrow staircase leads to the third level, and a combined dining and living area as well as the kitchen. It is the warmest floor in the house. Long and rectangular, the room has original pine flooring and is painted the color of light gray linen. It’s also where the couple spends most of their time cooking, reading and entertaining guests. But even in the summer there is a chill in the 840-square-foot room. Mr. Guibert said he wears three sweaters indoors during the winter.
“Living here taught us that you really don’t need a lot of heat, and in a way it’s really nice to always be wrapped up or sharing a blanket with someone,” he said.
The dining area at one end of the room is dominated by a white elliptical table by Fritz Hansen and chairs by Vico Magistretti Maui that were bought as a set for $2,790 at a now-defunct London design store. Mr. Guibert made the center of this floor into a living area that he furnished with big brown leather couches from Ikea. Flanking the wall is a shelving unit by the Swedish architect Nils Strinning, a mid-century design that seems to hang from strings, which was bought online for $370. Mr. Guibert also displays his collection of ink bottles there, as well as a bust of Louis XVI, a gift from Mr. Pembrooke’s father. The kitchen is on the opposite side of the room, and features a large granite and wood-topped island, in addition to rows of stainless-steel industrial shelves, bought at kitchen surplus yard.
French metal casement doors in the kitchen lead to a 735-square-foot pebbled garden on the second-floor landing. The rooftop garden was the creation of the previous owner, along with a rustic two-story 390-square-foot guesthouse at the end of the garden.
The A-framed fourth floor is Mr. Pembrooke’s lair. His office is there, as well as a second living room. The walls are decorated with Mr. Pembrooke’s extensive collection of 18th- and 19th-century maps and engravings of Kennington. Mr. Guibert said he sometimes reads there in a white Avarte Skaala lounge chair by Yrjö Kukkapuro that the couple bought at an auction for $2,790, but he prefers the floors below.
“Just thinking of all the stair you have to climb to get here, I am sometimes relieved that my office is on the second floor,” he said.
“The rooms were small, the ceilings low, and there were too many walls,” said Mr. Guibert, 38, the owner of Sens Architecture. “Robin and I needed to be challenged, and it had to be something with tremendous potential and a lot of space.”
Mr. Guibert and Mr. Pembrooke, 41, the managing director of ITV.com, had first set their sights on buying property in the Loire Valley of France, but when the couple’s plans were waylaid by legal snags, they resolved to take on a local project.
In 2007, the couple sold their home to buy a 6,000-square-foot former factory building in nearby Kennington, a leafy city neighborhood where warehouses and old factories are mixed in with Georgian and Victorian terraced homes that sit along wide avenues shaded by tall plane trees. The four-story, red-brick building, with two bedrooms and three baths, was bought for £1.1 million, then about $2.2 million.
The late-19th-century building had played surrogate to a random list of commercial pursuits, most notably in 1865 when it was a rocking-horse factory. It was later a furniture manufacturing business, and office space. The word AIRCON is emblazoned in fading black letters on the roof from its days as an air-conditioning assembly plant.
The building was just the sort of project that Mr. Guibert was eager to take on. “The spaces here are so large, open and long that we can be in the same room and still feel like we have our own personal freedom,” he said.
Today, the property’s industrial past is still evident in the long rows of water pipes that line the high ceilings and walls throughout the building. The previous tenant had already made the upstairs industrial spaces into living and office areas. With most of the heavy-lifting done, the couple spent most of 2008 completing minor cosmetic work, mostly painting, on the second, third, and fourth floors at a cost of £25,000, then $49,500.
The biggest challenge Mr. Guibert and Mr. Pembrooke faced was learning how to use the enormous industrial spaces, which include a 2,700-square-foot garage on the first floor that is used now to store furniture awaiting restoration, cars and occasionally guests when they host big parties.
“This is not a standard house,” Mr. Guibert said. “When we first moved in it was incredibly taxing to have to run up and down the stairs each time I wanted a cup of tea. I hardly venture to the fourth floor, and certain rooms are freezing in the winter. You just have to learn how to use space wisely in unconventional buildings like ours.”
Mr. Guibert keeps his 443-square-foot office on the second floor. He works alone there, surrounded by design books crammed on the bookshelves. Files and schematics are stored neatly in antique filing cabinets. Separating Mr. Guibert’s sparsely decorated office and the master bedroom is an aubergine-colored bathroom. It features a claw-foot cast iron tub that came with the house and a charcoal drawing of hundreds of small faces by Yvonne Kyriakides, which Mr. Pembrooke bought at the Royal Academy’s summer show in 1999 to brighten the room.
In the 858 square-foot master bedroom, a gray area rug by the Dutch carpet maker Van Besouw that has followed the couple with each move is spread over the chipped cement floor. The south-facing wall is banked by original single pane metal casement Crittall windows that allow light to stream across onto the couple’s king-size bed. Mr. Guibert has adorned the window ledges with pottery that he collects at flea markets and charity shops. A long narrow staircase leads to the third level, and a combined dining and living area as well as the kitchen. It is the warmest floor in the house. Long and rectangular, the room has original pine flooring and is painted the color of light gray linen. It’s also where the couple spends most of their time cooking, reading and entertaining guests. But even in the summer there is a chill in the 840-square-foot room. Mr. Guibert said he wears three sweaters indoors during the winter.
“Living here taught us that you really don’t need a lot of heat, and in a way it’s really nice to always be wrapped up or sharing a blanket with someone,” he said.
The dining area at one end of the room is dominated by a white elliptical table by Fritz Hansen and chairs by Vico Magistretti Maui that were bought as a set for $2,790 at a now-defunct London design store. Mr. Guibert made the center of this floor into a living area that he furnished with big brown leather couches from Ikea. Flanking the wall is a shelving unit by the Swedish architect Nils Strinning, a mid-century design that seems to hang from strings, which was bought online for $370. Mr. Guibert also displays his collection of ink bottles there, as well as a bust of Louis XVI, a gift from Mr. Pembrooke’s father. The kitchen is on the opposite side of the room, and features a large granite and wood-topped island, in addition to rows of stainless-steel industrial shelves, bought at kitchen surplus yard.
French metal casement doors in the kitchen lead to a 735-square-foot pebbled garden on the second-floor landing. The rooftop garden was the creation of the previous owner, along with a rustic two-story 390-square-foot guesthouse at the end of the garden.
The A-framed fourth floor is Mr. Pembrooke’s lair. His office is there, as well as a second living room. The walls are decorated with Mr. Pembrooke’s extensive collection of 18th- and 19th-century maps and engravings of Kennington. Mr. Guibert said he sometimes reads there in a white Avarte Skaala lounge chair by Yrjö Kukkapuro that the couple bought at an auction for $2,790, but he prefers the floors below.
“Just thinking of all the stair you have to climb to get here, I am sometimes relieved that my office is on the second floor,” he said.
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