1, Colville Place

TQ2981NE COLVILLE PLACE 798-1/99/10145 Fitzrovia 12-APR-00 1

II

House and gallery, with steps to front. 1964 by Max Neufeld for himself, with art gallery or photographer's studio below available to rent. Brick, with concrete beams to front and rear; the rest of the structure on timber joists spanning existing party walls of property to either side, flat roof. The site is an infill plot, fifteen feet wide. Three storey maisonette over gallery on ground floor and in basement. Maisonette entered via door to side, with spiral stairs to living room and kitchen, bedrooms/office and bathroom, and top-floor master bedroom with roof terrace. Thick timber windows and doors, with sashes to main windows; that to living room placed off-centre to secure maximum light from south-east - it and the narrow window to side are full-height. Sliding glazed timber screen to roof terrace. Front of terrace a concrete beam with opaque wired glass below, and built-in window boxes to either side of paved area. Timber and steel balustrade on street level protects lightwell to basement; natural timber shopfront and door, with door to maisonette to right, both under glazed top lights and set back under concrete beam and entered up two steps. Gallery with straight timber stair to basement, and timber floor on ground floor.

Interior. Spiral stair, the treds set individually off central newel, at rear of site under circular rooflight. Exposed, carefully finished timber floors and smooth natural timber doors in simple unmoulded surrounds throughout. First floor has kitchen with natural timber built-in cupboards and worktops. Living room with built-in bookcase and cupboards the length of one wall, with opaque glass fronts to upper sections. Second floor with built-in cupboards and plan chest to rear bedroom; shelving in front room, all in similar minimal style, as are the fitted wardrobes to master bedroom.

Included as an immaculately detailed, minimal house, a rare example of a modernist infill scheme of sophistication and careful taste. The building cost ¿8,000 to construct.