44 Britton Street

This is a townhouse constructed between 1986 and 1988, designed by Piers Gough of CZWG and built by Mike Di Marco, for Janet Street-Porter. The building stands on the north side of the junction of Britton Street and Albion Place. The design incorporates a canted street corner and a bowed rear wall to preserve the neighbouring building’s access to light. The main entrance is located within an enclosed courtyard accessed from Albion Place.

The building is of brick cavity wall construction with concrete floors, featuring a roof and window frames and balconies made of galvanised steel, with the glazed tiles of the roof. Each storey has a different floor plan, with the staircase running along the curved rear wall. The ground floor originally served as a billiard room with a guest bedroom and adjoining bathroom. The first floor features an open-plan bedroom with access to a dressing room and en-suite bathroom. The second floor contains an open-plan sitting room and dining room, alongside a kitchen and utility room to the south. An external spiral staircase provides access to a roof terrace and a rooftop studio office.

The external elevations are brick, laid in stretcher bond and graduating in four shades from brown to buff. The windows are vertically proportioned with diagonal glazing bars, and pre-cast concrete lintels designed to resemble rustic logs. There are six bays facing Albion Place and two bays facing Britton Street. The lower windows have sills angled at 45 degrees, aligning with diagonal lattice screens of galvanised steel that overhang the brick walls. The roof is clad in blue glazed pantiles. The gable facing Albion Place is entirely glazed with diamond-pattern glazing bars mirroring the diagonal grid of the elevation. The canted corner features first- and second-floor balconies of varying sizes and triangular plans. A central second-floor balcony on the Albion Place elevation takes the form of a conical metalwork structure set into a diamond-shaped opening. A triangular plaque in the upper angle of the diamond reads ‘J / SP / 1987 / CZWG / ARCHITS / DI MARCO / CONSTRUCTION’.

A diagonal pattern of glazed bricks articulates the internal staircase on the courtyard elevation, and an adjacent metal spiral staircase leads to the roof terrace. The interiors were largely refurbished by Street-Porter and are characterised by white-painted plaster and wooden floors, while generally retaining the original plans.