Property News: Plan for luxury home ‘will test Camden laws’ - new owner wants to alter William Morris-style home in Templewood Avenue

Published: 03 March 2011
by DAN CARRIER

A HOUSE designed by the architect responsible for setting a trend for William Morris-style, “garden city” homes in Hampstead is at the centre of a multi-million pound re-fit tussle after its owners decided it was not fit for their needs.

CHB Quennell, who built scores of homes in Hampstead at the turn of the 20th century, built the large, detached house in Templewood Avenue in 1904, and it is a  typical example of his building style that helped define the area’s development. 

But owner Trifon Natsis, who works in banking, now wants to radically change the interior and build a super-sized basement beneath the property to house a luxury leisure centre.

Neighbours, the Heath and Hampstead Society and the Redington and Frognal Conservation Area Advisory Committee, have all written to Camden Council demanding the plans be turned down.

And now objectors face an anxious month: the plans were due to be discussed by Camden Council’s planning committee last week, but the decision has been deferred until the end of March.

Quennell’s life makes for interesting reading: as well as designing swathes of villas in the Hampstead area, he is also a renowned author and illustrator. When work for his successful practice dried up during the First World War, he turned to writing books. With the help of his wife, they penned a hugely successful series of history tomes for students, called A History of Everyday Things In England. The books included detailed drawings by the architect of every day implements. 

In the application form to the council’s planning department, architect Tony Fretton describes the work as seeking to “redefine an existing CHB Quennell villa to suit the needs of a modern young family.”

The form adds that the house “remains largely unchanged from its original design.”

Plans also show how builders will adjust the layout of the house, taking down interior walls to make it open plan, as well as adding the new basement. 

Upstairs, the scheme shows two matching rooms dubbed “Mr and Mrs Natsis’s studies”, with linking doors taking the couple into a shared library area, found at the top of a sweeping interior staircase leading up from a grand entrance hall. Other highlights include a music room overlooking the newly landscaped garden. 

The council officer’s report called the basement “relatively large” and architect’s drawings show luxury add-ons in the basement, where the owners will be able to enjoy a pool, jacuzzi, gym and pilates room, another kitchen, wine cellar and a garden room with windows over looking sloping lawns. 

But the basement scheme has been criticised by neighbours, who say the work will cause around two years of serious disruption and could be a flood risk.

The Heath and Hampstead Society’s Tony Hillier said he believed the scheme was too large and there was no evidence its potential impact on neighbouring homes had been adequately gauged. 

He added he hopes the Town Hall will apply newly drawn-up rules about basements. 

After a long campaign by the Society, the Town Hall has brought in new guidelines about what home owners need to do to ensure they will not cause damage to neighbouring homes or too much disruption during any basement excavations. These include thorough hydrology reports and structural surveys by qualified engineers and surveyors. 

Mr Hillier added: “This is an important case as it will be a test of Camden’s new basement impact assessment policy.”

Architect Tony Fretton said that neighbours fears were unfounded. 

He said: “The works do not represent a flood risk. A hydrological report to this effect formed part of the planning application and is publicly available.

“Since the major part of the extension is below ground it has no effect on the appearance of the building from the street.

“Above ground, the alterations are not extensive and where visible in the neighbourhood they are in the original, classical domestic style of the house.”

He added that they had chosen ways to build the house that would lead to as little disruption as possible and that the design had been formulated with the help of Camden’s planning officers and they had recommended it be approved.