London Council Flat

In Central London, a 5-story brick 100-flat estate using load bearing masonry construction - Sumner Buildings - sits in contrast to ultra-modern glass and steel high-rise apartments on the same street. 

Roughly 60% of the occupants are "council tenants", meaning that they are renting the flat through the local Council (kind of like a city borough government entity), likely at a lower than market rate. The other 40% of the occupants are leaseholders, meaning they own a long lease, often of at least 90-100 years in length. Condominiums, or "Share of Freeholds" as they are called in the UK, are less common. This may be changing, however, with new laws in the works which should make it easier for leaseholders to buy the freehold from the freehold owner.

Design

BEXT purchased a flat in this estate in 2014. Plans for a full renovation were not permitted by the freeholder, so only a small renovation was carried out in the BEXT aesthetic. Carpets were pulled up to reveal an unfinished herringbone floor in poor shape. The floor was painted white (the third white floor after the Coca Coca loft and Limousine garage loft!) for the feeling of a shabby-chic pied-à-terre. A small live-edge coffee table was purchased from the closing of a local pub, as a nod to the live-edge wood used in the Boston-area projects. Doors in the flat were re-hinged so that they swung against the wall rather than open to the room (in England, doors often opened into the room so that a servant could open a door and not be seen by everyone in the room). The door between hallway and kitchen was removed entirely, creating a better flow. Inset living room closets were redesigned to be "bumped out" closets (shown in photo), allowing for hanging rods to be installed within. Old shelves were taken apart and rebuilt to create additional custom kitchen storage units.

Engineering

An old combination boiler (heat and hot water) was removed from the bedroom closet and a newer, more modern and efficient compact model installed in the kitchen. An extractor fan was installed in the toilet where there had been none. Changing the swing of the doors required re-routing the wall switches. Rerouting electric wires was easily done in plastic chases, which was necessary due to the solid brick construction of every wall.