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All Photographs: Justin Barton

A Corner in Camberwell

4a-6 Grove Lane by MATT Architecture

Alongside some of its neighbouring streets in Camberwell, Grove Lane has some of the best preserved rows of Georgian houses in south London, interspersed with a few buildings of a more recent vintage. The latest addition to this street is no ostentatious interloper but a contextual classic showing admirable humility and good manners.

Designed by Leicester Square-based MATT Architecture, it’s easy to see why the Georgian Group deemed 4a-6 Grove Lane worthy of a Giles Worsley Award for a New Building in a Georgian Context in 2015.

“The long, thin, wedge–shaped site had lain derelict for decades before being purchased by the current owner,” the architects note.

“The elevation is deliberately split into three to echo the plot width of neighbouring terraces and relies heavily on high quality detailing to lift it beyond pastiche.”

“Our design for a new–build, which comprises a small shop and maisonette, aims to respect the wider conservation area and repair a ‘missing tooth’ in the street frontage to Grove Lane with a sensitive and affectionate use of the prevailing architectural language.”

MATT Architecture is a firm that works overwhelmingly in the modern idiom but this project shows that with the right client, architect, and builder elegant gentility is still achievable in London.

Published at 1:00 pm on Monday 20 January 2020. Categories: Architecture Great Britain Tags: , .
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