Seafield House
Our conversion of a 1950s nuclear bunker in north London into a luxury home received national and international recognition.
The site was originally a nuclear bunker built to protect London’s government in the event of Cold War hostilities. We needed to submit and win several successive appeals to gain the necessary planning and listed consents.
Seafield House is a magnificent family home set in 1.5 acres in Mill Hill, Northwest London. Great care has been taken to transform this property into an elegant modern villa with an abundance of luxurious features.
The solidity of the ground floor stands in contrast to the crystalline nature of the first floor of the property, a lightweight construction, with floor-to-ceiling perimeter glazing. The existing fabric also presented many challenges. A windless reinforced concrete structure with walls and roof 1.5m thick it had fallen into disrepair.
There is also a sense of continuity with the original building. Many of its historic features, including massive doors with heavy steel plate ironmongery and a huge generator, have been retained and are displayed as reminders of the bunker’s intended use. We deliberately chose to align the windows at ground-floor level with the inside faces of the walls to express their thickness.
The house's piano nobile offers luxuriously proportioned living accommodation with superb views to its countryside setting. Its effortless interior flow and composition provides seamless comfort and ease of living. The house offers a very high standard of finishes and fixtures and this is immediately apparent on entering the house. The master suite houses two separate dressing rooms and all bedrooms feature en-suite bathrooms. The generously spacious open plan living/dining area is enhanced further through the use of a warm palette of materials.
The ground floor accommodation includes a cinema room, a second kitchen, a family room, study, wine store and a sauna as well as two further bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. A staircase leads down to the indoor swimming pool complex located in
the new basement located outside the original footprint and connected via a tunnel. This is flooded with natural daylight from its skylights as well as a sunken patio that provides direct access to the garden and terrace.
LOCATION
Mill Hill, London NW7
KEY ASPECTS:
CONSULTANTS:
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Green belt, Design Build
Arup, Max Fordham. Derek Horne
