London Evening Standard New Homes Awards winners 2016: thoughtful design for flexible spaces and city living scoop top prizes

Now celebrating its 25th year, our New Homes Awards saw 43 prizes awarded across 13 categories, with the panel of industry experts and London Evening Standard readers highlighting contemporary architecture and design.
David Spittles24 March 2020

The London Evening Standard New Homes Awards champion excellence across the housing spectrum, from innovative first-time buyer flats and eco-homes to dazzling sky-high penthouse apartments atop towers of curving glass; from lofts and conversions of classical buildings to grand mansions.

Judged by readers from a shortlist of a record 178 entries, this year’s winners have everything buyers want, incorporating thoughtful design for challenging city living, planned space and flexible designer interiors.

BEST CONVERSION AND GRAND PRIX WINNER
Winner: Artisan, Goodge Street, Fitzrovia W1 Dukelease Properties

Redeveloping a prominent central London street corner while retaining the character of the original buildings presents a challenge — one that has been overcome with panache where Goodge Street meets Tottenham Court Road, in the heart of Fitzrovia, W1.

New Homes Awards - last year's winners

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Artisan, a scheme of 13 flats, spans the upper floors of five terrace buildings, an eclectic architectural mix that has involved meticulous restoration of historic façades and daring new-build elements including cantilevered full-height glass bays.

Internally, some flats “straddle” two buildings in the terrace, allowing for wide, mostly lateral spaces with big windows and ranging up to 1,761sq ft. Dukelease, the developer, opted for a “broken plan” layout rather than open plan, using sliding walls and screens to give owners the flexibility to shut off part of the space when the need arises.

These are genuinely bespoke homes, elegant and original. A curving oak-and-glass staircase is a stand-out feature in the show flat, as are Japanese-inspired porcelain rain mosaic tiles in the shower areas. Prices from £1 million.

BEST APARTMENT
Winner of Best Apartment by small-scale developer: 25 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea SW3 by First Penthouse

It took a day to hoist this pre-fab penthouse to the top of an Art Deco block tucked away behind historic Cheyne Walk, one of London’s most coveted addresses. 

The wider conservation area is littered with landmark architecture. Henry VIII’s lord chancellor Sir Thomas More built a riverside estate there in the 16th century, and later came Georgian townhouses for the new merchant class. Construction of the Embankment in the 1880s sparked a fresh property boom. The penthouse is priced £6 million.

Winner of Best Apartment by large-scale developer: Satin House, Goodman’s Fields, Aldgate E1, by Berkeley Homes
This glass-walled penthouse on three levels is a “super-yacht in the sky” with slick interior design and spectacular views. Priced £5 million.

Best apartment, small-scale category: a fabulous pre-fab flat atop an  Art Deco block at 25 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea

BEST FAMILY HOME  (up to £750,000)
Winner: Brockham Lodge, Merstham, Surrey by Croudace Homes

Welcoming, handsome and good value, this four-bedroom house is in the Surrey commuter belt.

BEST FAMILY HOME (£750,000 to £1.5 million)
Winner: The Eton, Hampton Grange, Sundridge Park, Bromley, by Bellway Homes

One of 11 traditional-style detached houses with integral garage at Hampton Grange, in the 10-acre gated grounds of a listed convent bordering a golf course. Priced £1,455,000.

BEST FAMILY HOME (more than £1.5 million)
Winner of Best Family Home by a small-scale developer: Walpole House, Kew TW9 by Richstone Propertie
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Local company Richstone built this Arts and Crafts-inspired residence across the road from Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

While other developers might have attempted to squeeze two homes on to the plot, Richstone opted for one large home of 6,350sq ft with lateral spaces to suit modern family lifestyles.

The stand-out feature is a 1,000sq ft open-plan super-room combining kitchen, dining and living spaces, with a wall of glass “bringing in” the garden. Bespoke finishes include a superb elliptical oak staircase. Priced £6,750,000.

Winner of Best Family Home by a large-scale developer: The Chesterton, Hayes Court, Bromley by London Square
The proposed Bakerloo line extension may go as far as Hayes, increasing the allure of this prosperous south-east London suburb.

This is a rare gated scheme of new houses set around a two-acre listed lawn. Our winner is a detached red-brick home on a secluded corner plot with a driveway and garage. Priced £1.8 million.

Luxury home: Cavendish House, Totteridge N20, by Octagon Developments

BEST LUXURY HOME
Winner: Cavendish House, above, Totteridge N20 by Octagon Developments

Totteridge has a London postcode and is only nine Tube stops from Euston, but to all intents and purposes it’s a country village, with a parish church, cricket club, ponds and paddocks, even a working farm.

It also has pillared and porticoed trophy houses that are favoured by Premiership footballers and business tycoons, who cherish the well-connected area’s rural charm and the privacy that a home here affords.Cavendish House is a new arrival in this “British Beverly Hills”.

With 21,630sq ft of internal space and three acres of gardens, this huge modern mansion packs a lot in: a security lodge, swimming pool and spa, cinema, wine cellar, library, music room, snooker room, additional catering kitchen, passenger lift, staff apartment, six-car garage plus luxury bedroom suites and sumptuous living areas. Priced £16.8 million.

BEST FIRST-TIME BUY
Winner: Marcon Place, Hackney E8, by Pocket

Pocket creates pint-size flats for first-time buyers who are on tight budgets, mainly thirtysomethings working in the public sector.
These are buyers who are earning too much to qualify for social housing, but too little to be able to get on the mainstream property ladder. This developer’s no-frills homes are priced at 20 per cent below market value, and owners have to pass on the discount when selling in order to keep the homes affordable. 

More schemes are in the pipeline in Streatham, Stockwell, Kennington, New Cross, Lewisham and Ealing, with prices starting at £230,000.

First-time buy: Marcon Place, Hackney E8, by Pocket
Sarah J Duncan

BEST LONDON HOME
Winner of Best London Home by a small-scale developer: The Penthouse, Eight Artillery Row, Victoria SW1, by LBS Properties and Make Architects
Windswept Victoria Street has the train station at one end and Parliament Square at the other, but behind the office blocks and government ministries lies a quiet conservation area of handsome Edwardian mansion flats, the equal of anything in Kensington or Chelsea and a reminder that this area was once a top residential address.

Eight Artillery Row is a smart scheme of 24 flats clad in warmly textured handmade bricks and decorative Art Nouveau-style bronze panels, while the building’s bullnose vertical edge incorporates a clock forming a round window seven feet across for the one of the homes.

Perched at the top is a double-height “pillbox” penthouse with a cantilevered dining area, or Belvedere, that projects out into the sky and links to the wraparound terrace. The architects have also done the interior design.

Winner of Best London Home by a large-scale developer: Apartments at The Star and Garter, Richmond Hill TW10, by London Square
Richmond is blessed with a unique setting. Bounded by the Thames and a 2,500-acre country park, it has a river promenade and a superb view from Richmond Hill, a vista that is the only one in England protected by an Act of Parliament.

The Star and Garter is a show-stopper, occupying a spectacular elevated position amid terraced gardens and grounds overlooking the Thames and Petersham Meadows.

Formerly a convalescent home for First World War soldiers, the listed building dates back to 1916, when it replaced a famous hotel used by royalty, artists and writers, including Charles Dickens, who celebrated the publication of David Copperfield there in 1851.

A meticulous restoration and conversion into 86 grand apartments will see the handsome marbled hall — complete with precious stained-glass windows and sweeping staircase —become the entrance lobby, while the restored King’s Room will be a spa. Prices from £1.75 million.

BEST OUT-OF-LONDON HOME
Winner of Best Out-of-London Home by a small-scale developer: Alderbrook House, Weybridge, Surrey by Newcourt Residential
Surrey’s golden triangle, the affluent area formed by Oxshott, Weybridge and Esher and once called the stockbroker belt, is becoming “Kensington in the country”, with a new generation of luxury homes boasting all the creature comforts for buyers who cannot stretch to Knightsbridge prices.

They want modern, if traditional-looking homes in quiet roads away from railway lines and flight paths, but close enough to amenities such as golf and tennis clubs — just like Alderbrook House, in fact. Priced £3.75 million.

Winner of Best Out-of-London Home by a large-scale developer: Ninewells, Cambridge by Hill Residential
The 45-minute commute to London, combined with excellent schools and a cosmopolitan cultural scene, makes Cambridge a popular choice for young families looking to move out of the capital. This development of Scandi-style homes on the city’s southern fringe includes detached eco-houses with pitched roofs overlooking fields and ponds. Prices from £965,000.

Best conversion by a large developer: King Edward VII Estate, Midhurst, West Sussex, by City & Country

BEST CONVERSION
Winner of Best Conversion by a small-scale developer: Artisan, Goodge Street, Fitzrovia W1 Dukelease Properties
Grand Prix winner as well as being voted best conversion.

Winner of Best Conversion by a large-scale developer: King Edward VII Estate, Midhurst, West Sussex, by City & Country
Historic country house conversions continue to cast a spell over home buyers. King Edward VII Estate, near Midhurst in West Sussex, lies within the South Downs National Park. Built in 1901 as a sanatorium, it has since been hailed an Arts and Crafts masterpiece and includes a Grade II*-listed chapel turned into a café and shop for residents. The original reading room and dining hall are being reinstated, and 162 homes created.

Listed “therapeutic gardens”, originally planted by renowned horticulturalist Gertrude Jekyll, link with the buildings and the wider landscape. And there are more than four miles of “new” walks through the estate’s mature oak woodland and heathland. Prices from £195,000 to £1.25 million.

BEST REGENERATION PROJECT
Joint winner: Portobello Square, North Kensington W10, by Catalyst Homes

This alluringly named new address bordering fashionable Notting Hill reinvents a “lost” neighbourhood with the creation of up to 1,000 private and public homes and reinstatement of the area’s original Victorian street pattern.

For more than 40 years this lively patch has been known as Wornington Green. Regeneration of a 14-acre council estate is yielding the opportunity for change, with all existing residents guaranteed a new rented home.

Townhouses cost £2 million and apartments are priced from £635,000, and construction will continue until 2030.

The focal point is a new garden square, open to Portobello Road. The area has been winning new fans since fashion designer Stella McCartney set up her atelier in a former chapel, heralding the neighbourhood’s “arrival”. Young professionals have moved into Trellick Tower, the brutalist love-it-or-loathe-it listed concrete high-rise block that looms over the area, and gentrification is continuing, with shabby-chic stores and greasy spoons giving way to more refined boutiques and bistros.

Joint winner: Stockwell Park Walk, Stockwell SW9 by Network Housing
Post-war council estates are an endangered species, unloved by today’s politicians and town planners who can’t wait to bulldoze them in favour of shiny new neighbourhoods offering a mix of tenures. Stockwell Park council estate lies next to a coveted conservation area and is being given a complete makeover.

Greening-up work involves fresh landscaping, along with upgraded play areas and a “graffiti pen” for young residents, as well as new community spaces where disused garages once stood.
A new 20-storey high-rise block with 75 private flats has a splendid communal roof garden.

ECO-LIVING AWARD
Winner: Cobalt Place, Battersea Village SW11 by Lend Lease

Blue is the new green. Homes at Cobalt Place, Battersea, are among the most energy-efficient in London, due to an advanced form of timber construction that cuts the amount of energy needed to heat the building by 40 per cent, while improving air quality and reducing noise pollution.

The stand-out architecture of these wooden homes creates a real feel-good factor. The flats and houses have an outer layer of warm brick, while exposed timber ceilings are the only hint of the inner leaf. Prices from £390,000.

BEST DEVELOPMENT IN the AFFORDABLE HOMES SECTOR
Winner: Lime Walk, Brook Avenue, Wembley HA9, by Network Housin
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Part of the new well-connected district being built around Wembley Stadium, this block of affordable shared-ownership flats has prices starting at £96,250 for 35 per cent.

Best small development: Cozens Place, Haringey N8 by Unit One Architects

BEST SMALL DEVELOPMENT
Winner: Cozens Place, Haringey N8
 by Unit One Architects
Three new mews houses have been sensitively slotted into a backland site that was derelict for decades. Clad in warm brick, the light-filled homes provide a sense of sanctuary in a bustling inner-city district.

BEST LARGE DEVELOPMENT
Winner: Goodman’s Fields, Aldgate E1 by Berkeley Homes

Aldgate, on the City’s eastern edge, used to be a dead zone after working hours but close proximity to a prosperous banking community has helped to seed regeneration.

Before 2008, seven-acre Goodman’s Fields was a gated compound occupied by Royal Bank of Scotland. Now it is a new “urban quarter”, where sleek, glass-clad towers blend with low-rise blocks.

Architect Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands says the design is inspired by San Gimignano in Italy, the Tuscan hilltop town of towers. The scheme brings a fresh dimension and scale to the City fringe, with a hotel and shops, bars and restaurants plus public spaces and artworks as well as 1,057 new homes.

HOME OR DEVELOPMENT  OF OUTSTANDING ARCHITECTURAL MERIT
Winner: Riverlight, Nine Elms Lane, Battersea SW8, by St James

One commentator called this “a ballerina among a herd of buffalo”, referring to the glut of new towers in the Nine Elms district wrapping around Battersea Power Station.

Built on a five-acre waterfront site, Riverlight has six slender “pavilions” of up to 20 storeys, each with an external glass lift, a trademark of architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. With 752 homes in all, the buildings have vibrant-coloured, steel cross-supports and angled ends, like the prow of a ship, allowing for generous-size balconies, while the elegant architecture picks up on the movement of the Thames and the changing skies.