Award-shortlisted: how 'sexy' engineering more than doubled the value of Victorian pumping station conversion near Canada Water

Engineering rarely seems sexy: it holds things up, like knicker elastic. But as Susan Brierley and Charlie Finch’s home in a former late-Victorian pumping station near Canada Water shows, brilliant engineering can be used to great visual effect.

They’ve used it to transform the large industrial-style apartment they bought in 2008, by putting in a decorative, cast-iron mezzanine right along one wall. But not any old mezzanine: their engineer, Steve Webb, designed a bespoke one with matching balustrade in keeping with the spirit of the place.

So no boring glass balcony for Susan, who read physics at university and was involved in the design from the word go. “I thought about glass but it’s a question of doing something more interesting,” she says. The innovative result has been shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Structural Awards.

The result is striking and unique — and adds about 250sq ft of extra space. Where once there was air, the couple have a long gallery room. They’ve devoted it to a bespoke copper bar with an enviable range of bottles, plus bar stools, comfy leather armchairs and a piano. A sort of flying snug.

The gallery is reached by a folded-iron stair up one side wall, with storage below. Its handsome solidity also conceals part of the support structure for the gallery. A well-appointed kitchen occupies the entire undercarriage, a generous island demarcating kitchen from living area, while bespoke encaustic tiles designed with the architect to reflect the metalwork patterns.

Keen cook Susan had longed for a kitchen like this and put her soul into its design, with a fabulous range cooker, pretty lustre tiles on the back wall and bespoke iron door-pulls on some cupboards. It’s a far cry from the old oak-topped kitchen set in one corner. It also uses the space really well, for due to head-height regulations above the mezzanine, the kitchen could only be about 6ft high — but the feeling of enclosure is refreshingly cosy against the soaring, brightly lit heights all around.

GOOD BONES

Built in 1902, the pumping station flaunted state-of-the art engineering, with immense iron beams, a majestic pump room with lofty arched windows right along the roof and oculi in the ends, plus a glorious octagonal chimney. Water power created electricity until 1977 when the station stopped. A decade later it was listed Grade II and converted to apartments around 2000.

Susan and Charlie bought their apartment in 2008, just after the financial crash. They’d been renting in the borough and had often admired the building. “We viewed this flat for fun, then without telling me, so I didn’t get my hopes up, Charlie put in a silly offer — as it was way over our budget.

“As he expected, a higher offer was accepted. But then the crash happened, the other buyer fell through — and they took our offer.”

Converted from a third of the old pump hall, huge steel beams run through and brace the space. Regularly riveted and painted silver by Susan, there’s a whiff of friendly Dalek about them. The apartment also has fantastic top-light. Basically, in 2008 they bought one super-high, large room with a two-storey side section off it, holding a bedroom, bathroom and hall or study on each floor.

The overall design, showing off original brick walls with oak parquet floors throughout, was simple, letting the space, the light, the windows and the strong materials speak for themselves — though Susan says there was too little storage.

DESIGN EVOLUTION

The mezzanine design evolved in 2014, when the couple hired an architect to work up plans. Susan had a pretty good idea of what she wanted, but when the architects brought in Steve the engineer, things really took off. Steve’s designs for the gallery involved huge patterned plates bolted together — solid for the floor, with surprisingly delicate-looking tracery for the balustrade.

These socking great slabs of metal all fit beautifully together — with huge bolts. Due to their astonishing weight, the supports, concealed in the back and side walls, are also immense. Hydraulic lifts were used to lift each gallery section into place, to bolt to its neighbour.

It took more than a year from first sketches to starting work. Going through planning, which included listed building consents, took months and was frustrating, but once work started, it flew.

The couple are actuaries in their late thirties. “We were both at work all day and couldn’t imagine how they’d get the pieces in, but each evening there was more to see. Once the preparatory work was done it went up in just a week,” says Susan.

Then it was time to fit the kitchen. There was a delay getting the bespoke tiles from Spain, so it wasn’t finished for Christmas 2015 as hoped. “But the kitchen designers made us a temporary worktop.

“They were a delight, and the kitchen was finished in mid-January last year.”

This is a bold, instantly memorable design, which Susan says she never tires of looking at. Perhaps it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — but then good design never is. What’s really great about this project is that its modern engineering enhances the Victorian structure without trying to copy it or to vanish into it.

WHAT IT COST

Apartment in 2008: £490,000

Money spent on mezzanine and new kitchen: £150,000

Value now: £1,350,000 (estimate)

GET THE LOOK

The Structural Awards 2017, in their 50th year, take place on November 17. For more details, visit The Institution of Structural Engineers