Our Queen’s Gate project is a complete refurbishment and reconfiguration of an existing two-storey apartment located in Queen’s Gate in Kensington.

Being both Grade II Listed and situated in a Conservation area, the building presented a design challenge to enable a full re-planning and renovation whilst working with the restrictions posed by Listed Building Consent in LB Kensington and Chelsea.

The client engaged Granit to reconfigure the existing layout and completely overhaul the interiors to create a welcoming and high-quality home with a new master bedroom suite and open-plan living/kitchen/dining that connects with the roof terrace beyond.

Our primary focus was developing an architectural and interior design strategy that balanced modern family living whilst being sensitive to the building’s heritage. There was a constant dialogue with the council’s conservation officers to ensure our proposals respected the historic building fabric whilst bringing a new lease of life to the spaces.

One such example of this was the lighting strategy, where we developed a new, simple ceiling cornice with integrated LED strip lighting that could provide ambient lighting to the room without impacting areas of historic ceiling structures.

A vital part of the design was reconfiguring the cramped L-shaped staircase. Under the Listed Building Consent, we could not demolish the existing staircase and therefore had to be more creative in our response. Our design solution is a new, sweeping, elliptical staircase with shallow (more accessible risers) carefully constructed over the top of the existing one. This feature transforms the space and allows for an open connection between the two floors.

We incorporated a more traditional timber panelling to feature walls over both floors to reference the building’s heritage and replaced the old window units with new, traditional timber sash windows. The panels and windows complemented a more contemporary kitchen from Espresso Design and high-quality furnishings and finishes.

Granit was also involved in selecting and procuring a number of the internal furnishings on the upper floors, which was a fun and engaging opportunity to work with our client’s vision and existing furnishings to create an entirely new feel.

Contact our team here to find out more and see some of our other experiences with listed buildings here.