Camden Mews, London NW1

This extraordinary three-bedroom house on Camden Mews was built in the 1960s by the celebrated architect Ted Cullinan as his family home. Secluded by slatted timber and stock bricks, this artful reimagining of the traditional mews house is Grade II*-listed in recognition of its pioneering influence and seminal position in the development of the private house. Camden Mews is one of London’s most architecturally interesting streets, brilliantly located for King’s Cross, Camden and Kentish Town.

The Architect

Ted Cullinan CBE (1931-2019) is an esteemed British architect, renowned for his innovative and sustainable design. Born in 1931, Cullinan studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He founded Edward Cullinan Architects, now known as Cullinan Studio, in 1965. His work is characterised by a strong commitment to environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Cullinan's notable projects include the RMC Headquarters in Surrey, the Weald and Downland Gridshell in Sussex, and the new library for Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He has been honoured with numerous awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 2008. Throughout his career, Cullinan has also been a dedicated educator and has taught at the University of Edinburgh and the Bartlett School of Architecture.

The Building

A self-built home in the truest sense, Cullinan and his wife Roz constructed the house on weekends over two years with the help of family and friends. The house has been used as a widely imitated model for its provenance as an example of 'romantic pragmatism', a term coined by Peter Davey to describe a group of architects who exhibited “a pragmatic approach to building organisation and construction, and a romantic sensibility”.

The house's distinctive style tracks a number of heavyweight modernist influences, including the California Case Study Houses, the domestic innovation of Frank Lloyd Wright, the overlapping timber details of Gerrit Rietveld furniture, and the distinctive attitude towards indoor-outdoor living propagated by Le Corbusier.

The Tour

The house is situated a little way beyond the halfway point of Camden Mews, just north of Camden Square.

Working harmoniously within the site’s spatial constraints, Cullinan’s design placed the house perpendicular to the mews on a party wall along the northern boundary, maximising southerly light by placing the open-plan living, dining and kitchen areas in a largely glazed first-floor gallery.

The view from the mews is of a structure two storeys high and pioneeringly revealing in the fabric of its construction; in-situ shuttered concrete posts and beams are visible, as are elements of the cantilevered first-floor timber frame.

The ground floor and party wall are of London stock brick and give a monolithic grounding to the elegant horizontals of timber Venetian blinds that clad the upper level. Timber gates open to a forecourt, intended for vehicular access, of engineering blue bricks salvaged from a Sir Denys Lasdun project that Cullinan was working on at the Royal College of Physicians. These extend from the gates outside and in across the ground floor, democratising the flow between indoors and out.

The design employs an upside-down plan, where three bedrooms and a family bathroom lie beneath the level light of clerestory windows. The letter box in the principal bedroom is positioned so the newspapers can be delivered directly from the mews on weekends.

The upper area is reached via an internal concrete staircase or from external stairs across the studio roof, which is decked over to form a terrace. This superb open living space runs over 40 ft from east to west and is cantilevered along the southern elevation. Light comes from a variety of directions, giving a multitude of effects through the day; low windows mirroring the clerestories of the ground level send beams across the maple slatted floor, a south-facing wall of glazing showers light throughout the day and the external Venetian blinds cast rays of shadow and fading sun in the late afternoon and evening.

A single-storey outbuilding, once the garage, has been sympathetically converted into a studio with its own shower room.

Outdoor Space

The studio roof finds dual purpose in its use as a garden terrace, adjoined as it is to the living room by another short flight of external steps. A raised decked terrace extends to the rear of the site, level with the upper storey and with space for a long and sociable dining table.

The stepped effect creates a sense of many zones, where different parts of the garden can provide sanctuary or indeed, interact with one another. It’s designed to collect sun, at times under the graceful, dappled shade of its giant silver birch tree. Cullinan said himself that ‘the house allowed family life to flourish and many conversations to flow over mountains of home grown veg and copious Merlot’.

The Area

Camden Mews is a quiet cobbled street that runs parallel to Camden Road. It is renowned for its innovative and diverse modern design and has been home to a wealth of architects for many decades.

The house is brilliantly located within walking distance of King’s Cross, Camden and Kentish Town, and is perfectly situated to enjoy the plethora of shops, bars, and restaurants that exist within and around each. Granary Square at King’s Cross is a short walk to the south and is home to an excellent public square with choreographed fountains and restaurants including Caravan, Vinoteca, Dishoom, Granger & Co. Shopping at Coal Drops Yard is excellent and includes A.P.C, COS and Wolf & Badger.

The area has excellent schooling options, most notably the Ofsted-rated "Outstanding" Torriano Primary School and Camden School for Girls, a comprehensive school with a co-ed sixth form which is also rated "Outstanding".

This house is located towards the centre of Camden Mews, equidistant between the Underground stations at Camden Town (Northern Line), Kentish Town (Northern Line) and Caledonian Road (Piccadilly Line). Camden Road is close at hand, and there are also Overground services from Kentish Town and Caledonian Road. The house is well placed for access to the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International.

Council Tax Band: G