A Series of Contemporary and Sympathetic Sensibilities – St Georges Road by Bayley Ward

A previously neglected Edwardian home, St Georges Road is a journey to fulfilment, both in the potential of the original architecture and its storied past reinvigorated. Bayley Ward combines a sense of refinement and classic detailing to inject contemporary and sympathetic sensibilities.

Dilapidated and forgotten, the inherited bones of St Georges Road were in significant need of an overhaul and restoration attention. While the original home was paredback to its core rudiments and reinstated, a contemporary extension was added to expand the existing footprint and create a better conceived and connected series of spaces. The approach is a combination of sympathetic and respectful gestures within a heritage context and an appropriate and matching addition that elongates the original silhouette, while still preserving the original vernacular. Bayley Ward inserts carefully crafted details, which are enhanced through refined nuanced junctions, to propose a relevant and enduring home.

Dilapidated and forgotten, the inherited bones of St Georges Road were in significant need of an overhaul and restoration attention.

Built by Frank, this Edwardian home is flanked on its northern edge by apartments, in turn requiring a revised and heightened approach to privacy. In removing the previous lean-to addition to the home and stripping back its many layers of cracked paint and patina, the original home was revealed and able to be reinstated. The grandeur of the proportions and formality of its structured rooms offered a hierarchy of spaces to naturally emerge, suggesting that these voluminous spaces would become the adult-centric zones.

The application of a dark and moody navy-blue study creates an immersive and sophisticated space, while the balancing of a soft pink in the adjacent rooms injects a sense of harmony. The continuation of the original mouldings and leadlight glass features are a nod to the past, where steel is also used in the restoration for interior glazing and mantlepieces. Acting as a reminder of the importance of craft and hand-made elements as living art within the home, it is these considered details that connect to the original ethos of the Edwardian spirit.

While the original home was paredback to its core rudiments and reinstated, a contemporary extension was added to expand the existing footprint and create a better conceived and connected series of spaces.

The extension sees a double-height space emerge to the rear, under the extended roofline of the original home. An open and cantilevering steel stair encourages movement and sightlines upwards, into the gabled interior ceiling spaces, emphasising its vast openness. The design language of the additional elements is extended outward into the pergola structure and full-height articulated glazing. Fully embracing its form, the open and connected nature of the new creates an equaliser to the rigidity of the old, while also being the ideal transitionary space from the formal interiors into the open and private rear garden.

St Georges Road beautifully injects the storied past of its original home and carries core principles of design through to the new. Bayley Ward has brought together the old and the new and, through considered nuanced details, created a home that will endure beyond its years.

The approach is a combination of sympathetic and respectful gestures within a heritage context and an appropriate and matching addition that elongates the original silhouette, while still preserving the original vernacular.

Bayley Ward inserts carefully crafted details, which are enhanced through refined nuanced junctions, to propose a relevant and enduring home.