With its clean angles and pinkish gray facade, Michelle Anderson and Dan Witchell’s new home, located on a quiet crescent in Brockley, London, demands a double take. Markedly different from, yet still reminiscent of, its stately neighbors, the home is a bold addition to a historic block. It also represents a vast improvement over what once stood on the site.

The couple’s house is actually the third to exist on the property. The original residence, built in 1879, was destroyed by a bomb blast during World War II (miraculously, the homes on either side were spared). In 1958, a functional but charmless two-story box went up in its place.

“The house was like a bad tooth on the street,” says Tristan Wigfall, a director at Alma-nac, the design firm Michelle and Dan hired when they bought the midcentury structure in December 2015.

But rather than level the old house, they decided to work with it, turning the bland building into a handsome 2,500-square-foot home. The brickwork of the existing house provided the inner cavity wall for the new home. “The old house was very basic and cheap,” Michelle says, “but it was solid. That was the redeeming factor and obviously informed our decision not to knock it down, which would have cost us a lot.”

With five boys, ages 6 to 17, the couple’s premium on durability was understandable. So was their desire to create more space, going from three bedrooms to six and incorporating five bathrooms.

Alma-nac accomplished this by adding a third story, where Dan and Michelle’s principal bedroom and bath are located, as well as two boys’ bedrooms. The firm also appended two extensions to the original dwelling, one of which enabled moving the entryway to face the street and another that serves as an extra-wide kitchen and dining space.

“Some people struggle with the color of the bricks. It does stand out, but in a good way. If you’re going to do something different, there’s no point compromising.”
—Michelle Anderson, resident

In order to comply with local conservation statutes, Alma-nac looked to Dan and Michelle’s neighbors for inspiration. Their roof mimics the peaks of the Victorians on the street, and the entire house is covered in a Belgian brick, echoing the vernacular yellowish brick facades of their neighbors’ homes and making it feel contextual in the historic district.

The interior design was left to Dan and Michelle, who have always worked in creative fields and are about to launch their own clothing brand, Asyou. Dan had several vintage furniture pieces that perfectly integrated into the home.

“All of a sudden, we had the opportunity to design around us, instead of designing ourselves around the house,” says Dan. “We were on a budget but were able to pepper these interesting pieces alongside utilitarian things.”

The result is a practical yet striking family home that belies its economy. It also manages to please both the local conservation group and the planning department in an area that boasts some of London’s best-preserved Victorian streets. With a little bit of ingenuity, this once-ugly outlier now turns heads.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Alma-nac / @almanac_arch

Construction: David Stewart Building

Structural Engineering: Constant / @constant_sd

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A Bare-Bones Brick Home in London Has Its Breakthrough Moment