Giles Reid Architects

Works to a Georgian townhouse dating from 1733 in Mayfair, converting the building from offices to gallery use. Completion due October 2025.

The Clerk’s House sits on the side of St Leonard’s Church (1736-40), designed by George Dance the Elder. The house dates from c.1735 and is believed to be the oldest surviving building in Shoreditch. At one point it served as a watchhouse for guards protecting the church’s cemetery from body snatchers.

Emalin is a contemporary art gallery established in 2016, run by Angelina Volk and Leopold Thun. This is their second gallery in East London and follows work by Giles Reid Architects to their first space.

The project entailed restoration of the interior to provide new exhibition space over two floors. Existing modern interventions were carefully removed and surviving Georgian panelling restored, some of which is believed to pre-date the building and originate in the 16th Century.

A new office, kitchenette and bathroom has been created on the ground floor to the rear, replacing contemporary, very dilapidated interiors. Back of house spaces have a Georgian blue ceiling, replicating the soffit of St Leonard’s nave.

Photography - Joseph Asghar

Having carried out extensive works to the attic level in 2023, in this phase, we transformed the floor below to create new bedrooms and bathroom for the family's three children.

We stripped the stair from ground floor to attic, restoring all the timber. A degree of structural intervention was required to the front elevation, to take out a sagging bressummer beam and rebuild the front arch with red rubbers.

The interior was stripped back to structure, floor joists reinforced and levelled, and then floorboards, previously hidden below carpet, were re-laid, sanded, given a lye finish and sealed.

The client wanted to keep the existing panelled doors, which we stripped and refurbished. We replaced old, tired or damaged skirtings, architraves and dado railings throughout, milled to match existing. New windows were installed, as were new wall linings, ceilings and cornices, together with new heating and electrics.

In each bedroom, the fireplaces had been painted and their hearths concealed, losing all trace of their features. We took them out, stripped them, soda-blasted the cast iron inserts and Victorian tiling and put them back together as they would have originally appeared.

The project was informed by the idea of working very closely with what was there, but undoing the damage of decades previous use as an HMO, making the space feel lighter, and better connected to the rest of the house.

Conversion of a former small factory, originally used for the manufacture of mannequins, into a private house for a couple. The building sits in the Canonbury Conservation Area.

The project includes the removal of a modern, poorly built, side infill to create a new external courtyard, landscaped and paved in granite. This introduces light and ventilation to the lower ground floor. The project also involved the demolition of an existing, dilapidated rooftop structure, demolition of a bowed, three-storey brick rear wall and demolition of all internal floors.

We rebuilt the rear facade and restored and partially rebuilt the front elevation, re-pointing it with lime mortar. Following this came the insertion of a new three-storey steel frame, construction of insulated ground, first and second floors and new roofing. The new layout re-imagines the top floor structure as the kitchen and dining room, sitting below a pyramidal timber ceiling.

Flooring uses reclaimed wide plank, four-metre-long cheese boards, originally employed for curing Gouda, and finished with a lye finish. Walls are skimmed with natural plaster and a clear matte sealer. Brickwork internally has a lime slurry finish with a soft white masonry paint.

Joinery is bespoke designed throughout, including the lower ground floor facade, all sash and casement windows, doors, stairs, storage, and the top floor kitchen. Joinery is largely derived from 19th Century joiner’s manuals, engaging with the traditional skills of the contractor’s skilled carpenters, rather than subcontracting the work to boutique joinery suppliers. This reinforces the key project idea of working inventively with London’s everyday classicism.

Photography - Joseph Asghar

Complete refurbishment of the attic level of an Edwardian house, creating new study, ensuite, main bedroom and dresser / lounge. When purchased, the top level was suffering water ingress in several places and existing rooms were poorly lit. Roofing, linings and flooring were stripped back to structure. The structure itself was extensively rebuilt, with existing dormers enlarged. Flooring is laid in a chevron pattern with new openings coordinated to the flooring. Joinery is bespoke throughout.

Photography - Joseph Asghar

A new contemporary art space for Modern Art, a London gallery run by Stuart Shave, in Bury Street, St James’s, Mayfair.

The main timber facade has been restored and painted a deep, ink blacky. The ground floor gallery is a single room, naturally lit from the front, with a new stair at the rear. This descends to a second smaller gallery defined by square dimensions. A glazed door leads to a staff office, also used for private viewing. Here a new timber facade looks onto a light-well below the street. The process of restoring this light-well uncovered glazed brick slips, previously hidden behind decades of paint.

All three rooms are unified by minimal floor detailing and track lighting. These are offset by traditional timber and glass door details and a reclaimed oak parquet floor. The intention is to create an interior which is neither wholly modern nor traditional, but, we hope, an appropriate addition to the street.

Photography - Ståle Eriksen

The project was to convert two floors of an 18th C coach house in Bermondsey. The major constraint was the lack of direct sunlight.

We relocated the living room to the upper level, where there was the best available natural light. The kitchen was moved into what had been a small laundry area, allowing the creation of one big family space. Bedrooms were moved to the ground floor. They face a narrow courtyard which backs onto a neighbouring glass curtain wall, providing reflected light.

External walls, formerly shot blasted brick, dark brown and light absorbing, were given a lime / sand slurry and painted white to bounce the light around. Exposed timber and steel beams were fire protected and also painted white. Pale white ash was used throughout for both flooring and built-in joinery.

Photography - Ståle Eriksen

Refurbishment of the ground floor office to Emalin, a contemporary art space in Shoreditch run by Angelina Volk and Leopold Thun.

The building dates from 1889, designed by architects Drury and Lovejoy as a warehouse and workshop for a tailor and gentlemen's outfitter Abraham Lazarus.

The design exposes the ornate plaster ceiling details and references the internal stair. The scope includes a new desk made from reclaimed Iroko, a storage wall, art lighting, marmoleum flooring and acoustic linings, plus new entrance display furniture.

Photography - Joseph Asghar

Conversion of a car repair garage into a 140m² studio for an artist. The emphasis is on making a robust, comfortable working space.

The site which was severely compromised by a deep plan lacking natural light and ventilation. The existing slab was uneven, impregnated with engine oil and peppered with petrol interceptor chambers.

The floor dug was dug out to increase head height and replaced with a new polished slab. A new façade with bi-fold doors and high-level windows sits behind an existing roller shutter. Further day light is introduced via a previously hidden light-well and from two blocked up vents towards the back of the space.

Existing linings were replaced with insulated and fire rated ceilings. Walls are built to an art gallery specification. Visibility is maintained from the main studio space at the front to the rear workshop area, separated by a timber and glass screen. Timber joinery is meranti.

Photos - Lorenzo Zandri

Winner 2021 Haringey Council Heritage Design Award.

The project was to restore and reconstruct a three storey Edwardian House in the Muswell Hill Conservation Area.

The house was was stripped back to brick walls, timber floor joists and studs. Clues and reusable material from the existing house were then taken as the starting point for the design, room by room.

The scope included replacement of all existing windows with new in matching timber profiles, new and refurbished stained-glass windows, repair of the brick facades, new slate roofing, new skylights, hard landscaping, a small basement, new bathrooms and a change in layout to each floor. The ground floor has new fibrous plaster covings and fireplaces and a reclaimed pine floor. Large bifold doors connect the drawing and living rooms. On the top floor, we exposed the attic’s concealed roof trusses.

The ambition was to create a contemporary interior using traditional construction and carpentry skills that the Edwardians themselves might recognise. A single spirit is carried across the house, rather than place in contrast to old.

Photography - Mary Gaudin

Single storey side extension in Haringey Conservation Area, next to the Parkland Walk, a disused rail line, now cycle and pedestrian way, used as a yoga studio.

The timber is off site prefabricated by Devon based specialist frame contractor Emanuel Hendry, fully designed in advance, stood up and checked, then dismantled, brought to site and rebuilt in place.

Timber frame and sliding doors are made with solid Douglas Fir.

Photography - Peter Cook

Interior re-modelling of a 2 storey apartment on the Thames. The apartment sits near the finishing line of the Oxford / Cambridge boat race, at a bend in the river with an unobstructed view east and west.

The existing interior was stripped back to the structure to address acoustic issues between apartments. A new layout places the kitchen dining and living area parallel to the Thames. Views are extended through the interior to give a sense of the bigger whole and glimpses of the rooms beyond.

Narrow boards of solid English oak is used for both flooring and skirting. It is also continued across the base of all internal doors. The oak is taken diagonally up both walls of the stair to the sunroom above and also used for treads and risers. The board setting out on the left wall of the stair mirrors exactly the of the setting out on the right, creating a symmetrical design.

Photography - Mary Gaudin