Jonathan, a born-and-bred Londoner, bought the house in 2021, having previously lived in a flat in Peckham. Although it’s only a stone’s throw away from the hustle and bustle of Elephant and Castle, this felt like a surprisingly peaceful place, thanks to the fact that it’s a no-through road with a school at one end. ‘You don’t feel like you’re in a busy urban centre,’ says Jonathan. The Victorian Terrace was originally built in the 1860s as model housing for the Fishmongers’ Guild. ‘The idea was that workers lived simply, but with character housesWith everything you need in one place, including the school, and the pub and shop that framed the other end of the street,’ explains Jonathan. The house itself is what Jonathan describes as a ‘fixer downer’ – all neutrals, beige carpets and landlord style. ‘I wanted to strip back the layers and go back to the original floorboards and bare walls,’ Jonathan explains of his approach to the three-storey, three-Bedroom The space ‘had some nice thoughtful details, and I wanted to bring that out before I added my own touch on top of it.’
Firstly, it was a case of establishing flow – although nothing changed in terms of layout. ‘These houses were built simply, functionally, but with nice details, such as fireplaces,’ he says. Downstairs, double seat-dining room The house spans the depth and has a kitchen at the back, which Jonathan decided to keep thanks to the fact that it worked. Upstairs to the first floor, the bedroom is to the front, with a the bathroom At the back, while the third floor is reserved for a generous study – the kind many of us dream of – and a dressing room at the back of the house.
With the floorboards exposed and the house stripped back to something more like its Victorian bones, Jonathan decided to keep the walls white throughout – a move designed to really let his collection and objects sing. ‘I wanted to create an environment that felt calm and clean, because there’s a very fine line between collection and clutter,’ he admits with a laugh. While the walls provide a neutral backdrop, splashes of yellow, red and blue are woven throughout, taking their lead from elements such as the original Victorian stained glass windows in the hall, which cast a warm glow when the sun shines. Nothing is more like sunshine than the painted stairs in Little Green’s ‘Mr David’. ‘They are really happy,’ says Jonathan. The bathroom has a wardrobe and a wall of panelling color and Paper Library’s magenta-toned ‘Geisha’ – a color that has an earthy, grounding effect. Texture, whether it’s the glitter on the stairs, the cracked glaze of a ceramic piece, or the threads of a colorful, charmingly naive Burmese tapestry above Jonathan’s bed, keeps anything from being too rudimentary or gaudy.
