Victorian restoration takes pride of place in Colindale development
Fairview New Homes will next week (3rd November) unveil a collection of only nine unique apartments painstakingly fashioned from a magnificently restored Victorian building at the heart of the company’s Pulse development in Colindale.
The Pavilion was built in 1899 as a flagship administrative building for the new hospital in Colindale and its exuberant Baroque exterior ensured the building remained a local landmark throughout its history.
Now, after three years of painstaking restoration, The Pavilion has been transformed into a collection of unique apartments. The nine homes consist of 3 three bedroom apartments, 2 two bedroom duplex apartments and four one bedroom apartments.
The new apartments are able to achieve a rare balance of the refined detailing of Victorian design with the comforts derived from the use of modern materials and technology. The latest kitchen designs sit comfortably in high ceilinged rooms with ornate cornices, living rooms and bedrooms are filled with light from sash windows, traditional in design but very modern in their insulating capacity, and beautiful art nouveau bathrooms benefit from the very latest plumbing.
Whilst modern heating, lighting and plumbing deliver the maintenance free luxury lifestyle associated with a new build home, it is the Victorian detailing in The Pavilion apartments that truly differentiate these homes.
Ten feet high traditional sash windows and high ceilings give The Pavilion apartments a sense of immense light and space, whilst throughout the building original doors, cornices and architraves have been retained where possible and where needed, painstakingly recreated using traditional materials and craftsmanship.
This attention to detail is best illustrated in the new apartments that feature ornate Victorian tiling in the bathrooms. To restore the tiling a specialist UK manufacturer was brought in to hand make replica tiles to exactly match the flamboyant William Morris style originals. The unique tiles were hand cast and fired before being reapplied to the wall using age-old techniques to achieve a perfect finish.
Throughout the whole design and restoration Fairview has worked closely with English Heritage to ensure that The Pavilion remains true to its Victorian heritage.
Stephen Brown, Area Construction Manger for Fairview and the man in charge of the restoration is justifiably proud of the result:
“Working on old buildings such as The Pavilion always poses a unique set of challenges for our team of specialist advisors and contractors. Every building is different and the restoration work always has to be approached in a slightly different manner. At The Pavilion we did have surviving examples of many of the ornate period details and we committed ourselves to doing everything we could to bringing the glory of the Victorian detailing back to life. We took moulds of every existing cornice to ensure that the new seamlessly matched the old, in rooms where there had been plaster skirting we made new plaster skirting and around the arched windows we built brand new curved architraves.”
The same degree of attention has been given to the exterior of the building where Fairview has restored the clocks and bell tower using specialist craftsmen working with lead and copper just as they would have done on the original construction site over a hundred years ago.
To link The Pavilion with the rest of the Pulse development, the building is surrounded by paved courtyards through which residents have access to the wider Pulse development and from there directly to Colindale Underground station. The Victorian splendour of The Pavilion is in fact just 25 minutes from the very centre of London.
The Pavilion is part of Fairview’s Pulse development, which has proved one of the most popular newly built developments in the capital over the last 18 months.
Guide prices for the newly released apartments in The Pavilion begin at £235,000. Further details can be found on the Fairview website at fairview.co.uk.
