When it comes to recovering new spaces in the city, Londoners know how to give their best. After the café created by a Victorian toilet, architect Laura Clark also completely refurbished an old abandoned public bathroom, transforming it into a beautiful and elegant private home.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
When it comes to recover new spaces in the city, Londoners know how to give their best. After cafe created from a Victorian toilet, architect Laura Clark has also completely refurbished an old abandoned public bathroom, transforming it into a beautiful and elegant private home.
The former dressing table, located below Crystal Palace Parade, was discovered by the professional in 2005. Having just completed a degree from Glasgow School of Art, the young architect was looking for a unique challenge. “I've always loved the idea of micro-regeneration. For me it means protecting sites with an interesting history, but which have been abandoned and forgotten ", he said al Telegraph.
His initial plan was to transform the two adjacent former toilets (male and female) iin a bar or in a very small cinema, to breathe new life into a neglected area of the local landscape. But bringing this particular site to life was almost a lost cause and it took two years to establish who was responsible for them, since it was located on the border of three municipal areas. Removed this obstacle, the economic crisis at the end of 2008 meant that development in a commercial space was no longer viable.
Just as he was about to tear up the project, Clark realized he could relaborate his drawings in an elegant apartment equipped with a bedroom, raising even more concerns about the feasibility of the project in terms of health. It took many months, during which light levels were monitored and measured every day, to convince planners that the space was habitable. Eventually the property was officially put up for sale and work began.
The toilets were built in 1929 and had been in service until 1980. Today in their place a beautiful house, with slender shelving, a modern kitchen and a gold colored bathroom. Land tiles in the kitchen have been recovered from the original structure, as well as a mirror placed in the living room. And with all-English humor, a small poster stands out in the house with a public warning about the dangers of contracting venereal diseases in the kitchen.
Roberta Ragni
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- In London, a Victorian ex-toilet cafe
