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Listed Flat Renovation in Queen’s Gate, London

 
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  • The townhouse entrance on Queen’s Gate in South Kensington
  • Renovated living room with new double-glazed windows and new parquet
  • Visualisation by Jflemay of the flat’s renovated living room
  • Photo of resulting renovated living room overlooking Queen’s Gate
  • The renovated living room towards Queen’s Gate
  • The renovation connects the kitchen and living room into an open plan
  • The flat’s living room before renovation, showing the blocked archway
  • Visualisation by Jflemay of the flat’s kitchen and reopened archway
  • The reopened archway is separated by a fire-rated glass partition and door
  • The renovated open kitchen viewed from the living room
  • The flat’s kitchen before renovation
  • Visualisation by Jflemay from the kitchen to the living room
  • The kitchen with units by Tom Howley opening onto the living room
  • A clerestory partition visually connects the kitchen to the rest of the flat
  • Photo showing the kitchen daylit as a result of the added glazing
  • The kitchen with units by Tom Howley and worktops in Carrara marble
  • The renovated master bedroom, visualisation by Jflemay
  • Renovated master bedroom with new French door
  • New wardrobes with white-lacquered fronts and minimalist handles
  • The wardrobe’s carcasses in birch plywood are durable and add warmth
  • Detail of the wardrobes’s minimalist handles
  • We restored the Victorian solid shutters which were previously abandoned
  • The restored shutters allow the natural light to be controlled
  • The renovated guest bedroom, visualisation by Jflemay
  • The refurbished room, now used as an office
  • Alternate view of the office
  • Entrance hall showing new clerestory partitions with ultra-clear glass
  • Entrance hall showing glazed fire-rated partitions and raised entrance beam
  • View into the hallway with raised beam and increased ceiling height
  • Hallway showing lights by Louis Poulsen and Arkoslight
  • Shower room with Appennino marble cladding
  • The unblocked sash window brings daylight to the shower room
  • Shower room with sanitaryware selected by C.P. Hart
  • Curved Appennino marble vanity designed by C.P. Hart
  • Renovated Victorian mouldings in the front room
  • The living room with added uplights and a regilded cornice
  • The historic mouldings were extensively repaired and repainted
  • View of the townhouse’s entrance on Queen’s Gate
  • The building entrance and flat’s windows from the Queen’s Gate pavement
  • Computer-generated video by Jflemay walking through the flat

Grade-II listed flat renovation in Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, London

Location South Kensington, London, UK
Duration 2024 — 2026
Client Private client
Architect Jflemay Architecture and Design
Structural engineer Symmetrys
Kitchen designer Tom Howley
Bathroom designer C.P. Hart
General contractor Woodsgift Interiors
Visualisations All images © Jflemay Architecture and Design
Photographer All photos © Jflemay Architecture and Design

The client acquired an upper-ground floor flat in a white-stuccoed Grade-II listed townhouse built in the 1860s on Queen’s Gate, opposite the Natural History Museum, in South Kensington. While the flat featured four-metre-high ceilings and period mouldings in good condition, it was damaged by decades of unsympathetic transformations.

We proposed to restore an arched passage between the front and rear rooms. This archway had been walled up and the rear room’s historical ceiling concealed behind a suspended ceiling of no utility. By reopening this arch, we were able to create an open-plan living and dining room, bringing daylight to a kitchen which previously had none and gaining a metre in ceiling height. Around the new kitchen by Tom Howley, we designed clerestory partitions which the conservation officer appreciated as they revealed the original undivided volume of the rear room. These glass partitions are fire-rated to isolate the flat’s entrance from the other rooms, as required by the Building Regulations.

We applied for planning and listed building consent with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and received permission in April 2025 on the first attempt. Construction began in September 2025 and ended in May 2026.

We also brought daylight and air to a new shower room by reopening a large sash window which had been inexplicably walled up. We relocated a second shower room and laundry room under the communal stair. C.P. Hart selected the shower room fixtures.

In order to have an oak parquet while meeting the Residents Association’s acoustic requirements, we contracted the Belgian company CDM Stravitec to install a 10-cm thick raised floor throughout the flat, consisting of rubber blocks, aluminium channels and two layers of oriented strand boards. We replaced the single-glazed sash windows and French door with new ones made of timber and slim-line double glazing. This made the flat more energy-efficient and quieter.

The oak floor, white walls and uplighting bring visual unity and calm to the flat. The clerestory partitions let eastern and western daylight traverse the front and rear rooms. We regilded a part of the cornice to restore this touch of warmth and sparkle.

View photographs of the flat under construction here.

© 2026 Jflemay Architecture and Design, all rights reserved. All text, drawings and photographs are made by and copyright of Jflemay except where otherwise noted.