Architecture

Buildings where the building is the reason to go: the inside-out, the Art Deco, the concrete, and the ones that make no sense at all until somebody explains them.

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Debenham House

A house in Holland Park glazed all over in peacock blue and green, like a bathroom turned outward.

HousesVictorian & Edwardian

Photo by Matt Brown from London, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Halsey Ricardo designed it in 1905 for Ernest Debenham of the department store, and it is the fullest surviving statement of an idea Ricardo argued for all his life: that in a city as sooty as London, buildings should be faced in glazed material so the rain can wash them. So the outside is Royal Doulton Carrara ware and green and blue Burmantofts brick, an Italianate villa in colours no London street had seen, which is why it is known as the Peacock House. Inside it turns Arts and Crafts, with work by William De Morgan and Walter Crane. It is a private house and opens rarely, but the outside is the point and it is free to stand and look at.

Where
8 Addison Road, W14 8DL
Nearest station
Kensington (Olympia) · 7 min walk

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