GII Listed Pulham

Laurel Cottage – Extension & Refurbishment

 

Beautiful kitchen and garden room extension to a GII Listed Norfolk Cottage.

Sometimes smaller projects produce an astonishing change to the feel and amenity of a property. They also throw up many of the same challenges experienced on much larger projects, so in turn require careful management, and skill, to achieve the best results.

Our diminutive Pulham Market project, is a great example; small, yet a very high quality extension, and it has completely transformed the use of the property. This home was rented out for a number of years by a developer, who then wished to make it a splendid home for his elderly mother who was downsizing from a much larger property.

Whilst she was content to move into a smaller home, she required a certain standard of accommodation, which could not be provided by the cottage in its’ current plan form. The listed property was a late C.17th or early C.18th timber framed semi-detached cottage with clay lump infill. The property had been extended to the rear in the early C.20th to turn a simple “two up, two down” configuration into a four roughly equal sized room plan on both levels.

The upstairs arrangement was acceptable, offering a character landing to access three reasonably sized bedrooms which simply required a decorative makeover to bring them up to standard.

The ground floor, on the other hand, was more of a challenge, as the layout was very traditional and segmented, not offering the type of accommodation that the client was used to. The question, as with all listed property projects, was how this accommodation could be brought up to standard without causing undue harm to the listed asset. The design approach was to initially consider if the ground floor accommodation could be reconfigured to provide more suitable accommodation. It was quickly decided that this was unlikely as the level of structural work needed would be damaging to the property, and would result in a very constrained space. There were a few minor alterations, a new staircase was provided with minimal loss of historic fabric as the C.20th alterations had removed the original one. The removal of this stair allowed the addition of a ground floor cloaks in its’ place within the former stairwell. A new stair provided safe access to the first floor through the original C.17th stair opening, since the existing but not original staircase was too steep, and certainly not suitable for an elderly client. This had the benefit of improving the functionality, whilst restoring some of the historic proportion lost during earlier works.

The obvious answer to the other issues was to provide a rear extension to comprise an open plan kitchen/living/dining space which would produce less harm to the structure of the host property, yet provide the type of modern, bright and generally desirable accommodation which suited our client, and maximised the return on investment for undertaking the work.

The resultant extension sits neatly against a flank wall of a neighbouring commercial space. This required consent from the adjoining owner to be obtained under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. This protects adjoining properties from work which may cause impact to them. The reader should be aware that this is now a key consideration when undertaking works to, or near to neighbouring property. A fine external landscaping scheme aids in connecting the extension to the rather nice large garden.

The extension included two large Fakro Flat roof system skylights floods light deep into the existing kitchen area, along with extensive sleek aluminium glazing to the rear. A high quality locally made kitchen, and contemporary floor finishes were used to produce a lovely comfortable room, which lifts and enhances the otherwise traditional property. The space freed up within the original plan was also transformed by this, allowing a study/reading room to be created in the now internalised former dining area to the rear. The lounge to the front is now transformed from utilitarian to opulent and cosy. This change was possible, since the new extension provides ample accommodation for the needs of everyday life.

We often view extensions to listed buildings as an opportunity to add fabulous spaces, which the host building simply cannot accommodate due to constraints on making radical changes, and the very nature of the building’s envelope including existing fenestration and circulation. I think that we achieved this with this small but perfectly formed modern extension.