As one of the principal determining factors when you are assessing your new home, where we make our best memories and spend our most fruitful waking hours, living rooms represent everything about why we choose our home.
Every room serves a purpose, it goes without saying, but the living room always portrays what we truly love in texture, design and comfort. It becomes our home and is our sanctuary, where we live.
Whether it’s minimalism, classic Georgian or contemporary mid-century choices, this selection of unique living rooms will hopefully quench your reception room thirst.
1. Arresting maisonette with a secret
Hidden in the heart of Dartmouth Park is this substantial home arranged over three floors. It features a hidden gem in the air-conditioned basement – perfect for a gym, cinema room, recording suite, photographic studio and various business uses. The house itself is a fine example from the mid-Victorian period.
Situated on a corner plot, the property benefits from two entrances, including a street-accessible side gate providing direct access into the rear garden.
Through the front door, you enter into an impressive hallway with guest cloakroom. This in turn leads onto the extremely spacious main reception room via double glass doors, the biggest and brightest space in the home. Daylight streams in through sash windows overlooking the front garden. All original features are retained, including cornicing, dado rails, two working fireplaces with fenders and Victorian window shutters.
The ground floor has been greatly enhanced by a conservatory addition to the rear, creating a bright and tranquil place to dine. Full-width glazed sliding doors open onto a terrace with stairs leading down to a 35 ft walled garden. This urban escape has been landscaped with mature shrubbery, a tidy lawn and established trees.
Adjacent to the conservatory is a spacious and functional kitchen comprising fully integrated appliances, granite worktops and clever storage solutions.
Descending to the lower ground garden floor down a flight of glass stairs, the period detailing continues throughout.
The large principal bedroom features three fitted wardrobes along one wall and oak-framed double doors offering direct garden access. An open-plan ensuite completes the space with a free-standing bathtub, glass-partitioned walk-in shower and enclosed WC.
Three further good-sized double bedrooms complete this floor. Two have ensuite shower rooms/WCs (one including a discreet laundry area), while the fourth bedroom has a large fitted wardrobe and views over the rear garden.
The basement is currently configured as a gym/cinema room but offers a flexible footprint to suit your lifestyle. Whether shaped as a music room, recording suite, photographic studio or a cinema, it is a hobbyist’s dream escape. Further benefits include an additional ensuite shower room, changing room and further storage cupboards.
Dartmouth Park Road is for sale at £2,850.000. Click here to view the image gallery, plans and description.
2. Riverfront Living Room
A truly original south-facing waterfront home hidden away from public view whilst opening up onto the Thames with an unobscured view of the Greenwich Royal Naval College and Observatory, the Cutty Sark and the London skyline. This home is one of the best-kept secrets in London.
Located in a formerly deprived neighbourhood of the Isle of Dogs, built by renowned architectural firm Stout and Litchfield, infamous for New House, Shipton-Under-Wychwood (which featured in Stanley Kubrick’s big-screen adaptation of ‘A Clockwork Orange’), is 50-52 Ferry Street, a not-so-well-known but highly significant self-build project finished in 1979.
Throughout the first level, there are splashes of 1970s interior design, including William Morris block-print wallpaper. The principal double reception, which the owner would stage opera evenings in for friends and family, is finished in a rich green tapestry and the dining room in a fascinating floral arrangement, both with balconies overlooking the Thames. Completing this floor is a sumptuous kitchen, fully fitted with appliances and pine worktops, with plenty of scope to be retained or benefit from a full refurbishment.
As noted by Historic England in The Architects Journal, after the property was Grade II listed in 2021:
‘…Historic England hailed the block as a “fragment of an exceptional vision” which aimed to “create an alternative response to meeting housing need, giving people the opportunity to share in the creation of a new community”…’ (source: The Architects’ Journal)
Constructed of pre-cast concrete, with the façade finished in white flint lime brick and a reclaimed Welsh slate roof, the entire property was closely designed by the current vendor alongside the architect. In the 1970s, this was an incredibly pioneering and forward-thinking approach to take to owning a home, whereas now everyone is a budding self-builder.
With a double plot, the owners went about designing a 6-to-7-bedroom, 5,349 sq ft home with an uninterrupted view over the River Thames across to the Greenwich Naval College and the Cutty Sark. In the words of the vendor’s father, ‘this is the best view in London’ – this could not be more accurate.
Ferry Street, E14 is for sale at £1,950,000. Click here to view the image gallery, plans and description.
3. Georgian Living Quarters
A notable 2,244 sq ft Huguenot townhouse, sensitively repaired and conserved over three decades, situated on one of the most desirable streets within the coveted Spitalfields conservation area.
This distinguished townhouse, constructed circa 1720, stands on Wilkes Street, named for John Wilkes (1725-1797), the radical London politician and noted champion of civil liberties.
It forms part of a handsome run of houses, Grade II listed and recognised for their collective value since 1950. Wilkes Street runs between Hanbury Street and Fournier Street – the latter basking in the presence of Hawksmoor’s Christ Church, Spitalfields – and is one of the precious surviving clusters of streets that make up this historic urban village, just moments from the City of London.
Over more than three centuries, the façade has remained remarkably unspoiled, its red and yellow stock bricks still defining the street front. Triple sash windows, each a classic six-over-six, march across the elevation and rise to the third floor, where the original weavers’ loft still crowns the house.
Wilkes Street, E1 is for sale at £4,750,000. Click here to view the image gallery, plans and description.
4. Grade II Listed former munitions factory
This two-bed apartment in a former Georgian warehouse sits within Woolwich’s historic Royal Arsenal, a former munitions factory and storage facility complex that was converted in 2006 but has a history dating back to 1671. Tastefully designed with a nod to the building’s history, the apartment measures around 1,000 square feet over two floors. The property also comes with a parking space set within a gated forecourt.
Set back from the banks of the River Thames, the Royal Arsenal’s former Grand Store is a calm and quiet environment to live, despite only being five minutes’ walk from excellent transport links that connect the area with the rest of London and beyond.
Located on the second floor, as soon as you set foot in the hallway of this property, you feel that you are in the best of modern warehouse conversions, with exposed beams, large industrial windows and splashes of exposed brick. A calm, largely monochrome palette helps to frame these original features.
The lower floor consists of a double-height open-plan lounge with the kitchen separated by a dining table. The beautiful bespoke fitted kitchen by Uncommon Projects provides plenty of shelves and practical storage and is completed with Corian work surfaces, a Bora hob and Neff and Bosch appliances.
Marlborough Road, SE18 is for sale at £550,000. Click here to view the image gallery, plans and description.
5. Former Georgian Naval Officers Accommodation
A historic and wonderfully finished ground-floor flat in a row of Grade II listed Georgian houses dating from 1780, formerly accommodation for Naval Officers of the British fleet.
Located in a converted Georgian terrace of seven properties (comprising twenty flats), facing a park square and with attractive gated communal gardens to the rear. Your front door opens onto a generous, high-ceilinged hallway with period features, shared with two other flats.
The living room is exceptionally bright, overlooking the traditional square with mature trees. It is flooded with natural light through the original sash windows. Period features include original Georgian wooden shutters, skirting boards and picture rail, cast iron radiators and pine flooring.
The kitchen has iroko hardwood countertops and high-quality appliances. The kitchen opens onto the private paved terrace, which is not overlooked, with space for six people to sit, plus additional storage. A gate leads to the well-maintained communal gardens, which are a huge part of life in ‘The Terrace’, with a community vegetable plot, all within a walled garden.
The tranquil bedroom looks onto these quiet gardens, a beautiful space and a haven of calm away from the world.
Neighbours get to know each other in a classic London terrace such as this, taking pride in the approach to life, almost becoming protective custodians of the property for the future.
The Terrace, SE8 is for sale at £450,000. Click here to view the image gallery, plans and description.
6. A Sliver of Sanctuary: The Seven-Foot Wonder of Notting Hill
This unique, one-of-a-kind home in highly prized Notting Hill Gate may be modest in stature, but its clever interior arrangement across three floors provides two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a sizeable rear terrace. Whether it serves as a comfortable full-time base or a bijou London bolthole is entirely up to you.
In the world of compact living, this distinctive London house was something of an early adopter. Originally a ransom strip of land connecting the street to a now-demolished building behind, the house was built circa 1930 and later refurbished in the 1950s. More recently, it has been thoughtfully cared for and refined, resulting in a home that feels both characterful and highly considered.
For such a compact footprint, there is an impressive amount to unpack. Every square foot across the three floors has been carefully designed to maximise space, light and functionality.
Even at just seven feet wide, the house has a striking presence within Peel Street’s historic terrace. A passion for the Arts and Crafts era is evident throughout, with decorative detailing extending to the façade: a zinc-canopied entrance, curved window cover and a custom dragon’s-head downpipe – a symbolic nod to the movement.
The ground floor immediately surprises. Ceiling heights and proportions lend a Tardis-like quality to the open-plan kitchen and dining space – equally suited to relaxed dinners with friends or quiet mornings with coffee.
Between this space and one of the two bedrooms sits an ingeniously arranged shower room and WC. The bedroom itself continues the Arts and Crafts theme, paired with industrial-style solid wood flooring. Glazed double doors lead to a small light well, offering a sliver of private outdoor space.
The first-floor reception room is rich with period character. An elegant decorative fireplace forms the focal point, complemented by exposed floorboards. At the rear, glazed doors open onto a generous decked terrace with ornate balustrading – a wonderfully private spot for alfresco dining or evening drinks in warmer months.
Peel Street, W8 is for rent at £3,500. Click here to view the image gallery, plans and description.
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