Walmer Yard

Walmer Yard is not merely a holiday letting in London; it’s an intellectual-emotional experience, a wander into the corridors and chambers of the UK’s leading minds in architectural thought.

This architectural gem in Notting Hill is the fruit of years of collaboration between legendary “architect’s architect”, theorist, and educator Peter Salter, Crispin Kelly – esteemed as the property developer with the best architectural taste in Britain – and architect/artist Fenella Collingridge, whose research project Saturated Space explores the relationship between color, tone, texture and form in architecture.
 
As a result, what comes through is the substance of nourished thought and time. Four interlocked houses wrap around the irregular courtyard with the aim of inspiring an environment of sharing, interaction, and connectedness: a feeling of home. High craftsmanship is a prevailing theme at Walmer Yard—Peter Salter speaks of materials and savoir-faire with rich knowledge and an irrepressible fascination.

The experience of this holiday letting in London begins with an elegantly unassuming road-facing façade that lets you in through a discreet opening, leading into a courtyard of irregular shapes defined by the recesses and projections of its four interlocking houses. This is the preamble to the ideas that come to life in the privacy of its interiors: a moving sensibility towards materials and an unorthodox approach to space.
 
There is a raw sensuality in the selected materials and finishings: Yurt-like living and dining rooms clad in Cornish clay evoke a primal feel within a futuristic headspace, wall colors guide us silently by absorbing or reflecting light, leather handrails seduce our touch, and copper curtains fascinate us with their intricate weave. The idea of space expressed in a wide open-plan structure is laid aside. Instead, we are invited to explore constantly fresh sequences of spaces, an approach that lends a monastic feel; a quiet refuge that engages all our senses—touch, smell, sight, and sound. Steel staircases are folded like origami, rooms are simultaneously organic and geometric— perhaps impossible elsewhere, but curiously natural here. A labyrinthine impression creates an immersive experience.
 
Here is a modern hospitality concept where we enjoy each sequence course by course, morsel by morsel, like fine dining at the chef’s table.

The rental of these homes supports the work of the Baylight Foundation – a registered charity with the aim of increasing the public understanding of what architecture can do.