Dow Jones Architects

We have recently converted a derelict and listed Victorian schoolhouse in Clapham Junction into our office. The building had been un-used for forty years and was suffering from major movement from collapsed drains and a large English plain tree in the garden. Structural works included a new cranked ridge beam, extensive crack stitching, and substantially extending the two buttresses on the north wall. The old roof tiles were removed and crushed, providing hardcore for the ground slab, which is left unfinished, and insulation added above the roof joists. We used scaled-up gutters and extended the brickwork along gables to mask the roof build-up. Inside, the floor joists and 25mm pine floorboards were lifted and re-used to build the structure and clad our mezzanine meeting room. Internal walls were lined with insulation, and all the windows replaced with new double-glazed timber windows. An MVHR system provides ventilation, and an air-to-air heat pump provides heating and cooling.