Built circa 1898, this elegant late Victorian terraced house sits on the quiet tree-lined street Thornton Avenue, minutes from Turnham Green station. With four bedrooms and voluminous reception rooms unfolding across three floors, the home spans some 2,300 sq ft internally. The owners have celebrated the house’s original features while adding modern interventions, such as the rear extension, which contains a contemporary kitchen and dining area.
Setting the Scene
The current owners renovated the house to maximise volume as much as possible. The extension is home to a large roof light, a long clerestory window, and a row of bi-fold doors, which open onto the garden. Glass ceiling panels and Velux windows have also been added in stairwells and bedrooms. The house – like many speculative houses of the era – draws inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement. It has some lovely decorative elements externally as well as wonderful original features internally. These include the marble fireplace surrounds and intricate cornicing. For more information, see the History section.
The Grand Tour
The distinctive red brick façade is set back behind two private parking spaces. The front door, beneath a porch, opens into a wide hallway with original encaustic floor tiles. This leads to a sleek extension that houses the kitchen and dining area. The kitchen comprises a combination of black and cream ALNO cabinetry, with Caesarstone worktops and is fitted with NEFF appliances.
The house has a wonderful flow, and space has been maximised wherever possible. A music room/office sits in the centre of the plan, delineated from the kitchen by a change of flooring from Italian porcelain stone tiles to engineered-oak. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves line one wall.
Double doors open into the living room from here, where the original features take centre stage. Crowned by decorative cornicing, an original marble fireplace provides a focal point, and high ceilings mean the room is brilliantly voluminous. The basement below is now home to a useful utility room and additional storage space.
A generous principal bedroom is situated at the front of the house on the first floor. Filled with character, the room has its original fireplace and stained glass panes atop the sash windows. A dressing room leads from here into the en suite bathroom beyond, with a separate shower. At the rear of the plan is another double bedroom, painted a calming French grey. Adjacent is a shared family bathroom with a smart green and ivory chequerboard floor.
Two further bedrooms occupy the top floor, one currently used as a study/studio. There is a useful attic above, currently providing further storage space.
The Great Outdoors
With its semi-circular lawn, the garden is filled with impressive mature palm, olive and acer trees. There are numerous places for alfresco dining, making it possible to follow the sun in the summer months. A silver grey shed inhabits one corner.
Out and About
The house is brilliantly located in central Chiswick; Chiswick High Road and Turnham Green Terrace are both minutes away and are lined with excellent parades of independent shops, restaurants and cafés, including Chief Coffee and High Road House (Soho House group), as well as the new Chiswick Cinema.
The house is also a short walk away from the green spaces of Chiswick House and Gardens, arguably the finest remaining example of Neo-Palladian architecture in London, designed by Lord Burlington and completed in 1729. In its grounds is also an excellent café built in 2010 to a design by Caruso St John Architects.
The house is a 10-minute walk to the river. Numerous green spaces are nearby, with easy transport links to places such as Kew Gardens and Richmond Park.
The nearest station is Turnham Green Station (District and Piccadilly Line). Heathrow Airport and the M25 are approximately 20 minutes by car.
Council Tax Band: G
History
In the 1890s, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of England, the owners of the Chiswick Prebend estate, contracted local builder Murgatroyd Northrop Rhodes to build the houses on Thornton Avenue.
Originally from Bradford, Yorkshire, Rhodes had offices in Chiswick High Road. It is understood that his payment included 95-year leases on several houses, including this one. The road is named after Dr Thornton, who was the Prebendary of Chiswick when the house was completed in 1898.
The current owners purchased the house from the family who had lived there since 1938. Since acquiring the property in 1993, they have made significant but sensitive alterations and improvements.
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