Description
A rare opportunity to rent a spacious three-bedroom, three-storey 1960s townhouse presented in immaculate condition, with an established garden which includes a newly built garden-studio. The house forms part of a small terrace designed by Edward Hollamby, on a quiet residential street in Brixton.

The house has been lovingly restored and renovated by the owners, who have sympathetically reconfigured the space to include a large bright kitchen/diner on the ground floor that opens out directly to the private garden.

The first-floor comprises a large dual-aspect living space which is flooded with light. There are two double-bedrooms on the second floor, with plenty of built-in storage, and a modern bathroom; a further bedroom situated on the ground floor, plus a new shower room. There is parquet flooring throughout the first and second floor, as well as many original features including the wonderful open-tread staircase, original doors and built-in cupboards.

As the house is situated at the end of the terrace, it benefits from an additional shed/storage for bikes etc. at to the side of the house, plus a newly built 15 sqm insulated studio, with power, at the end of the garden, currently being used as a pottery studio, offers a number of opportunities to be able to work from home.

Torrens Road is a quiet residential street off Brixton Hill, with several supermarkets, restaurants, pubs, independent coffee shops and a post office just a few minutes away. The area offers a number of fantastic amenities including Brixton Village with its scores of independent shops, restaurants and bars; Brockwell Park — 125 acres of green with fantastic views of the city, a café, a walled garden, a wildlife centre, a children’s adventure playground and a weekend vintage car boot sale; Herne Hill market — one of the best farmer’s and craft markets in London; Ritzy Picturehouse Cinema and Brockwell Lido.

Within short walking distance is Brixton Underground station, offering quick links into central London via the Victoria Line plus there is extensive bus transport links to Central, South and East London.

There are two Ofsted outstanding schools within two minutes walk.

The house is offered unfurnished or part-furnished, with off-road parking. Pets are welcome. Available from end May/June.

History
Torrens Road is one of a number of infill sites that were built on by the London Borough of Lambeth in the 1960s with Edward Hollamby as Borough architect, where he carefully integrated modern houses within the existing street. Hollamby was appointed Chief Architect in 1962, who along with his team, was responsible for some of the best low-rise, high-density estates in London in the 1960s and 70s — good quality, small, mainly infill schemes including Virginia Walk, Blenheim Gardens, Cressingham Gardens, Central Hill Estate and Myatts Fields, winning a number of awards.

Hollamby’s aim was ‘to create a sense of smallness inside the bigness…and to get the kind of atmosphere in which people did not feel’. He believed people did not want to be housed in large estates, no matter how imaginative the design and convenient the dwellings, and preferred more humane designs, which were modern yet retained a continuity of tradition. He was also a great believer in listening and responding to the communities he was building for.

The estates were almost always built from good quality materials such as slate and London stock brick, with a mix of flats, townhouses and courtyard houses for the elderly built around shared parks, with cars restricted to the perimeters. Careful landscaping, trees and community centres were all important parts of the designs. Front doors often faced each other, with kitchen widows facing the walkways to promote neighbourliness. Internally the dwellings were designed to maximise daylight with skylights and split rooflines. The results were successful communities in village-like, well thought-out and humane estates, which are much valued by their residents.