A new angle

Cheryl and Andy Taylor’s unusually shaped home is a triumph thanks to clever design and a bold use of glass

- JO LEEVERS 

Cheryl and Andy Taylor approached the task of renovating their London home from two different angles. They have peeled back the folds of its formal Victorian cloak to reveal something sharper and altogether more intriguing. Their masterstroke was slicing decisively through the house’s traditional core, inserting sections of glass and hard, crisp lines, so that the once buttoned-up 19th-century spaces now flow with renewed energy.

Although not immediately obvious, the floor plan of this handsome double-fronted house is more trapezium than rectangle. The result is that the house’s two exterior side walls gently angle inwards, finally meeting in a point at the end of the garden.