Will British house buyers learn to love apartments?

With space running out in the city’s most prestigious districts, developers are desperate for Londoners to embrace the apartment building. But buyers have clung to their period townhouses around neat garden squares for centuries and not everyone is finding the transition to lofty glass towers so easy. 

 

But the team behind this penthouse at Buckingham House hope they’ve created a compromise that makes efficient use of space but pleases British buyers. It sits atop a converted boutique development of seven apartments on the corner of Buckingham Street in Covent Garden.

 

Situated in the heart of theatreland, the Art Deco building has a grand red brick facade and real Portland Stone from the 1930s. The three bedroom penthouse is relatively small, spanning 1,081sqft, but it ingeniously uses moving walls in the living room so guests can remove the third bedroom and experiment with open-plan living if they desire.

 

The developer, Amazon Property, calls it the “modern townhouse” and it seems to have worked as five of the apartments have been snapped up by British buyers. 

 

Amazon Property partner Chris Lantis thinks this addition, along with the classic furnishings, creates a flexible space that still feels homely and private. “In a townhouse, homeowners would expect to have the freedom and space to create a separate study, dining room, library or games room, and so we’ve tried to make these apartments as flexible and adaptable as possible.”

 

Call sales agents CBRE on 020 7861 3050 or Savills on 020 7578 5100 or visit amazonproperty.com