Jonathan Tuckey

Jonathan Tuckey’s ability to lend new life to classic architecture is shedding fresh light on the old Grove, as Tamara Abraham discovers when she meets him at his W10-based practice

Above: Architect Jonathan Tuckey of Jonathan Tuckey Design

Anthropology may seem an unlikely start for someone who makes a career out of architecture, but according to local architect Jonathan Tuckey, recently hailed as one of Courvoisier Future 500 bright stars, the two are more closely linked than they seem. ‘You’re always looking from the outside into these different communities,’ he explained when I met him at his Barlby Road practice. He was especially interested in the way people used the space around them.

‘There was a social link between how a space was organised and what it looked like,’ he continues. One such typical example of his earlier education impacting on his work is also one of his most famous to date – in a house in Holland Park Mews. ‘It was originally a stable, so really poky. You had to have 25 lights on in each room’, he said of it. Thankfully the client’s open-plan brief gave Tuckey plenty of scope to use his imagination. A skylight and double-height space brought in plenty of natural light and also allowed the client to make the most of the space vertically as well as horizontally. ‘Convention would dictate that you would live on the bottom floor and sleep on the top, but suddenly by putting that across both floors you get a sense of height.’

It was more than clear from talking with Tuckey that he has a genuine passion for architecture with a history and a story, be it a disused workshop or local street. ‘St Peter’s Church and the adjacent houses on Stanley Crescent and Stanley Gardens are a beautiful sequence of buildings on the ridge of Notting Hill,’ he enthuses. And the fact that he cycles everywhere means that he is constantly spotting potential for renovation and regeneration in the area. ‘The buildings that form Notting Hill Gate seem to let down the aspirations of the place,’ he adds. It is a habit that he has encouraged his team to adopt too, sending them out on bikes for the odd day to find architecture to inspire them.

A consistent feature of Tuckey’s work is his ability to challenge our perceptions of features usually considered ‘ordinary’. ‘We never try and hide what’s already there. We try and make what’s there very beautiful, and that would be the same for a house as it would be for a nightclub,’ he says. Given this, it is exciting to hear that he has been chosen to design the space that will become 12 Acklam Road (currently Neighbourhood), which will see the local nightspot transformed into a multifunctional entertainment space.

It was the unavoidable ‘corridor’ shape of the Westway that led the design of the first-floor space. ‘It’s got this extraordinary sense of perspective – you’re never going to pretend you are not under a motorway so we try and make it glamorous, a sort of Miami underneath a motorway,’ Tuckey explains of his plans, which were originally based on a brief for an outdoor smoking space. ‘Out of that generated this whole sequence of other things that could happen – it could be a bar, dance floor, nightclub and restaurant outside’. The new design intends to make the most of the location’s potential, given the recently increased footfall on Acklam Road. ‘There’s a real interest in trying to get people to experience and use things throughout the day and not necessarily just going to Neighbourhood at midnight’.

Predictably Tuckey’s own home also plays on the idea of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, albeit in a vastly different context. A former stainless steel workshop, he spotted the potential for a modern family home on the otherwise derelict land at the top of the Harrow Road. ‘It was originally completely boarded up, but beneath had a lovely structure’ he says of the space, now named the Collage House. The still unassuming façade gives way to a double-height living/kitchen space not unlike a converted barn, while a garden beyond is also framed by a two-storey block of bedrooms, so the green space is visible wherever you are in the home.

A labour of love, his ever-expanding practice took priority over the Collage House. ‘The whole project took about five years because it always got put to the back of the queue.’ It was well worth the wait, though. The finished project so impressed the Grand Designs magazine team that they awarded it Best Remodelled House in their 2007 awards.

As someone who both lives and works in the area, Tuckey remains loyal to the same locale when it comes to favourite haunts and hangouts. ‘We tend to utilise most things in the area. We don’t tend to go miles across London so if we’re going to the cinema we’ll choose stuff that’s either on at The Gate, The Tricycle or The Electric.’ Lunch is usually a quick bite at Golborne Road stalwarts Moroccan Tagine or Lisboa, while The Cow [Westbourne Park Road, W2] and Paradise [Kilburn Lane, W10] remain favourite pubs. Shopping is done on Portobello, but only on a Friday or Sunday of course!

I asked if there was any local building that he would love to renovate. ‘Any of the buildings that line the Grand Union Canal, which rarely seem to make the most of the light and views in this location’, he replied, also naming the buildings on Notting Hill Gate. To see Tuckey’s take on those we’ll have to wait and see, but with 12 Acklam Road in the pipeline it already looks like the Neighbourhood is set to gain a new perspective.

Jonathan Tuckey Design

44 Pall Mall Deposit,

124 Barlby Road, W10

020 8960 1909

www.jonathantuckey.com