The Grey House, Highgate
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The Grey House at 85 Swains Lane in Highgate in north London, is a house built in 2008 by the architectural firm Eldridge Smerin.
The house was one of the 97 recipients of the RIBA Award in 2009 and was shortlisted for RIBA's London Building of the Year award.[1][2]
The house overlooks the West Side of Highgate Cemetery.[3] Swains Lane used to form one of the four main routes up Highgate Hill, and there were houses on the site prior to the establishment of the cemetery; in 1609 a William Gwercie left one cottage, a garden and half an acre in his Will, having himself inherited them in 1591[4]. In 1657 the physician, Elisha Coysh[5], lived in another. His property and half an acre of land can be traced on through Will records to Anna Sirdefield who died in 1882. By then there were six cottages on the site, and when she died the London Cemetery Company bought all 6, and the land with them. The Cemetery itself had been established in 1839.
In the late 1960s the due to the financial precariousness of the cemetery led to the sale of several plots of land around the perimeter, including the Swains Lane site, [6] where three modern houses were built. The plot now occupied by number 85 was the last: it had been purchased by the architect John Winter, and he built a house there in 1981.[7] Winter's 1981 house had a nautical appearance with blue cladding with white steel framing and large porthole windows. It was described as a "quirky box of tricks" by Building Design magazine.[2] The house was heavily cantilevered, and unfortunately the cantilever gradually failed, partly because insufficient rebar had been used, leaving the house part-resting on the cemetery wall.[2] The house was sold in 1998 to Richard Elliott, a photographer, chartered surveyor and developer.[6][8] He lived in the 1981 house for seven years, but it was structurally failing and he eventually decided to demolish and replace it.[6][2] He subsequently commissioned a new house from Eldridge Smerin having been inspired by another house in Highgate the firm had built, The Lawns, completed in 2001.[2] The new house was completed in 2008.[2] He felt that living in the house was like living in an "enchanted forest". [6]. He lived in the house for several years before selling.
The house appeared in multiple episodes in the fifth season of the BBC drama series Luther.[3].
The Friends of Highgate Cemetery and The Highgate Society initially opposed the construction of the house.The objections were disregarded by Camden London Borough Council as they felt that the design "illustrates an inherently sensitive grasp of the site's context ... unique and responsive, but suitably neutral" and that "small intervention is not so significant" due to the large size and greenery of the cemetery.[2]
