A high-ceilinged drawing room with herringbone oak floor, tall sash windows and a plaster ceiling rose

West Didsbury Townhouse

West Didsbury, ManchesterArchitecture + Interior Design20256,800 sq ft

Location: West Didsbury, Manchester
Scope: Architecture + Interior Design
Completed: 2025
Area: 630 m² · 6,800 sq ft

A nineteenth-century West Didsbury townhouse reimagined as a quiet contemporary home while preserving the proportions, craftsmanship, and character of the original structure.

The townhouse's stucco bay and front door with its original stone steps, in black and white

Approach

Undoing before adding

Over a century the house had been divided into flats. The first year of work was mostly removal: partitions, false ceilings and a 1970s extension. Once the original rooms were back, the new interventions could be few and exact.

Oak stair treads with a wrought-iron balustrade and a timber handrail — New oak treads on the original stair; a reinstated cornice in the second-floor bedroom.

Close view of a stepped plaster cornice where two walls meet the ceiling — New oak treads on the original stair; a reinstated cornice in the second-floor bedroom.

Restored entrance hall with an arched opening, cornicing and a lantern

Historic moulding

Cornices, repaired by hand

Every cornice and ceiling rose was surveyed, cleaned of paint and repaired in lime by a fibrous plasterer. Missing lengths were run in situ from profiles taken off the surviving runs.

A short list of materials

Close-up of quarter-sawn oak with a strong figured grain — Natural oak
Quarter-sawn European oak, oiled rather than lacquered, for floors, stair treads and joinery. It darkens slowly and repairs easily.

Travertine vessels and soap dispensers on a stone vanity — Travertine
Unfilled honed travertine in the bathrooms and on the kitchen island. The open pores are left as they are.

Textured lime plaster wall in a warm grey — Plaster walls
Lime plaster finished with a mineral wash. The walls breathe, which the old brick needs, and the light moves across them softly.

Oak kitchen cabinetry with an integrated oven and a single stem of monstera in a glass vase — Kitchen joinery in oiled oak, made in Stockport by a three-person workshop.

A simple oak chair against a white wall beside the kitchen run

Custom millwork

Joinery as architecture

Storage, radiators and services are folded into the joinery so the rooms themselves stay empty. Each run is drawn at 1:5 and set out from the original skirting lines.

A pencil resting on a detailed architectural drawing — Section through the rear extension, drawn at 1:20.

Natural light

A deeper house, made lighter

A narrow rear extension, lined in oak, brings daylight down through the centre of the plan with a single roof light. The original rooms are left untouched by it.

Two pale ceramic vessels on a dark polished surface — Objects for the hall; the overmantel mirror as found, before it was restored.

Gilded overmantel mirror and original marble fireplace in a panelled room, before restoration — Objects for the hall; the overmantel mirror as found, before it was restored.

Afternoon sun falling across linen bedding in a dim bedroom

Material restraint

Fewer things, better made

The finished house uses six materials in total. Where the Victorian house was decorative, the new work is plain, so the two can be read apart and neither competes.

A physical study model of the street, with houses and trees in card and timber — Study model of the street, used to test the height of the rear extension.

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