Homeowner Patsy O'Neal and Smith & Newton Architects took a tired 1850s Victorian terrace in North London and gave it something it had never had — a bold, confident identity. The result is a home that doesn't shy away from colour or contrast, with a contemporary rear extension that opens the ground floor up to the garden in a way the original layout never allowed.

A full restoration and contemporary extension to a Victorian terrace in Finsbury Park — Lothair Road is the kind of project that rewards the discipline of doing things properly. Every original detail that could be salvaged was, and the new rear addition provides the additional space the house always needed, without compromising what made it worth restoring in the first place.