To some it resembles a 1980s block of council flats. To others it is amongst the greatest architectural achievements of the post-war era.
Schreiber House, a 5,691sq ft house in Hampstead, north London, has gone on sale with The Modern House priced at offers over £9.5m.
The Grade II-listed house was built in the early 1960s, designed by architect James Gowan for kitchen designer Chaim Schreiber.
Gowan said he was inspired by castles in his native Scotland, and while its blue-brick exterior is intentionally “puritanical” inside it is light filled and contemporary.
Many of the bespoke furnishings designed by Gowan and built in Schreiber’s factories especially for the house are still in place.
The house has been owned by Simon Kirsch, 65, and his wife Virginia, 55, for the past 21 years.
“I was incredibly excited when I first saw it because I had seen so many Georgian semis in north London, and I wanted to try and escape the small rooms on multiple floors,” says Simon, who is now retired after running a medical communications company.
He agrees that the house has something of a split personality, with its high walls and small windows on the outside, and its large, light, and surprisingly contemporary looking living spaces within.
“It is an extraordinary change,” he says. “Gowan was a genius.”
The ground floor of the house is mostly taken up with an open plan dining/reception room, plus a kitchen and study.
The two upper floors have a second sitting room, and five bedrooms. On the lower ground floor there is a garage, utility room, storage, and an ensuite bedroom.
According to Historic England the house “is one of the most significant town houses of the post-war period.”
The conservation particularly admires the “exceptionally high” quality of workmanship and finishes in the house.
“Money was spent not on ornament but on high-quality materials,” including San Stefano marble floors and ceilings clad in Bath stone, it concludes in its official listing of the house.
In London: North by legendary architecture critic Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry, the house is described as “austere, individualistic” and “outstanding”.
Simon and Virginia are now planning to downsize. Their youngest child has just finished university and the older two have already left home.
But Simon is certainly not ready for a cute cottage in the countryside. “I do like the whole Brutalist thing,” he says. “I think I would feel entirely at home in the Barbican.”
