“We live in an apartment which is part of a Grade I-listed Georgian crescent in Blackheath, London. Although the original building was completed in 1794, it was restored after bomb damage in WWII. I was struck by how modern the proportions are and how the huge windows flood the space with natural light. We had chosen modern Italian furniture and this is my favourite piece: the Utrecht (designer: Gerrit Rietveld, 1935; maker: Cassina). As part of
the post-war restoration, the 14 gardens of
The Paragon were merged into a landscaped communal garden. This forms the green scenery visible through the six-pane window in our living room.” —Sean Myers
“Our bedroom was designed to be soft and serene but not too ‘feminine’. The interior designer Rachel Chudley sourced some exquisite deco pieces, including the fireplace shown, and used
plaster moulding, very creatively, on the walls and ceiling. It was completed with a photograph I took of one of my favourite places, Cooper Lake in Woodstock, NY.” —Lucy Tudhope
“Marianne Hasell (1800-1835) was the sister of Edward Hasell V and was brought up at Dalemain. The ‘stole’ that Marianne is wearing in the portrait was recently found in a trunk in the attic. Dalemain has been owned by the Hasell family since 1679. It was bought by Sir Edward Hasell from the Layton family who had lived there for nearly 400 years. The estate is now owned by my husband Robert and myself as well as our three children. We live in the house and open it to the public with an award-winning garden and farms. The estate that extends down around Ullswater is a designated World Heritage site.” —Jane Hasell-McCosh
“These portraits on the west wall at Dalemain are (from left) of Julia Musgrave, her husband Edward Hasell II and her mother Lady Musgrave of Edenhall. Edward, the builder of the Georgian house, extended the estate with considerable acquisitions of land. He built many of the present farmsteads and improved the longhorn breed of cattle, which is the foundation stock for many of the modern breeds. Edward’s mother was still mistress of Dalemain when he married Julia in 1735 and she gave Julia a few tasks to attend to in order to help with the running of the household. One was to keep check of the control of vermin. Mice must have been a problem as there was a table pulley in the kitchen to keep food away at night. In the foreground is the portrait of my daughter Beatrice on her 21st birthday.” —Jane Hasell-McCosh
“We designed this curved sofa so all the family could sit on it at the same time. It is upholstered in a rich green velvet and is extremely comfortable to curl up in. This room is used as a cosy night-time area. The wallpaper and dark deep colours enhance this. The berry-coloured curtains were hand-dyed by Nest Design.” —Rachel Chudley
“The paint colour of this room was designed especially by Donald Kaufman for the space. Its warm glow gives the impression of a sunset. We designed the mouldings in the room to wrap around and act as perspective lines leading out of the windows and into the garden.” —Rachel Chudley
“In the early ’70s, we bought a run-down four-storey Victorian house in Greenwich, London. A friend persuaded me to turn an upstairs room into the bathroom. A cast-iron, roll-top Victorian bath stood in splendid isolation in the basement so we heaved that upstairs. The wall plaster in the bathroom was cracked, so behind the painted overmantel we varnished the original brickwork. Beneath that stands a large and unusually shaped washstand and basin which caused Mick’s eyes to light up when he spotted it in the back of a dealer’s van. Slightly worse for wear, the elegant piece may have come from a grand home somewhere. Behind the basin is an array of Victorian tiles as well as metal figurines disporting themselves upon the shelves.” —Josie Godden
“Our house was built in the 1860s so it is fitting that most of the items in this room are Victorian. The three-piece suite posed a problem since, due to its size, a window had to be taken out to remove it from one house and we had to take off a couple of doors to get it into this house! One bookcase came from my childhood home and the other cabinet from a south London pub called The Artichoke. The ornate lamp and mirror, with original glass intact, were brought to the shop by dealers and the red velvet window curtains had once graced the stage of a theatre.” —Josie Godden
I’m fortunate enough to have access to many incredible homes, often when the owner isn’t present. I find it fascinating how people curate their spaces and how this tells us so much about their identity.
As a London-based photographer, I shoot a lot of period homes. These older properties already have a story of their own, perhaps occupied by previous generations of the same family. The buildings are usually defined by the reigning monarch at the time of construction (eg Victorian, Georgian, Queen Anne), and Londoners are adept at modernising their interiors whilst retaining period features.
When I work abroad I have more opportunities to photograph new-builds, with a ground-up vision devised by the owner, architect and possibly an interior designer.
I enjoy seeing the contrast between cluttered homes full of possessions, walls covered in artwork and the more clean, minimalist approach. I admire both aesthetics, and in my experience, they are not always applied consciously; some owners inherit or collect items for their home whilst others instinctively shun anything deemed unnecessary. Similarly, the contrast between bold, dark wall colours and light, neutral hues is intriguing.
For this photo essay, I have photographed seven rooms in six properties, including my own home. Each space has a strong identity of its own but also says something about the owner and the kind of environment they want to inhabit. Unlike working on commercial projects I’ve used only available light and have not styled the interior spaces.
