This new build house was rebuilt from a derelict brick-built stables from the 1870s. The house is approached via a secret garden romantically planted to enhance the feeling of nature's wilderness hidden from view. The brief was to keep the industrial spirit of this dark functional barn-like volume yet consciously strive to introduce a clean element of modern architecture to this charming site whilst sensitively retaining the character and narrative of its previous life as a working stables.Hidden elements include a double curvature oculus open to the sky like a James Turrell aperture with exotic banana trees below as a focus to the bedrooms ; secret doors are concealed in dark panelling and hidden within pivoting brick walls, original timber rafters are reworked into joinery with cast iron columns and brackets. The house is rich in colour and contrasting materials and mood with intriguing Alice-in-Wonderland references to scale and elements of surprise: Dark Dickensian London meets Californian Lightbox. In the dining area dark brooding lacquered silver walls are offset by rich tapestry and illuminated by golden glass cherries; polished concrete floors have been inset with panels of rich end-grain oak and silk Fornasetti rugs;full height minimal sliding glass walls look over rough cobbles onto a crumbling brickwork arcade patinated with the original black bitumen from when it once served as a home for horses.