Architecturally striking: The Grey House in Highgate, North London

Highgate, one of north London’s most coveted locations, has a reputation for attracting London’s creatives and free thinkers. Just 30 minutes from central London, yet surrounded by rolling green spaces and loaded with fashionable boutiques and restaurants, its previous residents past and present include writers, models and musicians: from Charles Dickens and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to Kate Moss and George Michael.

The Grey House, now for sale for only the second time since it was built, perpetuates that creative reputation. The house is an award-winning masterpiece, an outstanding contemporary home that has provided memorable backdrops in TV programmes ranging from Luther to Silent Witness. It’s also a property that’s as much a talking point for its striking design as for its unique location, on Swain’s Lane beside Waterlow Park, overlooking the outer edge of world-famous Highgate Cemetery.

“The Grey House is undoubtedly one of the most exciting properties on the market in North London,” says Andrew Groocock, Regional Partner at Knight Frank. “It’s a design-led house in a secluded position that offers the total privacy that many prime and super-prime clients require. You hardly notice it from the mysterious granite and steel façade on Swain’s Lane, but set foot inside and full glass elevations to the south and west fill the rooms with light, offering spectacular leaf-top views over the Victorian cemetery below.”

The house was the work of prominent UK architectural firm Eldridge Smerin and built on the footprint of the previous 1970s house. Completed in 2008, it immediately received fulsome praise, a winner in RIBA Building of the year and nominated for the Manser Medal and Stephen Lawrence Prize, three of the UK’s most significant architectural awards. Acclaimed architect John Winter, the designer of the house on the site, described The Grey House as being “as near to a faultless building as I have seen for a long time”.

The four-bedroom property is built over four floors. The first and second floor rooms all open on to balconies while the two ground floor bedrooms lead to a private terrace. Minimalistic interiors, cantilevered floorplates, and expanses of glass and polished concrete emphasise its clean lines, while a retractable glass roof on the top-floor kitchen and dining room adds further light. The property’s extensive modern technology includes an integrated audio-visual system, centralised controls for underfloor heating and lighting, and a state-of-the-art cinema room in the basement.

“Highgate offers the best of both worlds: an area of extensive parks with excellent schools and a village atmosphere that belies its proximity to the bright lights of the capital,” adds Groocock. “The Grey House’s location overlooking Highgate Cemetery, the final resting place for luminaries such as Karl Marx, Christine Rosetti and George Eliot, might not appeal to everyone, but its architectural magnificence and the light-infused lifestyle it provides are undeniable.”