MOST people’s lofts are crammed with junk – old football boots jostle for
space with tatty schoolbooks, broken chairs, bent lampshades and faded
photograph albums. But not so for Madeleine Mitchell. The professional
violinist has converted the attic of her flat into the London equivalent of
a “Paris salon” – a spacious room in which she can perform in front of a
select gathering.
The transformation of her rafters has created not only a light-filled, airy
private space but has also added up to 20 per cent to the value of the
property, according to one expert.
Mitchell bought her two-bedroom, fourth-floor flat in a garden square of Grade
II listed terraced houses in Central London in the 1980s. “The flat was at
the top of a fairly dilapidated 1850s house with lots of stairs, but I loved
it as soon as I saw it. It had real character and I really liked the chunky
porticos.”
After a few years, Mitchell – who is a professor at the Royal College of Music
– started to wonder about the unused attic space above her head. “I had
always been in love with the idea of holding Paris salon concerts,” she
says, “and thought it might be the perfect space.
“It took years and years getting consent and agreeing it with the other
inhabitants of the house, and I basically had to wait until we could all get
together and renovate the whole house and share the scaffolding. For years
the roof leaked, so eventually we agreed that I would pay for the new roof
and thereby get my loft space.”
When she at last obtained consent, Mitchell worked closely with an architect
friend, Mark Willingdale, of Willingdale Associates. “There were certain
things I had to have,” she explains, “such as the highest possible ceilings.
I also had to have a mansard set back from the parapet, as it’s a listed
building.” This turned out to be an unexpected benefit, as the flat now has
a small terrace garden. Mitchell is one of the UK’s foremost violinists,
giving masterclasses worldwide and performing in more than 40 countries. She
was a Fulbright scholar and is now the artistic director of the Red Violin
Festival in Cardiff. She has performed concertos with orchestras such as the
Royal Philharmonic, the Polish and Czech Radio Symphony, the Württemberg
Chamber and for the BBC, and was leader of Peter Maxwell Davies’s ensemble
The Fires of London.
For Mitchell, as for every musician, good acoustics are key. The high ceilings
– 11½ft at the apex – and solid oak floor make it perfect for practice and
performance. The walls are white-painted plaster, bare apart from a
6ft-square painting by the artist Gerald Marks. A couple of artfully placed
musical instruments make the scene, and two rugs and a simple sofa bed mean
that the room is easily transformed into a guest room when necessary.
Skylights let in as much light as possible and, Mitchell says, “because it’s
so light and spacious I have deliberately not filled it with much. The peace
and the space are very conducive to creativity. It’s a very inspiring place.”
Mitchell’s flat is in W2, where two-bedroom flats sell for an average of
£452,190 compared with a national average of £187,894 (Land Registry data).
House prices have risen in the area in the past five years at an average
annual rate of 15.4 per cent compared with a national average of 12.5 per
cent. Sale prices in Mitchell’s street in the past year have reached
£880,000, and a flat in the same building sold for £400,000 in July.
Louisa Fletcher, founder of www.propertypriceadvice.co.uk, says: “There is no
doubt that a loft conversion like this will add value, but to gain the
maximum value when you sell you need to ‘dress’ the space as a proper
bedroom.
“By adding a third bedroom to a two-bedroom listed flat, particularly if you
manage to maintain the character of the property, as Madeleine appears to
have done, you should add, in the right market, up to 20 per cent to the
value of the property. By selling it with a studio, it’s not as obviously
attractive to a buyer, however. Buyers literally need to be shown how to
utilise space in a property.”
One of the property’s strongest points, Fletcher says, is the terrace garden:
“That will make the property, particularly in that area, more unusual and
desirable than the loft conversion. Apartments in the capital with outside
space are hugely covetable and can fetch a premium, regardless of market
conditions.”
Building work finished in 2002 and Mitchell held her first concert for 25
seated guests in February that year. “For me it’s a really good way to try
out repertoire before recording,” she says.
So far she has held ten concerts in the studio and also occasionally holds
lessons there with students. Her latest CD, Violin Songs, is a
direct result of the salon concerts: “The songs weren’t written for large
concert halls – they were written for spaces like this.”
Extending your home? Read expert tips from Naomi Cleaver and Kevin McCloud at timesonline.co.uk/propertyexperts
TOPROOMS
You will need planning permission if the conversion changes the outside
appearance of your property, if the area exceeds 50 sq m, if it’s converted
into more than two habitable rooms, if you you live in a conservation area
or if the building is listed. Your loft design must meet building
regulations in terms of ventilation, fire escapes and, if the property is
attached, sound insulation.
The owner of any adjoining wall needs at least two months’ notice before work
commences.
There are three main types of loft conversion: rooflight/Velux, which involves
converting the existing space and adding rooflights flush to the roof;
dormer, which creates extra headroom using a dormer extension; and mansard,
where the roof is extended into a square brick-sided space.
I wonder about sound proofing so neighbours are safeguarded, both from music and from feet up and down stairs (throughout the house and up to the attic)? The normal building regs are very poor, particularly regarding party walls, having been designed well before the age of 24 hour lifestyles, washing machines, stereo sound systems and tv.... Concerts are another dimension...
helen, Norwich,