Louise Galvin is quick to point out that, although her sumptuously renovated home in London’s South Kensington is first and foremost a family home, it’s also an important historical building. I recognise my responsibility as a custodian of a house that holds a special place in the history of London’s architecture,” she says. The daughter of London-based hair colourist and stylist Daniel Galvin, whose clients have included Twiggy and the late Princess Diana, Louise is also a respected hair colourist in her own right.

Louise owns one of the most extraordinary examples of residential architecture from the 19th-century building boom in London; it was home to many a London luminary before falling into disrepair in the early 1980s. Together with a team of talented people, she has painstakingly renovated the house – and her commitment to preserving the provenance of this heritage-listed property is evident.

At first glance, the house displays the usual trappings of Victorian residential architecture, with red brick, terracotta facings, blocked stone dressings, leaded lights and high-tiled roofs. However, on closer inspection, the façade is decorated with a mix of vernacular motifs from the prestigious merchant mansions of Holland and Flanders. As one of the central houses in a row, it has a dominant, shaped gable broken by a tall chimney, while a triple-storey porch and arched stone balustrade add elegance to the exterior. By any account, it represents the high point of late-Victorian architectural individualism.

When Louise and her husband first saw the house, many prospective buyers had been put off by its dark, heavy appearance and oppressive interior. Unlike others, however, they absorbed its spirit on first sight. We both have an eye for detail, and a passion for architecture and history, so we could immediately visualise in our minds the way it could look,” explains Louise. The proportions of the rooms were beautiful, as were the decorative moulded ceilings, panelling, staircase and fireplaces – so we knew the bones of the house were right.” Right from the beginning, Louise’s vision was to create light, natural spaces with an organic flow from room to room.

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