The Grey House, Highgate

The Grey House, Highgate

The Grey House, Highgate is a contemporary, four-storey private residence in Highgate, north London. Designed by the practice Eldridge Smerin and completed in 2008, the building is noted for its extensive use of glass and exposed concrete, its dramatic siting overlooking Highgate Cemetery (Waterlow Park), and for receiving recognition from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Location

The Grey House stands at 85 Swains Lane (sometimes reported as between 85–87 Swains Lane) on the western edge of Highgate Cemetery, within the Highgate area of the London Borough of Camden. Its upper glazed levels look directly over the cemetery slopes and the parkland of Waterlow Park.

Architectural design and description

The house was designed by Eldridge Smerin and completed in 2008. Externally it combines raw concrete, metal cladding and large glazed façades: the top two floors are predominantly glass, set as terraces and garden rooms, while the lower levels read as a more solid concrete plinth set into the hillside. The roofline includes a sliding glass roof/skylight over parts of the top floor. The design emphasises internal/external blur, long glazing runs for framed views across the cemetery, and a compact arrangement over four floors adapted to the steep site.

Plan and structural concept

The dwelling was conceived to sit on a steeply sloping plot immediately adjacent to Victorian cemetery retaining walls. The design employs a central reinforced-concrete element and cantilevered floor plates to negotiate the slope and maximise panoramic glazing. Photographs and published floor plans show an internal organization of living spaces on upper glazed levels with bedrooms and ancillary rooms on lower levels with access to small garden terraces.

Construction and engineering issues

Published accounts note that construction and the site posed unusual engineering challenges. Sources report that the house was built on poor soil and in close proximity to grave excavations and the cemetery retaining walls; early structural arrangements (including cantilevered elements) required modification, and at one stage the building’s support relied on the cemetery wall after a cantilever failed and remedial works were undertaken. These issues have been discussed in contemporary press coverage and architectural commentary.

Awards and reception

The Grey House was a recipient of a RIBA Award in 2009 and was shortlisted for RIBA’s London Building of the Year shortlist for its region in the same year. The scheme received significant attention in architectural press and specialist property media for its bold modern language sited against the historic landscape of Highgate Cemetery; commentators have described it variously as an exemplary contemporary house and—as some local observers put it—an audacious intervention on a sensitive Victorian hillside.

Ownership, sale listings and public profile

The house was developed for Richard Elliott (photographer, chartered surveyor and developer), who owned a previous dwelling on the site before demolishing it and commissioning Eldridge Smerin for the replacement project. In later years the property attracted attention on the residential market and from estate agents: it was marketed via specialist agents and featured in national and international property press (for example in listings and press coverage in 2016–2022). Media profiles often emphasised both the architectural pedigree and the unusual, sometimes divisive, relationship with Highgate Cemetery—views that have proved attractive to some buyers and unsettling to others. The house has been advertised at multi-million pound asking prices in recent listings.

Cultural references and usage

Because of its striking appearance and cinematic glazing overlooking graves and parkland, the property has occasionally been highlighted in lifestyle and property journalism and been cited as a location of interest for filming and editorial photography. It has also been described in articles covering notable contemporary houses in London.