Celebrating Hackney’s past, shaping its future – since 1967
Celebrating Hackney’s past, shaping its future – since 1967
The night before Halloween, designer Irenie Cossey opened the doors to her latest project, On the Square.
The four-storey house, sitting on the corner of De Beauvoir Square, is a recently restored 1840s Grade II-listed detached Neo-Jacobean property, which Cossey bought in July 2023.
“The house had so much character and charm,” explains Cossey, founder of Irenie Studio. “But it also had dodgy sockets, no running water, and a leaking roof.”
It took Cossey a year to finally secure the property. What convinced her, she says, were the shadows: “The shadows were everywhere. The light was incredible. I just thought – this house is crying out for love. If I can retain that feeling and bring it back, it would be magic.”
While On the Square. is London’s first residential design house, it’s far from Cossey’s first experiment with space. With over twenty years of experience in architecture, design, colour, styling, and curation, her work spans private residences, product design, illustration, and installation.
Cossey describes her approach as “creating the undefined,” guided by six principles: every problem has a solution; framing moments; curation as staging and memory; archiving life; finding zest in every project; and her mother’s motto – every shoe tells a story.
A large part of the inspiration came from the project itself.
“I was pulling up the floor one day and looked diagonally across the square – the light was pouring in – and I thought, Through the Looking Glass. The whole concept could be a play of scale, like Alice in Wonderland.”
(If you ever find yourself inside, try to spot the nods – like a keyhole placed perfectly at a child’s eye line.)
Renovating the house was no small feat. The build involved two teams working simultaneously – one on the roof and one excavating below. Over 280 tonnes of soil were removed to create new lower-ground living spaces, while the original 1840s pine floors were restored and cornicing added.
Glass bottles unearthed during the excavation – an ink bottle, a milk bottle, and a jam jar – inspired a collaboration with glassmaker J. Hill’s Standard, whose pieces now adorn shelves throughout the house.
For Cossey, breathing life back into the space was about bringing people together. From reclaimed curtains and handwoven textiles to bespoke tiles and an Irish-crafted Upside Down Chair, every object in the house carries a story. Even the paint – Rosa Red, created with Fenwick & Tilbrook – references the rose bushes found in De Beauvoir Square.
Reflecting on the process, Cossey says, “I think I’ve retained the magic. There was one day when I unscrewed the windows and pulled up the floorboards – I could feel the house relax.”
De Beauvoir Square, designed in the 1840s as part of the Benyon Estate, was originally planned as one of five garden squares, explained one of the evening’s attendees during a talk held in the kitchen. Only one was ever completed, making these Neo-Jacobean houses a rare architectural thread in London’s Victorian fabric.
Restoring a Grade II-listed home has its constraints, but Cossey embraced them. “People get scared of listed buildings,” she says, “but you just have to tick the right boxes and keep what matters. There’s something about the past – it wants to be acknowledged.”