The Cloud House

When architect Peter Morris decided to demolish his Victorian home and build something new, he looked across the street at St Martin’s Church, dubbed by Pevsner “the craziest of London’s Victorian churches,” and thought: why not match that energy? The result is a pair of pink semi-detached houses covered in arches borrowed from the church, in a palette inspired by a Miami honeymoon, built collaboratively by two separate owners over three years. The arches themselves are made from recyclable polystyrene with pink render, proving that sometimes the most joyful architecture comes from the most unexpected materials.

The church sets a high bar. It was built on Vicars Road between 1864 and 1866 to a design by Edward Buckton Lamb, and John Derby Allcroft paid for it in memory of his late wife. Next door, St Martin’s Hall wears a stone-clad front so it looks like a castle. Morris spent three years designing his house, went through five redesigns, and spent a year in pre-application talks with planners. Camden granted permission in July 2020. The name comes from the cloud-shaped roof on the building’s east side. According to Morris, some people think the house looks like a mosque and others think it looks like a blancmange. Morris lives in 20A, a 133-square-meter home topped by a roof terrace with an outdoor bath. The house was featured on Grand Designs on September 23, 2026. Most of the arches, Morris admits, aren’t structural. Holding things up was never their job.