Conservation & Heritage Issue 52 Summer/Autumn 2026 - Flipbook - Page 77
© photography by Andy Stagg (@studioStagg)
Sensitive Hands, Open Doors:
A Small Studio Completes the
Refurbishment of The Mosaic
Rooms within the South
Kensington Conservation Area
A landmark two-year commission brings full accessibility and a unified cultural identity to
The Tower House — a prominent Victorian building in the Royal Borough of Kensington
and Chelsea — without compromising its historic character.
London-based practice A Small Studio (www.asmallstudio.
co.uk) has completed a comprehensive two-year
refurbishment of Mosaic Rooms — a charitable organisation
founded by the AM Qattan Foundation in 2009 and
dedicated to contemporary arts and culture from the Arab
world — occupying The Tower House at 226 Cromwell Road,
South Kensington. Positioned on a prominent corner within
the South Kensington Conservation Area and in the Royal
Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), the project
required the highest degree of conservation sensitivity,
navigated entirely in-house by A Small Studio, who led
the commission across all RIBA work stages: from initial
feasibility, design and planning, through to technical design,
tendering, and full contract administration.
the construction sites of the surrounding neighbourhood in
the nineteenth century. Its prominent massing and ornate
façade are integral to the character of the conservation
area, and any intervention was required to respond to this
significance with care and rigour. The interior carries its
own remarkable decorative history: a 2014 investigation by
Helen Hughes Historic Interiors Research and Conservation
(HIRC) revealed that the original ceiling rose and plaster
cornice of the ground floor Drawing Room — now the Main
Gallery — retain traces of their late nineteenth-century gold
leaf decoration, applied during the tenancy of theatrical
impresario Imre Kiralfy (1896–1916). Successive occupants,
including the army during the First World War and later
LAMDA, overpainted these schemes, yet the historic fabric
endured beneath. A Small Studio’s refurbishment carefully
retained and protected these original elements throughout
the works, ensuring this layer of the building’s decorative
history is preserved for the future.
A Building of Significance
The Tower House is an architecturally distinguished
Victorian building — originally designed by the architect of
Earl’s Court as a commanding civic presence, overlooking
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