Andrew Wood Associates - House fit for the Beatles!

Andrew Wood Associates

• 2008
• 350m²

Previously, The Heroes of Alma, this house when a pub was a popular haunt with the Beatles, Queen and Pink Floyd as it was the closest pub to Abbey Road studios. When the Beatles were recording there during the Sixties, the Heroes of Alma was where they would beat a retreat for a restorative pint or two. It has been a house for many years, but it still attracts camera-wielding tourists on the Beatles' trail.

Our brief was to refurbish the house from top to bottom, to sort out the damp and the rot and modernise it throughout, to create a high quality home with five bedrooms and six bathrooms. Whilst the building was no longer a pub, it was still to be a party house, with a club-like feel in the basement and a bar on the first floor. The ground floor was given over to the kitchen and dining spaces, and the garage was modified to take a low-slung super-car.

Through the refurbishment work, all of the floors were removed internally because the central structure misaligned between floors. The floors were all sagging and eventually they would all collapse. The building was braced, the floors were removed one by one and a steel structure was installed to support floors and hold the facades in place for the long term. The refurbishment included high quality finishes and bespoke furniture throughout.

Construction was completed in 2008 and the main contractor was SIL Limited.