A Playfully Renovated Neo-Jacobean Villa in London

On the corner of De Beauvoir’s storybook garden square stands a house that feels at once anchored in the 1840s and entirely of the present moment.

This Neo-Jacobean residence, known today as On the Square, has been transformed by interior architect and curator Irenie Studio into a richly layered, experiential home where history and contemporary design meet in joyful conversation.

Part private residence, part living gallery, the four-storey house serves as an evolving backdrop for storytelling, collaboration, and artistic exchange. Yet despite its pedigree and purpose, the atmosphere throughout is unexpectedly warm, human, and quietly enchanting.

Irenie Studio’s approach is one of reverence and reinvention. Original architectural gestures, such as the oriel windows and the elegant curving staircase, have been restored with care, while newly introduced elements add a fresh narrative to the historic envelope.

A lantern-roofed kitchen, bespoke colour palette, and sculptural interventions thread modernity through the home without compromising its spirit.

The guiding inspiration? Alice in Wonderland. Moments of whimsy appear like Easter eggs throughout the house: a dining table fashioned from salvaged doors by Rio Kobayashi, textiles hand-woven by Tomoyo Tsurumi using fragments found during renovation, and custom glassware by J. Hill’s Standard recalling the apothecary bottles unearthed beneath the floorboards.

Entry to the home is on the ground floor, where you will find two living rooms, of which one is now used as a study. The front room, painted in a soft pink shade, features a beautiful ornate fireplace.

The study is painted in a moody gray-blue shade, highlighting the period joinery and cornicing.

Descending to the lower ground floor reveals the kitchen, a bright, tactile space crowned by an overhead lantern roof that floods the space with daylight, illuminating maple cabinetry and reclaimed Iroko countertops.

The kitchen unfolds toward a terraced garden crafted by award-winning designer Peter Beardsley.

Here, an oak-framed bench makes an irresistible spot for morning coffee, catching the first of the day’s sunlight. Steps lead up to a decorative upper garden, where raised beds, a barbecue area, and a sense of quiet enclosure create an outdoor room for long summer evenings.

At the garden’s end, a reclaimed emerald-green door from the original house, saved and reinstalled as a surrealist flourish, stands as the “cupboard of curiosity,” an object-sculpture anchoring the garden’s narrative.

At the front of the lower ground floor plan lies a television room where a moody color palette and layered textiles create a cozy snug.

The lower ground floor is complete with a bathroom and utility room featuring a checkered floor and an orange sliding door.

The top two floors are home to three bedrooms and a family bathroom. The master bedroom is painted in a soft pink hue paired with yellow built-in wardrobes.

The family bathroom also isn’t without color, from the blue tap to the yellow shower wall.

The stairwell is painted in the custom Fenwick & Tilbrook Rosa Red hue, a shade referencing the roses that bloom across De Beauvoir Square.

The two bedrooms on the top floor feature exposed wooden beams and high-pitched ceilings.

The house is listed for £3,000,000 at Aucoot.