Designer Irenie Cossey is adding the finishing touches to her transformed Grade II-listed neo-Jacobean house on the exclusive De Beauvoir Square in Hackney.
Unbelievably unflappable, she’s nearing the end of 18 months of work — not only bringing a semi-derelict house back to life but also collaborating with around 25 craftspeople and creatives to showcase their own designs within the space.
There will be events held here in April and May, and then Cossey plans to list it for sale. This is property development with a Hackney twist that leaves no corner of this previously neglected house untouched by Cossey and co’s design magic.
As I step off the street, I navigate a gaggle of landscapers in the front garden, before encountering a separate gang of contractors, equally busy, inside the house.
Throughout my time at the project dubbed On the Square, upbeat craftspeople continue to pop through the door, now delivering a set of reworked mid-century chairs, now unrolling a couple of painstakingly embellished tweed blankets.
Cossey, of Irenie Studio, is at the eye of this creative storm — think of her as both the composer and the conductor of the orchestra — and she’s looking crisp, polished (right down to the different rose shades in her manicure).
This plethora of projects-within-a-project spans furniture and textiles, paint and objects, right down to a glassware collection inspired by the ink, medicine and milk bottles found on site during the excavations for the lantern-roofed kitchen.
When Cossey mentions the glass-blowing training she did just so that she could have informed conversations with the company that are making the glassware, you know she’s serious about this. “I’ve always worked in this way and I love what I do,” she says simply.
On the most basic of levels, this is a property development, but basic really does not apply here.
Cossey has found a house with the most exquisite bare bones, and has respected its past while bringing it firmly into 2025 with both its functionality and its bold, playful style.
There are three bedrooms and three reception rooms, with the third, a snug, niftily doubling as a fourth bedroom.
On the lower ground floor sits the airy new kitchen, which mixes maple cabinets with reclaimed Iroko countertops and opens onto the terraced garden beyond.
To get this house over the line, Cossey has covered all the bases, from taking advantage of the mere five per cent VAT charged on renovating houses that have been empty for two years or more, to capitalising on the strong contacts she has made during a career that spans more than 20 years and covers architecture, interior design, brand collabs and design consultancy.
Creating Wonderland
“By working with makers and designers who are having a conversation with the house, we have brought the space to life in a completely new and exciting way,” says Cossey.
For example, she gave sculptural furniture designer Rio Kobayashi (and friends including Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos, Bethan Laura Wood and Flavia Braendle) a residency here during Frieze season in 2023, in exchange for a dining table made using reclaimed materials from the house (as are many of the other pieces here).
Plenty of her collaborators have had, or will have, their own time in the space to showcase their work against this backdrop, in return for bespoke pieces made in response to the house itself.
“As well as the cross-pollination of ideas, the designers can stand independently, too, using the space as a showcase for their own pieces,” she explains.
In a city full of interesting period property, the four-storey, Jacobean-style 1840s houses that ring Hackney’s De Beauvoir Square still stand out as being gorgeously characterful, with their intricate leaded windows — looking like something out of a fairy tale.
It was the stunning original features that piqued Cossey’s interest. “Storytelling is key to my work. I can’t design without a story in mind — I’d feel blocked. I love to uncover spaces, to tell the stories that lie within.
“For On the Square, the house has been the client and, at every turn of the restoration, we’ve received clues of the stories it wants to tell.”
She took inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
“With the windows and apertures holding such foundational stories, Through the Looking-Glass has been at the heart of this project from the beginning. The building’s unique features and restrictions gave me the chance to create something magical.”
Cossey has played with ideas of scale and illusion. The snug features mysterious arched openings, where you would usually expect a fireplace. There are other visual quirks, such as the snooker-ball knobs of the cupboard doors — and mirrors. Lots of mirrors.
The intricately arranged tiled floors in the house are from Barber Osgerby’s collection for the Italian ceramics brand Mutina, sold by Domus.
The design is aptly named Time, to tie in beautifully with the White Rabbit’s pocket-watch fixation.
Kvadrat provided deadstock fabrics that have been reworked in countless imaginative ways, even covering a pair of charming little Tracey Neuls shoes that add to the rich storytelling of the house.
There are almost too many stories to tell here, such as that of designer Michael Marriott’s sustainable, vivid red Glasgow shelves, originally designed for the charity and social enterprise Glasgow Wood.
The end of the story
Cossey approached Norfolk-based premium paint-maker Fenwick & Tilbrook, having long been drawn to its chalky finishes.
Their collaboration included the creation of a new shade of pinky-coral called Rosa Red, referencing both the rose garden on De Beauvoir Square and the Queen of Hearts’ roses in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
This envelops the stairway, “like a central spine within the house” surrounding the sinuously curving original staircase.
Cossey has added subtle curved detailing throughout the space, too. This is a house full of thoughtful and considered touches that the lucky eventual owner will enjoy discovering.
Cossey doesn’t dwell on who might buy the house. “The right person will take it,” she says with certainty. “Some people will like the stories behind the house and others won’t be interested, but they’ll still see the same colours and patterns. The stories don’t take me any extra time; they’re just my design process.”
She plans to spend some quality time in the house before she passes it on, but she’s laid-back about letting it go.
“This house has given me so much, I’ve met some amazing people and pushed boundaries. But I’m used to giving my clients the keys and saying, ‘It’s yours now’. I’ll hand this story over and then it will become someone else’s journey.”
