Revolution Road: A Ground-Breaking Kitchen in London - Remodelista
Photographs for Remodelista by Matthew Williams. The National Trust has yet to come calling, but we wouldn’t be surprised if someday Alastair Hendy’s kitchen is declared a landmark. Featured in print and on television the UK, Hendy’s kitchen design helped spark a worldwide trend that continues–he’s one of the people to thank for your lab lighting and powerful stainless-steel range. The two-story loft is set in a converted industrial building in Hoxton and has a living room that overlooks the kitchen. The stainless-steel-topped island is used for food prep; when the meal is ready, Hendy pulls up stools and it becomes the dining table. The vintage wood and metal stacking stools came from a college science lab via the Ardingly International Antiques Fair in Sussex. When installed, this Zanussi range and broiler had almost never been seen in a domestic setting. It’s topped with a hive-shaped, industrial-sized steamer from a trip to Singapore–”great for making dim sum or a shoal of sea bass for a party.” Hendy buys his appliances from Nisbets on Shaftesbury Avenue. Under a concrete counter top, Hendy had a steel frame made to hold old steaming drawers from an oven. A collection of trays from Hue, Vietnam: “I found then in the fish section of the market filled with live eels in shallow pools of water. I use them as vast platters.” The worktable came from a school. A yellow brick-walled scullery off the kitchen is for storage and washing up; food staples are stored in an adjacent pantry. “The scullery and pantry have gone out of fashion but I think they’re of utmost importance,” says Hendy. Resting on the sink’s hot water pipe, a baking tray serves as an ad hoc shelf. Scrub brushes hang from S-hooks on the sink’s exposed piping. A cabinet from Habitat holds Hendy’s all-white dinnerware. Everyday flatware is tidily kept out in the open in a ceramic dish. Surface-mounted galvanized steel conduit (for light switches and outlets) surrounds a medicine cabinet used for spice storage For maximum use of space, Japanese-style custom-built stairs with built-in drawers. A steel-framed glass brick wall–a sign of the eighties–divides the kitchen from the bedroom area. For an even closer look at Hendy’s revolutionary kitchen ideas, turn to the Design Ideas chapter of our new book, Remodelista: A Manual for the Considered Home.