A Southport Grade II listed former school building development containing both new build housing and the refurbishment and conversion of a derelict Grade II Listed Victorian villa, Wybourne Gate, into luxury apartments. The site is part of the area first developed in the 1850’s based on the plan by the eminent garden designer and author Edward Kemp for the “Marine Residences” of Birkdale and presented the chance to provide a glimpse back to the vision of Kemp.

The concept was very simple – re-establish the key parts of the Kemp plan, reinstate the original villa by stripping back the unsympathetic extensions and add new contemporary dwellings that are sub-servient to the villa. The new dwellings have been laid out to follow the geometry of the historic service road and yards, and do not try to read as an addition to the villa, by keeping a clear distance from the newly revealed villa – allowing it to be read as a whole once again.

The villa itself was in a severely dilapidated state and was at risk of being lost. Previous attempts at redeveloping the site had all been refused due to a lack of considered conservation thinking and over-development. Our expert team undertook careful recording and painstaking manual surveys of the villa, working with the heritage consultancy Mel Morris Conservation, and other experts, to ensure an exemplar approach to the restoration of this important historic asset.

The villa itself was in a severely dilapidated state and was at risk of being lost. Previous attempts at redeveloping the site had all been refused due to a lack of considered conservation thinking and over-development. Our expert team undertook careful recording and painstaking manual surveys of the villa, working with the heritage consultancy Mel Morris Conservation, and other experts, to ensure an exemplar approach to the restoration of this important historic asset.