Buy Of The Week: Muswell Hill

Mary Wilson meets the builder who became obsessed with converting a dilapidated stables in North London into a contemporary, hi-tech home

What one property on English Heritage's At Risk Register needed was an owner with expertise, vision and money. The Stables in Muswell Hill, north London was once, as the name suggests, a home for horses but in need of considerable tender loving care.

The dilapidated buildings were in the heart of a smart, respectable residential area, tucked away between the Arts and Crafts family houses built by W J Collins in the early 20th century. One wall had been held up by scaffolding in a neighbour's garden for the past five years, there was internal scaffolding holding up the rest of the building and at the back were open drains from the time that horses were in situ. Also on the site were car workshops and garages.

Their saviour was a man, who does not want to be named but who has been in the construction business for 20 years. He had the right qualifications, although it was the most daunting and complicated project he had taken on. "The main reason I was so taken with it was because there are very few large spaces in good residential areas where you could create an amazing home," he says. "You might find a similar space in a backwater of east London but not in this sort of location, which has a nice villagey feel."

When he bought it in 2002, the property had planning permission for five little offices but the neighbours were far happier for it to be turned into a stonking five-bedroom house. The exterior had to be kept identical to how it was before, but internally he could let his imagination go. So, the walls were rebuilt brick by brick. A steel frame was put in and every roof tile was replaced with copies. "We weren't allowed to extend it in any way and the only difference is that English Heritage did allow me to put in a glass box as an entrance foyer," he says.

Working closely with architect Nick Yates, of Yates Associates, he has created a home which is light and airy, with huge, open spaces and 30ft-high ceilings at both ends of the 41ft-long reception/dining/kitchen area. "I like modern clean lines and the contemporary look, although I might have gone too far on the technological side" he says.

There's a complex bank of computers which control the under-floor heating, blinds, lighting, air conditioning and sound system, and it took an enormous amount of programming. "But it's fantastic," he says. "A local guy, David Clements of DC Communications, put the system together and he knows it backwards. Now he is a regular visitor, not because he needs to be but because he's fallen in love with the house and loves being in it."

The design of the house grew organically and turned out to be far grander than he had imagined. "We'd start out with one idea and then moved on to another as it progressed," he says. "But the important thing was, because it is so open, that it works from all angles."

Although he's spent about half a million pounds doing the house, much of which was on the technology, he was quite canny in other areas; for example, he made the dining table from birch ply. The flooring throughout the ground floor is in reconstituted stone - lightly polished to reflect the light around the house - and as ordinary pieces of furniture would be dwarfed by the size of the rooms, he's had every thing made specifically for the house.

"I wanted everything to be in your face - to look really impressive" he says.

He had a pillar-box-red central workstation made out of one piece of vitreous enamel, with a hob and sink cut into it, costing very much less than something bought off the peg. And the steel staircase is also quite a feature - curved and painted in the same off-white as the walls, so it blends in. "I didn't want anything in the house to look as if I hadn't thought about it," he says. "It has been a real labour of love. It became my obsession. I was here every day, driving the lorry back and forward to the tip, digging the pool and keeping an eye on everything."

By the staircase, there is a massive three-metre-high Anglepoise light, which he bought direct from the manufacturer. "They've only made 250 this size and this is the last one they made - to celebrate their 75th anniversary," he says. "And I've got a little baby one to match it, which I bought off eBay."

On one side of the internal triangular garden is an indoor swimming pool, which has a solid cover made in honeycomb aluminium that is hidden away in the ceiling. This lowers down over the water and, when in place, enables the room to be used for parties. In the room opposite, there's an eight-feet cinema projector screen with nine speakers, electric blinds and huge black 12-feet sofa.

It's taken him 18 months to finish the house and although he is delighted with the end result, he's off to pastures new. "I bought it to be an amazing bachelor pad but I got married and my wife is more into Laura Ashley," he says. "She's also pregnant and this house is not really child friendly." But for a young couple or individual, who values his or her privacy, you won't find anything quite like it for miles around.

Get the spec

What's for sale? Grade-II listed house with contemporary interior. Five bedrooms, three en-suite bathrooms, massive reception/breakfast area/kitchen, cinema room, study, garage and off-street parking for three cars.

Serious Kit: Current resist swimming pool, all singing all dancing automation system, under-floor heating, very secluded internal garden.

How big: 6,694sq ft including the garden.

Buy it: The Stables, Firs Avenue, Muswell Hill, N10, £3m, Goldschmidt & Howland, 020 8347 2600.