This project has given us an opportunity to explore how we work with historic buildings in more detail, to build on their strengths and opportunities to produce an incredible sequence of spaces. Thorpe lodge has a captivating history. The original building was a Palladian style villa surrounded by countryside. In 1875 the Victorian portrait artist Henry Tanworth Wells favoured Gothic revival when he commissioned John Loughborough Pearson to add his art studio. In 1907 Governor of the Bank of England Montagu Collet Norman remodelled the lodge in an international Arts and Crafts style and cloaked all the buildings alterations in a chunky white render. Since becoming part of Holland Park School in 1956, its usefulness as a teaching space has diminished and teaching methods have changed. The project transforms the problematic empty building into an asset central to the school. The new Porter’s Lodge reconnects the school to the street and creates a more welcoming sense of arrival. The refurbishment works make the building perfect for community uses and the Art Studio extension knits this fabulous building back into the heart of the school’s curriculum.