Anatomy of a House No.22: The Hopkins House

Anatomy of a House No.22

49a Downshire Hill, Hampstead
1975
Michael and Patty Hopkins

The Hopkins House as seen from the garden

Architect Michael Hopkins designed and oversaw a range of buildings throughout his career; the Mound Stand at Lords Cricket Ground, Portcullis House and the attached Westminster Underground station, the London 2012 velodrome and many others. But the one building most associated with him is the house he and his wife Patty designed for themselves on Downshire Hill in Hampstead. Widely known as the Hopkins House, 49a Downshire Hill is a straightforward steel and glass block tucked among the genteel properties of Hampstead (although of course the area is home to 1930s modernist designs by Erno Goldfinger, Connell Ward & Lucas and others). It acted as a home to the couple and their family, and an office for their practice up to 1984, until Michael’s death in 2023.

Cross section of the Hopkins House

The floor plans of the first and ground floors of the Hopkins House

Michael Hopkins was born in Poole on May 7th 1935, with his parents apparently deciding at a young age that he would become an architect. After studying at Bournemouth School of Art and spending time with the practices of Basil Spence and Frederick Gibberd, Hopkins enrolled at the Architectural Association. There he met fellow student Patty Wainwright, and the couple would marry in 1962. After graduating Michael would join the practice of Norman Foster where he worked on projects such as the Willis Faber & Dumas Building in Ipswich and the IBM Office in Cosham, both forward looking structures in glass and steel. In 1976, Michael and Patty set up in practice together, and needing both an office and home in London (they had a 15th century timber frame home in Suffolk), they decided to build a combined house and workspace themselves.

The first floor office space at the Hopkins House

The couple had found a plot on Downshire Hill in Hampstead with a 46ft frontage, normally enough for two houses. It had been part of the garden of the neighbouring house, previously owned by Frederick Gibberd. Rather than dividing the plot to build in half of itt and make a profit on the other half, they decided to use the whole area, with the first floor acting as the street level entrance and another floor below. Initially the first floor was given over to their office with the living area below, As time moved on and the family needed more space, the living area started to creep upstairs, and a new office for the practice was built in Broadley Terrace, Marylebone in 1984. 

The blue painted spiral staircase and internal frame. Image from RIBApix.

The structure for the new house was overseen by engineer Tony Hunt, who came up with a steel frame with plywood and metal decking for the floor plates, allowing a sturdy but lightweight framework. To the street and garden fronts, the house was finished in wall to ceiling glass and the sides in metal cladding. The Hopkins’ had wanted to experiment with space, choosing a plan that would give them the maximum available which they could then divide as suits. The internal space was divided by eight support columns, but these were only 60mm square, with movable plastic partitions and blinds used to designate different areas within. Shower and bedroom pods were later added to allow for more privacy for the family of two adults and three children. The industrial components used to create the house were livened up with blue painted metal work like the spiral staircase which connects the two floors and the internal frame. 

The Crystal Palace house in Bury St Edmunds (1978) by Michael & Patty Hopkins. Image from C20 Society.

The house was well received, winning a RIBA award and a Civic Trust Award in the years after it was completed. The house given a Grade II* listing designation in 2018. The Hopkins practice grew and grew from the late 1970s onwards, with a number of prestigious commissions and projects. The Hopkins only designed one other similar house, “Crystal Palace” in Bury St Edmunds in 1978. It is a single storey, pavilion-style house, built in steel and glass, with floor to ceiling windows all around. It suffered from a number of alterations over the years, but has been refurbished in 2015 by project orange. Michael Hopkins was awarded a CBE in 1989 and then knighted in 1995, He passed away on 17th June 2023. Patty Hopkins was awarded the OBE in 2024, and still lives at 49a Downshire Hill.

References

Historic England Listing Page

Newton: Architects' London Houses 

Jackson: Modern Steel House

Bradbury: Iconic British House