Reroofing of Athlone House

Athlone House is a brick and stone Victorian mansion built in 1871, lying on high ground just beyond the northern edge of North London’s Hampstead Heath, within the Highgate Conservation Area.

The house has recently undergone major restoration to bring it back to its former glory and transform it into a beautiful modern family home. The new scheme, designed by SHH Architecture won approval from Historic England who were keen to preserve the character and appearance of the Highgate Conservation Area.

The roof needed to be brought up to modern roofing standards and this could not be done using the old tiles since they had no nail holes and there were not enough of them to provide the necessary increased lap and it’s not recommended to mix old tiles that have already done years of service on the roof with new tiles that are at the beginning of their lifecycle. It was decided to use a new replacement tile as close a match as possible to the originals.

Dreadnought’s clay tiles, with their colours produced naturally during the firing process without the use of artificial stains and pigments were found to best match the originals; new plain red Dreadnought smooth tiles together and Dreadnought Staffordshire blue ornamental spade and fishtail tiles were approved by the Conservation team at Camden Council.  Following the pattern on the original roof, alternating bands of plain red tiles with bands of ornamental spade and fish tail tiles were laid, bringing a visual richness to the roof.

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