← The Catford House← The Catford House

The Catford House is the first completed phase of Thomas’ Lane Yard →, our wider transformation of a former car park in the heart of Catford. Together, the two projects are part of the wider vision for Catford Town Centre →, developed with Lewisham Council to bring new affordable homes, community spaces, public realm and activity back into the town centre.

Commissioned by Lewisham Council in 2021, we were asked to deliver 113 affordable homes and a new public square on Thomas’ Lane Yard, alongside the transformation of the former Catford Constitutional Club into a new community venue.

The Catford House is Catford’s oldest surviving building. It began life as a Georgian farmhouse in 1736, before accumulating Victorian, early twentieth-century and mid-century additions. After decades as a pub and social club, the building had been closed for six years and was in a severely degraded condition, with parts of the Georgian wing at risk of collapse.

Rather than replace it, we saw an opportunity to bring the building back into use and make its layers of history part of its future. We brought Hayatsu Architects into our team to collaborate on the design and delivery of the building, working alongside our wider consultant team.

The approach is deliberately one of repair and adaptation. Sound fabric has been retained wherever possible, while stitched brickwork, patched plaster, exposed services, repaired stonework and retained mouldings showcase the building’s many lives. Our most recent interventions don’t try to make the building look new - they bring another layer and a new story.

The most significant intervention is a solid timber frame inserted into the Georgian hall. Acting as a form of permanent scaffolding, the frame ties and braces the historic masonry, replacing the structural role once provided by the lost floors and roof. It creates a daylit triple-height hall, with a hand-crafted oak stair and lift connecting the building’s staggered levels.

The Catford House is now home to a pub, community kitchen, events space and bookable rooms, all operated by not-for-profit organisation GCDA. The building has become a place to eat, meet, learn, work and gather, rather than a museum of its own past.

At the rear, a new garden and terrace begin to connect the building to the future public realm of Thomas’ Lane Yard →. As the adjacent site develops with 113 affordable homes, The Catford House will become part of a brand new piece of Catford’s town centre, linking the area’s history with its next chapter.

The Catford House is a small but important first step in that transformation: taking a building that had been overlooked, repairing what was already there, and giving it a new life at the centre of the community.

Read more about the ongoing Thomas' Lane Yard → or wider Catford Town Centre → design here.