British couple turns derelict 85-foot Victorian water tower into family home
A British couple transformed a derelict 1877 Victorian water tower in South London into a modern, multi-storey family home. The complex restoration project involved significant structural challenges, including the addition of a glass cube and a viewing room, despite rising costs and strict planning deadlines.
Why it matters
It highlights the architectural trend of adaptive reuse, where historic industrial structures are repurposed for modern residential living.
An 85-foot Victorian water tower that once supplied an asylum in South London has been turned into a family home after a major multi-million-pound restoration by a British couple. The Grade II-listed structure in Kennington was built in 1877 to supply water to the former Lambeth Workhouse and Infirmary. It was later bought at auction by Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce. According to the Financial Times, the couple took on the abandoned, nine-storey landmark and turned it into a modern home. When Osborne and Voce bought the property, the historic brick tower was in very poor condition. Trees had grown through parts of the brickwork, gaps could be seen in the structure, and the inside was filled with rubbish and hundreds of dead pigeons.
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