Ah, the suburbs: they eventually come calling for even the most die-hard urbanites. Rupert Scott, founder of Peckham-based Open Practice Architecture, had masterfully crafted an award-winning home in the heart of Whitechapel by converting a former gin distillery for him, wife Leo Wood, and their two daughters.
The plan wasn’t to move to the Zone 3 borders of leafy Honor Oak and East Dulwich, but mid-way through redeveloping the site of an MOT garage tucked behind a row of Victorian houses, Covid hit. “There was such a paradigm shift, wasn't there?” muses Leo, an interior designer, adding how: “Whitechapel was great, but it was pretty full on.”
