B
ehind the sweeping curves of the restored 1950s, grade-II-listed former BBC Television Centre Helios building in west London, Sophie Ashby and Charlie Casely-Hayford’s compact one-bedroom flat is a trove of unexpected delights. This is no surprise since both Ashby, who heads up the Studio Ashby interiors practice, and her menswear-designer husband Casely-Hayford, live and breathe design for a living. Ashby, who bought the apartment off-plan four years ago, was keen to make a considered choice as it was her first owned home.
“At the time I had just started my business and wanted to get on the property ladder, but also I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get a mortgage without three years of accounts,” explains Ashby. “So this was a neat solution – you pay in instalments over the years. Charlie and I had only just met, so I wasn’t necessarily thinking about the future.”
While Ashby was sceptical about living in a development, it was the building’s rich heritage and sociable lifestyle – residents have access to Soho House’s White City House – that appealed to her. “The owners wanted the place to be full of people who actually live here, so you do really feel that sense of community,” she explains. “We were among the first people here when we moved in last February and because of my job I had planned the interior. Everything was installed in days.”
Casely-Hayford recalls: “It was somewhat disconcerting. I left our rented flat one morning to go to work, came back to the new place that evening and it looked as if we’d lived there for six months.”
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