How to Make the Most of Your View?

Hennerton Rise occupies one of the most enviable positions in the Wargrave area — set high on a steep hillside, with the town and the Thames Valley spread out below it. And yet, despite this extraordinary setting, the house had been built and arranged in a way that made almost nothing of it. The principal rooms sat at the wrong level, facing in the wrong directions. The views that should have defined the home were largely invisible from inside it.
The house was also dated in appearance — its exterior tired and in need of a coherent new identity — and its internal layout was awkward and poorly connected. Then, during the early stages of the project, the investigations turned up something unexpected: a basement beneath the house, previously unacknowledged and entirely unused. Suddenly the project had another dimension entirely.
The brief was ambitious: transform the house inside and out, unlock the hilltop views that had been wasted for so long, make use of the discovered basement, and create a home that was filled with light, generously connected to its remarkable setting and genuinely pleasurable to live in.

A New Extension, a Roof Terrace and a Complete Reorganisation

The most significant design decision was to rethink the vertical arrangement of the house entirely. By relocating the principal family rooms and reception spaces to the top floor, Simon Mack Architecture placed the day-to-day living spaces precisely where the views were best and where the sun reaches from morning through to evening. A triple-aspect arrangement on the upper floor means the rooms receive direct sunlight throughout the day, something the original layout had made impossible.
The dated tiled roof over part of the house was replaced with a flat roof and a new roof terrace - a move that did several things at once. It created an extraordinary outdoor space from which the panoramic views over the Thames Valley can be fully appreciated; it brought the roofline into a cleaner, more contemporary relationship with the new extension alongside it; and it opened the upper floor to the outside in a way that blurs the boundary between interior living and the landscape beyond. Large glazed openings with sliding doors make the connection between the terrace and the interior rooms immediate and effortless.
The new extension is sleek and modern in its character, clad in warm timber that introduces a contemporary material into the composition. The original brickwork of the existing house was lime-washed in white throughout, unifying the exterior and giving the building a fresh, coherent identity that sits well in the hillside landscape. The discovered basement was brought into active use, expanding the accommodation of the house below ground in a way that the footprint above would never have allowed.
Throughout, the internal plan was reorganised to improve flow between the spaces, resolving the awkward circulation of the original layout and creating a house that moves easily from room to room and from inside to out.

A Sunnier, Happier Home With Panoramic Views Over Wargrave and the River

Hennerton Rise is now a home that makes full use of the extraordinary position it occupies. The upper floor living spaces face the view directly, catching the sun from the moment it rises to the moment it sets. The roof terrace extends the living space outside, offering one of the finest private outdoor spaces in the area, a place to have breakfast in the morning light and a glass of wine at dusk, with the Thames Valley laid out below.
The triple-aspect glazing means the interior is bright throughout the day in a way that changes fundamentally how the house feels to spend time in. Combined with the improved flow of the internal plan and the additional space unlocked by the basement, the transformation is complete: a home that was dated, inward-looking and disconnected from its setting has become one that is open, light and deeply rooted in its remarkable hilltop position.
It is a sunnier, happier home and one that finally lives up to the view it was always sitting on top of.