A Georgian townhouse in Kensington
Four floors restored around their original bones — and warmed by cast iron.
When the current owners took on this house, the heating system was the one thing the previous century had not been kind to. Microbore pipework, pressed-steel panels, and a boiler with opinions. Their instruction to us was simple: nothing should look new.
Over four months we surveyed, specified and fitted sixteen radiators across four floors — each one sized to its room’s heat loss, each one painted on site to sit quietly against the joinery it stands beside.
The first-floor drawing room
The brief
The drawing room set the standard for the whole house: original cornicing, a marble chimneypiece, and a strict rule that no radiator should ask for attention.
The hallway
A Mercury 4 Column, 760mm, runs the length of the entrance hall. It arrived in primer and was painted in place — the same colour as the panelling, so the eye slides straight past it.
The result
A heating system the house might have chosen for itself: quiet, even warmth from radiators with the weight and proportion the rooms were drawn around.
Mercury, primed for paint
Most of the house took Mercury — a plain Edwardian four-column pattern that suits rooms where the architecture should do the talking. Supplied in primer, painted on site in Farrow & Ball estate eggshell.
Grace in the bedrooms
The bedrooms wanted something lighter. Grace 2 Column in Plummett keeps its presence low and its output honest — 580mm high, tucked beneath sash windows where the heat is needed most.
“The radiators feel as though they have always been here — which is precisely the point.”
The owners
Planning a period restoration?
Our design team works from survey to installation — sizing, finish and fitting included.
Book a consultationCastrads · 14 września 2026