This family home is situated in a suburb to the north of London, a green-belt area that links the city to the countryside.  It is a nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts house of red brick, exposed timber and ridged tiles.  The clients had extended the house, building a larger kitchen and children's play area with a swimming pool and gym on the level below.  The enormous garden (about six acres in all) included an old walled kitchen garden and a large pond, but other than that was mainly a big exposed space with no sense of surprise or secrets.