Belmont Street brings 115 new homes to a complex infill site in Chalk Farm, Camden, replacing a disjointed post-war building with a design that carefully responds to its surroundings. Set across three interlinked blocks, the scheme reflects the geometry of the neighbouring streets and restores historic frontages. With 50% affordable housing and all homes benefitting from private outdoor space, the project blends social value, contextual architecture, and rich material detailing.
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Belmont Street
Reinstating Camden’s historic streetscape with homes that blend context, character, and craft.
One Place, Many Stories
Architecture
HTA’s architectural approach at Belmont Street reimagines a constrained, underused site as a unified composition of three distinct buildings, each responding to the differing spatial and formal conditions around it. The stepped and curved massing draws from the geometry of Crogsland Road, Belmont Street, and the adjacent Denton Estate. These forms work to reinstate the urban grain while stitching the scheme into Camden’s layered context.
Each building has its own entrance, addressing the street and maximising activity at ground level. Together, they provide 115 homes, with 50% affordable housing, arranged to be tenure-blind. Ground floor duplexes introduce front doors directly onto the street, creating a strong residential rhythm. Across the scheme, materials and detail celebrate local architectural references — curved brick balconies, red and white glazed brick chequerboard façades, and horizontal feature banding give depth and richness. Inspired by Art Deco flourishes found nearby, the design balances craft with contextual clarity.
Deep semi-recessed balconies enhance privacy and flexibility, allowing residents to shift between solitude and sociability. Thoughtful detailing supports a social architecture that encourages neighbourly interaction. Brick-clad external stair towers lend sculptural identity to the courtyard elevations, housing circulation in a way that supports daylight and orientation while reinforcing the character of the inner garden.
Landscape Design
The landscape design at Belmont Street transforms a sloped, fragmented site into a calm, green courtyard at its centre, framed by three residential blocks. The scheme navigates a dramatic change in levels from Belmont Street to Crogsland Road by layering landscape elements, stepped seating, integrated planting, and play features, into a coherent whole.
This central courtyard provides private communal amenity space for residents, with soft landscaping and naturalistic play encouraging informal interaction. An undulating woodland planting scheme forms a playful trail, while timber platforms and curved seating zones act as social anchors. Boundary treatments balance privacy with openness, helping ground floor homes feel secure but connected.
Along the street edges, new planting and street trees enhance the public realm and soften the transition between the buildings and their surroundings. The landscape strategy not only supports biodiversity and climate resilience, but also brings structure and delight to the daily experience of home.