Inside the postmodernist Cosmic House in London

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]If you haven't been to Cosmic House, now is the time to do it.

[00:00:03]Cosmic House is a post-modernist gem [music] in the center of London in Holland Park. It was the home of Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick. They designed it together with Terry Farrell, completed in 1983, and [music] it is the only Grade One listed post-modernist interior in the UK. Charles Jencks was an architecture theorist, architecture historian, and has written lots of books. Maggie, his wife, was a writer, an artist, and a landscape designer. And very true to the spirit of post-modernism, Cosmic House is kind of packed with symbolism. It was conceived as a bit of a microcosm of Jencks' fascinations. There are elements that reference the human body, the cosmos, such as the staircase, which he called the solar stair. There's a ceiling feature, the cosmical oval, and the library was referred to as the city [music] of books. This spring show is by the artist Isaac Julien, and visitors can go and explore the exhibition and the amazing architecture of the house.

[00:01:10]To me, this is also special because I had the chance to visit it while Charles was alive, [music] and I could see that beyond it being a piece of architecture history, it was also a home for his family. He took us on a tour. It was super exciting, and I was truly wowed by how different it was and and the statements it carried. He invited friends, other creatives, to contribute to. There is a Jacuzzi, for example, by Piers Gough. Did you get in the Jacuzzi?

[00:01:38]No. It was not that kind of dinner.