The building stands at the end of a secret court that can only be reached on foot. This court is surrounded by buildings on three sides and, behind it, by restaurants that face the street. The gravelled court is edged with terracotta tiles at the same level as the 15th-century building, the facade of which has been fully renovated with original authentic features preserved, such as stone surrounds and ogee-arch lintels. On the second floor, the elevation is set back slightly with timber framing. Former loft spaces lie up here. An external flight of stone stairs leads up to the first floor via a door that is flush with the wall surface. There you step into the apartment’s entrance hall. Another door leads in from the main street via a covered entrance area: a wooden door takes you into the commonhold building’s hallway. In a corridor with a tiled floor there are letterboxes. This corridor leads to a garden court embellished with greenery. From here, you can reach the apartment’s cellar. On the other side of the small court, a door leads to a large stone staircase inside that takes you to the upper floors.

The apartment

The apartment has two upper floors and a ground-floor cellar. It looks like a house. When you enter the dwelling, you step straight into the kitchen.

The ground floor
The ground floor is taken up by a vaulted cellar that you enter from the small courtyard that lies at the same level as it. You step into this cellar via a little wooden door fitted in a stone surround and crowned with a sculpted face that seems to keep watch over the court. A single stone barrel vault runs over this cellar, which has a gravelled floor. Two small windows fitted with wooden shutters and metal bars fill the room with natural light.

The first floor
An external flight of steps leads up to an entrance hall with a floor of travertine tiles. A wall of exposed stonework here is a token of the place’s original construction materials. From this hallway, a flight of open-tread stairs leads up to the second floor. On the left, there are two bedrooms. One of them has a walk-in wardrobe. Windows look out at the courtyard. Beneath the stairs, there is a lavatory with a washbasin.

The intermediate level
The wooden staircase with its fine black balustrade leads up to a small intermediate landing that connects to a large tiled bathroom that has a bath and shower and is filled with light from a double window. This intermediate landing also connects to a lavatory.

The second floor
From the intermediate landing, the stairs continue to climb up. They take you up to an extensive lounge with an open-plan fitted kitchen that has black-lacquered furniture units. This room is very bright and it has a tall ceiling height up to its exposed beams. Oak strip flooring extends across the room, giving the different spaces here visual coherence. A few steps lead up to a raised lounge, separated by wooden openwork. Many small windows bathe the room in natural light. The building seems to stretch skywards to tower over the neighbouring roofs. Near the kitchen space, a sliding pocket door with a stained-glass window leads to a utility room and a storage space. Lastly, a door takes you to the second-floor landing of the commonhold building – the apartment’s secondary entrance.